Born on May 21, 1471 in the city of Nuremberg (one of the most powerful artistic and commercial centers in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries), Albrecht Durer was an extremely gifted man , versatile, influential and artistically talented German artist of the Renaissance period. Additionally, Dürer was a gifted and competent painter, draftsman, writer, printmaker, engraver, theorist, and mathematician from the city of Nuremberg. In addition, Albrecht Dürer apprenticed with his father, then a goldsmith, as well as with local painter Michael Wolgemut, whose workshop produced numerous woodcut illustrations for books and publications. As an admirer of his compatriot Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer completely changed engraving and artistically elevated it to the level of an independent art form. As a result, Dürer also expanded his tonal and dramatic range and provided the imagery with a new and never before seen conceptual basis. By the age of thirty, Albrecht Dürer had already completed or begun three of his most famous and influential series of woodcuts. on religious subjects such as: The Apocalypse (1498), the cycle of the Great Passion engraved on wood (c. 1497-1500) and the Life of the Virgin (begun in 1500). In addition, Dürer also produced independent prints, such as the engraving Adam and Eve (1504), and groups of free-standing images, large or small, such as the Master Engravings which depict and represent the Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his study (1514) and Melancholy I (1514), intended more for connoisseurs and collectors than for popular devotion of this period. Subsequently, the technical know-how, intellectual breadth and psychology of Dürer's works...... middle of paper ......here probably only Dürer's Venice altarpiece was seen, and his German successors were less effective in mixing German styles with Italian styles. Thus, Albrecht Dürer's highly intense and self-dramatizing self-portraits have continued to have a strong influence to the present day, particularly on painters of the 19th and 20th centuries who desired a more dramatic style of portraiture. Additionally, Albrecht Dürer never lost critical favor, and there were many significant revivals of interest in his works in Germany during the Dürer Renaissance from about 1570 to 1630, in the early 19th century century and in German nationalism from 1870 to 1945. Additionally, Albrecht Durer's study of human proportions and the use of transformations to a coordinate grid to demonstrate facial aesthetic variations inspired similar work by D 'Arcy Thompson in his book On Growth and Form..