This is a lead medal probably made after a drawing by Albrecht Dürer in Germany in 1517, representing the bust of Willibald Pirckheimer (1470-1530). A famous and perhaps the most important Nuremberg scholar of the sixteenth century, Willibald Pirckheimer, also a collector, wealthy writer, and lawyer, sat on the city council of Nuremberg. When he was 19, he had travelled to Italy. The trip awakened an interest in humanist learning and classical art and architecture. He may have given a version of this medal to his friend, the great scholar Erasmus, to whom and Dürer he was a close friend.

Duerer (1471-1528) was a German painter, draughtsman, printmaker and writer. Now considered by many scholars the greatest of all German artists, he not only executed paintings and drawings of the highest quality but also made a major contribution to the development of printmaking, especially engraving, and to the study of anthropometry.