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| Albrecht Dürer |
His family came from Hungary. The family name of Thürer was germanized when they settled in Nuremberg.
His parents had eighteen children, of whom Albrecht was the second. Albrecht's brother, Hans Dürer, became an artist as well.
At the age of fifteen Dürer was apprenticed to the most important painter of the town, Michael Wolgemut.
Dürer studied not only painting but also wood carving and elementary copper engraving.
At the end of his apprenticeship in 1490 he started travelling. In 1492 he arrived in Colmar, intending to study under Martin Schöngauer, a well regarded painter-engraver of his time, but he found out Schongauer had died the previous year.
He then travelled briefly in the Low Countries before he returned to Nuremberg.