Page "Albrecht Dürer" Paragraph 17

During the same period Dürer trained himself in the difficult art of using the burin to make engravings.

It is possible he had begun learning this skill during his early training with his father, as it was also an essential skill of the goldsmith.

In 1496 he executed the Prodigal Son, which the Italian Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari singled out for praise some decades later, noting its Germanic quality.

He was soon producing some spectacular and original images, notably Nemesis ( 1502 ), The Sea Monster ( 1498 ), and Saint Eustace ( c. 1501 ), with a highly detailed landscape background and animals.

His landscapes of this period, such as Pond in the Woods and Willow Mill, are quite different from his earlier watercolours.

There is a much greater emphasis on capturing atmosphere, rather than depicting topography.