Albrecht Dürer died in 1528 following a fever contracted during one of his numerous trips to Europe, undertaken in search of knowledge, patronage, and the elusive rules of proportions and the development of his skills as an artist. (On this particular occasion, his curiosity to see a whale had led him to take a boat in bad weather while in the Netherlands, with the result that he fell ill and never fully recovered. ) In 1526 he undertook his last great work, which became known as the Four Apostles. The diptych may have been originally intended for the wings of an altarpiece and had occupied it for some years, but it was not commissioned by a patron, but executed on Dürer's own initiative and presented to the Nuremberg Council, his hometown, like a “reminiscence” (Russell p14). However, it should not be interpreted as some kind of personal selfish memory. At the foot of the work, Dürer had asked a professional calligrapher to place a very significant inscription which included a biblical text and the following "general warning to the observer": "All world leaders in these dangerous times should be careful not to follow human error. of the word of God. Because God does not want to add or take anything away from his word. Hear therefore the warnings of these four excellent men, Peter, Paul, John and Mark. (Ettlinger p6) All this was not written in the Latin of Rome, but in the powerful German of Luther's “Septemberbibel” (Panofsky p232). To the extent that the Reformation was a natural consequence of the Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer was very much a child of his time. He was born in 1471 in Nuremberg, third son of Albrecht Dürer the Elder and Barbara Holper. After learning to read a...... middle of paper ......spirations of his time (p163). But the following simple sentence, taken from Dürer's notes for an instructional work for young artists, indicates the philosophy of a man who was a Renaissance and Reformation artist: (Moore p 307) "He who works in ignorance works more painfully than he. who works with understanding; therefore let all learn to understand well » Works CitedEncyclopaedia Britannica CD Rom 2001Ettlinger LD Albrecht Dürer Knowledge publications, Purnell, 1966Kurth, Willi The complete woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer Crown Publishers, New York, 1946Moore, T Sturge Albert Durer Duckworth and Co, London 1905Panofsky Erwin Albrecht Dürer vol 1 OUP 1943Raynes John Human anatomy for the artist Crescent 1979Russell, Francis Dürer's world Time-Life International (Netherlands) 1972Streider Peter Dürer, the complete paintings Grenade 1980