Albrecht Dürer - Portrait of Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560)
Albrecht Dürer’s portrait of the Lutheran Reformation Theologian, Philipp Melanchthon, situates the man’s profile against an open sky dappled with clouds. Dürer’s careful attention to rendering every eyelash, hair and minutia of Melanchthon’s face would later be praised by the sitter and owes to the late Northern Renaissance attention to observation of the natural world. The tablet which separates observed from the observer translates as “Dürer was able to depict the features of the living Philip, but the skilled hand could not portray his mind.” This statement conveys the connection between Melanchthon, who in his treatises on Christianity argues that images are invaluable for evoking a religious experience but should not replace the actual experience itself, an act synonymous with Dürer’s self-conscious reflection that he cannot represent the man himself and only may invoke his presence.
Lauren Miller