Albrecht Dürer, Three Orientals, a drawing

Venice, about AD 1494-5

This drawing is based on three figures in the background of the painting Corpus Christi Procession in the Piazza San Marco by the Venetian artist Gentile Bellini (1429?-1507), signed and dated 1496 (Venice, Accademia). Dürer must have known the painting either through preparatory drawings or through seeing the painting in course of preparation in Bellini's studio.

In correspondence with his friend Willibald Pirckheimer during his second stay in Venice, Dürer relates how Gentile's son, Giovanni, was one of the very few artists in the city who had shown friendship towards him, so it seems very likely that Dürer visited the Bellini workshop.

G. Bartrum (ed.), Albrecht Dürer and his legacy: (London and N.J., The British Museum Press and Princeton University Press, 2002)