Brion believes the self-portrait marks a farewell to his irresponsible youth, the acclaim he received during his visit to Italy and his general apprehension as the 15th century came to an end and dark clouds hung over the Germanic states. The middleground of the pleasing flat plain and lake may represent his travels from 1492 to 1497, yet they are shadowed by steep mountainous glaciers; forebodings of what lay in store. In this Brion interprets the artist's state as looking toward his future and past. Dürer's youthful character was enthusiastic, adventurous and inhibited, and after he left his hometown of Nuremberg in 1490 to travel as journeyman painter he was able to live his early youth with abandon and almost without consequence. By the time this portrait was painted he was back home, and old enough to begin to accept responsibilities. Dürer had already established himself as a significant artist, and was perhaps fearful of losing this status. In the following decade, before he left Italy to return home in October 1506 he would write to his friend Willibald Pirckheimer, "How I shall freeze after this sun! Here I am a gentleman, at home only a parasite." From these words it might be concluded that his extravagant self-representation may be seen as a front, described by Brion as "the outer skin of a chrysalis, discarded by the future personality fore-shadowed in that gaze when the coming tempest of conflicting emotions burst upon him." In the end his fears were misplaced; soon after his return to Nuremberg he was widely hailed and given a social status equivalent to an "Ehrbaren" (wealthy merchant). The following year he published of his edition of the "Apocalypse", and his personal and self-absorbed fear being supplanted by more metaphysical worries. Gallery See also 100 Great Paintings References Sources Bailey, Martin. Dürer. London: Phidon Press, 1995. Brion, Marcel. Dürer. London: Thames and Hudson, 1960 Sturge Moore, Thomas. Albert Dürer. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. 1498 paintings Paintings of the Museo del Prado by German artists Self-portraits by Albrecht Dürer