Burkard von Speyer

This 1506 portrait of Burkard von Speyer, now in the Royal Collection, was painted in Venice and shows Dürer adapting his northern portrait tradition to Italian sensibilities. The sitter may have been a German merchant resident in Venice's Fondaco dei Tedeschi Albrecht Dürer brought Italian Renaissance ideas north, combining German Gothic tradition with classical proportions to become the dominant artist in the German-speaking world Oil on canvas, increasingly preferred over panel in the sixtee

The three-quarter pose and warm palette show Italian influence, while the precise characterization of features remains distinctively Dürer. The fur collar is rendered with the meticulous attention to texture characteristic of northern painting.