Episode Details

Albrecht Durer made prints so technically brilliant that they were copied, forged, and distributed across Europe within months of their creation. He was the first artist to understand mass reproduction as a business model, building a brand and international reputation through woodcuts and engravings at a time when most artists depended on a single patron.

This episode traces Durer from his goldsmith father's workshop in Nuremberg through his Italian journeys, his friendship with Erasmus, and the self-portraits that made him the first artist to treat his own image as a brand.

• He painted a series of self-portraits that made him the first European artist to systematically document his own face
• His prints were copied and distributed across Europe, making him one of the first artists to go "viral"
• He traveled to Italy twice and brought Northern European and Italian Renaissance traditions into direct contact
• His engraving Melencolia I remains one of the most analyzed and debated images in art history