_Adam Elsheimer_ (German: 1578-1620).
Elsheimer was the son of a tailor at Frankfort-on-Maine. He
himself settled in Rome. "He inherited with his northern blood
an intense love of nature and her varied aspects. Upon this
he engrafted a careful study of the human form, and in Italy
he profited by the example of the great masters of preceding
generations. Thus, aided by a certain homely imagination, he
formed a style of his own, combining landscape and figure
in such a manner that each was the necessary complement of
the other, and that subject and situation were in perfect
harmony. The lonely, and at that time, wooded, depressions of
the Roman Campagna, and the hills of Albano and Tivoli, were
his favourite haunts, and in their scenery his imagination
placed events in biblical or mythological story. He loved
especially to paint the strange effects produced by diverse
sources of illumination. The novelty of his aims, the beauty
of his execution, and the geniality of his disposition,
gained him admirers and friends" (Official Catalogue). His
contemporaries Sandrart and Cornelius de Bie describe him as
an extraordinary artist who had "a peculiar manner of his
own. He was, indeed, the first who invented a style of small
sceneries, landscapes, and other curiosities." He possessed,
we are told, so extraordinary a memory, that it was sufficient
for him to have looked at an object or scene once to draw it
with the utmost precision. The extreme patience and labour with
which he finished his pictures were such that the prices he
received never sufficiently repaid him. Had he been paid but
a fourth part of what his works have since produced, he might
have lived in affluence instead of indigence and distress.
Elsheimer usually painted on copper (as is the case with this
picture). His etchings and drawings are well known; in the
Städel Institute of his native town there is a large collection
of them. There are also some in the British Museum. Elsheimer's
works had a considerable influence on many succeeding Dutch
painters. "Elsheimer," says Mr. Colvin in his Guide to the
British Museum Drawings, "fills a very important part in art as
the forerunner on the one hand of Claude and his group, by his
delight in the composition and massing of the forms of hill,
plain, and grove in the country round Rome, and on the other
hand of Rembrandt and _his_ group, by his predilection for
strong artificial contrasts of light, and for the dramatic and
speaking action of his figures."
St. Lawrence (for whose legend see 747) is being prepared for
martyrdom. Beside him there is an image of Cæsar, unto whom will be
rendered Cæsar's due--the saint's life; but over his head is an angel
from heaven, for unto God will go the saint's soul. The emperor is
crowned on earth; the angel brings the saint a palm branch, an earnest
of the martyr's crown in heaven.