Portrait of Albrecht Dürer

Art Historical Context

This woodcut portrait, created by Erhard Schön around 1538, presents a dignified image of Albrecht Dürer the celebrated German artist and printmaker who had passed away a decade earlier. As a posthumous tribute, the work honors Dürer’s enduring influence on Northern Renaissance art. Schön, active in Nuremberg like Dürer, employs the woodcut medium to capture the sitter’s distinctive features—his flowing hair, thoughtful expression, and direct gaze—while emphasizing the graphic clarity that defined early 16th-century printmaking. Woodcuts like this one played a vital role in the period’s cultural exchange, allowing images to reach wide audiences across Europe at a time when the Reformation and expanding print culture were reshaping society. The technique’s bold lines and reproducible nature made it ideal for portraits that celebrated intellectual and artistic figures. Now housed in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this sheet offers visitors a tangible connection to both Dürer’s legacy and the vibrant world of German Renaissance printmaking.

About the Artist

Erhard Schön · 1491–1542

He was famed as a popular printmaker, with attributions including around 1200 illustrations for 116 books and about 200 separate woodcuts. Among the best works are the woodcuts that he and Hans Springinklee made for the "Hortulus animae", published in Nuremberg in 1515 by Johannes Koberger. It was one of the most popular pre-Reformation anthologies of prayers, published in at least 20 German and L...