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Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-c. 1780)

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) c.1772-80

Watercolour on ivory | 7.0 x 5.5 cm (sight) (sight) | RCIN 421177

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  • Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), the German painter, printmaker and draughtsman, came from a family of goldsmiths and initially trained in his father's workshop in Nuremberg. His godfather was Anton Kolberger, one of Germany's foremost printers and publishers. When he was 15 years old, he studied under the leading local painter and book illustrator, Michael Wolgemut, and Dürer probably learnt the technique of woodcuts from him. From 1490 to 1494 he travelled to Colmar, Basle and Strasbourg, returning briefly to Nuremberg to marry, before setting off for northern Italy and Venice. In 1495, when he returned to Nuremberg, he quickly established himself as the city's leading artist and made his name as a printmaker with his series of 15 woodcuts of the Apocalypse, published in 1498. In 1505-7 he made a second trip to Italy, again staying mainly in Venice where he painted an altarpiece The Madonna of the Rose Garlands (Prague, National Gallery) for the German church of S Bartolomeo. In his own words it was intended to 'silence those who said I was good as an engraver but did not know how to handle the colours in painting'.

    Back in Nuremberg, Dürer undertook commissions for the emperor, Maximilian I, established himself as Germany's leading artist and bought a large house. He produced three famous prints known as the 'Master Engravings': The Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), St Jerome in his Study (1514) and Melencolia (1514), in which he achieved an extraordinary richness of texture and shading. When Maximilian died in 1519, Dürer went to meet his successor Charles V and attended his coronation in Aachen. He then undertook a trip to the Netherlands, this time with his wife. He converted to Lutheranism in about 1520 and subsequently devoted much of his time to writing, producing three treatises – on geometry (1525), fortifications (1527) and proportion in the human body (1528). When he died in 1528, Dürer was acknowledged as the greatest of all printmakers. Giorgio Vasari, the biographer and artist, declared that his prints 'astonished the world'. The Royal Collection holds many prints and drawings by Dürer.

    This miniature is one of the collection of copies of 224 self-portraits by artists in the Uffizi Palace, Florence, that Lord Cowper, the art collector and patron, commissioned Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-1780) to paint. He presented the miniatures to King George III in two batches, in 1773 and 1786. Macpherson followed the original self-portraits quite closely, but copied only the head and shoulders. He inscribed the artists' names on the backs of the miniatures – several differ from those in the modern Uffizi catalogue, notably: Bazzi, Bellini, Campi, Annibale Carracci, Gabbiani, Masaccio, Metsys, Moroni, Pencz, Licinio, Schiavone and Spada. None of the miniatures is signed, apart from Macpherson's own self-portrait, which is inscribed: Giuseppe Macpherson / Autore della serie (Giuseppe Macpherson / Author of the series). Macpherson was born in Florence, the son of Donald Macpherson, a footman in the service of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon. He was a pupil of Pompeo Batoni and painted miniatures and enamel portraits in Italy, France and Germany, finally settling in Florence. A James Macpherson is recorded in London and Paris in 1754 but it is not certain that this is the same person. He was described in 1776 as having a special talent for painting on enamel and as being 'almost the only painter in Europe who possesses this art to perfection'. He had a distinguished client list which included some of the crowned heads and dignitaries of Europe. In 1778, he was invited to add his own self-portrait to the famous painters in the grand duke's collection as it 'would do honour to Florence to enrich the collection with a work which shows that we still have some men of true merit' according to Giuseppe Pelli, director of the Uffizi at the time.

    Provenance

    Presented to George III by Lord Cowper

  • Medium and techniques

    Watercolour on ivory

    Measurements

    7.0 x 5.5 cm (sight) (sight)


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