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_ARTIST-BIOGRAPHIES._
DUeRER.
BOSTON:
HOUGHTON, OSGOOD, AND COMPANY.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge.
1879.
COPYRIGHT.
BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.
1877.
FRANKLIN PRESS:
RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY,
BOSTON.
ARTIST-BIOGRAPHIES.
PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT.
The growth of a popular interest in art and its history has been very
rapid during the last decade of American life, and is still in
progress. This interest is especially directed towards the lives of
artists themselves; and a general demand exists for a uniform series
of biographies of those most eminent, which shall possess the
qualities of reliability, compactness, and cheapness.
To answer this demand the present series has been projected. The
publishers have intrusted its preparation to Mr. M. F. Sweetser, whose
qualities of thoroughness in research and fidelity in statement have
been proved in other fields of authorship. It is believed that by the
omission of much critical and discursive matter commonly found in art
biographies, an account of an artist's life may be presented, which is
at once truthful and attractive, within the limits prescribed for
these volumes.
The series will be published at the rate of one or two volumes each
month, at 50 cents each volume, and will contain the lives of the most
famous artists of mediaeval and modern times. It will include the lives
of many of the following:--
Raphael, Claude, Van Dyck,
Michael Angelo, Poussin, Gainsborough,
Leonardo da Vinci, Delacroix, Reynolds,
Titian, Delaroche, Wilkie,
Tintoretto, Greuze, Lawrence,
Paul Veronese, Duerer, Landseer,
Guido, Rubens, Turner,
Murillo, Rembrandt, West,
Velasquez, Holbein, Copley,
Salvator Rosa, Teniers, Allston.
PREFACE.
This little volume presents an account of the life of one of the
noblest and most versatile artists of Germany, with a passing glance
at the activities of Northern Europe at the era of the Reformation.
The weird and wonderful paintings of Duerer are herein concisely
described, as well as the most famous and characteristic of his
engravings and carvings; and his quaint literary works are enumerated.
It has also been thought advisable to devote considerable space to
details about Nuremberg, the scene of the artist's greatest labors;
and to reproduce numerous extracts from his fascinating Venetian
letters and Lowland journals.
The modern theory as to Duerer's wife and his home has been accepted
in this work, after a long and careful examination of the arguments
on both sides. It is pleasant thus to be able to aid in the
rehabilitation of the much-slandered Agnes, and to have an oppressive
cloud of sorrow removed from the memory of the great painter.
The chief authorities used in the preparation of this new memoir are
the recent works of Dr. Thausing and Mr. W. B. Scott, with the series
of articles now current in "The Portfolio," written by Professor
Colvin. Mrs. Heaton's biography has also been studied with care; and
other details have been gathered from modern works of travel and
art-criticism, as well as from "The Art Journal," "La Gazette des
Beaux Arts," and other periodicals of a similar character.
M. F. SWEETSER.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
1471-1494. PAGE
The Activities of Nuremberg.--The Duerer Family.--Early Years of
Albert.--His Studies with Wohlgemuth.--The _Wander-Jahre_ 7
CHAPTER II.
1494-1505.
Duerer marries Agnes Frey.--Her Character.--Early Engravings.
--Portraits.--"The Apocalypse."--Death of Duerer's Father.
--Drawings 28
CHAPTER III.
1505-1509.
The Journey to Venice.--Bellini's Friendship.--Letters to
Pirkheimer.--"The Feast of Rose Garlands."--Bologna.--"Adam and
Eve."--"The Coronation of the Virgin" 47
CHAPTER IV.
1509-1514.
Duerer's House.--His Poetry.--Sculptures.--The Great and Little
Passions.--Life of the Virgin.--Plagiarists.--Works for the Emperor
Maximilian 63
CHAPTER V.
1514-1520.
St. Jerome.--The Melencolia.--Death of Duerer's Mother.--Raphael.
--Etchings.--Maximilian's Arch.--Visit to Augsburg 81
CHAPTER VI.
1520-1522.
Duerer's Tour in the Netherlands.--His Journal.--Cologne.--Feasts
at Antwerp and Brussels.--Procession of Notre Dame.--The
Confirmatia.--Zealand Journey.--Ghent.--Martin Luther 94
CHAPTER VII.
1522-1526.
Nuremberg's Reformation.--The Little Masters.--Glass-Painting.
--Architecture.--Letter to the City Council.--"Art of Mensuration."
--Portraits.--Melanchthon 118
CHAPTER VIII.
1526-1528.
"The Four Apostles."--Duerer's Later Literary Works.--Four Books of
Proportion.--Last Sickness and Death.--Agnes Duerer.--Duerer described
by a Friend 131
ALBERT DUeRER.
CHAPTER I.
The Activities of Nuremberg.--The Duerer Family.--Early Years of
Albert.--His Studies with Wohlgemuth.--The _Wander-Jahre._
The free imperial city of Nuremberg, in the heart of Franconia, was
one of the chief centres of the active life of the Middle Ages, and
shared with Augsburg the great trans-continental traffic between
Venice and the Levant and Northern Europe. Its municipal liberties
were jealously guarded by venerable guilds and by eminent magistrates
drawn from the families of the merchant-princes, forming a government
somewhat similar to the Venetian Council. The profits of a commercial
prosperity second only to that of the Italian ports had greatly
enriched the thrifty burghers, aided by the busy manufacturing
establishments which made the city "the Birmingham of the Middle
Ages." Public and private munificence exerted itself in the erection
and adornment of new and splendid buildings; and the preparation of
works of art and utility was stimulated on all sides. It was the era
of the discovery of America, the revival of classic learning, and the
growth of free thought in matters pertaining to religion. So far had
the inventions of the artisans contributed to the comfort of the
people, that Pope Pius II. said that "A Nuremberg citizen is better
lodged than the King of Scots;" and so widely were they exported to
foreign realms, that the proud proverb arose that
"Nuremberg's hand
Goes through every land."
Nuremberg still stands, a vast mediaeval relic, in the midst of
the whirl and activity of modern Germany, rich and thriving, but
almost unchanged in its antique beauty. The narrow streets in which
Duerer walked are flanked, as then, by quaint gable-roofed houses,
timber-fronted, with mullioned windows and arching portals. In the
faded and venerable palaces of the fifteenth century live the
descendants of the old patrician families, cherishing the memories and
archives of the past; and the stately Gothic churches are still rich
in religious architecture, and in angular old Byzantine pictures and
delicate German carvings. On the hill the castle rears its ponderous
ramparts, which have stood for immemorial ages; and the high towers
along the city walls have not yet bowed their brave crests to the
spirit of the century of boulevards and railroads.
With two essentials of civilization, paper and printing-presses,
Nuremberg supplied herself at an early day. The first paper-mill in
Germany was established here in 1390; and its workmen were obliged to
take an oath never to make paper for themselves, nor to reveal the
process of manufacture. They went out on a strike when the mill was
enlarged, but the authorities imprisoned them until they became docile
once more. Koberger's printing-house contained twenty-four presses,
and employed over a hundred men, printing not only Bibles and
breviaries, but also chronicles, homilies, poems, and scientific
works. As the Aldine Press attracted many authors and scholars to
Venice, so Koberger's teeming press led several German literati to
settle at Nuremberg. For the four first years of Duerer's life, the
wonderful mathematician and astronomer Regiomontanus dwelt here, and
had no less than twenty-one books printed by Koberger. His numerous
inventions and instruments awakened the deepest interest in the
Nuremberg craftsmen, and stimulated a fruitful spirit of inquiry for
many years.
The clockmakers of Nuremberg were famous for their ingenious
productions. Watches were invented here in the year 1500, and were
long known as "Nuremberg eggs." The modern composition of brass was
formed by Erasmus Ebner; wire-drawing machinery also was a Nuremberg
device; the air-gun was invented by Hobsinger; the clarionet, by
Denner; and the church-organs made here were the best in Germany.
There were also many expert metal-workers and braziers; and fifty
master-goldsmiths dwelt in the town, making elegant and highly
artistic works, images, seals, and medals, which were famous
throughout Europe. The most exquisite flowers and insects, and other
delicate objects, were reproduced in filagree silver; and the first
maiolica works in Northern Europe were also founded here.
Isolated, like the ducal cities of Italy, from the desolating wars of
the great powers of Europe, and like them also growing rapidly in
wealth and cultivation, Nuremberg afforded a secure refuge for Art and
its children. In Duerer's day the great churches of St. Sebald, St.
Lawrence, and Our Lady were finished; Peter Vischer executed the
exquisite and unrivalled bronze Shrine of St. Sebald; and Adam Kraft
completed the fairy-like Sacrament-house, sixty feet high, and
"delicate as a tree covered with hoar-frost." Intimate with these two
renowned artificers was Lindenast, "the red smith," who worked
skilfully in beaten copper; and their studies were conducted in
company with Vischer's five sons, who, with their wives and children,
all dwelt happily at their father's house. Vischer lived till a year
after Duerer's death, but there is no intimation that the two artists
ever met. Another eminent craftsman was the unruly Veit Stoss, the
marvellous wood-carver, many of whose works remain to this day; and
there was also Hans Beheim, the sculptor, "an honorable, pious, and
God-fearing man;" and Bullman, who "was very learned in astronomy,
and was the first to set the Theoria Planetarum in motion by
clockwork;" and he who made the great alarm-bell, which was inscribed,
"I am called the mass and the fire bell: Hans Glockengeiser cast me: I
sound to God's service and honor." What shall we say also of Hartmann,
Duerer's pupil, who invented the measuring-rod; Schoner, the maker of
terrestrial globes; Donner, who improved screw machinery; and all the
skilful gun-makers, joiners, carpet-workers, and silk-embroiderers?
There was also the burgher Martin Behaim, the inventor of the
terrestrial globe, who anticipated Columbus by sailing Eastward across
the Pacific Ocean, passing through the Straits of Magellan and
discovering Brazil, as early as 1485.
In Germany, as in Italy, the studio of the artist, full of pure and
lofty ideals, had hardly yet evolved itself from the workshop of the
picture-manufacturer. Nuremberg's chief artists at this time were
Michael Wohlgemuth, Duerer's master; Lucas Kornelisz, also called
Ludwig Krug, who, though a most skilful engraver, was sometimes forced
to adopt the profession of a cook in order to support himself; and
Matthias Zagel, who was expert in both painting and engraving. Still
another was the Venetian Jacopo de' Barbari, or Jacob Walch, "the
master of the Caduceus," a dexterous engraver and designer, whom Duerer
alludes to in his Venetian and Netherland writings. The art of
engraving had been invented early in the fifteenth century, and was
developing rapidly and richly toward perfection. The day of versatile
artists had arrived, when men combined the fine and industrial arts in
one life, and devoted themselves to making masterpieces in each
department. The northern nations, unaided by classic models and
traditions, were developing a new and indigenous aesthetic life, slow
of growth, but bound to succeed in the long run.
The literary society of Duerer's epoch at Nuremberg was grouped in the
_Sodalitas Literaria Rhenana_, under the learned Conrad Celtes, who
published a book of Latin comedies, pure in Latinity and lax in
morals, which he mischievously attributed to the Abbess Roswitha.
Pirkheimer and the monk Chelidonius also belonged to this sodality.
Other contemporary literati of the city were Cochlaeus, Luther's
satirical opponent; the Hebraist Osiander; Venatorius, who united the
discordant professions of poetry and mathematics; the Provost
Pfinzing, for whose poem of _Tewrdannkh_, Duerer's pupil Schaeuffelein
made 118 illustrations; Baumgaertner, Melanchthon's friend; Veit
Dietrich, the reformer; and Joachim Camerarius, the Latinist. But the
most illustrious of Nuremberg's authors at that time was the
cobbler-poet, Hans Sachs, a radical in politics and religion, who
scourged the priests and the capitalists of his day in songs and
satires which were sung and recited by the workmen of all Germany. He
himself tells us that he wrote 4,200 master-songs, 208 comedies and
tragedies, 73 devotional and love songs, and 1,007 fables, tales, and
miscellaneous poems; and others say that his songs helped the
Reformation as much as Luther's preaching.
Thus the activities of mechanics, art, and literature pressed forward
with equal fervor in the quaint old Franconian city, while Albert
Duerer's life was passing on. "Abroad and far off still mightier things
were doing; Copernicus was writing in his observatory, Vasco di Gama
was on the Southern Seas."
"I, Albrecht Duerer the younger, have sought out from among my father's
papers these particulars of him, where he came from, and how he lived
and died holily. God rest his soul! Amen." In this manner the pious
artist begins an interesting family history, in which it is stated
that the Duerers were originally from the romantic little Hungarian
hamlet of Eytas, where they were engaged in herding cattle and horses.
Anthony Duerer removed to the neighboring town of Jula, where he
learned the goldsmith's art, which he taught to his son Albrecht, or
Albert, while his other sons were devoted to mechanical employments
and the priesthood. Albert was not content to stay in sequestered
Jula, and, wandering over Germany and the Low Countries, at last came
to Nuremberg, where he settled in 1455, in the service of the
goldsmith Hieronymus Haller. This worthy Haller and his wife Kunigund,
the daughter of Oellinger of Weissenberg, at that time had an infant
daughter; and as she grew up Albert endeared himself to her to such
purpose that, in 1467, when Barbara had become "a fair and handy
maiden of fifteen," he married her, being forty years old himself.
During the next twenty-four years she bore him eighteen children,
seven daughters and eleven sons, of whose births, names, and
godparents the father made careful descriptions. Three only, Albert,
Andreas, and Hans, arrived at years of maturity. It may well be
believed that the poor master-goldsmith was forced to work hard and
struggle incessantly to support such a great family; and his portrait
shows that the hand-to-mouth existence of so many years had told
heavily and left its imprint on his weary and careworn face. Yet he
had certain sources of peace and gentleness in his life, and never
sank into moroseness or selfishness. Let us quote the tender and
reverent words of his son: "My father's life was passed in great
struggles and in continuous hard work. With my dear mother bearing so
many children, he never could become rich, as he had nothing but what
his hands brought him. He had thus many troubles, trials, and adverse
circumstances. But yet from every one who knew him he received praise,
because he led an honorable Christian life, and was patient, giving
all men consideration, and thanking God. He indulged himself in few
pleasures, spoke little, shunned society, and was in truth a
God-fearing man. My dear father took great pains with his children,
bringing them up to the honor of God. He made us know what was
agreeable to others as well as to our Maker, so that we might become
good neighbors; and every day he talked to us of these things, the
love of God and the conduct of life."
Albert Duerer was the third child of Albert the Elder and Barbara
Hallerin, and was born on the morning of the 21st of May, 1471. The
house in which the Duerers then lived was a part of the great pile of
buildings owned and in part occupied by the wealthy Pirkheimer family,
and was called the _Pirkheimer Hinterhaus_. It fronted on the Winkler
Strasse of Nuremberg, and was an ambitious home for a craftsman like
Albert. The presence of Antonius Koberger, the famous book-printer, as
godfather to the new-born child, shows also that the Duerers occupied
an honorable position in the city.
The Pirkheimers were then prominent among the patrician families of
Southern Germany, renowned for antiquity, enormously wealthy through
successful commerce, and honored by important offices in the State.
The infant Willibald Pirkheimer was of about the same age as the young
Albert Duerer; and the two became close companions in all their
childish sports, despite the difference in the rank of their families.
When the goldsmith's family moved to another house, at the foot of the
castle-hill, five years later, the warm intimacy between the children
continued unchanged.
The instruction of Albert in the rudiments of learning was begun at an
early age, probably in the parochial school of St. Sebald, and was
conducted after the singular manner of the schools of that day, when
printed books were too costly to be intrusted to children. He lived
comfortably in his father's house, and daily received the wise
admonitions and moral teachings of the elder Albert. His friendship
for Willibald enabled him to learn certain elements of the higher
studies into which the young patrician was led by his tutors; and his
visits to the Pirkheimer mansion opened views of higher culture and
more refined modes of life.
Albert was enamoured with art from his earliest years, and spent many
of his leisure hours in making sketches and rude drawings, which he
gave to his schoolmates and friends. The Imhoff Collection had a
drawing of three heads, done in his eleventh year; the Posonyi
Collection claimed to possess a Madonna of his fifteenth year; and the
British Museum has a chalk-drawing of a woman holding a bird in her
hand, whose first owner wrote on it, "This was drawn for me by Albert
Duerer before he became a painter." The most interesting of these early
works is in the Albertina at Vienna, and bears the inscription: "This
I have drawn from myself from the looking-glass, in the year 1484,
when I was still a child.--ALBERT DUeRER." It shows a handsome and
pensive boy-face, oval in shape, with large and tender eyes, filled
with solemnity and vague melancholy; long hair cut straight across the
forehead, and falling over the shoulders; and full and pouting lips.
It is faulty in design, but shows a considerable knowledge of drawing,
and a strong faculty for portraiture. The certain sadness of
expression tells that the schoolboy had already become acquainted with
grief, probably from the straitened circumstances of his family, and
the melancholy deaths of so many brothers and sisters. The great
mystery of sorrow was full early thrown across the path of the solemn
artist. This portrait was always retained by Duerer as a memorial of
his childhood.
He says of his father, "For me, I think, he had a particular
affection; and, as he saw me diligent in learning, he sent me to
school. When I had learned to write and read, he took me home again,
with the intention of teaching me the goldsmith's work. In this I
began to do tolerably well." He was taken into the goldsmith's
workshop in his thirteenth year, and remained there two years,
receiving instruction which was not without value in his future life,
in showing him the elements of the arts of modelling and design. The
accuracy and delicacy of his later plastic works show how well he
apprehended these ideas, and how far he acquired sureness of
expression. The elder Albert was a skilful master-workman, highly
esteemed in his profession, and had received several important
commissions. It is said that the young apprentice executed under his
care a beautiful piece of silver-work representing the Seven Agonies
of Christ.
"But my love was towards painting, much more than towards the
goldsmith's craft. When at last I told my father of my inclination, he
was not well pleased, thinking of the time I had been under him as
lost if I turned painter. But he left me to have my will; and in the
year 1486, on St. Andrew's Day, he settled me apprentice with Michael
Wohlgemuth, to serve him for three years. In that time God gave me
diligence to learn well, in spite of the pains I had to suffer from
the other young men." Thus Duerer describes his change in life, and the
embarkation on his true vocation, as well as the reluctance of the
elder Albert to allow his noble and beloved boy to pass out from his
desolated household into other scenes, and away from his
companionship.
Wohlgemuth was one of the early religious painters who stood at the
transition-point between the school of Cologne and that of the Van
Eycks, or between the old pietistic traditions of Byzantine art
and the new ideas of the art of the Northern Reformation. The
conventionalisms of the Rhenish and Franconian paintings were being
exchanged for a fresher originality and a truer realism; and the
pictures of this time curiously blended the old and the new.
Wohlgemuth seems to have considered art as a money-getting trade
rather than a high vocation, and his workroom was more a shop than a
studio. He turned out countless Madonnas and other religious subjects
for churches and chance purchasers, and also painted chests and carved
and colored images of the saints, many of which were executed by his
apprentices. A few of his works, however, were done with great care
and delicacy, and show a worthy degree of sweetness and simplicity.
Evidently the young pupil gained little besides a technical knowledge
of painting from this master,--the mechanical processes, the modes of
mixing and applying colors, the chemistry of pigments, and a certain
facility in using them. It was well that the influences about him were
not powerful enough to warp his pure and original genius into servile
imitations of decadent methods. His hands were taught dexterity; and
his mind was left to pursue its own lofty course, and use them as its
skilful allies in the new conquests of art.
Wood-engraving was also carried on in Wohlgemuth's studio, and it is
probable that Duerer here learned the rudiments of this branch of art,
which he afterwards carried to so high a perfection. Some writers
maintain that his earliest works in this line were done for the famous
"Nuremberg Chronicle," which was published in 1493 by Wohlgemuth and
Pleydenwurf.
The three years which were spent in Wohlgemuth's studio were probably
devoted to apprentice-work on compositions designed by the master, who
was then about fifty years old, and at the summit of his fame. But few
of Duerer's drawings now existing date from this epoch, one of which
represents a group of horsemen, and another the three Swiss leaders,
Fuerst, Melchthal, and Staufacher. The beautiful portrait of Duerer's
father, which is now at Florence, was executed by the young artist in
1490, probably to carry with him as a souvenir of home. Muendler says,
"For beauty and delicacy of modelling, this portrait has scarcely been
surpassed afterwards by the master, perhaps not equalled."
It was claimed by certain old biographers that the eminent Martin
Schongauer of Colmar was Duerer's first master; but this is now
contested, although it is evident that his pictures had a powerful
effect on the youth. Schongauer was the greatest artist and engraver
that Germany had as yet produced, and exerted a profound influence on
the art of the Rhineland. He renewed the fantastic conceits and
grotesque vagaries which the Papal artists of Cologne had suppressed
as heathenish, and prepared the way for, or perhaps even suggested,
the weird elements of Duerer's conceptions. At the same time he passed
back of his Netherland art-education, and studied a mystic benignity
and dreamy spirituality suggestive of the Umbrian painters, with whose
chief, the great Perugino, Martin was acquainted. Herein Duerer's works
were in strong contrast with Schongauer's, and showed the new spirit
that was stirring in the world.
Next to Schongauer, the great Italian artist Mantegna exercised the
strongest influence upon Duerer, who studied his bold and austere
engravings with earnest admiration, showing his traits in many
subsequent works. Probably he met the famous Mantuan painter during
the _Wander-jahre_, in Italy; and at the close of his Venetian journey
he was about to pay a visit of homage to him, when he heard of his
death.
During his three years of study we have seen that the delicate and
sensitive youth suffered much from the reckless rudeness and jeering
insults of his companions, rough hand-workers who doubtless failed to
understand the poignancy of the torments which they inflicted on the
sad-eyed son of genius. But his home was near at hand, and the tender
care of his parents, always beloved. How often he must have wandered
through the familiar streets of Nuremberg, with his dreamy artist-face
and flowing hair, and studied the Gothic palaces, the fountains
adorned with statuary, and the rich treasures of art in the great
churches! Beyond the tall-towered town, danger lurked on every road;
but inside the gray walls was peace and safety, and no free lances nor
marauding men-at-arms could check the aspiring flight of the youth's
bright imagination.
"And when the three years were out, my father sent me away. I remained
abroad four years, when he recalled me; and, as I had left just after
Easter in 1490, I returned home in 1494 just after Whitsuntide." Thus
Albert describes the close of his _Lehr-jahre_, or labor-years, and
the entrance upon his _Wander-jahre_, or travel-years. According to a
German custom, still prevalent in a modified degree, the youth was
obliged to travel for a long period, and study and practise his trade
or profession in other cities, before settling for life as a
master-workman. Unfortunately all that Duerer records as to these
eventful four years is given in the sentences above; and we can only
theorize as to the places which he visited, and his studies of the
older art-treasures of Europe. Some authors believe that a part of the
_Wander-jahre_ was spent in Italy, and Dr. Thausing, Duerer's latest
and best biographer, clearly proves this theory by a close study of
his notes and sketches. Others claim with equal positiveness, and less
capability of proof, that they were devoted to the Low Countries. It
is certain that he abode at Colmar in 1492, where he was honorably
received by Gaspar, Paul, and Louis, the three brothers of Martin
Schongauer. The great Martin had died some years before; but many of
his best paintings were preserved at Colmar, and were carefully
studied by Duerer. At a later day he wandered through the Rhineland to
Basle, and spent his last year at Strasbourg. His portraits of his
master and mistress in the latter city were dated in 1494, and
pertained to the Imhoff Collection.
His portrait painted by himself in 1493 was procured at Rome by the
Hofrath Beireis, and described by Goethe. It shows a bright and
vigorous face, full of youthful earnestness and joy, rich, harmonious,
and finely executed, though thinly colored. He is attired in a
blue-gray cloak with yellow strings, an embroidered shirt whose
sleeves are bound with peach-colored ribbons, and a purple cap; and
holds a piece of the blue flower called _Manns-treue_, or Man's-faith.