The Four Apostles Albrecht Dürer, the most prominent artist north of the Alps, painted these panels of the four apostles (John, Peter, Paul, and Mark) in 1526 and gave them to the city of Nuremberg, where he lived and worked. Like many cities in Germany, Nuremberg had become officially Protestant, and paintings such as this that emphasized biblical figures and books rather than saints and miracles were appealing to city leaders. Whether Dürer himself had officially left the Catholic Church is not clear, but his letters indicate that he had Protestant sympathies, and he had contacts with many Christian humanists and reformers.
(By Albrecht Dürer [1471–1528]/Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany/Bridgeman Images)