Albrecht Durer was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I.

Dürer's vast body of work includes engravings, his preferred technique in his later prints, altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, watercolors and books. His watercolors mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium.

Durer is recognized as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance and makes it into most art historians lists as one of the greatest draftsmen of all time.