Set in the 16th Century, a time of great upheaval throughout Europe, we learn of an unfortunate but ultimately fortuitous event in the life of a young boy in the German town of Nuremberg.
Jacob works as a messenger for the famed artist Albrecht Dürer who he would love to emulate one day. His family is poor, and his mother tells him that he needs to find a proper job. This day he has witnessed an attack on the pawnbroker, Master Aron. Some weeks later Jacob sees the two men who assaulted the pawnbroker and reports them to the Watchman. The two men are eventually caught and Master Aron visits Master Albrecht’s studio to thank Jacob and to offer him an apprenticeship with his brother, a goldsmith. A proper job, and in the same way as Master Albrecht started, as a goldsmith, perhaps thinks Jacob one day I may also be an artist.
Robert Ingpen classical style illustrations are created traditionally using pencil and watercolour or tempera. In ‘Jacob, the boy from Nurumberg’ his illustrations provide a real sense of life and movement in a medieval town. Ingpen’s watercolour illustrations and woven skilfully with images of Dürer’s famous lithographs which adds an emotional and intellectual aspect and centres the story on Dürer and his art.
Albrecht Dürer 1471-1528 was born in Nurumberg, a strong artistic and commercial centre during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Dürer was apprenticed with his father, a goldsmith and also with a local painter Michael Wolgemut where he learnt about woodcuts and printmaking. Dürer was considered to be a brilliant painter and draftsman however, his greatest artistic impact was in the printmaking medium which he revolutionised to an independent art form.
Picture Books for Older Readers
