Nuremberg's Reformation.--The Little Masters.--Glass-Painting.
--Architecture.--Letter to the City Council.--"Art of Mensuration."
--Portraits.--Melanchthon.
What a commotion must Duerer's return have caused in Nuremberg, with
his commission as court-painter, and his bales and crates of rarities
from America and India and all Europe! The presents which he had
brought for so many of his friends must have given the liveliest
delight, and afforded amusement for months to the Sodalitas Literaria
and the Rath-Elders.
In the mean time the purifying storm of the Reformation was sweeping
over Germany, and the people were in times of great doubt and
perplexity. Nuremberg was the first of the free cities of the Empire
to pronounce herself Protestant, though the change was effected with
so much order and moderation that no iconoclastic fury was allowed to
dilapidate its churches and convents. Pirkheimer and Spengler were
excommunicated by the Pope, though their calm conservatism had
curbed the fanatical fury of the puritans, and saved the Catholic
art-treasures of the Franconian capital.
It is a significant fact that Duerer, during the last six years of his
life, made no more Madonnas, and but one Holy Family. The era of
Mariolatry had passed, so far as Nuremberg was concerned. Yet, during
the year of his return from the Netherlands, he made two engravings of
St. Christopher bearing the Holy Child safely above the floods and
through the storms, as if to indicate that Christianity would be
carried through all its disasters by an unfailing strength.
During the remaining six years of his life Duerer's art-works were
limited to a few portraits and engravings, and the great pictures of
the Four Apostles. Much of his time was devoted to the publication of
the fruits of his long experience, in several literary treatises, most
of which are now lost. His broken health would not allow of continuous
work, as the inroads of insidious disease slowly wasted his strength
and ate away his vitality.
The Little Masters were a group of artists who were formed in
the studio or under the influence of Duerer, shining as a bright
constellation of genius in the twilight of German art. Among these
were the Bavarian Altdorfer, who combined in his brilliant paintings
and engravings both fantasy and romanticism; the Westphalian
Aldegrever, a laborious painter and a prolific engraver; Barthel
Beham, who afterwards studied with and counterfeited the works of
Marc Antonio in Italy; Hans Sebald Beham, who illustrated lewd
fables and prayer books with equal skill and relish, and was finally
driven from Nuremberg; Jacob Binck of Cologne, a neat and accurate
draughtsman, who removed to Rome, and engraved Raphael's works under
the supervision of Marc Antonio; George Pensz, who also studied under
the great Italian engraver, and executed 126 fine prints, besides
several paintings. Other assistants and pupils of Duerer, of whom
little but their names are now remembered, were Hans Brosamer of Fulda,
and Hans Springinklee. Hans von Culmbach was a careful follower, who
surpassed his master in love of nature and her warm and harmonious
colors. The Tucher altar-piece in St. Sebald's Church was his
master-picture. Contemporary with the Nuremberg painter, Matthew
Grunewald was doing excellent work at Aschaffenburg, in northern
Franconia. Among the German artists of his time, he was surpassed
only by Duerer and Holbein.
The Diet of the Empire was held at Nuremberg in 1522, and the
Rath-haus was repainted and decorated for its sessions. Duerer was paid
100 florins for his share in this work, although it is not known what
it was. The best of the paintings were executed by his pupil, George
Pensz, and it is probable that the master furnished some of the
designs.
Although our artist held a pension from the Emperor as his
court-painter, his services seem to have never been called into
requisition. Charles spent but little time at Nuremberg, and while yet
in his youth had no care for seeing himself portrayed on canvas. It
was after the master's death that the Emperor first met Titian, and
retained him as court-painter.
In 1522 Duerer published at his own cost the first edition of the
Triumphal Car of Kaiser Maximilian, a woodcut whose labored and
ponderous allegorical idea was conceived by Pirkheimer, designed
in detail by Duerer, and engraved by Roesch on eight blocks, forming
a picture 7-1/2 feet long by 1-1/2 feet high. The Emperor is shown
seated in a chariot, surrounded by female figures representing the
abstract virtues, while the leaders of the twelve horses, and even
the wheels and reins, have magniloquent Latin names. Maximilian was
greatly interested in this work, but died before its completion. The
first edition was accompanied by explanatory German text, and the
second by Latin descriptions.
The large woodcut of Ulrich Varnbuehler, whom Duerer calls his "single
friend," is one of the master's best works, and was printed over with
three blocks, to produce a chiaroscuro. A little later, he made two
copper-plates of the Cardinal Archbishop Albert of Magdeburg and
Mayence.
In 1523, while under the influence of the art-schools of the Lower
Rhine, the master painted the pictures of Sts. Joachim and Joseph and
St. Simeon and Bishop Lazarus, small figures on a gold ground.
Duerer's Family Relation records that, "My dear mother-in-law took ill
on Sunday, Aug. 18, 1521; and on Sept. 29, at nine of the night, she
died piously. And in 1523, on the Feast of the Presentation, early in
the morning, died my father-in-law, Hans Frey. He had been ill for six
years, and had his share of troubles in his time." They were buried in
St. John's Cemetery, in the same lot where the remains of their
illustrious son-in-law were afterwards laid.
It is said that Duerer largely occupied himself with glass-painting,
during the earlier part of his career; and he probably designed much
for the workers in stained glass then in Upper Germany and the Low
Countries. Lacroix says that he produced twenty windows for the Temple
Church at Paris; and Holt attributes to him the church-windows at
Fairford, near Cirencester.
As an architect Albert executed but few works, and only a slight
record remains to our day. He made two plans for the Archduchess
Margaret, and another for the house of her physician. Heideloff has
proved that the gallery of the Gessert house at Nuremberg was built by
Duerer, in a strange combination of geometric and Renaissance forms.
Pirkheimer's portrait was engraved in 1524, showing a gross and heavy
face, obese to the last degree, and verifying in its physiognomy the
probability that the playful innuendoes in Duerer's Venetian letters
were well grounded. It is not easy to see how such a spirit, learned
in all the sciences of the age, and in close communion with Erasmus,
Melanchthon, and Ulrich von Hutten, could have worn such a drooping
mask of flesh. In the same year, Duerer published an engraved portrait
of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, the supporter of Luther and
the political leader of the Reformation. The head is admirably drawn
and full of character, with firmness plainly indicated by strongly
compressed lips.
The following letter to the Council of Nuremberg was written in the
year 1524:--
"Provident, Honorable, Wise, and Most Favorable Lords,--By my
works and with the help of God, I have acquired 1,000 florins
of the Rhine, and I would now willingly lay them by for my
support. Although I know that it is not the custom with your
Wisdoms to pay high interest, and that you have refused to
give one florin in twenty; yet I am moved by my necessity, by
the particularly favorable regard which your Wisdoms have
ever shown towards me, and also by the following causes, to
beg this thing of your Honors. Your Wisdoms know that I have
always been obedient, willing, and diligent in all things
done for your Wisdoms, and for the common State, and for
other persons of the Rath, and that the State has always had
my help, art, and work, whenever they were needed, and that
without payment rather than for money; for I can write with
truth, that, during the thirty years that I have had a house
in this town, I have not had 500 guldens' worth of work from
it, and what I have had has been poor and mean, and I have
not gained the fifth part for it that it was worth; but all
that I have earned, which God knows has only been by hard
toil, has been from princes, lords, and other foreign
persons. Also I have expended all my earnings from foreigners
in this town. Also your Honors doubtless know that, on
account of the many works I had done for him, the late
Emperor Maximilian, of praiseworthy memory, out of his own
imperial liberality granted me an exemption from the rates
and taxes of this town, which, however, I voluntarily gave
up, when I was spoken to about it by the Elders of the Rath,
in order to show honor to my Lords, and to maintain their
favor and uphold their customs and justice.
"Nineteen years ago the Doge of Venice wrote to me, offering
me 200 ducats a year if I would live in that city. More
lately the Rath of Antwerp, while I remained in the Low
Countries, also made me an offer, 300 florins of Philippe a
year, and a fair mansion to live in. In both places all that
I did for the Government would have been paid over and above
the pension. All of which, out of my love for my honorable
and wise Lords, for this town, and for my Fatherland, I
refused, and chose rather to live simply, near your Wisdoms,
than to be rich and great in any other place. It is therefore
my dutiful request to your Lordships, that you will take all
these things into your favorable consideration, and accept
these thousand florins (which I could easily lay out with
other worthy people both here and elsewhere, but which I
would rather know were in the hands of your Wisdoms), and
grant me a yearly interest upon them of fifty florins, so
that I and my wife, who are daily growing old, weak, and
incapable, may have a moderate provision against want. And I
will ever do my utmost to deserve your noble Wisdoms' favor
and approbation, as heretofore."
This touching letter shows the poverty of Duerer's savings, and his
sad feeling that he had lived as a prophet without honor in his own
country. It produced the desired effect, and brought him five per cent
on his little capital, though after his death the Council hastened to
reduce it to four per cent.
Duerer's wide study and remarkable versatility, rivalling that of
Leonardo da Vinci, found further expression in literary work.
Camerarius states that he wrote a hundred and fifty different
treatises, showing a marked proficiency in several of the sciences.
His first work was entitled "Instruction in the Art of Mensuration,"
&c., and was published in 1525 for the use of young painters. It is
composed of four books, treating of the practical use of geometrical
instruments, and the drawing of volutes, Roman letters, and winding
stairs; and is illustrated by numerous woodcuts. The fourth book
elucidates the idea of perspective, and contains pictures of an
instrument devised by the author, "which will be found particularly
useful to persons who are not sure of drawing correctly." This was not
the only invention of Duerer's; for there still exists a small model of
a gun-carriage in wood and iron, made by him, and exhibiting certain
improvements which he had designed and advocated. "The Art of
Mensuration" was a successful book, and passed through one Latin and
three German editions.
The finest of Duerer's works in portraiture was executed in 1526, and
represents the grand old Jerome Holzschuher, one of the chief rulers
of the city, with all the strength and keenness of his heroic nature
lighting up the canvas. Enormous sums have been offered for this work;
but it is still faithfully preserved in Nuremberg, and retains its
original rich and vivid coloring. Another fine portrait, "like an
antique bust," now in the Vienna Belvedere, shows Johann Kleeberger,
the generous and charitable man who was known abroad as "the good
German." Still another portrait of this year was that of the
Burgomaster Jacob Mueffel, a well-modelled and carefully executed
likeness of one of the master's best friends. Two very famous
engravings of this date portray Erasmus of Rotterdam and Philip
Melanchthon. Erasmus is represented as a venerable scholar, sitting
at a desk, with a pen in his hand and a soft cap on his head; and
the engraving is remarkable for its admirable execution and strong
character. Still, the old philosopher was not pleased with it, and
sent to Sir Thomas More his portrait by Holbein, which, he said, "is
much more like me than the one by the famous Albert Duerer." When
Erasmus first saw the picture he said, "Oh! if I still resemble that
Erasmus, I may look out for getting married," as if it gave him too
young an appearance.
In 1526 the wise and noble-hearted Melanchthon came to Nuremberg
to establish a Protestant Latin school, and formed a close intimacy
with the master, whose tender and dreamy spirit was so like his own.
During their constant intercourse, the artist became strengthened and
comforted in the mild and pure doctrines of the true reformation, and
was quietly yet strongly influenced to abandon even the forms of
Catholicism which still remained. Duerer published a fine engraving of
this friend of his last years on earth, showing delicately-chiselled
features, with large and tender eyes and a lofty forehead.
Melanchthon wrote that in one of his frequent conversations with
Duerer, the artist explained the great change which his methods had
undergone, saying, "In his youth he was fond of a florid style and
great combination of colors, and that in looking at his own work he
was always delighted to find this diversity of coloring in any of his
pictures; but afterwards in his mature years he began to look more
entirely to nature, and tried to see her in her simplest form. Then he
found that this simplicity was the true perfection of art; and, not
attaining this, he did not care for his works as formerly, but often
sighed when he looked at his pictures and thought of his incapacity."