Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) was one of the world's great artistic geniuses, unique among his contemporaries in his ability to translate the basic principles of the Italian Renaissance into the northern European style to which he was born. In addition, he was an exemplary figure of the early Reformation: one of the first people to become interested in Martin Luther's writings, he also counted most of Germany's leading humanists among his friends. This major biography links Durer's artistic development to his personal life and to the turbulent history of pre-Reformation Europe.