Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528) was a printmaker and painter from the city of Nuremberg. His talents as a printer earned him European-wide fame, especially as the utility and desirability of reproducible images were enhanced by the rapid expansion of book publishing during the spread of movable-type printing throughout Europe. Dürer worked at a historical crossroads, the period in which Italian Renaissance influences started to percolate up into Northern Europe, sparking what would be called the Northern Renaissance. Dürer’s work reflects both medieval and Renaissance ways of thinking – the latter leaning ever more toward the “modern” sensibility. Dürer, though still primarily dealing with religious or religiously oriented subjects, took great interest in science and medicine, which included ailments of the body and the mind. Indeed, for the Renaissance mind, as for the medieval one, ailments of the body and mind were not separated – all physical and spiritual diseases were linked back to the balance of the four basic humors: blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile.  

Galen, On the Natural Faculties

Humoral Theory