In 1661, the city council of Basel bought a collection of 1,866 16th-century drawings, 3,356 engravings, 525 woodcuts and a few paintings from the heir of the Basel university professor and collector Basilius Amerbach (1533-91), whose grandfather, a local printer, had been a friend of and a collaborator with Albrecht Dürer. This collection is the foundation of the Kunstmuseum’s department of prints and drawings. “Dürer and his Circle” (1 November-1 February 2015) presents a selection from the Amerbach Collection to illustrate the relationships of Dürer to his pupils Hans Baldung Grien, Hans Schäufelein, Hans von Kulmbach and Hans Springinklee.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'The bounty of Basel'
