Artist and humanist, Albrecht Dürer, is one of the most significant figures in the history of European art outside Italy during the Renaissance (Gowing 195). Portraying the questioning spirit of the Renaissance, Durer's conviction that he must examine and explore his own situation through capturing the very essence of his role as artist and creator is reflected in his "Self-Portrait in a Fur Collared Robe" (Strieder 10). With the portrait, Durer's highly self-conscious approach to his status as an artist coveys his exalted mission of art more clearly than in any other painting. He seems to be "less concerned with himself as a person than with himself as an artist, and less with the artist than with the origin and exalted mission of art itself" (Strieder 13).
             In this self-portrait, Dürer portrays himself in the guise of the Savior. Dürer's natural resemblance to Christ has been reverently amplified (Hutchinson 67). His bearded face is grave and fringed by lustrous shoulder-length hair painted in a dark, Christ-like brown (Russell 89. Scholars have called attention to the fact that the portrait was intended to portray Dürer as the "thinking" artist through an emphasis on the enlarged eyes and the right hand. Dürer's use of the full-face view and almost hypnotic gaze "emphasizes his belief that the sense of sight is the noblest of the five senses." He wrote in the Introduction to his Painter's Manual, "For the noblest of man's senses is sight... Therefore a thing seen is more believable and long-lasting to us than something we hear" (Hutchison 68).
             The position of the right handheld in front of his chest is almost as if in blessing (89 Russell). Joachim Camerarius, a professor who published a Latin translation of two of Dürer's books, wrote of Durer's "intelligent head, his flashing eyes, his nobly formed nose, his broad chest," and then noted: "But his fingers- you would vow you had never seen anything more elegant" (Russel...