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DÜRER, Albrecht: The Negress Katherina

🖼 The Negress Katherina, 1521
Silverpoint drawing on paper
20 × 14 cm
Florence, Italy

Rendered in precise charcoal, a woman's dignified portrait captures individual character through careful modeling of features and fabric. Dürer's 1521 study challenges Renaissance ideals, documenting a specific person rather than perpetuating stereotypes, marking rare portraiture of African subjects in Northern European art.

The story of art
The story of art
E. H. Gombrich
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