c. 1498, 52*40cm
The Germans still tended to consider the artist as a craftsman,
as had been the conventional view during the
Middle Ages. This was bitterly unacceptable to
 , whose
Self-portrait (the second of three) shows him as slender
and aristocratic, a haughty and foppish youth, ringletted
and impassive. His stylish and expensive costume
indicates, like the dramatic mountain view through
the window (implying wider horizons), that he considers
himself no mere limited provincial. What
insists
on above all else is his dignity, and this was a quality that
he allowed to others too.
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