Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 – April 6, 1528) is a German painter, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg.

His prints establish his reputation across Europe when he is still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since.

His well-known works include the Apocalypse woodcuts, Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the subject of extensive analysis and interpretation.

His watercolors mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionize the potential of that medium.

Dürer's introduction of classical motifs into Northern art, through his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists, secure his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance.

This is reinforced by his theoretical treatise, which involve principles of mathematics, perspective and ideal proportions.