Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer was the leading artist of the Northern Renaissance. In the course of his career he revolutionised printmaking in Germany and operated a large workshop that generated prints of a technical standard not previously witnessed north of the Alps. His two visits to Italy informed the development of his work, awakening him to the significant developments in Italian art and the influence of antiquity. A talented draftsman, Dürer produced plein air watercolours recording both the built environment and the natural landscape. While highly regarded as a painter and draftsman, Dürer’s real fame came as the result of his many prints (woodcut, engraving and a small number of etchings) which rapidly spread throughout Europe and influenced the work of many artists of his contemporary and succeeding generations.