Albrecht Dürer

Born in Nuremberg in 1471, Albrecht Dürer was the son of the goldsmith Albrecht Dürer the Elder (1427-1502); his godfather, Anton Koberger, was the leading German publisher of his day. The young Dürer trained with his father, then was apprenticed to Michel Wolgemut, a painter and designer of woodcuts, from 1486 to 1489. Between 1490 and 1494, Dürer traveled through Germany and Switzerland; he visited Venice and other cities in Italy from autumn 1494 to spring 1495, then returned to settle in Nuremberg. He visited Italy again between 1505 and 1507. In 1509, Dürer purchased a house in Nuremberg and became a member of the Greater Council, marks of his increased prosperity and social standing. Dürer received commissions for several projects from the Emperor Maximilian I, who granted the artist an annuity in 1515. This honor was continued by his successor, Charles V. After Maximilian's death in 1519, Dürer's activities in the Netherlands in 1520-21 are described in a detailed travel diary; towards the end of his life he also wrote theoretical treatises on proportion ( Underweysung der Messung, 1525; Bücher von menschlicher Proportion, 1528) and fortifications (Befestigungslehre, 1527).

Prolific and highly original, Dürer produced paintings, drawings, engravings, etchings, woodcuts, and drypoints with equal facility and technical brilliance. His international reputation was primarily the result of his activity as an engraver and woodcut designer, however. His early training as a goldsmith and metal engraver focused his attention on the untapped artistic potential of the printed image; his knowledge of publishing fostered an awareness of the wide public audience for prints. Dürer endowed traditional devotional images with superior artistry, transforming them from textual accompaniments and objects of everyday use to independent works of art suitable for collecting.