Albrecht Durer was without doubt the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance. Living in Nuremberg, half-way between the Netherlands and Italy, he found inspiration in the work of painters of both the major European artistic centres of his time. But rather than simply imitating what others were doing, he was very much an innovator.

Albrecht Durer is, for example, the first artist who is known to have painted a self-portrait and to have done a landscape painting of a specific scene. The range and versatility of Durer's work is astonishing. His woodcuts and engravings made him famous across Europe and he is still considered to be the greatest printmaker of all time.

As an oil painter, Albrecht Durer was equally successful at religious and secular subjects, producing magnificent altarpieces and powerful portraits. His drawings and watercolours are impressive for their diversity of subject-matter and the varied media in which they were produced. Durer was to have a major influence on the development of European art.

Adam