Self Portrait at Twenty-Eight Years Old Wearing a Coat with Fur Collar
Painting of 1500 on wood panel by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528).
In its directness, the portrait is unlike any that came before: half-length, frontal, and highly symmetrical. The lack of a conventional background highlights the artist without regard to his time or place. The central placement of the inscriptions within the dark fields on either side of Dürer brings them forward to the plane of the artist, as if floating in space, emphasizing that the portrait has a highly symbolic purpose.
Dürer presents himself monumentally in a format traditionally used for depictions of Christ—the implications of which have stirred debate among art critics. A conservative interpretation suggests that Dürer is responding to the tradition of the Imitation of Christ. The more controversial view reads the painting as a proclamation of the artist's individual identity and his role as creator. This latter view is supported by the painting's Latin inscription, which reads in English as "I Albrecht Durer of Nuremberg portrayed myself in colors aged twenty-eight years".
In the medieval stages of life, 28 marked the transition from youth to maturity. The portrait celebrates this turning point in the life of the artist, and the turning point of the millennium: the year 1500, displayed in the centre of the upper left background field, is here celebrated as epochal.
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