The artwork titled “Studies on a great ‘picture of Mary’ Head of a Young Girl” is a creation by Albrecht Dürer, a master from the Northern Renaissance period. Dürer was known for his exquisite drawings, sketches, paintings, and engravings that have had a lasting impact on the art world. This particular piece falls under the genre of sketch and study and is part of Dürer’s “Picture of Mary” series, where he delved into the fine details of human features, possibly as preparatory work for larger religious compositions.
In the drawing, we see a delicate and detailed study of a young girl’s head in profile view. Dürer has meticulously rendered the features of the young girl with fine, confident lines. The girl’s hair is pulled back, revealing her forehead, and tucked into a neat bun adorned with a band, giving a sense of the contemporary hairstyle of the period. Her eye is softly outlined, gazing downward with a sense of contemplation or gentleness. The young girl’s nose is slender, leading to subtly shaded lips and a softly defined chin. The elegant curvature of her neck completes the study, showing the mastery of Dürer’s skill in portraying human anatomy with both realism and a touch of idealization common in Renaissance art.
