What was the role of Alberto Durero in the Northern European Renaissance?

Alberto Durero was a painter, engraver, and art theorist.
He was a humanist who cultivated various disciplines.
Durero's father was an important goldsmith from Hungary who emigrated to Nuremberg.
Durero was a friend of the humanist Willibald Pirckheimer and Erasmus of Rotterdam.
Durero began his training in his father's workshop and later became an apprentice to the painter Michael Wolgemut.
Durero's first drawing was a self-portrait made at the age of 13.
Durero considered the artist to be a 'divine being' and a total, spiritual and physical reality.
Durero believed that without mastery of literary arts, one could not truly be a humanist.