It was not until the beginning of the 16th century that German art began to free itself from Medieval consciousness: even then, it would evolve in its own distinctive way. Artistic contacts between cities in Italy, like Florence, Siena and Venice, and those of Germany were ongoing during much of the 15th century. The humanist attitudes and novel visions of Italian Renaissance art were taken northwards both by wandering Italian artists, and by the engravings that had been discovered in the mid-15th century, which enabled people to make cheap editions of the most important Renaissance works. Gradually, this brought German artists in touch with the 'new' art and encouraged them to set off on study tours to the 'cradle of art', to study the Italian masters on the spot, in the original. Important as the influences of Early Renaissance painting were on the development of German art, of equal relevance were the events in their homeland, where the Reformation was continuing to make its presence felt. In the country that had seen the success of the Protestant Reformation movement which had declared itself hostile to painting, there was no longer any demand for religious art. This was a great blow to artists, because it meant that they lost their most important source of commissions and income, and helps to explain why court patronage and painting increased in importance. To compensate for the collapse of their main patron, the Church, German artists were obliged to turn to other subjects, notably portrait art and landscape painting, which they sold to the nobility and bourgeoisie. The two greatest Old Masters of the Northern Renaissance era in Germany were the prolific, ambitious draughtsman Albrecht Durer, of Nuremberg (1471-1528), and the Mainz-based religious fanatic Matthias Grunewald (1470-1528). - Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/