Duerer's House.--His Poetry.--Sculptures.--The Great and Little
Passions.--Life of the Virgin.--Plagiarists.--Works for the Emperor
Maximilian.
Some time after his marriage with Agnes Frey, Duerer moved into the new
house near the Thiergaertner Gate, which had perhaps been bought with
the dowry of his bride. Here he labored until his death, and executed
his most famous works. It is a spacious house, with a lower story of
stone, wide portals, a paved interior court, and pleasant upper rooms
between thick half-timber walls, whose mullioned windows look out on
lines of quaint Gothic buildings and towers, and on the broad paved
square at the foot of the Zisselgasse (now Albrecht-Duerer-Strasse).
Just across the square was the so-called "Pilate's House," whose
owner, Martin Koetzel, had made two pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and
brought back measurements of the Dolorous Way. The artist's house is
now carefully preserved as public property, and contains the gallery
of the Duerer Art-Union. In 1828, on the third centennial of his death,
the people erected a bronze statue of the master, designed by Rauch,
on the square before the house.
In 1509-10 Duerer derived pleasure and furnished much amusement to his
friends from verse-making, in which he suffered a worse failure even
than Raphael had done. It seems that Pirkheimer ridiculed a long-drawn
couplet which he had made, upon which the master composed a neat bit
of proverbial philosophy, of which the following is a translation:--
"Strive earnestly with all thy might,
That God should give thee Wisdom's light;
He doth his wisdom truly prove,
Whom neither death nor riches move;
And he shall also be called wise,
Who joy and sorrow both defies;
He who bears both honor and shame,
He well deserves the wise man's name;
Who knows himself, and evil shuns,
In Wisdom's path he surely runs;
Who 'gainst his foe doth vengeance cherish,
In hell-flame cloth his wisdom perish;
Who strives against the Devil's might,
The Lord will help him in the fight;
Who keeps his heart forever pure,
He of Wisdom's crown is sure;
And who loves God with all his heart,
Chooses the wise and better part."
But Pirkheimer was not more pleased with this; and the witty Secretary
Spengler sent Duerer a satirical poem, applying the moral of the fable
of the shoemaker who criticised a picture by Apelles. He answered this
in a song of sixty lines, closing with,--
"Therefore I will still make rhymes,
Though my friend may laugh at times:
So the Painter with hairy beard
Says to the Writer who mocked and jeered."
"1510, this have I made on Good and Bad Friends." Thus the master
prefaces a platitudinous poem of thirty lines; which was soon followed
by "The Teacher," of sixty lines. Later in the year he wrote the long
Passion-Song, which was appended to the print of _Christus am Kreuz_.
It is composed of eight sections, of ten lines each, and is full
of quaint mediaeval tenderness and reverence, and the intense
prayerfulness of the old German faith. The sections are named Matins,
the First, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours, Vespers, Compline, and Let
Us Pray, the latter of which is redolent with earnest devotion:--
"O Almighty Lord and God,
Who the martyr's press hast trod;
Jesus, the only God, the Son,
Who all this to Thyself hast done,
Keep it before us to-day and to-morrow,
Give us continual rue and sorrow;
Wash me clean, and make me well,
I pray Thee, like a soul from hell.
Lord, Thou hast overcome: look down;
Let us at last to share the crown."
The marvellous high-relief of "The Birth of St. John the Baptist"
as executed in 1510, and shows Duerer's remarkable powers as a
sculptor. It is cut in a block of cream-colored lithographic stone,
7-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches in size, and is full of rich and minute pictorial
details. Elizabeth is rising in bed, aided by two attendants; and the
old nurse brings the infant to Zacharias, who writes its name on a
tablet, while two men are entering at the doorway. The room is
furnished with the usual utensils and properties of a German bedroom.
This wonderful and well-preserved work of art was bought in the
Netherlands about eighty years ago, for $2,500, and is now in the
British Museum. The companion-piece, "St. John the Baptist Preaching
in the Wilderness," is now in the Brunswick Museum, and is carved with
a similar rich effect. This museum also contains a carving in wood,
representing the "Ecce Homo."
Space would fail to tell of the many beautiful little pieces of
sculpture which Duerer executed in ivory, boxwood, and stone, or of the
numerous excellently designed medals ascribed to him. Chief among
these was the exquisite "Birth of Christ," and the altar of agate,
formerly at Vienna; Adam and Eve, in wood, at Gotha; reliefs of the
Birth and the Agony of Christ, in ivory; the Four Evangelists, in
boxwood, lately at Baireuth; several carvings on ivory, of religious
scenes, at Munich; a woman with padlocked mouth, sitting in the
stocks, cut in soapstone; a delicate relief of the Flight into Egypt;
busts of the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy; and the Love-Fountain, now
at Dresden, with figures of six persons drinking the water.
The famous painting of "The Adoration of the Trinity" was finished in
1511, and represents God the Father holding up His crucified Son for
the worship of an immense congregation of saints, while overhead is
the mystic Dove, surrounded by a circle of winged cherubs' heads. The
kneeling multitude includes princes, prelates, warriors, burghers, and
peasants, equally accepting the Athanasian dogma. On the left is a
great group of female saints, led by the sweet and stately Virgin
Mary; and on the right are the kneeling prophets and apostles, Moses
with the tables of the Law, and David with his harp. On the broad
terrestrial landscape, far below, Duerer stands alone, by a tall tablet
bearing the Latin inscription of his name and the date of the picture.
The whole scene is full of light and splendor, delicate beauty of
angels, and exquisite minuteness of finish. A century later the Rath
of Nuremberg removed this picture from the sepulchral chapel of its
founder, and presented it to the Emperor Rudolph II. It is now one of
the gems of the Vienna Belvedere.
About this time the master's brother Andreas, the goldsmith, returned
to Nuremberg after his long wanderings, and eased the evident anxiety
of his family by settling respectably in life. Hans was still in his
brother's studio, where he learned his art so well that he afterwards
became court-painter to the King of Poland.
In 1511 Duerer published a third edition of the engravings of the
Apocalypse, with a warning to piratical engravers that the Emperor had
forbidden the sale of copies or impressions other than those of the
author, within the Empire, under heavy penalties to transgressors. To
the same year belong three of the master's greatest works in engraving
on wood.
"The Great Passion" contains twelve folio woodcuts, unequal in
their execution, and probably made by different workmen of varying
abilities. The vignette is an "Ecce Homo;" and the other subjects are,
the Last Supper, Christ at Gethsemane, His Betrayal, the Scourging,
the Mockery, Christ Bearing the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Descent
into Hell, the Maries Mourning over Christ's Body, the Entombment,
and the Resurrection. These powerful delineations of the Agony of Our
Lord are characterized by rare originality of conception, pathos,
and grandeur. They were furnished with Latin verses by the monk
Chelidonius, and bore the imperial warning against imitation. Four
large editions were printed from these cuts, and numerous copies,
especially in Italy, where the Emperor's edict was inoperative.
"The Little Passion" was a term applied by Duerer himself to
distinguish his series of thirty-seven designs from the larger
pictures of "The Great Passion." It is the best-known of the master's
engravings; and has been published in two editions at Nuremberg, a
third at Venice in 1612, and a fourth at London in 1844. The blocks
are now in the British Museum, and show plainly that they were not
engraved by Duerer. This great pictorial scene of the fall and
redemption of man begins with the sin of Adam and Eve, and their
expulsion from Eden, and follows with thirty-three compositions from
the life and passion of Christ, ending with the Descent of the Holy
Ghost and the Last Judgment. Its title was _Figurae Passionis Domini
Nostri Jesu Christi_; and it was furnished with a set of the Latin
verses of Chelidonius.
The third of Duerer's great works in wood-engraving was "The Life
of the Virgin," with explanatory Latin verses by the Benedictine
Chelidonius. This was published in 1511, and contains twenty pictures,
full of realistic plainness and domestic homeliness, yet displaying
marvellous skill and power of invention. To the same year belong the
master's engravings of the Trinity, St. Christopher, St. Gregory's
Mass, St. Jerome, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, the Holy Family
with the Guitar, Herodias and the Head of John the Baptist, and the
Adoration of the Magi; and the copper-plates of the Crucifixion and
the Virgin with the Pear.
Duerer was much afflicted by the boldness of many imitators, who
plagiarized his engravings without stint, and flooded the market with
pictures from his designs. His rights were protected but poorly by the
edicts of the Emperor and the city of Nuremberg; and a swarm of
parasitical copyists reproduced every fresh design as soon as it was
published. Marc Antonio Raimondi, the great Italian engraver who
worked so many years with Raphael, was the most dangerous of these
plagiarists, and reproduced "The Little Passion" and "The Life of the
Virgin" in a most exquisite manner, close after their publication.
Vasari says, "It happened that at this time certain Flemings came to
Venice with a great many prints, engraved both in wood and copper by
Albert Duerer, which being seen by Marc Antonio in the Square of St.
Mark, he was so much astonished by their style of execution, and the
skill displayed by Albert, that he laid out on those prints almost all
the money he had brought with him from Bologna, and amongst other
things purchased 'The Passion of Jesus Christ,' engraved on thirty-six
wooden blocks.... Marc Antonio therefore, having considered how much
honor as well as advantage might be acquired by one who should devote
himself to that art in Italy, resolved to attend to it with the
greatest diligence, and immediately began to copy these engravings of
Albert, studying their mode of hatching, and every thing else in the
prints he had purchased, which from their novelty as well as beauty,
were in such repute that every one desired to possess them."
It appears that Marc Antonio was afterwards enjoined from using
Duerer's monogram on his copies of the Nuremberger's engravings, either
by imperial diplomatic representations to the Italian courts, or else
as the result of a visit which some claim that Duerer made to Italy for
that purpose. Many of the copies of Marc Antonio were rather idealized
adaptations than exact reproductions of the German's designs, but were
furnished with the forged monogram A. D., and sold for Duerer's works.
Sixty-nine of our artist's engravings were copied by the skilful
Italian, profoundly influencing Southern art by the manual dexterity
of the North. This wholesale piracy was carried on between 1505 and
1511, and before Marc Antonio passed under Raphael's overmastering
influence.
In later years the Rath of Nuremberg warned the booksellers of
the city against selling false copies of Duerer's engravings, and
sent letters to the authorities of Augsburg, Leipsic, Frankfort,
Strasbourg, and Antwerp, asking them to put a stop to such sales
within their jurisdictions. His works have been copied by more than
three hundred artists, the best of whom were Solis, Rota, the Hopfers,
Wierx, Vischer, Schoen, and Kraus.
In 1512 Duerer made most of the plates for "The Passion in Copper," a
series of sixteen engravings on copper, which was begun in 1507 and
finished in 1513. These plates show the terrible scenes of the last
griefs of the Saviour, surrounded with uncouth German men and women,
buildings and landscapes, yet permeated with mysterious reverence and
solemn simplicity. The series was never published in book form, with
descriptive text, but the engravings were put forth singly as soon as
completed. The prints of "Christ Bound" and "St. Jerome" were
published this same year.
In 1512 Duerer was first employed by the Emperor Maximilian, who
was not only a patron of the arts but also an artist himself, and
munificently employed the best painters of Germany, though his
treasury was usually but poorly filled. Science and literature also
occupied much of his attention; and, while his realm was engaged in
perpetual wars, he kept up a careful correspondence on profound themes
with many of the foremost thinkers of his day. The records of his
intercourse with Duerer are most meagre, though during the seven years
of their connection they must have had many interviews, especially
while the imperial portrait was being made.
Melanchthon tells a pretty story, which he heard from Duerer himself.
One day the artist was finishing a sketch for the Emperor, who,
while waiting, attempted to make a drawing himself with one of
the charcoal-crayons; but the charcoal kept breaking away, and he
complained that he could accomplish nothing with it. Duerer then took
it from his hand, saying, "This is my sceptre, your Majesty;" and
afterwards taught the sovereign how to use it.
The story which is told of so many geniuses who have risen from low
estate is applied also to this one: The Emperor once declared to a
noble who had proudly declined to perform some trivial service for the
artist, "Out of seven ploughboys I can, if I please, make seven lords,
but out of seven lords I cannot make one Duerer."
Tradition states that the Emperor ennobled Duerer, and gave him a
coat-of-arms. Possibly this was the crest used in his later years,
consisting of three shields on a blue field, above which is a closed
helmet supporting the armless bust and head of a winged negro!
The idea of the immense woodcut of the Triumphal Arch of Maximilian
was conceived after 1512, either by the Emperor or by the
poet-laureate Stabius; and Duerer was chosen to put it into execution.
The history of the deeds of Maximilian, with his ancestry and family
alliances, was to be displayed in the form of a pictorial triumphal
arch, "after the manner of those erected in honor of the Roman
emperors." The master demanded payment in advance, and received an
order from the Emperor to the Rath of Nuremberg to hold "his and the
Empire's true and faithful Albert Duerer exempt from all the town taxes
and rates, in consideration of our esteem for his skill in art." But
he surrendered this immunity, in deference to the wishes of the Rath;
and Maximilian granted him an annual pension of 100 florins ($200),
which was paid, however, somewhat reluctantly.
"The Knight, Death, and the Devil," is the most celebrated of Duerer's
engravings, and dates from 1513. It shows a panoplied knight riding
through a rocky defile, with white-bearded Death advancing alongside
and holding up an hour-glass, and the loathsome Satan pursuing
hard after and clutching at the undismayed knight. The numerous
commentators on this picture variously interpret its meaning, some
saying that the knight is an evil-doer, intent on wicked purposes,
whom Death warns to repentance, while Satan rushes to seize him;
others, and the most, that he is the Christian man, fearless among the
menaces of Death and Hell, and steadily advancing in spite of the
horrible apparitions. Others claim that the Knight represents Franz
von Sickingen, a turbulent hero of the Reformation; or Philip Ring,
the Nuremberg herald, who was confronted by the Devil on one of his
night-rides; or Duerer himself, beset by temptations and fears; or
Stephen Baumgaertner, the master's friend, whose portrait bears a
resemblance to the knight's face. Still another interpretation is
given in the romance of "Sintram and his Companions," which was
suggested by this engraving, as we are told by its author, La Motte
Fouque.
Kugler says: "I believe I do not exaggerate when I particularize this
print as the most important work which the fantastic spirit of German
art has ever produced." It was made in Duerer's blooming time, and the
plate is a wonderful specimen of delicate and exquisite execution. It
has frequently been copied, in many forms.
"The Little Crucifixion" is one of the most exquisitely finished of
Duerer's engravings on copper, and is a small round picture, about one
inch in diameter, which was made for an ornament on the pommel of the
Emperor's sword. It contains seven figures, full of clearness and
individuality, and engraved with marvellous skill. There are,
fortunately, several very beautiful copies of this print. Other
copper-plates of 1513 were "The Judgment of Paris," and the small
round "St. Jerome."
The famous Baumgaertner altar-piece was painted for the patrician
family of that name, as a votive picture, in thanksgiving for the safe
return of its knightly members from the Swiss campaigns. Nuremberg
unwillingly surrendered it to Maximilian of Bavaria, and it is now in
the Munich Pinakothek. It consists of a central picture of "The
Nativity," of no special merit, with two wings, the first of which
shows Stephen Baumgaertner, a meagre-faced and resolute knight, in the
character of St. George, while the other portrays the plain-mannered
and practical Lucas Baumgaertner, in the garb of St. Eustachius. These
excellent portrait-figures are clad in armor, and stand by the sides
of their horses.
The "Vision of St. Eustachius" was executed on copper-plate, and is
one of Duerer's most delicate and beautiful works. It shows the
huntsman Eustachius as a strong and earnest German mystic, kneeling
before the miraculous crucifix set in the stag's forehead, which has
appeared to convict him of his sins, and to stimulate in him that
faith by which he led a new life of prayer and praise, and won a
martyr's crown. His solemn-faced horse seems to realize that a miracle
is taking place; and in the foreground are five delicately drawn
hounds. On the steep hill in the rear a noble and picturesque mediaeval
castle rears its battlemented towers above long lines of cliffs.
Tradition says that the face of Eustachius is a portrait of the
Emperor Maximilian. When the Emperor Rudolph secured the original
plate of the engraving, he had it richly gilded.
"The Great Fortune," or "The Nemesis," is a copper-plate showing a
repulsively ugly naked woman, with wings, holding a rich chalice and
a bridle, while on the earth below is a beautiful mountain village
between two confluent rivers. Sandrart says that this is the Hungarian
village of Eytas, where Duerer's father was born; but there is
no proof of this theory. "The Coat-of-Arms with the Cock" is a
fine copper-plate, with some obscure allegorical significance,
representing, perhaps, Vigilance by the cock which stands on a closed
helmet, and Faith by the rampant lion on the shield below.