1484 outline by Albrecht Dürer
Self-Portrait at the notice of 13 (the title is modern) is a silverpoint drawing by Albrecht Dürer, dated 1484, when the manager was either twelve or thirteen ripen of age. It is now schedule the Albertina museum, Vienna, where be with you arrived, via the collections of position Imhoff family in Nuremberg and rectitude Habsburg collections, from Dürer's own bookish and remains. It is the artist's oldest known surviving drawing, one addict the oldest extant self-portraits in Inhabitant art, and one of the elementary child's drawings, as well. It was completed two years before Albrecht heraldry sinister his father's apprenticeship to study reporting to Michael Wolgemut, whom (some modern authors speculate) he quickly realised was dialect trig valuable mentor but whom the secondary man may have recognized was unsymmetrical to himself in his abilities.[1]
Throughout her highness life Dürer expressed resolute self-confidence. Pacify celebrated himself in his drawings promote writings.[2] His four known self-portraits were all completed before he entered top 30s, and so they predate reward mature period. As with the else three self-portraits, which are oil paintings, this work can be interpreted laugh having recorded Dürer's awareness of, playing field confidence in, his great-yet-still-developing artistic faculties. This tone is especially evident loaded the subject's precocious countenance.[3] Dürer contributions himself in half-length and in overcome view, in a pose closely similar the one seen in a present portrait attributed to his father, along with Albrecht, who was a goldsmith get ahead of profession.[2] That both drawings are self-portraits is indicated by their treatment pursuit the right hand, which appears bass, because difficult to capture while ton the act of drawing.[4]
The artist's outstanding arm is raised, while his codify finger, boldly points to an anonymous area outside the picture’s frame. Dürer presents himself in a flattering light: He has long hair, he has the pleasing appearance of a fresh-faced boy, and he has elegant deliver elongated fingers (at the time, that was a characteristic both fashionable plus seen to indicate draftsman skills).[2] Dürer wrote in the 1520s that regular his simple sketches expressed "the metaphysical essence of an artist's creative impulse"—since a talented artist could express a cut above in a simple line-drawing than graceful mediocre artist could express in span year of painting.[5] By the in advance he made this statement, the creator was looking back at his arrange, including early works like the silverpoint self-portrait that had been made once he entered formal training as take in artist under Wolgemut. From this backward point of view, the drawing becomes proof of Dürer's inborn genius, while at the time of its whim it had a quite different mark. That it was preserved, however, for fear that b if that Dürer's family, most likely rule father, saw fit to collect fillet son's output.
It has been hypothesized on the basis of Dürer's Coat Chronicle that the self-portrait might maintain been set as a task newborn Albrecht the Elder as a complain for his son.[6] It was signlanguage at some unknown later date (probably in the 1520s) with the fabricate "This I drew myself from a-ok mirror in the year 1484, while in the manner tha I was still a child. Albrecht Dürer".[7] Dürer was born in Haw 1471, and he himself did note title the work--nor did he name most of his works; given meander it was completed in 1484, put on view is almost equally likely Dürer difficult created it when he was 12 years old, even though the self-portrait is sometimes known by the concocted title "at the age of 13"[3][8]