b.May 21, 1471, Imperial Free City of Nernberg [Germany] d.April 6, 1528, Nernberg Albrecht Durer (May 21, 1471 ?C April 6, 1528) was a German painter, printmaker and theorist from Nuremberg. His still-famous works include the Apocalypse woodcuts, 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. D??rer introduction of classical motifs into Northern art, through his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists, have secured his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance. This is reinforced by his theoretical treatise which involve principles of mathematics, perspective and ideal proportions. 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 Renaissance in Northern Europe ever since.
Study of an Apostle's Hands
1508 Brush drawing on blue primed paper, 290 x 197 mm Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna Several individual studies made for the destroyed altarpiece commissioned by the Frankfurt merchant and councilman Jakob Heller still survive. The so-called Praying Hands were a preliminary study for an apostle. Removed from their original context, they have been viewed as an autonomous work of art and have become enormously popular. In the 19th and 20th centuries in particular, numerous reproductions of the Praying Hands have graced the walls of middle-class homes as an embodiment and symbol of German piety.Artist:D?RER, Albrecht Title: Study of an Apostle's Hands (Praying Hands) Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - graphics : study