Albrecht Dürer died in 1528 as a result of a fever contracted during one of his numerous trips to Europe, undertaken in search of knowledge, patronage, the elusive rules of proportions and the development of his skill as an artist. (On this particular occasion his curiosity to see a whale had led him to take a boat in bad weather whilst in the Netherlands, with the result that he fell ill and never fully recovered) By 1526 he had undertaken his last great work, which became known as The Four Apostles. The diptych was perhaps originally intended for the wings of an altarpiece and which occupied it for some years, however it was not ordered by a client, but executed on the initiative of Dürer and presented to the Council of Nuremberg, his hometown, as a ' reminiscence' (Russell p14). It should not, however, be interpreted as some kind of personal selfish memory. At the foot of the work Dürer had a professional calligrapher place a very significant inscription which included a biblical text and the following 'general warning to the observer': "All worldly rulers in these dangerous times should take care not to follow instead the human misguidance of the word of God. For God will not want to add anything to his word nor take anything away from it. Therefore listen to the warnings of these four excellent men, Peter, Paul, John and Mark.” (Ettlinger p6) All this was written not 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, the third son of Albrecht Dürer the Elder and Barbara Holper. After learning to read a......medium of paper......inspirations of his time (p163). But the following simple sentence taken from Dürer's notes for a work of instruction for young artists, indicates the philosophy of a man who was an artist of the Renaissance and Reformation: (Moore p 307) “He who works in ignorance works more painfully of him working with understanding; so let us all learn to understand well” Works CitedEncyclopaedia Britannica CD Rom 2001Ettlinger LD Albrecht Dürer Knowledge Publications, Purnell, 1966Kurth, Willi The complete woodcut by 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 The world of Dürer Time-Life International (Nederland) 1972Streider Peter Dürer, the complete paintings Granada 1980