Anthoni Dürer

Anthoni Dürer , also Anton or Antony Dürer , (* probably in Ajtós near Gyula ; active 1st half of the 15th century in Gyula) was a goldsmith in Hungary .

Anthoni Dürer was the father of Albrecht Dürer the Elder. Ä. The thesis made several times in the older German literature that he was a descendant of German emigrants who had already left their homeland in the 13th century to found a German craft colony in Hungary, in the area of ​​Gyula, is now considered outdated, since there is no evidence of such an enclave to be found there. It is not possible to assume that he is a descendant of the Ajtós family, which can be identified in Hungary, but the name suggests that the word ajtó occurs in the name , which means door in the German translation . It is more likely that the name Dürer is derived from this, because the Dürer's family coat of arms depicts a double-leaf door, which may indicate the family's origin. This would mean that the name Anthoni Dürer is a German-language derivation of the name Anthoni from Ajtós.

The thesis put forward by various researchers that Dürer's Hungarian ancestors were of aristocracy is now considered unlikely, since Albrecht Dürer does not say a word about it in his family chronicle.

It is now widely believed that Anthoni Dürer was born in Eytas (Ajtós). But already as a child he seems to have moved to Gyula, where he was apprenticed to a goldsmith. It is not known who his teacher was, but the Prague reporter Egon Erwin Kisch , who dealt intensively with Albrecht Dürer's ancestors, put forward the thesis that it could have been a master Aurifaber . His son Nicolaus was the mayor and judge in Gyula towards the end of the 15th century and had also learned the craft of a goldsmith.

Around 1410 (after Kurt Pilz) Anthoni became a master goldsmith. He later married an Elisabetha (or Elisabeth ) who was believed to be of German descent. Albrecht Dürer d. Ä. have learned the German language, which, as handwritten letters prove, he must have spoken fluently like his mother tongue. This marriage resulted in four children, the daughter Catharina (or Katharina ) and the three sons Albrecht, Laslen (or Laßlen ) and Johannes.

No works by Anthoni Dürer are known today.

Of his three sons, only Albrecht d. Ä. followed in his father's footsteps and learned the craft of a goldsmith from around 1440 . His second son, Laslen, learned the trade of a saddler . His son Niklas Unger also became a goldsmith and later settled in Cologne. The third son, Johannes, studied theology and became a pastor in Oradea .

literature

• Gerhard Hirschmann: Albrecht Dürer's descent and family circle . In: Otto Harding (Ed.): Albrecht Dürer's environment. Festschrift for Albrecht Dürer's 500th birthday on May 21, 1971 . Association for the History of the City of Nuremberg , Nuremberg 1971, ( Nürnberger Forschungen 15, ISSN  0078-2653 ), pp. 35–55.
• Kurt Pilz: The goldsmith Albrecht Dürer d. Ä. A contribution to the identification of his work and the portraits that represent him. In: Communications of the Association for the History of the City of Nuremberg (MGVN) , 72, 1985, ISSN  0083-5579 , pp. 67-75.