Paragraph: (Wiki_articles-paragraphs-wikiAlbrecht Durer-8.txt)
Sent 1: His famous series of sixteen great designs for the Apocalypse is dated 1498, as is his engraving of St. Michael Fighting the Dragon.
Sent 2: He made the first seven scenes of the Great Passion in the same year, and a little later, a series of eleven on the Holy Family and saints.
Sent 3: The Seven Sorrows Polyptych, commissioned by Frederick III of Saxony in 1496, was executed by Durer and his assistants c.
Sent 4: Around 1503-1505 he produced the first seventeen of a set illustrating the Life of the Virgin, which he did not finish for some years.
Sent 5: Neither these, nor the Great Passion, were published as sets until several years later, but prints were sold individually in considerable numbers.
Sent 6: During the same period Durer trained himself in the difficult art of using the burin to make engravings.
Sent 7: 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.
Sent 8: 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.
Sent 9: He was soon producing some spectacular and original images, notably Nemesis (1502), The Sea Monster (1498), and Saint Eustace (c.
Sent 10: 1501), with a highly detailed landscape background and animals.
Sent 11: His landscapes of this period, such as Pond in the Woods and Willow Mill, are quite different from his earlier watercolours.
Sent 12: There is a much greater emphasis on capturing atmosphere, rather than depicting topography.
Sent 13: He made a number of Madonnas, single religious figures, and small scenes with comic peasant figures.
Sent 14: Prints are highly portable and these works made Durer famous throughout the main artistic centres of Europe within a very few years.