Portrait of the Artist's Mother at the Age of 63 is the title given to a small March 1514 charcoal drawing by the German printmaker and painter Albrecht Dürer, now in the Kupferstichkabinett museum in Berlin.
[3]Dürer presents his mother with a stark realism that, at first view, might seem cruel or grotesque if he had not left behind a written record of his affection.
Yet his written record about both his parents are deeply compassionate, sympathetic and caring, and it is accepted that the portraits are sensitive studies of the ravages of old age and illness on human flesh.
While Dürer forensically detailed the effects of ageing on others, he was less inclined to record its work on his own body; his last full self-portrait was completed in 1500.
[9] David Price wrote of its "rough depiction of her flesh emaciated by old age", and "existential piety in the cast of Barbara Dürer's right eye, which, almost unnaturally, directs her vision heavenward.
[9] Robert Beverly Hale praised the drawing, particularly the structure of the eye, for its attention to anatomical detail and the clarity with which the orbital cavity is described.