Philipp Melanchthon (1497 – 1560) was a renowned German scholar and devoted supporter of the Protestant Reformation. As professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg, he explored the topics of theology, philosophy, and rhetoric. His knowledge and skills allowed him to reform universities across the country and to establish the first public school in the city of Nuremberg. It was there that he met Albrecht Dürer and sat for this portrait in 1526. This was one of the earliest portraits of Melanchthon and the last of Dürer’s portrait prints. The two men had great respect for one another, and it is more than likely that Melanchthon owned several of Dürer’s artworks as well as his book on proportion. Below the portrait, Dürer inscribed, “Dürer was able to depict the features of the living Philip, but the skilled hand could not portray his mind.”
