http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durer
Albrecht Dürer ; 21 May 1471 - 6 April 1528)[1] was a German
painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist
from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across
Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been
conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the
Northern Renaissance ever since. His vast body of work
includes altarpieces and religious works, numerous portraits
and self-portraits, and copper engravings. His woodcuts,
such as the Apocalypse series (1498), retain a more Gothic
flavour than the rest of his work. His well-known works
include the 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 watercolours mark him as one of the
first European landscape artists, while his ambitious
woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium.
Dürer's introduction of classical motifs into Northern art,
through his knowledge of Italian artists and German
humanists, has secured his reputation as one of the most
important figures of the Northern Renaissance. This is
reinforced by his theoretical treatises, which involve
principles of mathematics, perspective and ideal
proportions.