Old city captured by the Germanic artist (5)
I believe the answer is:
durer
'artist' is the definition.
(painter Albrecht Durer)
'old city captured by the germanic' is the wordplay.
'old city' becomes 'ur' (ancient Sumerian city state).
'captured by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the germanic' becomes 'der' ('the' in German).
'ur' inserted into 'der' is 'DURER'.
(Other definitions for durer that I've seen before include "Albrecht -, Ger. artist" , "Albrecht -, C15-16 German artist" , "Albrecht -, fifteenth to sixteenth century German artist" , "Old master" , "Albrecht --, German painter/engraver" .)