Five full centuries lie between us and the life of Albrecht Dürer(1471-1528). His ability to represent a subject with an absolute fidelityto every detail seemed miraculous to his contemporaries, and stillastounds us now: we need only think of his water-colours of plants andanimals. In addition, Dürer was the first painter to devote such close attentionto the art of the self-portrait. No artist before him painted as many ashe. The works by Dürer collected in this book show the full range of thisartist's unique genius.