Dürer’s father, also named Albrecht Dürer was a goldsmith, immigrant from Hungary, while his mother a Nuremberg local. As a young man he received a goldsmith’s training at his father’s workshop, and while he rather early chose not to follow his father’s craft, the skills he acquired in his father’s goldsmith workshop proved to be valuable for his future career.5 Dürer was an artist very much aware of the importance of constructing and investing in an artistic “persona”. Under the framework of this branding process, he produced a number of self-portraits, the most well-known being the one painted in 1500, in which he chose to portrait himself wearing a fur coat with rich long curly hair and beard, a figure very much resembling that of Jesus Christ.6 The portrait constitutes in fact a realistic representation of the artist, and the story has it that his dog licked the painting thinking it was his master.7 Thepainting has two signatures, his monogram and the year, 1500CE, is on the left side, while on the right side we find the words: “I, Albrecht Dürer of Nuremberg painted myself this day with undying colour at the age of 28 years”. Both signatures are placed at the same level, namely at the level of the eye, and not in the bottom of the painting as usual, in an attempt to attract the viewer’s attention.8 This self-portrait represented the dynamic launch of Dürer’s brand, not only the brand of an artist but also of his workshop as asymbol of commercial origin of the produced works. This imposing self-portrait generates the respect of the viewers, Dürer’s future or current customers.9 (see figure 1, p. 76) 75 disruptive technology and materiality as vessels of authorship 4 Aschroft , Jeffrey (ed.), Albrecht Dürer: Documentary Biography [2volumes]: Dürer’s personal and aesthetic writings; words on pictures; family, legal and business documents; the artist in the writings of contemporaries, New Haven, 2017. 5 Hand, John Oliver, ‘Albrecht Dürer: Biography’, NAT’L GALLERY ART, ttps://www. nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1256.htm (last visited 19th May2024). 6 Bainton, Roland ‘The Man of Sorrows in Dürer and Luther’, Studies on the Reformation, Boston/London: Beacon Press/Hoddard & Stoughton, 1963, pp. 51–61. 7 Sullivan, Margareth ‘Alter Apelles: Dürer’s 1500 Self-Portrait’, Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 68, no. 4, 2015, pp. 1161–1191. 8 Dürer, Albrecht, ‘The Painter’s Manual: AManual of Measurement by Lines, Areas, and Solids by Means of Compass and Ruler Assembled by Albrecht Dürer for the Use of All Lovers of Art with Appropriate Illustrations to be Printed in the Year MDXXVbyAlbrecht Dürer’ Trans. Walter Strauss. New York, 1976, pp. 25–40. 9 Price, David Hotchkiss, Albrecht Dürer’s Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation and the Art of Faith, Ann Arbor, 2003.
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