Portrait de Frédéric III de Saxe

Durer painted this in 1496, when the Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony passed through Nuremberg and sat for the young artist, who was about 25. It is one of Durer's earliest painted portraits, and one of his first jobs for a prince who would go on employing him for years. The stone parapet and the small scroll in Frederick's hands are borrowed from Flemish painting, which Durer studied hard. Frederick is remembered for something that lay two decades ahead of this quiet portrait: he founded the University of Wittenberg, hired Martin Luther to teach there, and later shielded him after the break with Rome. Here he is simply a well-dressed man of about 33, fixing the painter with a sidelong look.