Albrecht Durer, a German painter, theorist, and printmaker, was recognized as one of the most important contributors to the Renaissance in Northern Europe. His paintings show his scrupulous attention to detail. He was born on May 21, 1471 in Nuremberg. His father was a goldsmith from Hungary, who emigrated to Germany in 1455. Albrecht Durer apprenticed with his father and learned goldsmithing and the basics of drawing from him. Later, due to his prolific talent for drawing, Albrecht trained under Michael Wolgemut at the age of 15 in 1486. ​​While working with him, Durer furthered his knowledge by learning woodcarving and copper engraving. The artist’s earliest work dates from 1484, a self-portrait, “When he was a boy”, in silverpoint.

In accordance with Germany’s apprentice training custom, ‘Wanderjahre’, Albrecht set out for Northern Europe in 1940, traveling via Basel and Colmar in 1492, Strasbourg in 1493, returning to Nuremberg on July 7, 1494. On July 9, July 1494, Albrecht married Agnes Frey, the daughter of a local businessman. Within a quarter of his marriage, the artist alone ventured out to explore Italy. While traveling through the Alps, the artist delivered some of the earliest landscape paintings to Western art, “Nemesis” being one of them. Albrecht’s paintings showed the influence of Italian painters, such as Antonio Pollaiuolo and Lorenzo di Credi. He considered Giovanni Bellini, the great Italian artist, as his mentor.

Upon his return to Nuremberg in 1495, the artist opened his workshop, where he dabbled in wood carving and would effortlessly carry out the tedious form of engraving. The various wood carvings he created represent religious influences, as in his masterpiece “Apocalypse (1498)”. Albrecht created sixteen designs for this work, famous among them “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1497-98)”. The series brought instant recognition to Albrecht, even from his European contemporaries. His other famous woodcarvings include a series of eleven designs on the “Holy Family” and a series of seventeen designs on the “Life of the Virgin (1503-1505)”. Albrecht Durer also began to experiment with copper engravings. These works are themed around Madonna, religious figures, and commoners. His famous works of copper engravings range from “The Sea Monster (1498)”, “Saint Eustace (1501)” to “Nemesis (1502)”.

During 1505-1507 Dürer again visited Italy and began to use his painting on linen. While in Italy, the artist created famous altarpieces, such as “Paumgartner” and “The Adoration of the Magi.” After returning to Nuremberg in mid-1507, he created other famous paintings, such as “Adam and Eve (1507)” and “The Virgin with the Iris (1508)”. Starting in 1512, Maximilian I, the Roman Emperor, began to give the artist regular work. Later, Dürer created three of his masterpieces, “The Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)”, “Saint Jerome in His Study (1514)” and “Melencolia I (1514)”. These three engravings represented the ‘Northern Renaissance’ and showed the three activities of human life. “Knight, Death, and the Devil” emphasizes the ethical, “Melencolia” represents the logical, while “St. Jerome” the introspective side of life. His other masterpiece was “Dürer’s Rhinoceros (1515)”, a magnificent wood carving that achieved great fame throughout Europe. The Emperor died in 1519. In 1520, Dürer traveled to various parts of the Low Countries, returning to Nuremberg in July 1521, after being diagnosed with a handicapping illness.

Due to his poor health, the artist emphasized more religious elements in his paintings such as the “Crucifixion of Christ”. In 1525, a couple of his books, “The Four Books on Measurement”, were published in Nuremberg. He died on April 6, 1528, at the age of 56. His famous workshop is now a museum. Albrecht Durer was a great artist of the ‘Northern Renaissance’, a fact that is manifested in his huge following. He was an all-encompassing genius in painting, woodcut and copper engraving. He has quoted: “If a man devotes himself to art, much evil is avoided which otherwise happens if one is idle.”