Facing the viewer
Like Christ in late medieval images, Dürer faces the viewer head-on. The face itself looks remarkably like images of Christ.
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Self-Portrait at Twenty-Eight
Albrecht Dürer · 1500
painting
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Select a detail to locate it.
In its time
1500
Books from this period
Where it hangs
Bavarian State Painting Collections
Alte Pinakothek, upper floor, gallery I
Dürer presents himself frontally, adopting a pose associated with images of Christ. Painted in 1500, the self-portrait records his age as twenty-eight in its inscription. The resemblance gives his own likeness an unusually solemn setting.
Details
The direct gaze belongs to a highly individual face. Read the inscription alongside the fur coat: it names the painter and his city, placing a particular person within that familiar sacred pose.
In context
An age written on the panel
An inscription in the picture says that Dürer of Nuremberg painted himself at the age of 28. Dürer was born in 1471 and painted the picture in 1500.
Still his own face
For all its resemblance to images of Christ, the face is a highly personal likeness of Dürer. It is an unusual self-portrait.
Title and size
One of the picture's titles, Selbstbildnis im Pelzrock, refers to a fur coat. The panel measures about 67 by 49 centimetres.
The story
1471. Albrecht Dürer is born.
1500. Albrecht Dürer paints this self-portrait.
Today. The portrait is in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
Frontality
Frontality means the sitter faces the viewer squarely. Late medieval images of Christ do this, and Dürer painted himself the same way.