Durer's Syphilitic, 1495-1496. Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) was a German artist. His skillful use of perspective and mathematical proportions made him one of the outstanding artistic figures of the early 16th century. This woodcut depicts a man infected with syphilis, noticeable by the skin pustules covering his face, wrists and legs. Syphilis is a sexually-transmitted infection spread by the Treponema pallidum bacterium. This woodcut was published between 1495-96, soon after the first European syphilis epidemics occurred in 1494. It is thought syphilis was introduced from the newly discovered Americas. Taken from Dr Willi Kurth's The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer (1936).