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

Self-Portrait at 13

1484
Silverpoint on paper, 275 x 196 mm
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

At the age of 13, Dürer created the earliest self-portrait of an artist at so young an age. Using silverpoint, the features of Dürer with which we are familiar from later self-portraits, though still rather childlike here, are depicted with gentle strokes. Like one of Martin Schongauer's Late Gothic angels in depictions of the Annunciation, the boy is also pointing to the right. His left hand is concealed beneath his sleeve, thus suggesting that this self-portrait was painted in front of a mirror.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.