Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528) was a German painter, printmaker, mathematician and theorist. He is regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance.

Biography

Paintings

During the Renaissance, the Assassin Ezio Auditore bought a replica of Dürer's painting Eve. The duplicate painting would later hang in the Villa Auditore as decoration.

In 1505, Dürer was offered an enormous sum of money to paint a portrait of Sofia Sartor as a gift from her father. On seeing her however, he refused to receive any payment, claiming that the honor of painting her was payment enough. After Sofia had sat for the portrait for a week, Dürer finished it. The portrait had notable warmth and color, and was titled Portrait of a Venetian Woman. In 1511, this portrait was stolen from Sofia's bookstore in Constantinople and sold to a merchant. Ezio, who had met and befriended Sofia, would later recover the portrait and return it to her.

In 1511, Dürer would also create a woodcut engraving of the biblical story of Cain murdering his brother Abel with an axe.

Legacy

In 2012, Dürer's woodcut engraving, Cain Killing Abel, was included in the Glyph puzzles that the late Assassin Clay Kaczmarek left behind in the Animus as messages for his successor Desmond Miles to decipher. Desmond later did so in September of that year. Desmond solved this puzzle, which was part of a set titled "Brothers" and revealed that Cain had killed his brother to attain his Apple of Eden.

Behind the scenes

The Art Director for Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Raphael Lacoste, wanted to base Sofia's appearance on Dürer's portrait, and co-artist Jeff Simpson commented that Lacoste was very adamant about the idea.

Gallery

• 
  Portrait of a Venetian Woman (1505)
• 
  Eve (1507)
• 
  Cain Killing Abel (1511)

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Revelations (mentioned in Database entry only)