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In 2006, five hundred years will have passed since the creation of the The Feast of the Rose Garlands – the ultimate masterpiece of Albrecht Dürer, which now resides in the collections of the National Gallery in Prague. As this painting is a landmark work in the transition between the late Gothic and the Renaissance, the National Gallery in Prague would like to celebrate this anniversary with an extensive exhibition. This exhibition plans to include paintings, drawings and prints created in connection with The Feast of the Rose Garlands. as well as works of Albrecht Dürer and his circle which have never been exhibited in the Czech Republic before– in total, approximately one hundred selected works of art that will illustrate the exceptional character of The Feast of the Rose Garlands in the historical context of European art.
**About the artist**
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), one of the greatest painters of his time, came from Nuremberg. He remained connected with this city for all his life although he often travelled to gain knowledge; in 1495, he for example sojourned in Venice. He visited Venice once more; in summer 1505, epidemy of plague broke out in Nuremberg which contributed to the fact that the young artist left his native city for two years. This second sojourn to Venice represented crucial turning point in the artist‘s life. Here, Albrech Dürer created The Feast of the Rose Garlands – work which, according to his own words, brought him admiration and fame. In the early 1520s, Dürer also visited the Low Countries. His pursuit of knowledge, however, became fatal to him. Always curious Dürer who set such a great store on study of and work according Nature, set off to the Northern Sea during his sojourn to the Low Countries to examine a whale cast ashore. During this, he have been probably infected by malaria. He never recovered from the illness and, by virtue of chronic conditions, died preliminary before the age of fifty-seven.
