Portrait Diptych of Dürer's Parents

Dürer distinguishes himself from his contemporaries through his tight and detailed focus on his parents' faces, a technique that draws comparison to the work of the first generation of Early Netherlandish painters active 50 years earlier.

[8] That he passed on this influence to his son is evident from the early use of silverpoint, a medium which according to Erwin Panofsky requires "an exceptional degree of confidence, accuracy and sensitive feeling for its successful handling", because it didn't allow corrections.

[16] Brand Philip draws attention to the similarities of the panels' linear construction, especially the manner in which the folds and lines of their clothing form triangular shapes.

[13] It was more usual in pendant portraits of this type for the male to be on the left-hand side; the positioning here may be an indication that Dürer originally intended his father's panel to stand alone, given that Barbara's was painted some time later.

In either case, the father painting is far more closely detailed, especially in the lining of clothing, which is summary in Barbara's panel, compared to the long seam of her husband's gown.

In contrast, a number of art historians have noted that his mother's portrait contains bland passages, especially around the eyes and may be a near-contemporary copy of a lost original.

[18] Lotte Brand Philip believes the clumsiness in the mother panel indicated that Dürer painted it first, as a youthful attempt at portraiture, and that Albrecht the Elder might have later "commissioned" his own portrait to pair with Barbara's.

"[23] Barbara is shown wearing a red dress and a matte white bonnet which fully covers her hair, indicating her marital status.

[14] Her headdress is draped with a long scarf or train which stretches down her neck and across her left shoulder, contrasting in colour and shape against the black headwear of her husband.

The lines of her face contain touches of white paint to give a highlighting and enlivening effect; they are especially evident around her eyes, the bridge of her nose and around her upper lip.

[25] David Price writes of the drawing's "rough depiction of her flesh emaciated by old age", and the "existential piety in the cast of Barbara Dürer's right eye, which, almost unnaturally, directs her vision heavenward".

Kemperdick concludes that these passages are so closely modeled that it is reasonable to presume they were drawn by the same hand, but is conservative in saying definitively that the sitters were related by blood, as Dürer was very young, and though precociously talented, to some extent still reliant on facial "types".

Dürer presents his father more like a low-ranking ecclesiastic than a tradesman: a calm, considerate and straightforward man dressed up in his best, albeit modest, clothes.

[30] After his father's death in 1502, Dürer wrote that Albrecht the Elder "passed his life in great toil and stern hard labour, having nothing for his support save what he earned with his hand for himself, his wife and his children ...

"[31] Martin Conway describes the portrayal of a dignified man marked by a grave expression and deep "furrows ploughed by seventy years of labour and sorrow".

[32] Conway believed the strength of the portrait is in part achieved through Dürer's ability to convey this hardship, while at the same time presenting a man still imbued with traces of pride, and possessing "a kind old face".

[32] A contributing factor to this pride is that Albrecht the Elder trained his son in his own profession, as a jeweller, but at one point came to regret the choice of apprenticeship as the younger man was so obviously suited to drawing and painting.

[29] Conway agrees, seeing traces of haggardly agitation, but holds that the two paintings convey a similar overall highly favourable and compassionate impression of the man.

[35][36] The Florence canvas is in relatively poor condition: retouching has largely removed Dürer's top layer of brushwork and left the paint hard and dry.

[7] The reverse of Albrecht's panel contains a rendition of the allied Dürer and Holper families' coats of arms,[37] which are shown beneath a winged Moor wearing a red dress.

[43] In 1977, art historian Lotte Brand Philip proposed that Unknown Woman in a Coif, held by the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, was the original portrait of Barbara Holper.

The Nuremberg panel was previously thought to have originated from a member of Wolgemut's workshop, a Franconian artist in his circle, or the anonymous Mainz painter Master W. B.

[22] Brand Philip's attribution was based on striking similarities in composition and its shared tone, theme, and size with the father panel at the Uffizi.

[21] Fedja Anzelewsky agreed with the attribution, noting that both portraits bear, on their reverse, the catalogue number recorded in the Imhoff inventories, as well as "precisely the same design of masses of dark clouds".

In 2013 Stephan Kemperdick noted the sophistication of the Nuremberg portrait and that its three-dimensional modeling of the head displays a level of skill beyond Wolgemut and his circle.