324 - Albrecht Dürer (1471 – Nuremberg – 1528), Philipp Melanchthon.

Albrecht Dürer (1471 – Nuremberg – 1528), Philipp Melanchthon. Engraving on laid paper, “Small Jug” watermark (Meder 158). (1526). 17.4 x 12.8 cm (sheet). Bartsch 105; Meder 104 a (off); Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 101 a (off). Provenance: From P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London (with their stock number C. 31532 written in pencil on the reverse). A superb, richly printed Meder a impression, with narrow margins. Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560) was one of the foremost humanist scholars of his age. After studying at the universities of Heidelberg and Tübingen, he was appointed professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg at the age of 21. There he became a close friend and intellectual ally of Martin Luther, whose Reformation he supported throughout his life. Dürer portrays Melanchthon as a simply dressed, ascetic scholar, with a high forehead and tousled hair suggestive of his intellectual intensity. A window is reflected in the sitter’s eye, a technique Dürer employed in several of his engraved portraits and which has been interpreted as an allusion to the eye as the mirror of the soul. – The paper is evenly and slightly discolored by age, with a few tiny foxing spots, mainly visible on the reverse. The tip of the upper left corner has been repaired. The reverse shows traces of a former mounting along the edges. Otherwise in good condition. Taxation: subject to regular taxation (VAT: Regular Taxation).