A surprisingly modern piece of medieval art history - Open Post

Albrecht Dürer - Self-portrait at the age of 13 ( from 1484)

By Patrick

Following our visit to the Albrecht Dürer house in Nuremberg, I continued to read about Albrecht Dürer's art. I ordered a large catalogue from a previous Dürer exhibition in Vienna, and there I discovered something interesting: I never knew that Albrecht Dürer created a wonderful, very modern looking drawing of an African man, dated 1508,

Subsequently I discovered that he Dürer also created a very interesting drawing of a black woman in 1521, who was called Katharina (Catherine), and who according to the inscription was 20 years old.

While the woman was a servant, the man actually doesn't look like a servant at all.

Here are the drawings in high-resolution:

From Wikimedia: Where Dürer met this man is not known: he may have encountered this subject in a major port city such as Venice or even in the imperial city of Nuremberg, where this African may have been a member of a visiting entourage. His serious expression is depicted with extraordinary sensitivity and skill. Dürer's exploitation of the soft, finely grained structure of the chalk in contrast with the white reserve of the paper is evident in his masterful rendering of the way light falls on the man's face and hair.

From Afro Europe blog: Portrait of the Moorish Woman Katharina from 1521.  Dürer saw her in Antwerp, where she was the servant or slave of the Antwerp agent of the king of Portugal. The inscription says "Katharina allt 20 Jar."

When I saw the drawing of the African man, I was struck by the very modern appearance and the respectful way in which Albrecht Dürer portrayed this man.

According to my catalogue, this is in fact the oldest remaining depiction of a black person in European art. - EDIT: It has been pointed out by several readers that there are older depictions of black people existing, for example in Roman and Greek art, and there are also older depictions of Saint Maurice, who became the patron saint of the German city of Coburg. So it has to be concluded that this statement is not entirely correct. The author who wrote this in the catalogue for the Vienna exhibition probably wanted to express that this is the first known "more defined" portrait of a black person in European art, created by a famous, recognized artist.

So who was he? He does not look like a servant or slave, although we cannot completely exclude this possibility, as no information about the history of the picture seems to have survived. I believe that it is likely that he actually was not a slave. Through research on the internet I found another extremely interesting picture from the same period, a painting by the Dutch artist Jan Mostaert, made around 1520 - 1525:

From Artwis:

This unique portrait shows a bearded black man who has assumed a powerful pose, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword while he gazes out of the picture. He is dressed quite soberly, in a Flemish cap, doublet, shirt, tabard and hose. More luxurious items are the white kid gloves, the pouch decorated with a fleur de lis and the sword. The man’s pose, clothing and attributes indicate that the subject of this portrait is a soldier.

This unique portrait shows a bearded black man who has assumed a powerful pose, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword while he gazes out of the picture. He is dressed quite soberly, in a Flemish cap, doublet, shirt, tabard and hose. More luxurious items are the white kid gloves, the pouch decorated with a fleur de lis and the sword. The man’s pose, clothing and attributes indicate that the subject of this portrait is a soldier.

The painter of this work has been identified by Jan Piet Filedt Kok with reasonable certainty as Jan Mostaert. As far as is known this is the only painted portrait of a black man from the early sixteenth century. Around the same time, in 1521, Dürer drew a portrait of a black woman, Katharina, in Antwerp; in 1508 he had also drawn a portrait of a black man who coincidentally seems to bear some likeness to the man in Mostaert’s painting.

However, another website has more detailed information about the painting:

I’m reading about pilgrim badges right now, and this piece was called out for the gold badge on Christoph’s hat. Here is the accompanying text:

“As soon as Charles heard the news in 1519 that he was to be crowned King [of the Holy Roman Empire], he went…on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Halle, a sanctuary not far south of Brussels. Charles had been there before and had bought badges of silver and gold for himself and his close retinue, as well as pewter and lead ones for the lower ranks. One of his personal guards, a certain Cristoph le Mohr, got such a badge of precious metal.” - p. 199, Jos Koldeweij, “Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges” in 'From minor to major: the minor arts in Medieval art history.'

EDIT: There is much more information about this painting on Wikipedia.

I find this all very fascinating, and I am sure that Americans in particular will find this very interesting as well. Albrecht Dürer's drawing of the black man is very remarkable in many respects. I really like the proud and sincere expression on his face. This in fact a very modern and very inspiring drawing.

BONUS:

A little bonus - you liked Albrecht Dürer's rabbit so much, so I am sure that you will love this lion as well: