Portrait of a Man 1520 - 1525

This portrait of a man, made by Mabuse around the early 16th century, demonstrates the artist's skill with oil paint, a relatively new medium at the time. Look closely and you'll notice the layering and blending of pigments. Mabuse built up the image meticulously, creating realistic textures and subtle gradations of light. This technique, adopted from the older practice of tempera painting, allowed for a high level of detail. The folds of the man’s clothing, the soft contours of his face, even the wisps of his hair – all are rendered with careful precision. The smoothness of the surface is also remarkable. Oil paint allowed artists to achieve a seamless, polished look, quite different from the more textured appearance of earlier panel paintings. The ability to represent the material world so convincingly was, in itself, a demonstration of artistic and economic power. Mabuse is telling us that painting, like the man portrayed here, is a force to be reckoned with.