Renaissance and Reformation Biographies | Albrecht Dürer Biography

May 21, 1471
Nuremberg, Germany
April 6, 1528
Nuremberg, Germany

Engraver, painter

"My affairs will go as ordained in Heaven."

Albrecht Dürer.

The German painter and graphic artist Albrecht Dürer introduced the achievements of the Italian Renaissance into northern European art. The Renaissance was a cultural revolution that began in Italy during the mid-1300s. It was initiated by scholars called humanists who promoted the human-centered values of ancient Greece and Rome. Humanist ideals were soon influencing the arts, literature, philosophy, science, religion, and politics in Italy. During the early fifteenth century, innovations of the Italian Renaissance began spreading into the rest of Europe and reached a peak in the sixteenth century. Dürer's influence was most widely felt through his woodcuts and engravings.

During the fifteenth...