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Dürer was born on May 21, 1471, third child and second son of his parents, who had between fourteen and eighteen children. His father was a successful goldsmith, originally named Ajtósi, who in 1455 had moved to Nuremberg from Ajtós, near Gyula in Hungary. Albrecht Dürer the Elder married Barbara Holper, from a prosperous Nuremberg family, in 1467.
Albert Dürer's education was always based on apprenticeships. His first apprentice was his father, Ajtósiz, and in training with his father he learnt the workings of metal and the use of tools laid the groundwork for his skill in engraving. In 1486 he was apprenticed to the painter Michael Wolgemut. In Wolgemut's busy shop Dürer learned the fundamentals not only of drawing and painting but of woodcut as well. The workshop was actively producing books in which illustrations had great importance, not only in size but in dramatic force and illusionism. Impressions of woodcuts were made, not by hand, but in the presses used for movable type, with a resulting increase in clarity that allowed more complex designs. So, Albert Dürer's skills were Printmaking, Painting, and Engraving.
Albert Dürer had many contributions in his lifetime. One of his contributions was to the Italian Renaissance. His contribution to the Italian Renaissance was to combine Italian Renaissance ideas and forms with the late Gothic art of the north.
Albert Dürer was familiar with the 'abbreviated construction' as described by Alberti and the geometrical construction of shadows, a technique of Leonardo da Vinci. Although Dürer made no innovations in these areas, he is notable as the first Northern European to treat matter of visual representation with a scientific method and an understanding of Euclidean principles. However, unlike Alberti and Leonardo, Dürer was most troubled by understanding not just the abstract notions of beauty but as to how an artist can create beautiful images. Between 1512 and the final draft in 1528,...