Albrecht Durer Research Paper

Albrecht Durer was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist during the Northern Renaissance. He became famous in his twenties for his works. His more famous artistic works include his Self-Portrait made in 1500, which features himself, but to art historian’s beliefs he also resembles a Christ-like appearance. The portrait may not actually appear to be his real identity, but of a more idealized version. Through his own techniques and the embodiment of Jesus Christ, he created a portrait that many would come to admire and theorize themselves. As a painter, Albrecht Durer’s more famous artworks include: Self-Portrait (1500), The Feast of the Rose Garlands (1506), and Four Apostles (1526). As a printmaker, Durer made many woodcuttings about …show more content…
Although we do “sense” Durer is his artworks, we never truly see him by how he depicts himself. As a self-portrait, we do not necessarily see the artist like we would see a person in a photograph today, but we see the artist’s depiction of him/herself. Durer created portraits of himself during a time when artistic self-reflection was not yet heard of or done. He practically invented that “these efforts were originally and quintessentially self-motivated and that the true enabling circumstances of self-portraiture was creative genius alone” (Koerner, 1997). This creativeness changed their identity with the artist’s own ideal image of themselves. The artist has depicted themselves as not normally seen by other people, but how they want to see themselves. Durer’s earlier self-portraits are shown with the image reversed, most likely because he saw himself through a mirror (Smith, …show more content…
This is how Christ is mostly imaged and therefore is a parallel with Durer’s portrait. Durer also changed some of his features too look like the Savior, softening his characteristics like his nose and cheekbones and altering the size and shape of his eyes (Panofsky, 1945). His hand is places in a central position against his dark clothing. His pointer finger is pointing toward his chest while his other fingers are bent in the opposite direction, which signifies he is clasping his fur coat while using blessing hands. Durer’s eyes are intense and alert which shows his concentration while creating his portrait and “studying the world” (Sullivan, 2015). His high forehead is exaggerated compared to his earlier self-portraits, which Sullivan sees this as Durer is a cultured man made to learn