The artwork titled “Portrait of the Artist’s Mother” is a creation of Albrecht Dürer, dating back to 1514. This piece is a work on paper that reflects the Northern Renaissance art movement. Known for being a portrait, this significant artwork is housed in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, Germany.
The “Portrait of the Artist’s Mother” depicts an elderly woman, who is assumed to be Dürer’s mother, given the title. The attention to detail presents a strong sense of realism, a hallmark of the Northern Renaissance. The woman’s face is sketched with fine lines that delineate her aged features, including deep-set eyes, a prominent nose, and a pursed mouth. Her expression is solemn, bearing the marks of experience and age. She is clothed in a simple headscarf and garments that are rendered with careful attention to the texture and folds of the fabric. The drawing showcases Dürer’s skill in capturing human emotion and physical detail, all of which are executed with precision and empathy. The annotation in the top-right corner, presumably by Dürer himself, adds a personal and historical context to the image, documenting his mother’s age at the time of the drawing.
