Albrecht Dürer: Self-Portrait .

In its directness and apparent confrontation with the viewer, the self-portrait is unlike any that came before. It is half-length, frontal and highly symmetrical; its lack of a conventional background seemingly presents Dürer without regard to time or place. The placement of the inscriptions in the dark fields on either side of Dürer are presented as if floating in space, emphasizing that the portrait has a highly symbolic meaning. Its sombre mood is achieved through the use of brown tones set against the plain black background. The lightness of touch and tone seen in his earlier two self-portraits has been replaced by a far more introverted and complex representation. In this work, Dürer's style seems to have developed into what art historian Marcel Brion described as "a classicism like that of Ingres. The face has the inflexibility and impersonal dignity of a mask, hiding the restless turmoil of anguish and passion within." Geometric analysis of the composition demonstrates its relatively rigid symmetry, with several highlights aligned very close to a vertical axis down the middle of the painting. However, the work is not completely symmetrical; his head is slightly right of centre, his hair not quite in the middle——the strands of hair fall differently on either side while his eyes look slightly to the left. The hardest thing for man without any special art education is to describe the painting, and especially a portrait-work, because you should have a very rich artistic vocabulary and to be ready to share some ideas, using art-terminology and creative vision. This self-portrait is the ideal image of art-mastery, where Dürer , a  German master,  portrayed himself in a remarkably sophisticated composition.The seeming calmness of a man сonceals a rebellious spirit and a storm of inner emotions. And with all this precise gestures, this creation of a master, brings us to the image of Christ - with a religious gesture, the uniqueness of the soul, showing us the  innermost thoughts  of the artist.