![Albrecht Dürer - Portrait of the Artist Holding a Thistle [1493] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5484/9462328335_382e667092.jpg)
Albrecht Dürer - Portrait of the Artist Holding a Thistle [1493], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.
The date, and the plant in the artist's hand, seem to suggest that this is a betrothal portrait (Brautporträt). Dürer has in fact depicted himself in the act of offering a flowering spray identified by botanists as eryngium amethystinum: its German name is Mannestreue, meaning conjugal fidelity. Resembling the thistle (from which the portrait's title), this umbelliferous plant is used in medicine, and is regarded as an aphrodisiac. It may also have religious significance.
[Louvre Museum, Paris - Oil on vellum (transferred to canvas c.1840), 56.5 x 44.5 cm]