Journey to the Netherlands; paintings (1518-1521)

In the years of 1518 and 1519, numerous painted and printed portraits were commissioned and created. Most official portraits of this period are a result of Dürer's involvement in the Imperial Diet in Augsburg in 1518 (e.g. the Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I).

In contrast to the public portraits commissioned by the upper classes and aristocracy, which were of a more official nature, Dürer used portraits of his close family for other purposes. His wife Agnes, for example, was his model for the painting of the Virgin and Child with St Anne.

In 1520, at the age of 49, Dürer set off on what was to be his last long journey, to the Netherlands. The country was also ruled by the Habsburgs and the area which Dürer visited was Flanders (present-day Belgium), where most of the artists were then based. He had met most of the great artists of the Netherlands and had seen much of their work. The most important painting he completed in Antwerp was a panel of St Jerome, modelled on a 93 year-old man he had sketched.