Albrecht Dürer
German painter, copper engraver and drawer for woodcut (1471-1528). He is among the most important and multilateral artists of the time between late middle ages and renaissance in Germany.
Initially, he learned the goldsmith craft. At fifteen, he was trained by a painter. Later, he traveled a few years, returned home, developed in painting the utmost versatility in the techniques known at that time.
His animal drawings point to the view on nature unadulterated by mythology and superstition, which was so characteristic for renaissance – they are unmatched in their observation accuracy and drawing execution. For Dürer already applies the statement made by Galilei more than one century later: “The great book of nature stays open in front of us – one has just to read in represent it.”