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Albrecht Durer was a German artist who is credited with raising printmaking to a level equal to painting and sculpture during the Renaissance. He was the model "Renaissance man," writing on the theories of art and studying languages and mathematics.

Erhard Schon made this portrait of Durer in the year that Durer died. Schon was one of Durer's students and it is thought that this portrait may have been for a memorial tablet of Durer. Durer's coat of arms is in the upper left corner of the print. Traditionally, a design on a knight's shield stood for a family name. During and after the Renaissance, the coat of arms was used as a family's "mark" and could be found on furniture, in works of art and on architecture belonging to a particular family.

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