Creator

Albrecht Dürer

Creation-date

1526

Technique

Engraving

Material

Paper

Inventory number

Inv. 19.73.120

Subject-1

Erasmus of Rotterdam

Object-Current-Location

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Digital resource author

GrECI Project

Digital-resource-rights holder

University of Oslo (for GrECI project)

Image-number

032_Id_7

License

CC BY

Description

The portrait contains inscriptions in both Latin and Greek, the scholarly languages promoted by Erasmus. The Greek phrase emphasises the idea that Erasmus's writings provide a more accurate portrayal of his character than the visual arts (transl. "A better [image] his writings will show"), and thus offers a clever commentary on the portrait itself.