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The painting was considered in Nuremberg (1778) to be of Johann Dorsch, an Augustinian friar who had converted quite early on to Lutheranism. This identification, however, was challenged by various critics, since Dorsch became the parish priest of Saint John's in Nuremberg in 1528. Some have hypothesized that it was a portrait by Huldrych Zwingli, the great Swiss reformer; but only side profile portraits of him exist, which do not give rise to a fair comparison or to a reliable attribution. Most critics would opt for the former identification, also because, according to more recent studies, the meeting between Zwingli and Dürer could not have occurred before 1519, on the occasion of a mission in Zurich in which he participated with his friend Pirckheimer and Martin Tucher.
As in the portrait of Wolgemut (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg), Dürer succeeds in effectively expressing the vigorous personality of the subject, modeling the head with a slight rotation leftward, toward the light, and framing it with a severe black attire against a green background. The fine brush strokes, especially for the hair and eyelashes, are well preserved.
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