Ulrich Varnbüler

Ulrich Varnbüler (1432-1496) was a classical scholar and public official who served as Mayor of St. Gallen, Switzerland. There are very few examples of neckbeards in pictures or sculptures depicting people born before the 1700s, so Varnbüler is notable for being one of the earliest confirmed cases of a neckbeard. He is shown below in a woodcut by his close friend Albrecht Dürer, one of the most famous artists of the German Renaissance.