Dürer's family moved to Germany from Hungary some years before Albrecht's birth; their original name was Thürer. Albrecht was born in Nuremberg, the second of 18 children, one of whom, Hans, also became a well-known artist. Albrecht trained as a painter first locally, later in Basel. At 23 he returned to Nuremberg and married Agnes Frey, a daughter of a merchant, but did not stay long, soon embarking on a journey to Italy. 

It is rather difficult trying to gather facts about Dürer's life, as there is very little written documentation available, except for the three books the artist wrote towards the end of his life. The best source are Dürer's own paintings and sketches - fortunately he had the habit of including the year of execution with his famous AD monogram. Thus we can make some good guesses about the artist's whereabouts and movements, by putting together the dates, the subjects of his paintings, the possible influences by other artists, etc. Thus we know that he stayed in Italy, where the Renaissance movement was in full swing, for about a year, but by 1495 he was back in Nuremberg. Dürer remained in Germany for a decade or so, but in around 1505 he made another journey to Italy, and this time stayed for about two years, mainly in Venice. As his reputation in Italy and elsewhere grew, Dürer produced a number of tempera paintings on linen, including portraits and altarpieces, most notably the Adoration of the Magi, The Virgin and Child with the Goldfinch, a Christ disputing with the Doctors and perhaps his masterpiece, the altarpiece Adoration of the Virgin, also known as the Feast of Rose Garlands. The latter work was later in the century acquired by one of the history's greatest collectors of art, the Emperor Rudolf II and was taken by him to Prague, which was at the time his main abode, attracting large numbers of artists and also many alchemists. Dürer too was certainly interested in alchemy and the related esoteric subjects, as his later works attest, particularly his designs for the Tarot cards, one of the earliest Tarot decks known in Europe, parts of which were unfortunately lost, and on which he worked during the last decade of his life.

Some of Dürer's best works were produced during the first decade of the 16th century. Adam and Eve (1507), Virgin with the Iris (1508), the Assumption of the Virgin (1509 - an altarpiece), and the Adoration of the Trinity by all the Saints (1511), the Apocalypse series, etc. There followed a period when he concentrated mainly on engraving, producing masterpieces such as The Knight and Death (1513), Melancholia, and St Jerome in his Study (1514).

In 1520 the artist made another lengthy journey, this time to the Netherlands, but was forced to return home in the following year, having caught a disease which was never properly diagnosed, but which bothered him to the end of his life. Because of his illness, Dürer found it difficult working on paintings of larger proportions, instead he worked mainly on drawings and engravings. And he decided to write books. One on geometry and perspective was published at Nuremberg in 1525, and one on fortification - the subjects that also fascinated his contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci, which was published two years later. The third book on human proportion Dürer managed to finish, but it was published only shortly after his death in 1528.