In January 1521 Albrecht Dürer ordered an unusual model into his studio in Antwerp. "The man was 93 years old and healthy and in full power," noted the Nuremberg painter, who had been in the Flemish trading metropolis for six months, on a portrait drawing that he made during the meeting. Dürer knew what he wanted: a sign of survival, the promise of old age. It was not until November that the annuity of one hundred guilders a year, which Emperor Maximilian had granted him in 1515 and which had been discontinued after the death of the ruler, was approved again by his newly crowned grandson Charles V. But shortly after this good news, Dürer contracted a serious illness on an excursion to the province of Zeeland; the traditional symptoms suggest malaria.In all likelihood, he died of it in 1528, when he was only 57 years old.

Andreas Platthaus

Editor in charge of literature and literary life.

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At his model meeting with the old man, however, Dürer was somewhat recovered, and only two months later he was to use the drawings to paint a picture that would cause a sensation.

In the depiction of St. Jerome in the study, Dürer renounced his most important attributes (cardinal's hat, lion), as he himself had used in the copper engraving from 1515, and showed the church father as a living memento Mori by pointing to a skull - and just bears the features of someone over ninety.

In the exhibition that the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen is dedicating to Dürer's so-called Dutch journey, the Hieronymus painting marks the end of the section with his own works of art.

It came from Portugal on loan, and right next to it there is an even smaller panel painting in a showcase with a depiction of Jerome from 1494, i.e. from Dürer's early days.

This can usually be seen in the National Gallery of London, which, together with the Aachen Museum, conceived this exhibition for the five hundredth anniversary of the trip.

Aachen should have started it a year ago, and London closed its subsequent presentation in May.

Then came Corona.

Postponed for a year, but without losses

Both houses postponed the project that had been going on for years, and the greatest miracle is that almost all of the lenders played along. Which means something in the case of old masterpieces and even more in Dürer's case. His paintings are as iconic as they are delicate, the drawings a miracle of subtlety and even more delicate. So it is no wonder that of the almost two hundred objects shown in Aachen, more than half will no longer be shown in London; there are around seventy new ones, including the grandiose Haller Madonna from Washington, which Dürer painted in 1498 under the influence of Bellini's art. And Madrid is hardly less famous - but which Dürer painting would it not be? - Picture “Christ among the scribes” loaned to London from 1506.