Albrecht Dürer, The Rhinoceros, 1515, Woodblock print, 8 3/8 x 11 5/8 in. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Collection.
Did you know that 16th-century German artist Albrecht Dürer was obsessed with different fonts? Or that he crafted his own monogram “AD” into a slick design used to mark his work and promote “his brand”? Dürer put that identifiable AD logo everywhere!!!! He was not only an extremely talented painter and printmaker, but way ahead of the game at marketing his art and himself – at a time when artists weren’t always highly regarded. Lucky for Dürer, he came of age with the invention of the printing press and benefited enormously from the subsequent print explosion of the 1500s.
His remarkable and highly-detailed (but not quite anatomically correct) image of a famous rhinoceros, for instance, was printed over 4,000 times during the artist’s own lifetime. We are talking going viral like a Renaissance Period meme, making Dürer even more of a celebrity than he already was.
Download BLVRD Features’ fourth episode to learn more about Albrecht Dürer’s mad skills, his marketing savvy, and his continued connections to today’s world.