Durer paintings include altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, engravings and woodcuts. Albrecht Durer was regarded as the greatest German Renaissance artist. Albrecht was born on May 21, 1471, in Numberg. He travelled to Italy in 1494 and remained there until 1495. The Italian trip had a strong effect on Albrecht.

One of the 1496 versatile Durer paintings was a portrait of Frederick the Wise, the Elector of Saxony at the time, who became one of Albrecht's patrons. Albrecht started as an apprentice in the workshop of Michael Wolgemut, a Nuremberg artist between 1486 through 1489. Travelling became a passion starting in 1490.

In the 1950s, Albrecht made a journey to the Netherlands where he met many famous Netherland painters, including Quentin Massys, Joos van Cleve and Lucys van Leyden. He met Erasmus, a humanist scholar in Antwerp. It was then that he sketched his portrait, another sampling of Durer paintings of that period.

Albrecht became an early and enthusiastic follower of Martin Luther. This new faith can be sensed in the growing austerity in style and subject of his Durer paintings representing religious works after 1520. The climax to this trend is masterfully represented by The Four Holy Men, which was completed in 1526.

Other than his Durer paintings, Albrecht also wrote and published theoretical works such as Manual of Measurement and Various Instructions for the Fortification of Towns, Castles and other Localities. These manuscripts were written in 1525 and 1527, respectively.

Durer paintings consisted of magnificent altarpieces and powerful portraits. Albrecht's drawings and watercolours are impressive for their diversity in subject matter and for the variety of media in which they were produced. Albrecht truly had a major influence on the development of European art.