Albrecht Dürer was born on 21 May 1471 in Nuremberg. A German painter, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg, Dürer was the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance. He travelled to Italy, where he learned about perspective and proportion, and brought these ideas to Germany. He became famous throughout Europe for his woodcuts and engravings, such as the Apocalypse series and the prints Knight, Death and the Devil and Melencolia I. He also painted altarpieces and portraits, including some of the earliest self-portraits in European art, and wrote treatises on measurement and human proportion. He served the emperor Maximilian I.
Before and after
- 15 April 1469Birth of Guru Nanak
- 3 May 1469Birth of Niccolò Machiavelli
- 12 March 1470Battle of Losecoat Field
- from 10 July 1470 to 5 August 1470Siege of Negroponte
- 21 May 1471Birth of Albrecht Dürer
- 1472Founding of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- 1473Construction of Sistine Chapel
- c. 1473William Caxton prints the first book in English
- 19 February 1473Birth of Nicolaus Copernicus
More in Art, literature & culture
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- 823 CEOrigins of Shingon Buddhism
- from 14th century to 17th centuryRenaissance
- 14th centuryPublication of Water Margin
- 1469Origins of Sikhism
- 1499Pietà (Michelangelo)
The era
This moment belongs to the Medieval world (500 CE to 1500 CE), kingdoms, faiths and trade routes. You can also browse everything in the 15th century.