Urs Graf (c. 1485 in Solothurn,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

– possibly before 13 October 1528) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

goldsmith A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Modern goldsmiths mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, they have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), plat ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and printmaker (of woodcuts,

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...

s and

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

s), as well as a Swiss mercenary. He only produced two etchings, one of which dates from 1513 – the earliest known etching for which a date has been established. However, his woodcuts are considered of greater significance, particularly as he is attributed with the invention of the white-line woodcut technique, where white lines create the image on a black background. He also produced a few engravings, including copies of works by Martin Schongauer and

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

.Arthur M. Hind.
A History of Engraving and Etching
'. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1923 (in US), reprinted Dover Publications, 1963. He produced innovative drawings intended as finished works of art rather than just studies.

Biography

Graf learned goldsmithing first from his father, Hugo Graf, then from a goldsmith in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. He continued to work as a goldsmith and a few pieces survive. He initially earned money as a designer of woodcut book illustrations and by assisting the

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

painter, Lienhart Triblin. In 1511, he designed the book cover for the '' Decretum Gratiani'' for the printers Johann Amerbach, Johannes Petri and Johannes Froben and by 1512 Graf designed the cover of book with the sermons of the deceased Johann Geiler von Keysersberg for Adam Petri, the successor and nephew from Johannes Petri. In 1512, he bought citizenship in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

and became a member of the goldsmiths'

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

. He quickly came into conflict with the law for abusing his wife and consorting with prostitutes, culminating in accusations of

attempted murder Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions. Canada Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seve ...

which caused him to flee the city in 1518. He was allowed to return to Basel the following year, where he continued working, but after 1527 his life becomes unclear. Given his frequent employment as a soldier of fortune it is possible he was present at the sack of Rome.P. Murray & L. Murray, 'The Penguin Dictionary of Art & Artists' (p.198 section G) Harmondsworth, 1959 (1982 revision) Christiane Andersson noted that, "When and where he died are unknown: his wife remarried in October 1528 but an autograph drawing is dated 1529".Andersson Like many Swiss men of his day, Graf was known to have worked as a

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

for considerable periods. His artistic output, arising from the tradition of Albrecht Dürer and Hans Baldung, includes a wide range of subjects, depicting social, erotic, military, political, and criminal images (e.g., ''Two Prostitutes Beating a Monk''), as well as strong religious feelings which emerge in some works.

References

*Christiane Andersson. "Graf, Urs." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 Feb. 2013

External links

Bible. N.T. Gospels.
Latin. 1506. trassburg, J. Knobloch, 1506?Engravings: Urs Graf. From th
Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Graf, Urs 1480s births 1520s deaths People from Solothurn 16th-century Swiss painters Swiss male painters Renaissance artists Goldsmiths Swiss printmakers Swiss mercenaries