Dürer: Colour Library (Phaidon Colour Library)

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) was an artist of the Northern Renaissance, remarkable for the range and versatility of his work. His woodcuts and engravings made him famous throughout Europe and he is still one of the most brilliant printmakers of all time. As an oil painter , Durer was equally successful at religious and secular subjects, producing magnificent altarpieces and powerful portraits. His drawings and watercolours are impressive for the diversity of their subject matter and the varied media in which they were produced. The son of a Hungarian goldsmith, Durer grew up in Nuremberg, a town half-way between the Netherlands and Italy, and he found inspiration in the work of painters of both these major artistic centres of his time. But rather dm simply imitating what others were doing, Durer was very much an innovator; he is the first artist who is known to have painted a self-portrait and to have done a landscape painting of a specific scene. This book contains some of his best loved works, including The Young Hare and Praying Hands.