Portrait of a Man, Aged 93

Brushed in black and white on grey-violet paper, an old man with a vast cascading beard turns his deep-furrowed face into the light, every wrinkle and wisp of hair caught with tireless precision; an inscription gives his age as ninety-three. Durer drew him in Antwerp during his Netherlandish journey and used the head soon after for a painting of Saint Jerome. The study needs no saint's name to hold us: it is old age itself, observed without sentiment or flinching. Ghirlandaio's tender old man elsewhere in this collection meets affection halfway; Durer's gives us unblinking scrutiny.