Albrecht Duerer’s Four Apostles

The year 2026 means that 500 years have passed since Albrecht Duerer's monumental Four Apostles was completed, but these two panels continue to attract much scholarly and popular attention. This monograph argues persuasively that Duerer's diptych represents the artist's vision of ideal harmony even as it acknowledges the reality of distinct identities. Even five centuries later, this composition retains an uncanny ability to move viewers who live in very different times and places but still deal with the same issues of division and unity that challenged the artist, his church, and his city in the early sixteenth century.