Karl the Great

Karl the Great is a lesser known drawing from Albrecht Durer which features exceptional detail upon the subject's clothing.

He stands with pride, as if like a peacock displaying its feathers to a potential mate. We do not know a huge amount about this piece, with the only real clues being from the small notes left to the side of the drawing by the artist himself, just next to his signature.

As a German artist, some research into Durer's career has never been translated in English and that is perhaps another reason for why we cannot understand more about this particular piece. Drawings, historically, have not been documented or preserved with quite the same care as paintings or sculptures, and their fragile nature means many simply have not survived to the present day.

Some successful artists have been promoted to court painters, eseentially making them direct employees to the monarchy. Many of these would then have a over concentration of portraits of kings, queens and their relatives where as Durer only depicted high ranking individuals on occassions, never losing contact with his other passions.