Portrait of Willibald Pirckheimer.
Original engraving, 1524. Very clear, strong contrast, but slightly later impression, wide-margined. With the “small coat of arms of Augsburg with ‘A’ and ‘M’” watermark (around ca. 1560–1600; Meder 179; Briquet 2119). The inscription in the box below the portrait with no date and monogram. Plate size: 114 × 183 mm; sheet size: 182 × 250 mm. Numbered by old hand in ink at upper right corner. A hole restored at the right margin near the plate with no effect on the print. Very light, sporadic foxing on recto, more to verso. A small red blot to the left edge of the sheet. A trace of folding at right edge. In passe-partout. Overall in fine condition.
Albrecht Dürer’s famous, 1524 portrait of his closest friend, the humanist scholar and art collector Willibald Pirckheimer.
Head and shoulder three-quarter view portrait of Willibald Pirkheimer (1470–1530), facing left, wearing a fur-lined coat, underneath a tablet with Latin inscription “BILIBALDI PIRKEYMHERI EFFIGIES AETATIS SVAE ANNO L III VIVITVR INGENIO CAETERA MORTIS ERVNT” (Portrait of Willibald Pirckheimer at the age of 53. We live by the spirit; the rest belongs to death).
The portrait, as well as the original plate, was given by Dürer to Pirckheimer thus he gave up control over future use of the plate. Pirckheimer used it as a bookplate instead of his actual one that was also designed by Dürer.
A very well preserved wide-margined copy.
Meder 103; Bartsch 106; Strauss 102; Hollstein 103; Dodgson 101
.
Price: €13,500.00