UNIT 2
Self-Portrait
This picture belongs to the brush of a German painter, printmaker and theorist Albrecht Dürer. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Renaissance in Northern Europe ever since. His watercolours mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium. Dürer was known as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance. This is reinforced by his theoretical treatise, which involve principles of mathematics, perspective, anatomy and ideal proportions.
This is a painting of 1500 on wood panel, which is considered to be his preeminent self-portrait. Dürer presents himself monumentally in a format traditionally used for depictions of Christ—the implications of which have stirred debate among art critics. A conservative interpretation suggests that Dürer is responding to the tradition of the Imitation of Christ. The more controversial view reads the painting as a proclamation of the artist's individual identity and his role as creator. This latter view is supported by the painting's Latin inscription, which reads in English as "I Albrecht Durer of Nuremberg portrayed myself in colors aged twenty-eight years".
In the medieval stages of life, 28 marked the transition from youth to maturity. The portrait celebrates this turning point in the life of the artist, and the turning point of the millennium: the year 1500, displayed in the centre of the upper left background field, is here celebrated as epochal. The painting may have been created as part of a celebration of the speculum by Conrad Celtis' circle of humanists.
In its directness, the portrait is unlike any that came before: half-length, frontal, and highly symmetrical. Durer records his facial features with dispassionate accuracy. However he refuses to idealize his face and features, the meticulous observation of detail, and the angular – rather than smoothly rounded – style all demonstrate that he has not abandoned his Northern roots.
The lack of a conventional background highlights the artist without regard to his time or place. The central placement of the inscriptions within the dark fields on either side of Dürer brings them forward to the plane of the artist, as if floating in space, emphasizing that the portrait has a highly symbolic purpose.
It is the third portrait created by Durer. The numerous self-portraits testify to his obsession with his own appearance.