The Wire Drawing Mill

Dürer selected a singularly down-to-earth subject for this drawing. Having created a meticulously observed landscape, he then incorporated additional features: a number of unattractive buildings located on the outskirts of Nuremberg, and a quasi-industrial wire-drawing mill (‘throthzichmüll’) on the banks of the River Pegnitz to the west of the city. The spot is still recognizable today. This spectacular work, which can be considered a counterpart to the drawing of the Johannesfriedhof (formerly held at the Bremen Kunsthalle), not only heralds the beginning of German landscape painting, but also a whole array of landscape watercolours by Dürer. Most experts date the work to the summer of 1494, undertaken after returning from his travels (to Basel, Colmar, Strasburg, and possibly the Netherlands), and prior to embarking on his first visit to Italy.