Self-Portrait (Dürer, Madrid)

Dürer is depicted in front of an open window before a flat landscape containing a lake and distant snow-capped mountains. The landscape may represent either the memory of his recent travels abroad or his inner mental state. Light spills from the window, falling along his head to highlight both his delicate skin tones and long blond hair. Dürer is presented as almost seductive, with a rakish patterned hat placed over long, almost girlishly curled blond locks of hair under a draped pointed hat with a tassel. He looks out at the viewer with a cool ironic stare. ==Interpretation==

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. From these words it might be concluded that his 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." 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. ==Gallery==

File:Durer-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-thirteen.jpg|Self-portrait at 13, 1484. Silver point drawing, made with the use of a mirror. Vienna. File:Self-portrait-with-a-pillow-1103-mid.jpg|Self-portrait with a pillow, drawing of 1491–92. This study for the 1493 Louvre self-portrait was executed on the reverse of that canvas. File:Albrecht-self.jpg|Portrait of the Artist Holding a Thistle. Musée du Louvre, Paris. File:Dürer Alte Pinakothek.jpg|Self-Portrait at 28, 1500. Alte Pinakothek, Munich. Here Dürer presents himself in a portrait heavily invoking the iconography of Christ. ==See also==