DÜRER, Albrecht
(b. 1471, Nürnberg, d. 1528, Nürnberg)

Portrait of a Young Fürleger with Loose Hair

1497
Oil on canvas, 56 x 43 cm
Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt

There is an inscription in the top left monogrammed by another hand and dated 1497.

This portrait, together with the Portrait of a Young Fürleger with Her Hair Done Up, forms part of a rather uncommon diptych. The coats of arms, added shortly after and placed on the external side beside the portraits, were those of the same family, even though the coats of arms are different: one has a cross between two fish, the other an upside-down lily.

The emperor Sigismund had authorized the families of ecclesiastic members to add a cross to their own coats of arms. For this reason, it was deduced that the young woman portrayed with loose hair, the coral bracelet, the hands joined in prayer, and her head bowed down had devoted herself to the cloistered life. The Latin inscription added to the engraving Wenzel Hollar modeled on this painting, also recommended following in the path of Christ.

The very fine brushstrokes of this exquisite painting and the sharp distinction between the areas in light and those in shadow give the face a sense of plasticity, endowing it with a particularly vivid expression. Scholars demonstrated that the two portraits truly formed a pair and that they were acquired together in 1636 in Nuremberg by the count of Arundel, whose engraver, Wenzel Hollar, made two engravings modeled from them. It should be noted that the young woman with the loose hair also rests her arms on a window sill.

In 1673, the portraits were acquired, together as always, by the bishop of Olmütz, from whom they later went on to Carl von Waagen, of Munich. Afterward, the two portraits were separated.