Where were the beginnings? When were the beginnings? Germany,
the Netherlands, and Italy have each claimed priority. Max Lehrs
has settled these rival claims, so far as they can be settled at
the present time, by locating the cradle of engraving neither
in Germany, in the Netherlands, nor in Italy, but in a neutral
country--Switzerland, in the vicinity of Basle--naming the MASTER
OF THE PLAYING CARDS as probably the earliest engraver whose works
have come down to us. Undoubtedly this artist was not the first to
engrave upon metal plates, but of his predecessors nothing is known,
nor has any example of their work survived.
The technical method of the Master of the Playing Cards is that
of a painter rather than of a goldsmith. There is practically no
cross-hatching, and the effect is produced by a series of delicate
lines, mostly vertical, laid close together. His plates are unsigned
and undated, so that we can only approximate the period of his
activity. That he preceded, by at least ten years, the earliest dated
engraving, the _Flagellation_, by the Master of 1446, may safely
be assumed, since in the manuscript copy of Conrad von Würzburg’s
“The Trojan War,” transcribed in 1441 by Heinrich von Steinfurt (an
ecclesiastic of Osnabrück), there are pen drawings of figures wearing
costumes which correspond exactly with those in prints by the Master
of the Playing Cards in his middle period. The Master of the Playing
Cards is, therefore, the first bright morning star of engraving. From
him there flows a stream of influence affecting substantially all of
the German masters until the time of Martin Schongauer, some of whose
earlier plates show unmistakable traces of an acquaintanceship with his
work.
[Illustration: MASTER OF THE PLAYING CARDS. ST. GEORGE
Size of the original engraving, 5⅞ × 5¼ inches
In the Royal Print Room, Dresden]
[Illustration: MASTER OF THE PLAYING CARDS. MAN OF SORROWS
Size of the original engraving, 7¾ × 5⅛ inches
In the British Museum]
_St. George and the Dragon_ is in his early manner. Here are plainly
to be seen the characteristics of this first period--the broken,
stratified rocks, the isolated and conventionalized plants, and the
peculiar drawing of the horse, especially its slanting and half-human
eyes. _The Playing Cards_, from which he takes his name, may safely
be assigned to his middle period. The suits are made up of _Flowers_
(roses and cyclamen), _Wild Men_, _Birds_, and _Deer_, with a fifth,
or alternative suit of _Lions_ and _Bears_. Like all the early German
designers of playing cards, he has given free rein to his fancy and
inventiveness. The position of the different emblems is varied for each
numeral card; and each flower, wild man, bird, or beast, has an
attitude and character of its own, no two being identical. No engraver
has surpassed him in truthfulness and subtlety of observation and in
the delineation of birds few artists have equalled him. His rendering
of the growth and form of flowers would have delighted John Ruskin.
In the _King of Cyclamen_ and the _Queen of Cyclamen_ the faces have
an almost portrait-like individuality. The hands are well drawn and
do not yet display that attenuation which is characteristic of nearly
all fifteenth century German masters and is a noticeable feature in
engravings by Martin Schongauer himself. The clothing falls in natural
folds, and in the _King of Cyclamen_ the representation of fur could
hardly be bettered.
To his latest and most mature period must be assigned the _Man of
Sorrows_--in some ways his finest, and certainly his most moving,
plate. Not only has he differentiated between the textures of the linen
loin-cloth and the coarser material of the cloak; but the column, the
cross with its beautiful and truthful indication of the grain of the
wood, and the ground itself, all are treated with a knowledge and a
sensitiveness that is surprising. The engraver’s greatest triumph,
however, is in the figure of Christ. There is a feeling for form
and structure, sadly lacking in the work of his successors, and his
suggestion of the strained and pulsing veins, which throb through the
Redeemer’s tortured limbs, is of a compelling truth.
Chief among the engravers who show most clearly the influence of the
Master of the Playing Cards is the MASTER OF THE YEAR 1446,
so named from the date which appears in the _Flagellation_. His prints
present a more or less primitive appearance, and were it not for this
date, one might be tempted, on internal evidence, to assign them to
an earlier period. In the _Passion_ series, in particular, many of
the figures are more gnome-like than human. Such creatures as the man
blowing a horn, in _Christ Nailed to the Cross_, and the man pulling
upon a rope, in the same print, recall to our minds, by an association
of ideas, the old German fairy tales.
Contemporary with the Master of 1446, and belonging to the
Burgundian-Netherlands group, to which also belong the two anonymous
engravers known as the MASTER OF THE MOUNT OF CALVARY and the
MASTER OF THE DEATH OF MARY, is the MASTER OF THE GARDENS
OF LOVE. His figures are crude in drawing and stiff in their
movements. His knowledge of tree forms is rudimentary; but his animals
and birds show real observation and seem to have been studied from life.
[Illustration: MASTER OF THE YEAR 1446. CHRIST NAILED TO THE CROSS
Size of the original engraving, 4⅛ × 3¼ inches
In the Royal Print Room, Berlin]
[Illustration: MASTER OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST
Size of the original engraving, 8½ × 5⅞ inches
In the Albertina, Vienna]
In the larger of the two engravings from which he takes his name, we
see reflected the pleasure-loving court of the Dukes of Burgundy. On
the right, a lady leads her lover to a table spread with tempting
viands. She stretches forth her right hand to take the fruit. It is a
fig, the sign of fertility. To their right, drinking from a stream,
is a unicorn, the sign of chastity. The artist seemingly wishes the
lady’s message to read that she is still unwedded, and that, were she
wedded, she would be a good mother. Observe, likewise, the way in which
the engraver has placed the wild hogs, deer, and bears emerging from
the woods, while, in the sky, numerous birds wing their flight. In the
immediate foreground a lady and a cavalier are reading poetry to each
other. Another lady plays to a gallant who, in a most uncomfortable
attitude, holds a sheet of music. In the right-hand corner is a fourth
pair, the lady busily twining a wreath for her lover’s hat, which lies
on her lap. We have here a compendium of the courtly life of the time,
which is about 1448.
THE MASTER OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST may fittingly be called
the first _realist_ in engraving. His plates do not display that
extraordinary delicacy in cutting which is characteristic of the Master
of the Playing Cards. Like that earlier engraver, he makes little use
of cross-hatching, and his strokes are freely disposed--more in the
manner of a painter than a goldsmith-engraver. His birds and flowers
are closely observed and admirably rendered.
The mullein, the columbine, and the iris in _St. John the Baptist_ are
each given their individual character; the tree trunks to the right no
longer resemble twisted columns, as in earlier work, but have real bark
with knot holes and branches organically joined, though the foliage
is still conventionally treated. One cannot but remark, also, the
skilful way in which the engraver has differentiated between the furry
undergarment and the cloak which St. John the Baptist wears.
In _St. Christopher_ we have probably one of his latest works. His
representation of the waves, of the sky and clouds, is noteworthy,
while, on the beach, the sea-shells give mute testimony to his love for
little things.
Of the predecessors of Martin Schongauer, none exerted a greater
influence than the MASTER E. S. OF 1466. On the technical
side he was the actual creator of engraving as practised in modern
times, and was a determining factor in the progress of the art. Even
the Italian engravers were unable to withstand it; their Prophets and
Sibyls are partly derived from his Evangelists and Apostles, the easy
disposition of his draperies furnishing them with models. Over three
hundred engravings by the Master E. S. have come down to us, and over
a hundred more can be traced through copies by other hands, or as
having formed component parts of his two sets of playing cards--the
smaller set made up of _Wild Animals_, _Helmets_, _Escutcheons_, and
_Flowers_, while the larger set comprises _Men_, _Dogs_, _Birds_, and
_Escutcheons_.
[Illustration: MASTER E. S. OF 1466. MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS
MARGUERITE AND CATHERINE
Size of the original engraving, 8⅝ × 6⅜ inches
In the Royal Print Room, Dresden]
[Illustration: MASTER E. S. OF 1466. ECSTASY OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN
Size of the original engraving, 6½ × 5 inches
In the Royal Print Room, Dresden]
His work shows unmistakably the influence of the Master of the Playing
Cards, and we may safely place him in the region of the upper Rhine,
probably in the vicinity of Freiburg or Breisach. In the _Madonna and
Child with Saints Marguerite and Catherine_ his peculiar qualities and
limitations may clearly be seen. The plants and flowers, with which
the ground is thickly carpeted, are engraved in firm, clear-cut lines,
betokening the trained hand of the goldsmith. The figures and drapery
are rendered with delicate single strokes; but in the shaded portions
of the wall, back of the Madonna, cross-hatching is skilfully employed.
As is the case in nearly all the works of the early German engravers,
the laws of perspective are imperfectly understood, but none the less
the composition has a charm all its own.
The _Ecstasy of St. Mary Magdalen_ is of interest, not only technically
and artistically, but because of its influence upon the Master of the
Amsterdam Cabinet, who has twice treated the subject, and upon Albrecht
Dürer, by whom we have a woodcut seemingly copied from this engraving.
Martin Schongauer, likewise, may have profited by the feathered forms
of the angels which reappear, somewhat modified, in his engraving of
the _Nativity_. The birds and the isolated plants in the foreground
still show the influence of the Master of the Playing Cards.
_St. Matthew_ (whom we shall meet again in our consideration of
Florentine engraving, transformed into the _Tiburtine Sibyl_, engraved
in the Fine Manner of the Finiguerra School) and _St. Paul_ (who
likewise reappears as _Amos_ in the series of _Prophets and Sibyls_)
show an increasing command of technical resources. The draperies are
beautifully disposed; and, in _St. Paul_, the system of cross-hatching
upon the back of the chair, in the shaded portions beneath, and upon
the mantle of the saint, is fully developed.
The _Madonna of Einsiedeln_, dated 1466, is usually accounted the
engraver’s masterpiece. Beautiful though it is in composition and
in execution, it suggests a translation, into black and white, of a
painting, and on technical grounds, as well as for the beauty of its
component parts, one may prefer the _Design for a Paten_, dating from
the same year [1466]. Here the central scene, representing St. John
the Baptist, owes not a little, both in composition and in technique,
to the Master of St. John the Baptist. The four Evangelists, arranged
in alternation with their appropriate symbols, around the central
picture, are little masterpieces of characterization and of engraving,
and there can be nothing but unmixed admiration for the way in which
plant and bird forms are woven into a perfectly harmonious pattern.
[Illustration: MASTER E. S. OF 1466. DESIGN FOR A PATEN
Size of the original engraving, 7⅛ inches in diameter
In the Royal Print Room, Berlin]
[Illustration: MASTER E. S. OF 1466. ST. JOHN ON THE ISLAND OF PATMOS
Size of the original engraving, 8⅛ × 5½ inches
In the Hofbibliotek, Vienna]
_St. John on the Island of Patmos_ likewise shows unmistakably
the influence of the Master of St. John the Baptist and is doubly
interesting inasmuch as, in its turn, it had a shaping influence upon
the engraving of the same subject by Martin Schongauer. It is dated
1467, the latest date found upon any plate by the Master E. S., and it
is assumed that in this year his activity came to an end.
MARTIN SCHONGAUER, who was born in Colmar about 1445 and is
known to have died in 1491, is not only the most eminent painter and
engraver in the latter third of the fifteenth century, he is one of
the very greatest masters of the graphic arts. His plates number one
hundred and fifteen, and, as in the case of Albrecht Dürer, it is upon
his engraved work, rather than upon his all too few paintings, that his
immortality must rest.
Schongauer’s prints can be arranged in something approximating
chronological order. In the earliest twelve engravings the shanks of
the letter M, in his monogram, are drawn vertically, whereas in all
his later prints they slant outward. This apparently minor point is
really of great significance in a study of his development, since it
enables us to place correctly certain plates which, until recently,
were assigned to his latest period, such as the _Death of the Virgin_,
the _Adoration of the Magi_, and the _Flight Into Egypt_.
One of the richest toned plates in this first group is the _Virgin with
a Parrot_, an engraving which, incidentally, exists in two states. In
the second state, the cushion upon which the Christ Child is seated,
instead of being plain, has an elaborate pattern upon the upper side,
and the flowing tresses of the Virgin are extended more to the left,
thereby greatly improving the composition as a whole.
For Martin Schongauer, as for nearly all the earlier German masters,
the grotesque had a strange fascination. His power of welding together
parts of various animals into living fantastic creatures is nowhere
better seen than in the _Temptation of St. Anthony_. Vasari tells how
the young Michelangelo, meeting with an impression of this engraving in
Florence, was impelled to copy it with a pen “in such a manner as had
never before been seen. He painted it in colors also, and the better to
imitate the strange forms among these devils, he bought fish which had
scales somewhat resembling those of the demon. In this pen copy also he
displayed so much ability that his credit and reputation were greatly
enhanced thereby.” It would appear to be one of Schongauer’s early
plates, not only from the form of the monogram, but also from the
treatment of the upper portion of the sky, shaded with many horizontal
graver strokes, growing stronger as the upper edge of the plate is
reached--a treatment which does not occur in any other print by him.
[Illustration: MARTIN SCHONGAUER. VIRGIN WITH A PARROT
Size of the original engraving, 6¼ × 4¼ inches
In the Public Art Collections, Basle]
[Illustration: MARTIN SCHONGAUER. TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY
Size of the original engraving, 12⅜ × 9⅛ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: MARTIN SCHONGAUER. DEATH OF THE VIRGIN
Size of the original engraving, 10⅛ × 6⅝ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: MARTIN SCHONGAUER. PILATE WASHING HIS HANDS
Size of the original engraving, 6⅜ × 4½ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
Among the myriad renderings of the _Death of the Virgin_, by painters
and engravers, it is doubtful if any version is superior, so far as
dramatic intensity is concerned, to Schongauer’s. As a composition,
Dürer’s woodcut from the _Life of the Virgin_, is simpler and more
“telling,” in that certain non-essentials have been eliminated; but
could we well spare so beautiful a design as that of the candelabrum
which, in Schongauer’s engraving, stands at the foot of the bed?
From the twelve plates of the _Passion_, each of which repays study,
it is not easy to select one for reproduction. The _Crucifixion_,
a subject which Schongauer engraved no less than six times, has a
poignant charm; and for sheer beauty the _Resurrection_ is among
the most significant of the series. _Pilate Washing His Hands_ has,
however, a double interest. The faces of Christ’s tormentors and of
the figures standing beside and to the left of Pilate’s throne, are
strongly characterized, portrait-like heads, in marked contrast with
the gentleness of Christ, and the weak and vacillating Pilate. The
enthroned Pilate later reappears as the _Prophet Daniel_ in the series
of _Prophets and Sibyls_, Florentine engravings in the Fine Manner.
We have already referred to _St. John on the Island of Patmos_ by
the Master E. S. A more significant contrast between the work of the
earlier engraver and that of Schongauer could hardly be found. The
Master E. S. gives a multiplicity of objects, animate and inanimate,
charming and interesting in themselves, but distracting from the main
purpose of the composition--witness the _St. Christopher_ crossing
the river in the middle distance, the lion and the terrified horse in
the wood to the right, the swan in the stream to the left, and the
life-like birds perched upon the castle-crowned cliff. Schongauer
eliminates all these accessories. One vessel and two small boats alone
break the calm expanse of the unruffled sea. Save for the two plants in
the foreground (which betray the influence of the Master of the Playing
Cards) the ground is simply treated and offers little to distract
our attention from the seated figure of St. John, who faces to the
left and gazes upwards at the Madonna and Child in glory. The eagle
bears a strong family likeness to the same bird in the _Design for a
Paten_ by the Master E. S. Schongauer has here drawn a tree, not bare,
as is his wont, but adorned with foliage beautifully disposed
and artistically treated, in marked contrast to the conventional and
decorative manner of the Master E. S. and his predecessors.
[Illustration: MARTIN SCHONGAUER. ST. JOHN ON THE ISLAND OF PATMOS
Size of the original engraving, 6½ × 4⅝ inches
In the Kunsthalle, Hamburg]
[Illustration: MARTIN SCHONGAUER. CHRIST APPEARING TO THE MAGDALEN
Size of the original engraving, 6¼ × 6⅛ inches
In the Kunsthalle, Hamburg]
[Illustration: MARTIN SCHONGAUER. VIRGIN SEATED IN A COURTYARD
Size of the original engraving, 6¾ × 4⅞ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: MARTIN SCHONGAUER. ANGEL OF THE ANNUNCIATION
Size of the original engraving, 6⅝ × 4½ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
The type of the Redeemer, which Schongauer has made so peculiarly his
own, is nowhere seen to better advantage than in the two beautiful
plates of the _Baptism of Christ_ and _Christ Appearing to the
Magdalen_. Max Geisberg acclaims the last-named as Schongauer’s most
beautiful engraving. “Here, the contents of the composition have
received an embodiment, the fervor, depth, and delicacy of which have
never been surpassed in art.”[1] It can, however, share this high
praise with the _Virgin Seated in a Courtyard_ and the _Angel of the
Annunciation_. For sheer beauty, these plates remain to this day not
only unsurpassed, but unequalled. What quietude and restraint there is
in the _Virgin Seated in a Courtyard_, the wall back of her discreetly
bare, the grass indicated by a few small but significant strokes,
while the branches of one little, leafless tree form an exquisite
pattern against the untouched sky! By contrast one of Dürer’s technical
masterpieces--the _Virgin Seated by a City Wall_--seems overworked and
overloaded with needless accessories.
[1] Martin Schongauer. By Dr. Max Geisberg. The Print-Collector’s
Quarterly. Vol. IV. April, 1914. p. 128.
The _Angel of the Annunciation_ marks the culmination of Schongauer’s
art and belongs to his most mature period. Everything not absolutely
necessary for a clear presentation has been eliminated. A slight
shadow upon the ground gives solidity to the figure. All else is
blank. The art of simplification can hardly go further, and were one
to be restricted to the choice of a single print by any of Dürer’s
predecessors, one might wisely select the _Angel of the Annunciation_.
That Schongauer was equally interested in things mundane is
convincingly proved by _Peasants Going to Market_, _Goldsmith’s
Apprentices Fighting_, or _The Miller_. How well he has differentiated
between the mother-ass, filled with maternal solicitude, and the
woolly, stocky, and somewhat foolish little donkey which follows, while
the miller with upraised staff urges her onward.
The _Crozier_ and the _Censer_ furnish unmistakable proof, were such
needed, that as a goldsmith-designer, no less than as an engraver,
Schongauer is entitled to the loftiest place in German art. They are
masterpieces, alike in invention and in execution. His influence was
not confined to his contemporaries, but can be traced in many ways, and
in many media, long after his death. His School, however, produced no
engraver worthy, for a moment, of comparison with him.
[Illustration: MARTIN SCHONGAUER. THE MILLER
Size of the original engraving, 3½ × 4⅞ inches
In the Albertina, Vienna]
[Illustration: MARTIN SCHONGAUER. CENSER
Size of the original engraving, 11½ × 8¼ inches]
The MASTER L Cz alone seems to have caught something of
Schongauer’s spirit while, at the same time, preserving his own
individuality. The face of the Redeemer in _Christ Entering Jerusalem_
is reminiscent of the earlier engraver; and, among the Apostles to
the left, two, at least, are taken, with slight modifications, from
Schongauer’s _Death of the Virgin_.
_Christ Tempted_ has a singular charm. The figure of Satan,
realistically treated, is an interesting example of that passion
for the grotesque from which even the greatest artists in the North
seemed unable to shake themselves wholly free. The wood in the
middle distance, to the left of Christ, evinces a close study of
natural forms, while the landscape takes its place admirably in the
composition. The excessive rarity of engravings by L Cz alone has
prevented them from being appreciated at their true worth. They are
original in composition, full of fantasy and charm. Even so universal
an artist as Albrecht Dürer did not disdain to borrow, from _Christ
Tempted_, the motive of the mountain goat gazing downward, which
reappears, slightly modified, in _Adam and Eve_, his masterpiece of the
year 1504.