Conrad Celtes and Kunz von der Rosen: Two Problems in Portrait Identification

Abstract

After his return from Venice in February 1507, Albrecht Dürer devoted most of his time to a commission from his old and faithful patron, the Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony. This commission was the Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand, now in Vienna (Fig. 1). According to Dürer, it was already “more than half finished” on August 27, 1507;1 but there is reason to believe that this statement, made in order to appease the impatience of Jakob Heller who urged Dürer to begin his own altarpiece, must not be taken too literally. That in reality the greater part of the work was still to be done is evident from the very fact that it was still “a fortnight from completion” on March 19, 1508,2 that is to say after an interval even longer than that which had elapsed between Dürer's first letter and his return from Italy.

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