Even during his lifetime the fame of this Nuremberg artist transpired far beyond German boundaries. Particularly his expressive woodcuts and copper engravings were so style-forming that we still speak of the Dürer-era when talking about European art of the late 15th and early 16th century. The painter and graphic designer was interested in religious as well as in secular themes. He created impressive portraits, but also watercolours with landscape scenes and accurate depictions of the animal and plant world. Just picture the famous "Young Hare". Time and again, however, Dürer repeatedly returned to the passion of Christ and devoted himself to the perfect proportion of the human body. The Germanic National Museum in
Nuremberg owns quite a number of chief paintings of this great humanist artist and mathematician, including the portrait of his mother and that of Emperor Maximilian I, who commissioned several paintings from the artist.
In Dürer's living quarters near the Nuremberg's Kaiserburg castle, the painter's life and work come alive with a contemporary studio having been installed.
