Dürer, Albrecht

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German artist. He was the leading figure of the northern Renaissance. He was born in Nürnberg and travelled widely in Europe. Highly skilled in drawing and a keen student of nature, he perfected the technique of woodcut and engraving, producing woodcut series such as the Apocalypse (1498) and copperplate engravings such as The Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513) and Melancholia (1514). His paintings include altarpieces and meticulously observed portraits, including many self-portraits.

He was apprenticed first to his father, a goldsmith, then in 1486 to Michael Wolgemut (1434–1519), a painter, woodcut artist, and master of a large workshop in Nürnberg. At the age of 13 he drew a portrait of himself from the mirror, the first known self-portrait in the history of European art, and characteristic of his genius. From 1490 he travelled widely, studying Netherlandish and Italian art, then visited Colmar, Basel, and Strasbourg and returned to Nürnberg in 1495. Other notable journeys were to Venice 1505–07, where he met the painter Giovanni Bellini, and to Antwerp in 1520, where he was made court painter to Charles V of Spain and the Netherlands (recorded in detail in his diary).