Self-Portrait at 26

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Self-Portrait at 26: Albrecht Durer

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Albrecht Durer Oil Painting - Self-Portrait at 26

Keywords: Self, Portrait

Work Overview: Self-Portrait at 26
Albrecht Dürer
1498
Oil on panel
52 x 41 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Self-portrait (or Self-portrait at 26) is the second of Albrecht Dürer's three painted self-portraits. In this work, executed in oil on wood panel in 1498, Dürer haughtily elevates himself to the social position he believed suited to an artist of his ability. Dürer depicts himself indoors under an arch, in half length, turning towards the viewer. Painted after his first trip to Italy, he is depicted bearing an arrogant, cocky expression which betrays the assured self-confidence of a young artist at the height of his ability. Dürer's presence dominates the pictorial space, from his hat which almost reaches the top of the canvas to his arm positioned on the lower ledge, where he rests his fingers enclosed in fine rich gloves.[1]

Until some time in the 19th century the painting was hung with and kept as a companion piece with Portrait of Dürer's Father at 70; in 1636 the two paintings were gifted as a pair to Charles I of England by the city of Nuremberg,[2] and this work was at some point acquired by Philip IV of Spain. Today it is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Dürer shows himself before an open window with a flat plane with a lake before distant snow-capped mountains, the landscape perhaps representing either the memory of his recent travels abroad or his inner mental state.[3] Light spills from the window, falling along his head to highlight both his delicate skin tones and long blond hair.[1] Dürer is dressed with effeminate grace in flamboyant, extravagant clothes showing the influence of Italian fashion. His low-necked shirt or chemise is of fine linen, gathered and trimmed with a band of gold braid or embroidery, and worn under an open-fronted doublet and a cloak tied over one shoulder. His white jacket has black lining under a white pleated shirt of which the verticals match the horizontals of his headdress. His fingers are crossed, hidden inside silk gloves, an unusual pose for Dürer's early career; he always paid close attention in detailing the hands of his sitters who are usually showing holding an object; examples include a pillow, rosary, sheet of paper and flower.[4]

Dürer presents himself as almost seductive, with a rakish patterned hat placed over long, almost girlishly curled blond locks of hair[3][5] under a draped pointed hat with a tassel. He looks out at the viewer with a cool ironic stare.

Art historian Marcel Brion believes the self-portrait marks a farewell to his irresponsible youth, the acclaim he received during his visit to Italy and his general apprehension as the 15th century came to an end and dark clouds hung over the Germanic states. The middleground of the pleasing flat plain and lake may represent his travels from 1492 to 1497, yet they are shadowed by steep mountainous glaciers; forebodings of what lay in store.[3] In this Brion interprets the artist's state as looking toward his future and past.[3] Dürer's youthful character was enthusiastic, adventurous and inhibited, and after he left his hometown of Nuremberg in 1490 to travel as journeyman painter he was able to live his early youth with abandon and almost without consequence. By the time this portrait was painted he was back home, and old enough to begin to accept responsibilities.

The view out of the window shows the Inn Valley at, what is now, Telfs in the Tyrol with the Mieming Plateau and snowcapped Simmering mountain.

He had already established himself as a significant artist, and was perhaps fearful of losing this status. In the following decade, before he left Italy to return home in October 1506 he would write to his friend Willibald Pirckheimer, "How I shall freeze after this sun! Here I am a gentleman, at home only a parasite."[6] From these words it might be concluded that his cocky and extravagant self-representation may be seen as a front, described by Brion as "the outer skin of a chrysalis, discarded by the future personality fore-shadowed in that gaze when the coming tempest of conflicting emotions burst upon him."[7] In the end his fears were misplaced; soon after his return to Nuremberg he was widely hailed and given a social status equivalent to an "Ehrbaren" (wealthy merchant). The following year he published of his edition of the "Apocalypse", and his personal and self-absorbed fear being supplanted by more metaphysical worries.

In 2012 the Nuremberg tourism office commissioned a Playmobil toy based on the painting, to be sold as a souvenir.

This self portrait is dated 1498 and inscribed: `I have thus painted myself. I was 26 years old. Albrecht Dürer.' Since the artist turned 27 on the 21 May, the picture must date from the beginning of the year. The artist's pose is self confident, showing him standing upright and turning slightly to lean his right arm on a ledge. Dürer's figure fills the picture, with his hat almost touching the top. His face and neck glow from the light streaming into the room and his long curly hair is painstakingly depicted. Unlike his earlier self portrait, he now has a proper beard, which was then unusual among young men. Nine years later Dürer wrote an ironic poem in which he described himself as `the painter with the hairy beard'.

The artist's clothing is flamboyant. His elegant jacket is edged with black and beneath this he wears a white, pleated shirt, embroidered along the neckline. His jaunty hat is striped, to match the jacket. Over his left shoulder hangs a light-brown cloak, tied around his neck with a twisted cord. He wears fine kid gloves.

Inside the room is a tall archway, partly framing Dürer's head, and to the right a window opens out onto an exquisite landscape. Green fields give way to a tree-ringed lake and beyond are snow-capped mountains, probably a reminder of Dürer's journey over the Alps three years earlier. Depicting a distant landscape, viewed through a window, was a device borrowed from Netherlandish portraiture.

The Germans still tended to consider the artist as a craftsman, as had been the conventional view during the Middle Ages. This was bitterly unacceptable to Dürer, whose second Self-Portrait (out of three) shows him as slender and aristocratic, a haughty and foppish youth, ringletted and impassive. His stylish and expensive costume indicates, like the dramatic mountain view through the window (implying wider horizons), that he considers himself no mere limited provincial. What Dürer insists on above all else is his dignity, and this was a quality that he allowed to others too.

This picture was acquired by Charles I of England and later bought by Philip IV of Spain.

In the same year that he published the Apocalipsis cum figuris, Dürer painted himself as a gentleman, dressed in light toned clothes and looking his best. He wears an open black and white doublet with a striped cap in the same colours, an undershirt trimmed with gold and a silk cord of blue and white threads holding up a grey-brown cloak that falls over his right shoulder. Dürer has sheathed the hands that he uses to paint in grey kidskin gloves indicative of high rank with the aim of elevating his social status from that of craftsman to artist and of locating painting among the liberal arts, as in Italy.The artist chose a half-length, three-quarter format with two focuses of attention: the face and hands. He located himself in a room that opens onto the outside through a window in the back wall, following Dieric Bouts’ Portrait of a Man of 1462 (London, National Gallery), a format that was subsequently widely adopted in Flanders and Italy. Basing himself on this Flemish format, Dürer added an Italian monumentality in the verticals and horizontals that create the window surround, also evident in the arrangement of his body which repeats the ‘L’ shape of the window in the bust, firmly supported by the arm leaning on the foreground ledge.Also present in this work is a characteristic of all Dürer’s exquisitely detailed portraits, namely his powers of psychological analysis, evident in the contrast between the sensual features and the cold, penetrating gaze. A painter, printmaker and art theoretician, Albrecht Dürer was born in Nuremberg, gaining fame in his own lifetime through his prints. Dürer trained under the influence of Flemish painting while his two trips to Venice (1494–5 and 1505–7) allowed him to discover the secrets of Renaissance art. A successful portraitist and printmaker, he worked for the Emperor Maximilian I who granted him a pension in 1515, which was renewed by Charles V in 1520. In 1636 the City Council of Nuremberg gave this Self-portrait to Charles I of England. Following Charles’ overthrow and execution, it was sold at his posthumous sale in 1651. The Spanish ambassador Alonso de Cárdenas acquired it for Don Luis de Haro, who gave it to Philip IV in 1654. It remained in the Spanish royal collection until it entered the Museo del Prado in 1827 (Silva Maroto, P. en: El retrato del Renacimiento, 2008, p. 486).

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