Philip Melanchthon

Albrecht Dürer

1526

ink

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

northern_renaissance Renaissance Renaissance Portrait

About this work

This is a black-and-white portrait of a bearded man with wavy hair. He’s wearing a dark collar that folds over his chest. The lines on his face and hair are drawn carefully, almost like scratches in the paper. The text below says it was made in 1526. The artist used tiny parallel lines to build up dark and light areas—this is called cross-hatching. Next, look up engraving to see how artists like this made detailed prints.