When I saw Durer’s portrait I was immediately reminded of religious paintings and mosaics, which the article confirmed as inspiration for his painting. My first thought was to wonder how egotistical does Durer have to be to liken himself to a religious figure in his portrait. However, as I read through the article and saw all the impressive details in his portrait—features that must have been incredible difficult to execute with tools available in the 1500s—I began to think that maybe his confidence was not unfounded. I also found it interesting how he created his own copyright using his emblem and admired how he creatively incorporated it into each piece he designed.

I found it interesting how the article referenced other famous self-portraits, particularly Frida Kahlo’s. The comparison between Durer’s and Khalo’s portrait demonstrated how the self-portrait has less to do with how someone looks and is more about how the artist views themselves. Khalo painted herself as very masculine and severe in her portraits, even though photographs of her show otherwise. Although there are no photographs of Durer available, the other symbols of luxury he used (e.g. the extravagant fur coat, glowing hair) makes me think that he painted himself in a more flattering light. Looking at various examples of self-portraits spread out over centuries also made me wonder how the development of photography changed artists’ approach to portraits, if the existence of photos steered artists away from realistic portraits to impressionistic ones.