Portrait of a Bearded Man with a Beret c. 1540

Heinrich Aldegrever made this portrait with pen and black ink with watercolor on paper. Aldegrever lived through the Protestant Reformation and the German Peasants' War. His sympathies lay with the peasant cause, and he was briefly imprisoned for his beliefs. The portrait presents a man of the Renaissance, with a beret, beard, and penetrating gaze which represents the ideal of humanist dignity. The man’s identity remains a mystery. His expression exudes an inner strength, and the details of his attire suggest a certain social standing. Aldegrever’s delicate handling of line and color conveys not just the man’s physical appearance, but also hints at the subject's inner life. In a time of immense religious and social upheaval, portraits like this acted as assertions of individual worth, speaking to a desire for stability and meaning. The man’s knowing eyes and the artist’s careful hand remind us of the complex interplay between identity, representation, and historical context.