Portrait of Lucas Cranach the Elder

For many centuries, artists have produced portraits of fellow artists. The main reason for this is simply that they would often spend time in each other's company, discussing creative ideas and experiences.

They would also often be fairly charismatic characters who would be well suited to facial depictions. It is slightly rare, however, for two artists of such significance to cross paths as seen here with Durer and Cranach the Elder. It is likely that they would have greatily respected each other's work in order to build strong enough a relationship that they would produce portraits of each other.

Artist Durer pays particular attention to his colleague's hair and beard, adding so much detail to these that one can almost reach out and feel the master's facial features. His expression is serious and his attire appears to be formal, though with not much of it included in this composition.

The artist who was a particularly impressive draughtsman put little detail into the clothing and perhaps intended this to be a simple gift to a visiting friend, rather than a full blown completed artwork. He did rate it highly enough to put his signature stamp in the bottom left hand corner.