ABSTRACT
On 12 July 1520, Albrecht Dürer, accompanied by his wife Agnes, left Nuremberg for Antwerp, to obtain confirmation of his annual pension from Charles V, initially awarded by Maximilian I. In his diary, the artist comes across as a dynamic entrepreneur, eager to circulate his art. Sculptors or painters they may have been, but Renaissance artists in Nuremberg were more often than not also businessmen. Unlike a portrait drawing, which binds the artist to the sitter, the print is more of a free agent, liberated from the constraints of commissions. In the case of drawn portraits, which could be finished in a few hours or in one evening, Dürer often received a standard compensation of about one florin. Dürer was deeply conscious of the financial value of art in general, and of prints in particular. Dürer's generous gift-giving practices paint a grateful and liberal portrait of the artist, as the 'great lord' he longed to be.
