WOOD ENGRAVING IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.
Chiaro-Scuro Engraving on Wood -- A Copper-Plate by Mair Mistaken
for the First Chiaro-Scuro -- Dotted Backgrounds in Old Wood-Cuts --
Albert Durer Probably Not a Wood-Engraver -- His Birth -- A Pupil of
Michael Wolgemuth -- His Travels -- Cuts of the Apocalypse Designed
by Him -- His Visit to Venice in 1506 -- The History of the Virgin
and Christ’s Passion Engraved on Wood from his Designs -- His
Triumphal Car and Triumphal Arch of the Emperor Maximilian -- His
Invention of Etching -- His Carving -- Visit to the Netherlands --
His Death -- Wood-Cuts Designed by L. Cranach, H. Burgmair, and
H. Schæfflein -- The Adventures of Sir Theurdank -- The Wise King --
The Triumphs of Maximilian -- Ugo Da Carpi -- Lucas Van Leyden --
William De Figuersnider -- Ursgraff -- Cuts Designed by Unknown
Artists Between 1500 and 1528.
Most authors who have written on the history of engraving have
incidentally noticed the art of chiaro-scuro engraving on wood, which
began to be practised early in the sixteenth century.[V-1] The honour of
the invention has been claimed for Italy by Vasari and other Italian
writers, who seem to think that no improvement in the arts of design and
engraving can originate on this side of the Alps. According to their
account, chiaro-scuro engraving on wood was first introduced by Ugo da
Carpi, who executed several pieces in that manner from the designs of
Raffaele. But, though confident in their assertions, they are weak in
their proofs; for they can produce no chiaro-scuros by Ugo da Carpi, or
by any other Italian engraver, of an earlier date than 1518. The
engravings of Italian artists in this style are not numerous, previous
to 1530, and we can scarcely suppose that the earliest of them was
executed before 1515. That the art was known and practised in Germany
several years before this period there can be no doubt; for a
chiaro-scuro wood engraving, a Repose in Egypt, by Lucas Cranach, is
dated 1509; two others by Hans Baldung Grün are dated 1509 and 1510; and
a portrait, in the same style, by Hans Burgmair, is dated 1512.
[Footnote V-1: Chiaro-scuros are executed by means of two or more
blocks, in imitation of a drawing in sepia, India ink, or any
other colour of two or more shades. The older chiaro-scuros are
seldom executed with more than three blocks; on the first of which
the general outline of the subject and the stronger shades were
engraved and printed in the usual manner; from the second the
lighter shades were communicated; and from the third a general
tint was printed over the impressions of the other two.]
Some German writers, not satisfied with these proofs of the art being
practised in Germany before it was known in Italy, refer to an
engraving, dated 1499, by a German artist of the name of Mair, as one of
the earliest executed in this manner. This engraving, which is from a
copper-plate, cannot fairly be produced as evidence on the point in
dispute; for though it bears the appearance of a chiaro-scuro engraving,
yet it is not so in reality; for on a narrow inspection we may perceive
that the light touches have neither been preserved, nor afterwards
communicated by means of a block or a plate, but have been added with a
fine pencil after the impression was taken. It is, in fact, nothing more
than a copper-plate printed on dark-coloured paper, and afterwards
heightened with a kind of white and yellow body-colour. It is very
likely, however, that the subject was engraved and printed on a dark
ground with the express intention of the lights being subsequently added
by means of a pencil. The artist had questionless wished to produce an
imitation of a chiaro-scuro drawing; but he certainly did not effect his
purpose in the same manner as L. Cranach, H. Burgmair, or Ugo da Carpi,
whose chiaro-scuro engravings had the lights preserved, and required no
subsequent touching with the pencil to give to them that character.
The subject of this engraving is the Nativity, and there is an
impression of it in the Print Room of the British Museum.[V-2] In the
foreground, about the middle of the print, is the Virgin seated with the
infant Jesus in her lap. At her feet is a cradle of wicker-work, and to
the left is an angel kneeling in adoration. On the same side, but
further distant, is Joseph leaning over a half door, holding a candle in
one hand and shading it with the other. In the background is the stable,
in which an ox and an ass are seen; and the directing star appears
shining in the sky. The print is eight inches high, and five inches and
three-eighths wide; at the top is the date 1499, and at the bottom the
engraver’s name, MAIR. It is printed in black ink on paper which
previous to receiving the impression had been tinted or stained a
brownish-green colour. The lights have neither been preserved in the
plate nor communicated by means of a second impression, but have been
laid on by the hand with a fine pencil. The rays of the star, and the
circles of light surrounding the head of the Virgin, and also that of
the infant, are of a pale yellow, and the colour from its chalky
appearance seems very like the touches of a crayon. The lights in the
draperies and in the architectural parts of the subject have been laid
on with a fine pencil guided by a steady hand. That the engraver
intended his work to be finished in this manner there can be little
doubt; and the impression referred to affords a proof of it; for
Joseph’s candle, though he shades it with his left hand, in reality
gives no light. The engraver had evidently intended that the light
should be added in positive body colour; but the person--perhaps the
engraver himself--whose business it was to add the finishing touches to
the impression, has neglected to light Joseph’s candle.[V-3]
[Footnote V-2: This print is one of the valuable collection left
to the Museum by the Rev. C. M. Cracherode, and the following
remark in that gentleman’s writing is inserted on the opposite
page of the folio in which it is preserved: “The Presepe is a
plain proof that printing in chiaro-scuro was known before the
time of Ugo da Carpi, who is erroneously reputed the inventor of
this art at the beginning of the sixteenth century.” The print in
question is certainly not a proof of the art of engraving in
chiaro-scuro; and Mr. Ottley has added the following correction in
pencil: “But the white here is put on with a pencil, and not left
in printing, as it would have been if the tint had been added by a
wooden block after the copper-plate had been printed.”]
[Footnote V-3: Bartsch describes this print in his
Peintre-Graveur, tom. vi. p. 364, No. 4; but he takes no notice of
Joseph holding a candle, nor of its wanting a light.]
Towards the latter end of the fifteenth century,[V-4] a practice was
introduced by the German wood engravers of dotting the dark parts of
their subjects with white, more especially in cuts where the figures
were intended to appear light upon a dark ground; and about the
beginning of the sixteenth, this mode of “killing the black,” as it is
technically termed, was very generally prevalent among the French wood
engravers, who, as well as the Germans and Dutch, continued to practise
it till about 1520, when it was almost wholly superseded by
cross-hatching; a mode of producing shade which had been much practised
by the German engravers who worked from the drawings of Durer, Cranach,
and Burgmair, and which about that time seems to have been generally
adopted in all countries where the art had made any progress. The two
following cuts, which are from an edition of “Heures à l’Usaige de
Chartres,” printed at Paris by Simon Vostre, about 1502, are examples of
this mode of diminishing the effects of a ground which would otherwise
be entirely black. Books printed in France between 1500 and 1520 afford
the most numerous instances of dark backgrounds dotted with white. In
many cuts executed about the latter period the dots are of larger size
and more numerous in proportion to the black, and they evidently have
been produced by means of a lozenge-pointed tool, in imitation of
cross-hatching.
[Footnote V-4: Some single cuts executed in this manner are
supposed to be at least as old as the year 1450. The earliest that
I have noticed in a book occur in a Life of Christ printed at
Cologne about 1485.]
The greatest promoter of the art of wood engraving, towards the close of
the fifteenth and in the early part of the sixteenth century, was
unquestionably Albert Durer; not however, as is generally supposed, from
having himself engraved the numerous wood-cuts which bear his mark, but
from his having thought so well of the art as to have most of his
greatest works engraved on wood from drawings made on the block by
himself. Until within the last thirty years, most writers who have
written on the subject of art, have spoken of Albert Durer as a wood
engraver; and before proceeding to give any account of his life, or
specimens of some of the principal wood engravings which bear his mark,
it appears necessary to examine the grounds of this opinion.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
There are about two hundred subjects engraved on wood which are marked
with the initials of Albert Durer’s name; and the greater part of them,
though evidently designed by the hand of a master, are engraved in a
manner which certainly denotes no very great excellence. Of the
remainder, which are better engraved, it would be difficult to point out
one which displays execution so decidedly superior as to enable any
person to say positively that it must have been cut by Albert Durer
himself. The earliest engravings on wood with Durer’s mark are sixteen
cuts illustrative of the Apocalypse, first published in 1498; and
between that period and 1528, the year of his death, it is likely that
nearly all the others were executed. The cuts of the Apocalypse
generally are much superior to all wood engravings that had previously
appeared, both in design and execution; but if they be carefully
examined by any person conversant with the practice of the art, it will
be perceived that their superiority is not owing to any delicacy in the
lines which would render them difficult to engrave, but from the ability
of the person by whom they were drawn, and from his knowledge of the
capabilities of the art. Looking at the state of wood engraving at the
period when those cuts were published, I cannot think that the artist
who made the drawings would experience any difficulty in finding persons
capable of engraving them. In most of the wood-cuts supposed to have
been engraved by Albert Durer we find cross-hatching freely introduced;
the readiest mode of producing effect to an artist drawing on wood with
a pen or a black-lead pencil, but which to the wood engraver is attended
with considerable labour. Had Albert Durer engraved his own designs,
I am inclined to think that he would not have introduced cross-hatching
so frequently, but would have endeavoured to attain his object by means
which were easier of execution. What is termed “cross-hatching” in wood
engraving is nothing more than black lines crossing each other, for the
most part diagonally; and in _drawing_ on wood it is easier to produce a
shade by this means, than by thickening the lines; but in _engraving_ on
wood it is precisely the reverse; for it is easier to leave a thick line
than to cut out the interstices of lines crossing each other. Nothing is
more common than for persons who know little of the history of wood
engraving, and still less of the practice, to refer to the frequent
cross-hatching in the cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert
Durer as a proof of their excellence: as if the talent of the artist
were chiefly displayed in such parts of the cuts as are in reality least
worthy of him, and which a mere workman might execute as well. In
opposition to this vulgar error I venture to assert, that there is not a
wood engraver in London of the least repute who cannot produce
_apprentices_ to cut fac-similes of any cross-hatching that is to be
found, not only in the wood engravings supposed to have been executed by
Albert Durer, but in those of any other master. The execution of
cross-hatching requires time, but very little talent; and a moderately
clever lad, with a steady hand and a lozenge-pointed tool, will cut in a
year a _square yard_ of such cross-hatching as is generally found in the
largest of the cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert Durer. In
the works of Bewick, scarcely more than one trifling instance of
cross-hatching is to be found; and in the productions of all other
modern wood engravers who have made their own drawings, we find
cross-hatching sparingly introduced; while in almost every one of the
cuts designed by Durer, Cranach, Burgmair, and others who are known to
have been painters of eminence in their day, it is of frequent
occurrence. Had these masters engraved their own designs on wood, as has
been very generally supposed, they probably would have introduced much
less cross-hatching into their subjects; but as there is every reason to
believe that they only made the drawing on the wood, the engravings
which are ascribed to them abound in lines which are readily made with a
pen or a pencil, but which require considerable time to cut with a
graver.
At the period that Durer published his illustrations of the Apocalypse,
few wood-cuts of much merit either in design or execution had appeared
in printed books; and the wood engravers of that age seem generally to
have been mere workmen, who only understood the mechanical branch of
their art, but who were utterly devoid of all knowledge of composition
or correct drawing; and there is also reason to believe that wood-cuts
at that period, and even for some time after, were not unfrequently
engraved by women.[V-5] As the names of those persons were probably not
known beyond the town in which they resided, it cannot be a matter of
surprise that neither their marks nor initials should be found on the
cuts which they engraved from the drawings of such artists as Albert
Durer.
[Footnote V-5: In a folio of Albert Durer’s drawings in the Print
Room at the British Museum there is a portrait of “_Fronica,
Formschneiderin_,” with the date 1525. In 1433 we find a woman at
Nuremberg described as a card-maker: “_Eli. Kartenmacherin_.” It
is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that the earliest
German wood engravers were card-makers.--See chapter II. p. 41.]
It perhaps may be objected, that as Albert Durer’s copper-plate
engravings contain only his mark, in the same manner as the wood
engravings, it might with equal reason be questioned if they were really
executed by himself. Notwithstanding the identity of the marks, there
is, however, a wide difference between the two cases. In the age of
Albert Durer most of the artists who engraved on copper were also
painters; and most of the copper-plate engravings which bear his mark
are such as none but an artist of great talent could execute. It would
require the abilities of a first-rate copper-plate engraver of the
present day to produce a fac-simile of his best copper-plates; while a
wood engraver of but moderate skill would be able to cut a fac-simile of
one of his best wood engravings after the subject was drawn for him on
the block. The best of Albert Durer’s copper-plates could only have been
engraved by a master; while the best of his wood-cuts might be engraved
by a working Formschneider who had acquired a practical knowledge of his
art by engraving, under the superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth and
William Pleydenwurff, the wood-cuts for the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Von Murr, who was of opinion that Albert Durer engraved his own designs
on wood, gives a letter of Durer’s in the ninth volume of his Journal
which he thinks is decisive of the fact. The letter, which relates to a
wood engraving of a shield of arms, was written in 1511, and is to the
following effect: “Dear Michael Beheim, I return you the arms, and beg
that you will let it remain as it is. No one will make it better, as I
have done it according to art and with great care, as those who see it
and understand the matter will tell you. If the labels were thrown back
above the helmet, the volet would be covered.”[V-6] This letter,
however, is by no means decisive, for it is impossible to determine
whether the “arms” which the artist returned were a finished engraving
or merely a drawing on wood.[V-7] From one or two expressions it seems
most likely to have been a drawing only; for in a finished cut
alterations cannot very well be introduced; and it seems most probable
that Michael Beheim’s objections would be made to the drawing of the
arms before they were engraved, and not to the finished cut. But even
supposing it to have been the engraved block which Durer returned, this
is by no means a proof of his having engraved it himself, for he might
have engravers employed in his house in order that the designs which he
drew on the blocks might be executed under his own superintendence. The
Baron Derschau indeed told Dr. Dibdin that he was once in possession of
the _journal_ or day-book of Albert Durer, from which “it appeared that
he was in the habit of drawing upon the blocks, and that his men
performed the remaining operation of cutting away the wood.”[V-8] This
information, had it been communicated by a person whose veracity might
be depended on, would be decisive of the question; but the book
unfortunately “perished in the flames of a house in the neighbourhood of
one of the battles fought between Bonaparte and the Prussians;” and from
a little anecdote recorded by Dr. Dibdin the Baron appears to have been
a person whose word was not to be implicitly relied on.[V-9]
[Footnote V-6: The following is Bartsch’s French version of this
letter, which is given in the original German in Von Murr’s
Journal, 9^er. Theil, S. 53. “Cher Michel Beheim. Je vous envoie
les armoiries, en vous priant de les laisser comme elles sont.
Personne d’ailleurs ne les corrigeroit en mieux, car je les ai
faites exprès et avec art; c’est pourquoi ceux qui s’y connoissent
et qui les verront vous en rendront bonne raison. Si l’on haussoit
les lambrequins du heaume, ils couvriroient le volet.”--Bartsch,
Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. p. 27.]
[Footnote V-7: In Durer’s Journal of his visit to the Netherlands
in 1520 there is the following passage: “Item hab dem von
Rogendorff sein Wappen auf Holz gerissen, dafür hat er mir
geschenckt vii. Ein Sammet.”--“Also I have drawn for Von
Rogendorff his arms on wood, for which he has presented me with
seven yards of velvet.”--Von Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschichte,
7^er. Theil, S. 76.]
[Footnote V-8: Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. p. 442, second
edition.]
[Footnote V-9: The Baron was the collector of the wood-cuts
published with Becker’s explanations, referred to at page 226,
chapter IV. The anecdote alluded to will be found in Dr. Dibdin’s
Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. pp. 445, 446. The Baron sold a
rare specimen of copper-plate engraving with the date M. CCCC.
XXX. to the Doctor, and it seems that he also sold _another_
impression from the same plate to Mr. John Payne. There is no
doubt of their being gross forgeries; and it is not unlikely that
the plate was in the Baron’s possession.]
Neudörffer, who in 1546 collected some particulars relative to the
history of the artists of Nuremberg, says that Jerome Resch, or Rösch,
engraved most of the cuts designed by Albert Durer. He also says that
Resch was one of the most skilful wood engravers of his day, and that he
particularly excelled in engraving letters on wood. This artist also
used to engrave dies for coining money, and had a printing establishment
of his own. He dwelt in the Broad Way at Nuremberg, with a back entrance
in Petticoat Lane;[V-10] and when he was employed in engraving the
Triumphal Car drawn by Albert Durer for the Emperor Maximilian, the
Emperor used to call almost every day to see the progress of the work;
and as he entered at Petticoat Lane, it became a by-word with the common
people: “The Emperor still often drives to Petticoat Lane.”[V-11]
[Footnote V-10: “Dieser Hieronymus hat allhier im breiten Gassen
gewohnt, dessen Wohnung hinten ins Frauengässlein ging.”]
[Footnote V-11: Neudörffer, quoted in Von Murr’s Journal, 2ter
Theil, S. 158, 159.]
Although it is by no means unlikely that Albert Durer might engrave two
or three wood-cuts of his own designing, yet, after a careful
examination of most of those that bear his mark, I cannot find one which
is so decidedly superior to the rest as to induce an opinion of its
being engraved by himself; and I cannot for a moment believe that an
artist of his great talents, and who painted so many pictures, engraved
so many copper-plates, and made so many designs, could find time to
engrave even a small part of the many wood-cuts which have been supposed
to be executed by him, and which a common wood engraver might execute as
well. “If Durer himself had engraved on wood,” says Bartsch in the
seventh volume of his Peintre-Graveur, “it is most likely that among the
many particular accounts which we have of his different pursuits, and of
the various kind of works which he has left, the fact of his having
applied himself to wood engraving would certainly have been transmitted
in a manner no less explicit; but, far from finding the least trace of
it, everything that relates to this subject proves that he had never
employed himself in this kind of work. He is always described as a
painter, a designer, or an editor of works engraved on wood, but never
as a wood engraver.”[V-12] I also further agree with Bartsch, who thinks
that the wood-cuts which contain the marks of Lucas Cranach, Hans
Burgmair, and others who are known to have been painters of considerable
reputation in their day, were not engraved by those artists, but only
designed or drawn by them on the block.
[Footnote V-12: At the end of the first edition of the cuts
illustrative of the Apocalypse, 1498, we find the words: “_Gedrukt
durch Albrecht Durer, Maler_,”--Printed by Albert Durer, painter;
and the same in Latin in the second edition, printed about 1510.
The passion of Christ and the History of the Virgin are
respectively said to have been “_effigiata_” and “_per figuras
digesta_”--“drawn” and “pictorially represented” by Albert Durer;
and the cuts of the Triumphal Car of the Emperor Maximilian are
described as being “_erfunden und geordnet_”--“invented and
arranged” by him.--Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. p. 28.]
Albert Durer was born at Nuremberg, on 20th May 1471. His father, whose
name was also Albert, was a goldsmith, and a native of Cola in Hungary.
His mother was a daughter of Jerome Haller, who was also a goldsmith,
and the master under whom the elder Durer had acquired a knowledge of
his art. Albert continued with his father till his sixteenth year, and
had, as he himself says, learned to execute beautiful works in the
goldsmith’s art, when he felt a great desire to become a painter. His
father on hearing of his wish to change his profession was much
displeased, as he considered that the time he had already spent in
endeavouring to acquire a knowledge of the art of a goldsmith was
entirely lost. He, however, assented to his son’s earnest request, and
placed him, on St. Andrew’s day, 1486, as a pupil under Michael
Wolgemuth for the term of three years, to learn the art of painting. On
the expiration of his “lehr-jahre,” or apprenticeship, in 1490, he left
his master, and, according to the custom of German artists of that
period, proceeded to travel for the purpose of gaining a further
knowledge of his profession. In what manner or in what places he was
chiefly employed during his “wander-jahre”[V-13] is not very well known;
but it is probable that his travels did not extend beyond Germany. In
the course of his peregrinations he visited Colmar, in 1492, where he
was kindly received by Caspar, Paul, and Louis, the brothers of Martin
Schongauer; but he did not see, either then or at any other period, that
celebrated engraver himself.[V-14] He returned to Nuremberg in the
spring of 1494; and shortly afterwards married Agnes, the daughter of
John Frey, a mechanist of considerable reputation of that city. This
match, which is said to have been made for him by his parents, proved to
be an unhappy one; for, though his wife possessed considerable personal
charms, she was a woman of a most wretched temper; and her incessant
urging him to continued exertion in order that she might obtain money,
is said to have embittered the life of the artist and eventually to have
hastened his death.[V-15]
[Footnote V-13: The time that a German artist spends in travel
from the expiration of his apprenticeship to the period of his
settling as a master is called his “wander-jahre,”--his travelling
years. It is customary with many trades in Germany for the young
men to travel for a certain time on the termination of their
apprenticeship before they are admitted to the full privileges of
the company or fellowship.]
[Footnote V-14: It has been stated, though erroneously, that
Albert Durer was a pupil of Martin Schongauer, or Schön, as the
surname was spelled by some writers, one of the most eminent
painters and copper-plate engravers of his day. It has been
generally supposed that he died in 1486; but, if an old memorandum
at the back of his portrait in the collection of Count de Fries
can be depended on, his death did not take place till the 2d of
February 1499. An account of this memorandum will be found in
Ottley’s Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving,
vol. ii. p. 640.]
[Footnote V-15: On a passage, in which Durer alludes to his wife,
in one of his letters from Venice, 1506, to his friend Bilibald
Pirkheimer, Von Murr makes the following remark: “This Xantippe
must even at that time have vexed him much; and he was obliged to
drag on his life with her for twenty-two years longer, till she
fairly plagued him to death.”--Journal, 10er Theil, S. 32.]
It has not been ascertained from whom Albert Durer learnt the art of
engraving on copper; for there seems but little reason to believe that
his master Michael Wolgemuth ever practised that branch of art, though
several copper-plates, marked with a W, have been ascribed to him by
some authors.[V-16] As most of the early copper-plate engravers were
also goldsmiths, it is probable that Durer might acquire some knowledge
of the former art during the time that he continued with his father;
and, as he was endowed with a versatile genius, it is not unlikely that
he owed his future improvement entirely to himself. The earliest date
that is to be found on his copper-plates is 1494. The subject in which
this date occurs represents a group of four naked women with a globe
suspended above them, in the manner of a lamp, on which are inscribed
the letters O. G. H. which have been supposed to signify the words
“O Gott helf!”--Help, O Lord!--as if the spectator on beholding the
naked beauties were exceedingly liable to fall into temptation.[V-17]
[Footnote V-16: Bartsch is decidedly of opinion that Michael
Wolgemuth was not an engraver; and he ascribes all the plates
marked with a W, which others have supposed to be Wolgemuth’s, to
Wenceslaus of Olmutz, an artist of whom nothing is positively
known.]
[Footnote V-17: This subject has also been engraved by Israel Von
Mecken, and by an artist supposed to be Wenceslaus of Olmutz. It
is probable that those artists have copied Durer’s engraving. On
the globe in Israel Von Mecken’s plate the letters are O. G. B.]
The earliest wood engravings that contain Albert Durer’s mark are
sixteen subjects, of folio size, illustrative of the Apocalypse, which
were printed at Nuremberg, 1498. On the first leaf is the title in
German: “Die heimliche Offenbarung Johannes”--“The Revelation of
John;”--and on the back of the last cut but one is the imprint:
“Gedrücket zu Nurnbergk durch Albrecht Durer, maler, nach Christi geburt
M. CCCC. und darnach im xcviij. iar”--“Printed at Nuremberg by Albert
Durer, painter, in the year after the birth of Christ 1498.” The date of
those cuts marks an important epoch in the history of wood engraving.
From this time the boundaries of the art became enlarged; and wood
engravers, instead of being almost wholly occupied in executing designs
of the very lowest character, drawn without feeling, taste, or
knowledge, were now to be engaged in engraving subjects of general
interest, drawn, expressly for the purpose of being thus executed, by
some of the most celebrated artists of the age. Though several cuts of
the Apocalypse are faulty in drawing and extravagant in design, they are
on the whole much superior to any series of wood engravings that
preceded them; and their execution, though coarse, is free and bold.
They are not equal, in point of well-contrasted light and shade, to some
of Durer’s later designs on wood; but considering them as his first
essays in drawing on wood, they are not unworthy of his reputation. They
appear as if they had been drawn on the block with a pen and ink; and
though cross-hatching is to be found in all of them, this mode of
indicating a shade, or obtaining “colour,” is much less frequently
employed than in some of his later productions. The following is a
reduced copy of one of the cuts, No. 11, which is illustrative of the
twelfth chapter of Revelations, verses 1-4: “And there appeared a great
wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her
feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.----And there appeared
another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven
heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew
the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth;
and the dragon stood before the woman.”
[Illustration]
In 1502 a pirated edition of those cuts was published at Strasburg by
Jerome Greff, who describes himself as a painter of Frankfort. In 1511
Durer published a second edition of the originals; and on the back of
the last cut but one is a caution addressed to the plagiary, informing
him of the Emperor’s order, prohibiting any one to copy the cuts or to
sell the spurious impressions within the limits of the German empire,
under the penalty of the confiscation of goods, and at the peril of
further punishment.[V-18]
[Footnote V-18: This caution is in the original expressed in the
following indignant terms: “Heus, tu insidiator, ac alieni laboris
et ingenii surreptor, ne manus temerarias his nostris operibus
inicias cave. Scias enim a gloriosissimo Romanorum imperatore
Maximiliano nobis concessum esse ne quis suppositiciis formis has
imagines imprimere seu impressas per imperii limites vendere
audeat: q’ per contemptum seu avariciæ crimen secus feceris, post
bonorum confiscationem tibi maximum periculum subeundum esse
certissime scias.”]
Though no other wood engravings with Durer’s mark are found with a date
till 1504, yet it is highly probable that several subjects of his
designing were engraved between 1498, the date of the Apocalypse, and
the above year; and it is also likely that he engraved several
copper-plates within this period; although, with the exception of that
of the four naked women, there are only four known which contain a date
earlier than 1505. About the commencement of 1506 Durer visited Venice,
where he remained till October in the same year. Eight letters which he
addressed to Bilibald Pirkheimer from Venice, are printed in the tenth
volume of Von Murr’s Journal. In the first letter, which is dated on the
day of the Three Kings of Cologne, 1506, he informs his friend that he
was employed to paint a picture for the German church at Venice, for
which he was to receive a hundred and ten Rhenish guilders,[V-19] and
that he expects to have it ready to place above the altar a month after
Easter. He expresses a hope that he will be enabled to repay out of this
money what he had borrowed of Pirkheimer. From this letter it seems
evident that Durer’s circumstances were not then in a very flourishing
state, and that he had to depend on his exertions for the means of
living. The comparatively trifling sums which he mentions as having sent
to his mother and his wife sufficiently declare that he had not left a
considerable sum at home. He also says, that should his wife want more
money, her father must assist her, and that he will honourably repay him
on his return.
[Footnote V-19: Von Murr says that the subject of this picture was
the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, the saint to whom the church was
dedicated; and that the painting afterwards came into the
possession of the Emperor Rudolf II. and was placed in his gallery
at Prague. It seems that Durer had taken some pictures with him to
Venice; for in his fifth letter he says that he has sold two for
twenty-four ducats, and exchanged three others for three rings,
valued also at twenty-four ducats.]
In the second letter, after telling Pirkheimer that he has no other
friend but him on earth, he expresses a wish that he were in Venice to
enjoy the pleasant company that he has met with there. The following
passage, which occurs in this letter, is, perhaps, the most interesting
in the collection: “I have many good friends among the Italians, who
warn me not to eat or drink with their painters, of whom several are my
enemies, and copy my picture in the church and others of mine, wherever
they can find them; and yet they blame them, and say they are not
according to ancient art, and therefore not good. Giovanni Bellini[V-20]
however has praised me highly to several gentlemen, and wishes to have
something of my doing. He called on me himself, and requested that I
would paint a picture for him, for which he said he would pay me well.
People are all surprised that I should be so much thought of by a person
of his reputation. He is very old, but is still the best painter of them
all. The things which pleased me eleven years ago, please me no longer.
If I had not seen it myself I could not have believed it. You must also
know that there are many better painters within this city than Master
Jacob is without, although Anthony Kolb swears that there is not on
earth a better painter than Jacob.[V-21] The others laugh, and say if he
were good for anything he would live in Venice.”
[Footnote V-20: In the Venetian dialect of that period Giovanni
Bellini was called Zan Belin; and Durer spells the name
“Sambellinus.” He was the master of Titian, and died in 1514, at
the age of ninety.--Von Murr, Journal, 10er Theil, S. 8.]
[Footnote V-21: Von Murr says that he cannot discover what Jacob
is here meant. It would not be Jacob Walsch, as he died in 1500.
The person alluded to was certainly not an Italian.]
The greater part of the other six letters are chiefly occupied with
accounts of his success in executing sundry little commissions with
which he had been entrusted by his friends, such as the purchase of a
finger-ring and two pieces of tapestry; to enquire after such Greek
books as had been recently published; and to get him some crane
feathers. The sixth and seventh letters are written in a vein of humour
which at the present time would be called gross. Von Murr illustrates
one passage by a quotation from Swift which is not remarkable for its
delicacy; and he also says that Durer’s eighth letter is written in the
humorous style of that writer. Those letters show that chastity was not
one of Bilibald Pirkheimer’s virtues; and that the learned counsellor of
the imperial city of Nuremberg was devoted “tam Veneri quam
Mercurio.”[V-22]
[Footnote V-22: Bilibald Pirkheimer was a learned man, and a
person of great authority in the city of Nuremberg. He was also a
member of the Imperial Council, and was frequently employed in
negociations with neighbouring states. He published several works;
and among others a humorous essay entitled “Laus Podagræ”--The
Praise of the Gout. His memory is still held in great respect in
Germany as the friend of Albert Durer and Ulrich Hutten, two of
the most extraordinary men that Germany has produced. He died in
1530, aged 60.]
In the fourth letter Durer says that the painters were much opposed to
him; that they had thrice compelled him to go before the magistracy; and
that they had obliged him to give four florins to their society. In the
seventh letter, he writes as follows about the picture which he had
painted for the German church: “I have through it received great praise,
but little profit. I might well have gained two hundred ducats in the
same time, and all the while I laboured most diligently in order that I
might get home again. I have given all the painters a rubbing down who
said that I could engrave[V-23] well, but that in painting I knew not
how to manage my colours. Everybody here says they never saw colours
more beautiful.” In his last letter, which is dated, “at Venice, I know
not what day of the month, but about the fourteenth day after
Michaelmas, 1506,” he says that he will be ready to leave that city in
about ten days; that he intends to proceed to Bologna, and after staying
there about eight or ten days for the sake of learning some secrets in
perspective, to return home by way of Venice. He visited Bologna as he
intended; and was treated with great respect by the painters of that
city. After a brief stay at Bologna, he returned to Nuremberg; and there
is no evidence of his ever having visited Italy again.
[Footnote V-23: The kind of engraving meant was copper-plate
engraving. Durer’s words are: “Ich hab awch dy Moler all gesthrilt
dy do sagten, Im _Stechen_ wer ich gut, aber im molen west ich nit
mit farben um zu gen.” The word “_Stechen_” applies to engraving
on copper; “Schneiden” to engraving on wood.--Von Murr, Journal,
10er Theil, S. 28.]
[Illustration]
In 1511, the second of Durer’s large works engraved on wood appeared at
Nuremberg. It is generally entitled the History of the Virgin, and
consists of nineteen large cuts, each about eleven inches and three
quarters high, by eight inches and a quarter wide, with a vignette of
smaller size which ornaments the title-page.[V-24] Impressions are to be
found without any accompanying text, but the greater number have
explanatory verses printed from type at the back. The cut here
represented is a reduced copy of the vignette on the title-page. The
Virgin is seen seated on a crescent, giving suck to the infant Christ;
and her figure and that of the child are drawn with great feeling. Of
all Durer’s Madonnas, whether engraved on wood or copper, this, perhaps,
is one of the best. Her attitude is easy and natural, and happily
expressive of the character in which she is represented--that of a
nursing mother. The light and shade are well contrasted; and the folds
of her ample drapery, which Durer was fond of introducing whenever he
could, are arranged in a manner which materially contributes to the
effect of the engraving.
[Footnote V-24: The title at length is as follows: “Epitome in
Divæ Parthenices Marie Historiam ab Alberto Durero Norico per
figuras digestam, cum versibus annexis Chelidonii.” Chelidonius,
who was a Benedictine monk of Nuremberg, also furnished the
descriptive text to the series of twelve cuts illustrative of
Christ’s Passion, of which specimens will be found between page
246 and page 250.]
[Illustration]
The following cuts are reduced copies of two of the larger subjects of
the same work. That which is here given represents the birth of the
Virgin; and were it not for the angel who is seen swinging a censer at
the top of the room, it might be taken for the accouchement of a German
burgomaster’s wife in the year 1510. The interior is apparently that of
a house in Nuremberg of Durer’s own time, and the figures introduced are
doubtless faithful copies, both in costume and character, of such
females as were generally to be found in the house of a German tradesman
on such an occasion. From the number of cups and flagons that are seen,
we may be certain that the gossips did not want liquor; and that in
Durer’s age the female friends and attendants on a groaning woman were
accustomed to enjoy themselves on the birth of a child over a cheerful
cup. In the fore-ground an elderly female is perceived taking a draught,
without measure, from a flagon; while another, more in the distance and
farther to the right, appears to be drinking, from a cup, health to the
infant which a woman like a nurse holds in her arms. An elderly female,
sitting by the side of the bed, has dropped into a doze; but whether
from the effects of the liquor or long watching it would not be easy to
divine. On the opposite side of the bed a female figure presents a
caudle, with a spoon in it, to St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin, while
another is seen filling a goblet of wine. At the bottom of the cut is
Durer’s mark on a tablet. The original cut is not remarkable for the
excellence of its engraving, but it affords a striking example of the
little attention which Durer, in common with most other German painters
of that period, paid to propriety of costume in the treatment of such
subjects. The piece is Hebrew, of the age of Herod the Great; but the
scenery, dresses, and decorations are German, of the time of
Maximilian I.
The second specimen of the large cuts of Durer’s Life of the Virgin,
given on the next page, represents the Sojourn of the Holy Family in
Egypt. In the fore-ground St. Joseph is seen working at his business as
a carpenter; while a number of little figures, like so many Cupids, are
busily employed in collecting the chips which he makes and in putting
them into a basket. Two little winged figures, of the same family as the
chip-collectors, are seen running hand-in-hand, a little more in the
distance to the left, and one of them holds in his hand a plaything like
those which are called “windmills” in England, and are cried about as
“toys for girls and boys,” and sold for a halfpenny each, or exchanged
for old pewter spoons, doctors’ bottles, or broken flint-glass. To the
right the Virgin, a matronly-looking figure, is seen sitting spinning,
and at the same time rocking with her foot the cradle in which the
infant Christ is asleep. Near the Virgin are St. Elizabeth and her young
son, the future Baptist. At the head of the cradle is an angel bending
as if in the act of adoration; while another, immediately behind St.
Elizabeth, holds a pot containing flowers. In the sky there is a
representation of the Deity, with the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove.
The artist has not thought it necessary to mark the locality of the
scene by the introduction of pyramids and temples in the back-ground,
for the architectural parts of his subject, as well as the human
figures, have evidently been supplied by his own country, Durer’s mark
is at the bottom of the cut on the right.
[Illustration]
Christ’s Passion, consisting of a series of eleven large wood-cuts and a
vignette, designed by Albert Durer, appeared about the same time as his
History of the Virgin.[V-25] The descriptive matter was compiled by
Chelidonius; and, in the same manner as in the History of the Virgin,
a certain number of impressions were printed without any explanatory
text.[V-26] The large subjects are about fifteen inches and a half high,
by eleven inches and an eighth wide. The following cut is a reduced copy
of the vignette on the title-page.
[Footnote V-25: The cuts of these two works appear to have been in
the hands of the engraver at the same time. Of those in the
History of the Virgin one is dated 1509; and two bear the date
1510; and in the Passion of Christ four are dated 1510.]
[Footnote V-26: The Latin title of the work is as follows: “Passio
Domini nostri Jesu, ex Hieronymo Paduano, Dominico Mancino,
Sedulio, et Baptista Mantuana, per fratrem Chelidonium collecta,
cum figuris Alberti Dureri Norici Pictoris.”]
[Illustration]
The subject is Christ mocked; but the artist has at the same time wished
to express in the figure of Christ the variety of his sufferings: the
Saviour prays as if in his agony on the mount; near him lies the
instrument of his flagellation; his hands and feet bear the marks of the
nails, and he appears seated on the covering of his sepulchre. The
soldier is kneeling and offering a reed as a sceptre to Christ, whom he
hails in derision as King of the Jews.
The three following cuts are reduced copies of the same number in the
Passion of Christ. In the cut of the Last Supper, in the next page,
cross-hatching is freely introduced, though without contributing much to
the improvement of the engraving; and the same effect in the wall to the
right, in the groins of the roof, and in the floor under the table,
might be produced by much simpler means. No artist, I am persuaded,
would introduce such work in a design if he had to engrave it himself.
The same “colour” might be produced by single lines which could be
executed in a third of the time required to cut out the interstices of
the cross-hatchings. Durer’s mark is at the bottom of the cut, and the
date 1510 is perceived above it, on the frame of the table.
The cut on page 249, from the Passion, Christ bearing his Cross, is
highly characteristic of Durer’s style; and the original is one of the
best of all the wood engravings which bear his mark. The characters
introduced are such as he was fondest of drawing; and most of the heads
and figures may be recognised in several other engravings either
executed by himself on copper or by others on wood from his designs.
[Illustration]
The figure which is seen holding a kind of halbert in his right hand is
a favourite with Durer, and is introduced, with trifling variations, in
at least half a dozen of his subjects; and the horseman with a kind of
turban on his head and a lance in his left hand occurs no less
frequently. St. Veronica, who is seen holding the “sudarium,” or holy
handkerchief, in the fore-ground to the left, is a type of his female
figures; the head of the executioner, who is seen urging Christ forward,
is nearly the same as that of the mocker in the preceding vignette; and
Simon the Cyrenian, who assists to bear the cross, appears to be the
twin-brother of St. Joseph in the Sojourn in Egypt. The figure of
Christ, bowed down with the weight of the cross, is well drawn, and his
face is strongly expressive of sorrow. Behind Simon the Cyrenian are the
Virgin and St. John; and under the gateway a man with a haggard visage
is perceived carrying a ladder with his head between the steps. The
artist’s mark is at the bottom of the cut.
[Illustration]
The subject of the cut on page 250, from Christ’s Passion, represents
the descent into hell and the liberation of the ancestors. The massive
gates of the abode of sin and death have been burst open, and the banner
of the cross waves triumphant. Among those who have already been
liberated from the pit of darkness are Eve, who has her back turned
towards the spectator, and Adam, who in his right hand holds an apple,
the symbol of his fall, and with his left supports a cross, the emblem
of his redemption. In the front is Christ aiding others of the ancestors
to ascend from the pit, to the great dismay of the demons whose realm is
invaded. A horrid monster, with a head like that of a boar surmounted
with a horn, aims a blow at the Redeemer with a kind of rude lance;
while another, a hideous compound of things that swim, and walk, and
fly, sounds a note of alarm to arouse his kindred fiends. On a stone,
above the entrance to the pit, is the date 1510; and Durer’s mark is
perceived on another stone immediately before the figure of Christ. This
cut, with the exception of the frequent cross-hatching, is designed more
in the style and spirit of the artist’s illustrations of the Apocalypse
than in the manner of the rest of the series to which it belongs.
[Illustration]
The preceding specimens of wood-cuts from Durer’s three great works, the
Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, and Christ’s Passion, afford not
only an idea of the style of his drawing on wood, but also of the
progress made by the art of wood engraving from the time of his first
availing himself of its capabilities. In Durer’s designs on wood we
perceive not only more correct drawing and a greater knowledge of
composition, but also a much more effective combination of light and
shade, than are to be found in any wood-cuts executed before the date of
his earliest work, the Apocalypse, which appeared in 1498. One of the
peculiar advantages of wood engraving is the effect with which strong
shades can be represented; and of this Durer has generally availed
himself with the greatest skill. On comparing his works engraved on wood
with all those previously executed in the same manner, we shall find
that his figures are not only much better drawn and more skilfully
grouped, but that instead of sticking, in hard outline, against the
back-ground, they stand out with the natural appearance of rotundity.
The rules of perspective are more attentively observed; the back-grounds
better filled; and a number of subordinate objects introduced--such as
trees, herbage, flowers, animals, and children--which at once give a
pleasing variety to the subject and impart to it the stamp of truth.
Though the figures in many of his designs may not indeed be correct in
point of costume,--for though he diligently studied Nature, it was only
in her German dress,--yet their character and expression are generally
appropriate and natural. Though incapable of imparting to sacred
subjects the elevated character which is given to them by Raffaele, his
representations are perhaps no less like the originals than those of the
great Italian master. It is indeed highly probable that Albert Durer’s
German representatives of saints and apostles are more like the
originals than the more dignified ideal portraits of Raffaele. The
latter, from his knowledge of the antique, has frequently given to his
Jews a character and a costume borrowed from Grecian art of the age of
Phidias; while Albert Durer has given to them the features and invested
them in the costume of Germans of his own age.
Shortly after the appearance of the large cuts illustrative of Christ’s
Passion, Durer published a series of thirty-seven of a smaller size,
also engraved on wood, which Mr. Ottley calls “The Fall of Man and his
Redemption through Christ,” but which Durer himself refers to under the
title of “The Little Passion.”[V-27] All the cuts of the Little Passion,
as well as seventeen of those of the Life of the Virgin and several
other pieces of Durer’s, were imitated on copper by Marc Antonio
Raimondi, the celebrated Italian engraver, who is said to have sold his
copies as the originals. Vasari, in his Life of Marc Antonio, says that
when Durer was informed of this imitation of his works, he was highly
incensed and he set out directly for Venice, and that on his arrival
there he complained of Marc Antonio’s proceedings to the government; but
could obtain no further redress than that in future Marc Antonio should
not put Durer’s mark to his engravings.
[Footnote V-27: The Latin title of this work is “Passio Christi,”
and the explanatory verses are from the pen of Chelidonius. Durer,
in the Journal of his Visit to the Netherlands, twice mentions it
as “die Kleine Passion,” and each time with a distinction which
proves that he did not mean the Passion engraved by him on copper
and probably published in 1512. “Item Sebaldt Fischer hat mir zu
Antorff [Antwerp] abkaufft 16 _kleiner Passion_, pro 4 fl. Mehr 32
grosser Bücher pro 8 fl. Mehr 6 gestochne Passion pro 3
fl.”--“Darnach die drey Bücher unser Frauen Leben, Apocalypsin,
und den grossen Passion, darnach _den klein Passion_, und den
Passion in Kupffer.”--Albrecht Dürers Reisejournal, in Von Murr,
7er Theil, S. 60 and 67. The size of the cuts of the Little
Passion is five inches high by three and seven-eighths wide. Four
impressions from the original blocks are given in Ottley’s
Inquiry, vol. ii. between page 730 and page 731.]
Though it is by no means unlikely that Durer might apply to the Venetian
government to prevent the sale of spurious copies of his works within
the bounds of their jurisdiction, yet Vasari’s account of his personally
visiting that city for the purpose of making a complaint against Marc
Antonio, and of the government having forbid the latter to affix Durer’s
mark to his engravings in future, is certainly incorrect. The History of
the Virgin, the earliest of the two works which were almost entirely
copied by Marc Antonio, was not published before 1510, and there is not
the slightest evidence of Durer having re-visited Venice after his
return to Nuremberg about the latter end of 1506. Bartsch thinks that
Vasari’s account of Durer’s complaining to the Venetian government
against Marc Antonio is wholly unfounded; not only from the fact of
Durer not having visited Venice subsequent to 1506, but from the
improbability of his applying to a foreign state to prohibit a stranger
from copying his works. Mr. Ottley, however,--after observing that Marc
Antonio had affixed Durer’s mark to his copies of the seventeen cuts of
the Life of the Virgin and of some other single subjects, but had
omitted it in his copies of the cuts of the Little Passion,--thus
expresses his opinion with respect to the correctness of this part of
Vasari’s account: “That Durer, who enjoyed the especial protection of
the Emperor Maximilian, might be enabled through the imperial ambassador
at Venice to lay his complaints before the government, and to obtain the
prohibition before stated, may I think readily be imagined; and it
cannot be denied, that the circumstance of Marc Antonio’s having omitted
to affix the mark of Albert to the copies which he afterwards made of
the series of the ‘Life of Christ’ is strongly corroborative of the
general truth of the story.”[V-28] As two of the cuts in the Little
Passion, which Mr. Ottley here calls the “Life of Christ,” are dated
1510, and as, according to Mr. Ottley, Marc Antonio arrived at Rome in
the course of that year, it is difficult to conceive how the government
of Venice could have the power to prohibit a native of Bologna, living
in a state beyond their jurisdiction, from affixing Albert Durer’s mark
to such engravings as he might please to copy from the works of that
master.
[Footnote V-28: Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of
Engraving, vol. ii. p. 782. The objections to the general truth of
Vasari’s story appear to be much stronger than the presumptions in
its favour. 1. The improbability of Albert Durer having visited
Venice subsequent to 1506; 2. The fact of Marc Antonio’s copies of
the cuts of the Little Passion _not_ containing Albert Durer’s
mark; and 3. The probability of Mark Antonio residing beyond the
jurisdiction of the Venetian government at the time of his
engraving them.]
Among the more remarkable single subjects engraved on wood from Durer’s
designs, the following are most frequently referred to: God the Father
bearing up into heaven the dead body of Christ, with the date 1511;
a Rhinoceros, with the date 1515; a portrait of Ulrich Varnbuler, with
the date 1522; a large head of Christ crowned with thorns, without date;
and the Siege of a fortified town, with the date 1527. In the first of
the above-named cuts, God the Father wears a kind of tiara like that of
the Pope, and above the principal figure the Holy Ghost is seen hovering
in the form of a dove. On each side of the Deity and the dead Christ are
angels holding the cross, the pillar to which Christ was bound when he
was scourged, the crown of thorns, the sponge dipped in vinegar, and
other emblems of the Passion. At the foot are heads with puffed-out
cheeks intended to represent the winds. This cut is engraved in a
clearer and more delicate style than most of the other subjects designed
by Durer on wood. There are impressions of the Rhinoceros, and the
portrait of Varnbuler, printed in chiaro-scuro from three blocks; and
there are also other wood-cuts designed by Durer executed in the same
manner. The large head of Christ, which is engraved in a coarse though
spirited and effective manner, is placed by Bartsch among the doubtful
pieces ascribed to Durer; but Mr. Ottley says, “I am unwilling to deny
to Durer the credit of this admirable and boldly executed
production.”[V-29] The cut representing the siege of a fortified town is
twenty-eight inches and three-eighths wide, by eight inches and seven
eighths high. It has been engraved on two blocks, and afterwards pasted
together. A number of small figures are introduced, and a great extent
of country is shown in this cut, which is, however, deficient in effect;
and the little figures, though drawn with great spirit, want relief,
which causes many of them to appear as if they were riding or walking in
the air. The most solid-like part of the subject is the sky; there is no
ground for most of the figures to stand on; and those which are in the
distance are of the same size as those which are apparently a mile or
two nearer the spectator. There is nothing remarkable in the execution,
and the design adds nothing to Durer’s reputation.
[Footnote V-29: There is a copy of this head, also engraved on
wood, of the size of the original, but without Durer’s, or any
other mark. Underneath an impression of the copy, in the Print
Room of the British Museum, there is written in a hand which
appears to be at least as old as the year 1550, “Dieser hat
[[HSB]]ehaim gerissen”--“H. S. Behaim drew this.” Hans Sebald
Behaim, a painter and designer on wood, was born at Nuremberg in
1500, and was the pupil of his uncle, also named Behaim, a painter
and engraver of that city. The younger Behaim abandoned the arts
to become a tavern-keeper at Frankfort, where he died in 1550.]
The great patron of wood engraving in the earlier part of the sixteenth
century was the Emperor Maximilian I, who,--besides originating the
three works, known by the titles of Sir Theurdank, the Wise King, and
the Triumphs of Maximilian, which he caused to be illustrated with
numerous wood engravings, chiefly from the designs of Hans Burgmair and
Hans Schaufflein,--employed Albert Durer to make the designs for two
other series of wood engravings, a Triumphal Car and a Triumphal Arch.
The Triumphal _Car_, engraved by Jerome Resch from Durer’s drawings on
wood, is frequently confounded with the larger work called the Triumphs
of Maximilian, most of the designs of which were made by Hans Burgmair.
It is indeed generally asserted that all the designs for the latter work
were made by Hans Burgmair; but I think I shall be able to show, in a
subsequent notice of that work, that some of the cuts contained in the
edition published at Vienna and London in 1796 were, in all probability,
designed by Albert Durer. The Triumphal Car consists of eight separate
pieces, which, when joined together, form a continuous subject seven
feet four inches long; the height of the highest cut--that containing
the car--is eighteen inches from the base line to the upper part of the
canopy above the Emperor’s head. The Emperor is seen seated in a highly
ornamented car, attended by female figures, representing Justice, Truth,
Clemency, and other virtues, who hold towards him triumphal wreaths. One
of the two wheels which are seen is inscribed “Magnificentia,” and the
other “Dignitas;” the driver of the car is Reason,--“Ratio,”--and one of
the reins is marked “Nobilitas,” and the other “Potentia.” The car is
drawn by six pair of horses splendidly harnessed, and each horse is
attended by a female figure. The names of the females at the head of the
first pair from the car are “Providentia” and “Moderatio;” of the
second, “Alacritas” and “Opportunitas;” of the third, “Velocitas” and
“Firmitudo;” of the fourth, “Acrimonia” and “Virilitas;” of the fifth,
“Audacia” and “Magnanimitas;” and the attendants on the leaders are
“Experientia” and “Solertia.” Above each pair of horses there is a
portion of explanatory matter printed in letter-press; and in that above
the leading pair is a mandate from the Emperor Maximilian, dated
Inspruck, 1518, addressed to Bilibald Pirkheimer, who appears to have
suggested the subject; and in the same place is the name of the inventor
and designer, Albert Durer.[V-30] The first edition of those cuts
appeared at Nuremberg in 1522; and in some copies the text is in German,
and in others in Latin. A second edition, with the text in Latin only,
was printed at the same place in the following year. A third edition,
from the same blocks, was printed at Venice in 1588; and a fourth at
Amsterdam in 1609. The execution of this subject is not particularly
good, but the action of the horses is generally well represented, and
the drawing of some of the female figures attending them is extremely
spirited. Guido seems to have availed himself of some of the figures in
Durer’s Triumphal Car in his celebrated fresco of the Car of Apollo,
preceded by Aurora, and accompanied by the Hours.
[Footnote V-30: In the edition with Latin inscriptions, 1523, are
the words, “Excogitatus et depictus est currus iste Nurembergæ,
impressus vero per Albertum Durer. Anno MDXXIII.” The Latin words
“excogitatus et depictus” are expressed by “gefunden und geordnet”
in the German inscriptions in the edition of 1522. A sketch by
Durer, for the Triumphal Car, is preserved in the Print Room in
the British Museum.]
It is said that the same subject painted by Durer himself is still to be
seen on the walls of the Town-hall of Nuremberg; but how far this is
correct I am unable to positively say; for I know of no account of the
painting written by a person who appears to have been acquainted with
the subject engraved on wood. Dr. Dibdin, who visited the Town-hall of
Nuremberg in 1818, speaks of what he saw there in a most vague and
unsatisfactory manner, as if he did not know the Triumphal Car designed
by Durer from the larger work entitled the Triumphs of Maximilian. The
notice of the learned bibliographer, who professes to be a great admirer
of the works of Albert Durer, is as follows: “The great boast of the
collection [in the Town-hall of Nuremberg] are the Triumphs of
Maximilian executed by _Albert Durer_,--which, however, have by no means
escaped injury.”[V-31] It is from such careless observations as the
preceding that erroneous opinions respecting the Triumphal Car and the
Triumphs of Maximilian are continued and propagated, and that most
persons confound the two works; which is indeed not surprising, seeing
that Dr. Dibdin himself, who is considered to be an authority on such
matters, has afforded proof that he does not know one from the other. In
the same volume that contains the notice of the “Triumphs of Maximilian”
in the Town-hall of Nuremberg, Dr. Dibdin says that he saw the “ORIGINAL
PAINTINGS” from which the large wood blocks were taken for the
well-known work entitled the “_Triumphs of the Emperor Maximilian_,” in
large folio, in the Imperial Library at Vienna.[V-32] Such observations
are very much in the style of the countryman’s, who had seen _two_
genuine skulls of Oliver Cromwell,--one at Oxford, and another in the
British Museum. Though I have not been able to ascertain satisfactorily
the subject of Durer’s painting in the Town-hall of Nuremberg, I am
inclined to think that it is the Triumphal _Car_ of Maximilian. In a
memorandum in the hand-writing of Nollekins, preserved with his copies
of Durer’s Triumphal Car and Triumphal Arch of Maximilian, in the Print
Room of the British Museum, it is said, though erroneously, that the
former is painted in the Town-hall of _Augsburg_ with the figures as
large as life.
[Footnote V-31: Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. p. 438. Edit.
1829.]
[Footnote V-32: Ibid. p. 330.]
The Triumphal _Arch_ of the Emperor Maximilian, engraved on wood from
Durer’s designs, consists of ninety-two separate pieces, which, when
joined together, form one large composition about ten feet and a half
high by nine and a half wide, exclusive of the margins and five folio
sheets of explanatory matter by the projector of the design, John
Stabius, who styles himself the historiographer and poet of the Emperor,
and who says, at the commencement of his description, that this arch was
drawn “after the manner of those erected in honour of the Roman emperors
at Rome, some of which are destroyed and others still to be seen.” In
the arch of Maximilian are three gates or entrances; that in the centre
is named the Gate of Honour and Power; that to the left the Gate of
Fame; and that to the right the Gate of Nobility.[V-33] Above the middle
entrance is what Stabius calls the “grand tower,” surmounted with the
imperial crown, and containing an inscription in German to the memory of
Maximilian. Above and on each side of the gates or entrances, which are
of very small dimensions, are portraits of the Roman emperors from the
time of Julius Cæsar to that of Maximilian himself; there are also
portraits of his ancestors, and of kings and princes with whom he was
allied either by friendship or marriage; shields of arms illustrative of
his descent or of the extent of his sovereignty; with representations of
his most memorable actions, among which his adventures in the Tyrolean
Alps, when hunting the chamois, are not forgotten. Underneath each
subject illustrative of his own history are explanatory verses, in the
German language, engraved on wood; and the names of the kings and
emperors, as well as the inscriptions explanatory of other parts of the
subject, are also executed in the same manner. The whole subject is, in
fact, a kind of pictorial epitome of the history of the German empire;
representing the succession of the Roman emperors, and the more
remarkable events of Maximilian’s own reign; with illustrations of his
descent, possessions, and alliances.
[Footnote V-33: The two last names are, in the first edition,
pasted over others which appear to have been “The Gate of Honour”
and “The Gate of Relationship, Friendship, and Alliance.” The last
name alludes to the emperor’s possessions as acquired by descent
or marriage, and to his power as strengthened by his friendly
alliances with neighbouring states.]
At the time of Maximilian’s death, which happened in 1519, this great
work was not finished; and it is said that Durer himself did not live to
see it completed, as one small block remained to be engraved at the
period of his death, in 1528. At whatever time the work might be
finished, it certainly was commenced at least four years before the
Emperor’s death, for the date 1515 occurs in two places at the foot of
the subject. Though Durer’s mark is not to be found on any one of the
cuts, there can be little doubt of his having furnished the designs for
the whole. In the ninth volume of Von Murr’s Journal it is stated that
Durer received a hundred guilders a year from the Emperor,--probably on
account of this large work; and in the same volume there is a letter of
Durer’s addressed to a friend, requesting him to apply to the emperor on
account of arrears due to him. In this letter he says that he has made
many drawings besides the “_Tryumps_”[V-34] for the emperor; and as he
also thrice mentions Stabius, the inventor of the Triumphal Arch, there
can be little doubt but that this was the work to which he alludes.
[Footnote V-34: “Item wist auch das Ich K. Mt. ausserhalb des
Tryumps sonst viel mancherley Fisyrung gemacht hab.”--“You must
also know that I have made many other drawings for the emperor
besides those of the Triumph.” The date of this letter is not
given, but Durer informs his friend that he had been already three
years employed for the emperor, and that if he had not exerted
himself the beautiful “work” would not have been so soon
completed. If this is to be understood of the Triumphal Arch, it
would seem that the designs at least were all finished before the
emperor’s death.--Von Murr, Journal, 9er Theil, S. 4.]
As a work of art the best single subjects of the Triumphal Arch will not
bear a comparison with the best cuts in Durer’s Apocalypse, the History
of the Virgin, or Christ’s Passion; and there are several in which no
trace of his effective style of drawing on wood is to be found. Most of
the subjects illustrative of the emperor’s battles and adventures are in
particular meagre in point of drawing, and deficient in effect. The
whole composition indeed appears like the result of continued
application without much display of talent. The powers of Durer had been
evidently constrained to work out the conceptions of the historiographer
and poet, Stabius; and as the subjects were not the suggestions of the
artist’s own feelings, it cannot be a matter of surprise that we should
find in them so few traces of his genius. The engraving of the cuts is
clear, but not generally effective; and the execution of the whole, both
figures and letters, would occupy a single wood engraver not less than
four years; even allowing him to engrave more rapidly on pear-tree than
a modern wood engraver does on box; and supposing him to be a master of
his profession.
From his varied talents and the excellence which he displayed in every
branch of art that he attempted, Albert Durer is entitled to rank with
the most extraordinary men of his age. As a painter he may be considered
as the father of the German school; while for his fidelity in copying
nature and the beauty of his colours he may bear a comparison with most
of the Italian artists of his own age. As an engraver on copper he
greatly excelled all who preceded him; and it is highly questionable if
any artist since his time, except Rembrandt, has painted so many good
pictures and engraved so many good copper-plates. But besides excelling
as an engraver on copper after the manner in which the art had been
previously practised, giving to his subjects a breadth of light and a
depth of shade which is not to be found in the productions of the
earlier masters, he further improved the art by the invention of
etching,[V-35] which enables the artist to work with greater freedom and
to give a variety and an effect to his subjects, more especially
landscapes, which are utterly unattainable by means of the graver alone.
[Footnote V-35: In the process of etching the plate is first
covered with a resinous composition--called etching ground--on
which the lines intended to be _etched_, or bit into the plate,
are drawn through to the surface of the metal by means of a small
pointed tool called an etching needle, or an etching point. When
the drawing of the subject upon the etching ground is finished,
the plate is surrounded with a slightly raised border, or “wall,”
as it is technically termed, formed of rosin, bee’s-wax, and lard;
and, a corrosive liquid being poured upon the plate, the lines are
“bit” into the copper or steel. When the engraver thinks that the
lines are corroded to a sufficient depth, he pours off the liquid,
cleans the plate by means of turpentine, and proceeds to finish
his work with the graver and dry-point. According to the practice
of modern engravers, where several _tints_ are required, as is
most frequently the case, the process of “biting-in” is repeated;
the corrosive liquid being again poured on the plate to corrode
deeper the stronger lines, while the more delicate are “stopped
out,”--that is, covered with a kind of varnish that soon hardens,
to preserve them from further corrosion. Most of our best
engravers now use a diamond point in etching. _Nitrous_ acid is
used for “biting-in” on copper in the proportion of one part acid
to four parts water, and the mixture is considered to be better
after it has been once or twice used. Before using the acid it is
advisable to take the stopper out of the bottle for twenty-four
hours in order to allow a portion of the strength to evaporate.
During the process of biting-in a large copper-plate the fumes
which arise are so powerful as frequently to cause an unpleasant
stricture in the throat, and sometimes to bring on a spitting of
blood when they have been incautiously inhaled by the engraver. At
such times it is usual for the engraver to have near him some
powerful essence, generally hartshorn, in order to counteract the
effects of the noxious vapour. For biting-in on steel, _nitric_
acid is used in the proportion of thirty drops to half a pint of
distilled water; and the mixture is never used for more than one
plate.--When a _copper_-plate is sufficiently bit-in, it is only
necessary to wash it with a little water previous to removing the
etching ground with turpentine; but, besides this, with a _steel_
plate it is further necessary to set it on one of its edges
against a wall or other support, and to blow it with a pair of
small bellows till every particle of moisture in the lines is
perfectly evaporated. The plate is then rubbed with oil, otherwise
the lines would rust from the action of the atmosphere and the
plate be consequently spoiled. Previous to a steel plate being
laid aside for any length of time it ought to be warmed, and the
engraved surface rubbed carefully over with virgin wax so that it
may be completely covered, and every line filled. A piece of thick
paper the size of the plate, laid over the wax while it is yet
adhesive, will prove an additional safeguard. For this information
respecting the process of biting-in, the writer is indebted to an
eminent engraver, Mr. J. T. Wilmore.]
There are two subjects by Albert Durer, dated 1512, which Bartsch thinks
were etched upon plates of iron, but which Mr. Ottley considers to have
been executed upon plates of a softer metal than copper, with the
dry-point. There are, however, two undoubted etchings by Durer with the
date 1515; two others executed in the same manner are dated 1516; and a
fifth, a landscape with a large cannon in the fore-ground to the left,
is dated 1518. There is another undoubted etching by Durer, representing
naked figures in a bath; but it contains neither his mark nor a date.
The three pieces which Mr. Ottley thinks were not etched, but executed
on some soft kind of metal with the dry-point, are: 1. The figure of
Christ, seen in front, standing, clothed with a mantle, having his hands
tied together, and on his head a crown of thorns; date 1512. 2. St.
Jerome seated amongst rocks, praying to a crucifix, with a book open
before him, and a lion below to the left; date 1512. 3. The Virgin,
seated with the infant Christ in her lap, and seen in front, with St.
Joseph behind her on the left, and on the right three other figures;
without mark or date.--One of the more common of Durer’s undoubted
etchings is that of a man mounted on a unicorn, and carrying off a naked
woman, with the date 1516.
Albert Durer not only excelled as a painter, an engraver on copper, and
a designer on wood, but he also executed several pieces of sculpture
with surprising delicacy and natural expression of character. An
admirable specimen of his skill in this department of art is preserved
in the British Museum, to which institution it was bequeathed by the
late R. Payne Knight, Esq., by whom it was purchased at Brussels for
five hundred guineas upwards of forty years ago. This most exquisite
piece of sculpture is of small dimensions, being only seven and three
quarter inches high, by five and a half wide. It is executed in
hone-stone, of a cream colour, and is all of one piece, with the
exception of a dog and one or two books in front. The subject is the
naming of John the Baptist.[V-36] In front, to the right, is an old man
with a tablet inscribed with Hebrew characters; another old man is seen
immediately behind him, further to the right; and a younger man,--said
to be intended by the artist for a portrait of himself,--appears
entering the door of the apartment. An old woman with the child in her
arms is seated near the figure with the tablet; St. Elizabeth is
perceived lying in bed, on the more distant side of which a female
attendant is standing, and on the other, nearer to the spectator, an
elderly man is seen kneeling. It is supposed that the latter figure is
intended for Zacharias, and that the artist had represented him in the
act of making signs to Elizabeth with his hands. The figures in the
fore-ground are executed in high relief, and the character and
expression of the heads have perhaps never been surpassed in any work of
sculpture executed on the same scale. Durer’s mark is perceived on a
tablet at the foot of the bed, with the date 1510. This curious specimen
of Durer’s talents as a sculptor is carefully preserved in a frame with
a glass before it, and is in most perfect condition, with the exception
of the hands of Zacharias and of Elizabeth, some of the fingers of which
are broken off.
[Footnote V-36: The account of the naming of John the Baptist will
be found in St. Luke’s Gospel, chap. i. verse 59-64.]
Shortly after Whitsuntide, 1520, Durer set out from Nuremberg,
accompanied by his wife and her servant Susanna, on a visit to the
Netherlands; and as he took with him several copies of his principal
works, engravings on copper as well as on wood, and painted and drew a
number of portraits during his residence there, the journey appears to
have been taken as much with a view to business as pleasure. He kept a
journal from the time of his leaving Nuremberg till the period of his
reaching Cologne on his return, and from this curious record of the
artist’s travels the following particulars of his visit to the
Netherlands have been obtained.[V-37]
[Footnote V-37: Durer’s Journal of his Travels is given by Von
Murr, 7er Theil, S. 55-98. The title which the Editor has prefixed
to it is, “Reisejournal Albrecht Dürer’s von seiner
Niederländischen Reise, 1520 und 1521. E. Bibliotheca Ebneriana.”
In the same volume, Von Murr gives some specimens of Durer’s
poetry. The first couplet which he made in 1509 is as follows:
“Du aller Engel Spiegel und Erlöser der Welt,
Deine grosse Marter sey für mein Sünd ein Widergelt.”
Thou mirror of all Angels and Redeemer of mankind,
Through thy martyrdom, for all my sins may I a ransom find.
This couplet being ridiculed by Bilibald Pirkheimer, who said that
rhyming verses ought not to consist of more than eight syllables,
Durer wrote several others in a shorter measure, but with no
better success; for he says at the conclusion, that they did not
please the learned counsellor. With Durer’s rhymes there is an
epistle in verse from his friend Lazarus Sprengel, written to
dissuade him from attempting to become a poet. Durer’s verses want
“the right butter-woman’s trot to market,” and are sadly deficient
in rhythm when compared with the more regular clink of his
friend’s.]
Durer proceeded from Nuremberg direct to Bamberg, where he presented to
the bishop a painting of the Virgin, with a copy of the Apocalypse and
the Life of the Virgin engraved on wood. The bishop invited Durer to his
table, and gave him a letter exempting his goods from toll, with three
others which were, most likely, letters of recommendation to persons of
influence in the Netherlands.[V-38] From Bamberg, Durer proceeded by way
of Eltman, Sweinfurth, and Frankfort to Mentz, and from the latter city
down the Rhine to Cologne. In this part of his journey he seems to have
met with little which he deemed worthy of remark: at Sweinfurth Dr.
Rebart made him a present of some wine; at Mentz, Peter Goldsmith’s
landlady presented him with two flasks of the same liquor; and when Veit
Varnbuler invited him to dinner there, the tavern-keeper would not
receive any payment, but insisted on being Durer’s host himself. At
Lohnstein, on the Rhine, between Boppart and Coblentz, the
toll-collector, who was well acquainted with Durer’s wife, presented him
with a can of wine, and expressed himself extremely glad to see him.
[Footnote V-38: Subsequently, Durer mentions having delivered to
the Margrave John, at Brussels, a letter of recommendation
[Fürderbrief] from the Bishop of Bamberg.]
From Cologne, Durer proceeded direct to Antwerp, where he took up his
abode in the house of “Jobst Planckfelt;” and on the evening of his
arrival[V-39] he was invited to a splendid supper by Bernard Stecher, an
agent of the Fuggers, the celebrated family of merchants of Nuremberg,
and the most wealthy in Germany. On St. Oswald’s day, Sunday, 5th
August, the Painters’ Company of Antwerp invited Durer, with his wife
and her maid,[V-40] to a grand entertainment in their hall, which was
ornamented in a splendid manner, and all the vessels on the table were
of silver. The wives of the painters were also present; and when Durer
was conducted to his seat at the table “all the company stood up on each
side, as if some great lord had been making his entrance.” Several
honourable persons, who had also been invited, bowed to him; and all
expressed their respect and their wishes to afford him pleasure. While
he was at table the messenger of the magistrates of Antwerp made his
appearance, and presented him in their name with four flaggons of wine,
saying, that the magistrates thus testified their respect and their
good-will towards him. Durer, as in duty bound, returned thanks, and
tendered to the magisterial body his humble service. After this little
affair was despatched, entered Peter the city carpenter _in propria
persona_, and presented Durer with two more flaggons of wine, and
complimented him with the offer of his services. After the party had
enjoyed themselves cheerfully till late in the night, they attended
Durer to his lodgings with torches in a most honourable manner,
expressing their good-will towards him, and their readiness to assist
him in whatever manner he might choose.--Shortly after this grand
Fellowship-feast, Durer was entertained by Quintin Matsys,--frequently
called the Blacksmith of Antwerp,--whose celebrated picture of the
Misers is now in the Royal Collection at Windsor.
[Footnote V-39: As Durer was at Cologne about the 26th July, it is
probable that he would arrive at Antwerp about the last day of
that month.]
[Footnote V-40: The maid, Susanna, seems to have been rather a
“humble friend” than a menial servant; for she is mentioned in
another part of the Journal as being entertained with Durer’s wife
at the house of “Tomasin Florianus,” whom Durer describes as
“_Romanus_, von Luca bürtig.”]
On the Sunday after the Assumption,[V-41] Durer witnessed a grand
procession in honour of the Virgin, and the account which he has given
of it presents so curious a picture of the old religious pageantries
that it appears worthy of being translated without abridgement. “On the
Sunday after the Assumption of our Lady,” says the artist, “I saw the
grand procession from our Lady’s church at Antwerp, where all the
inhabitants of the city assembled, gentry as well as trades-people,
each, according to his rank, gayly dressed. Every class and fellowship
was distinguished by its proper badge; and large and valuable crosses
were borne before several of the crafts. There were also silver trumpets
of the old Frankish fashion; with German drums and fifes playing loudly.
I also saw in the street, marching after each other in rank, at a
certain distance, the Goldsmiths, the Painters, the Masons, the
Embroiderers, the Statuaries, the Cabinet-makers, the Carpenters, the
Sailors, the Fishermen, the Butchers, the Curriers, the Weavers, the
Bakers, the Tailors, the Shoemakers, and all kinds of craftsmen with
labourers engaged in producing the necessaries of life. In the same
manner came the Shopkeepers and Merchants with their assistants. After
these came the Shooters, with firelocks, bows, and cross-bows, some on
horseback and some on foot; and after them came the City Guard. These
were followed by persons of the higher classes and the magistrates, all
dressed in their proper habits; and after them came a gallant troop
arrayed in a noble and splendid manner. In this procession were a number
of females of a religious order who subsist by means of their labour,
all clothed in white from head to foot, and forming a very pleasing
sight. After them came a number of gallant persons and the canons of our
Lady’s church, with all the clergy and scholars, followed by a grand
display of characters. Twenty men carried the Virgin and Christ, most
richly adorned, to the honour of God. In this part of the procession
were a number of delightful things, represented in a splendid manner.
There were several waggons in which were representations of ships and
fortifications. Then came a troop of characters from the Prophets in
regular order, followed by others from the New Testament, such as the
Annunciation, the Wise Men of the East, riding on great camels and other
wonderful animals, and the Flight into Egypt, all very skilfully
appointed. Then came a great dragon, and St. Margaret, with the image of
the Virgin at her girdle, exceedingly beautiful; and last St. George and
his squire. In this troop rode a number of boys and girls very
handsomely arrayed in various costumes, representing so many saints.
This procession, from beginning to end, was upwards of two hours in
passing our house; and there were so many things to be seen, that I
could never describe them all even in a book.”[V-42]
[Footnote V-41: The Assumption of the Virgin is celebrated in the
Roman Catholic Church on the 15th August.]
[Footnote V-42: Albrecht Dürer’s Reisejournal, in Von Murr, 7er
Theil, S. 63-65.]
Though Durer chiefly resided at Antwerp during his stay in the
Netherlands, he did not entirely confine himself to that city, but
occasionally visited other places. On the 2nd of September 1520, he left
Antwerp for Brussels, proceeding by way of Malines and Vilvorde. When at
Brussels, he saw a number of valuable curiosities which had been sent to
the Emperor from Mexico, among which he enumerates a golden sun,
a fathom broad, and a silver moon of the same size, with weapons,
armour, and dresses, and various other admirable things of great beauty
and cost. He says that their value was estimated at a hundred thousand
guilders; and that he never saw any thing that pleased him so much in
his life. Durer was evidently fond of seeing sights; he speaks with
delight of the fountains, the labyrinths, and the parks in the
neighbourhood of the Royal Palace, which he says were like Paradise; and
among the wonders which he saw at Brussels, he notices a large fish-bone
which was almost a fathom in circumference and weighed fifteen
“centner;”[V-43] a great bed that would hold fifty men; and a stone
which fell from the sky in a thunder-storm in presence of the Count of
Nassau. He also mentions having seen at Antwerp the bones of a giant who
had been eighteen feet high. Durer and his wife seem to have had a taste
for zoology: Herr Lazarus Von Ravenspurg complimented him with a monkey;
and “Signor Roderigo,” a Portuguese, presented his ill-tempered spouse
with a green parrot.
[Footnote V-43: This “gross Fischpein” was probably part of the
back-bone of a whale.]
When at Brussels, Durer painted the portrait of the celebrated Erasmus,
from whom, previous to leaving Antwerp, he had received as a present a
Spanish mantle and three portraits. He remained about a week at
Brussels, during which time he drew or painted seven portraits; and in
his Journal he makes the following memorandum: “Item, six persons whose
likenesses I have taken at Brussels, have not given me anything.” Among
those portraits was that of Bernard Van Orley, an eminent Flemish
painter who had studied under Raffaele, and who at that time held the
office of painter to the Archduchess Margaret, regent of the
Netherlands, and aunt of the Emperor Charles V. When at Brussels, Durer
bought for a stiver[V-44] two copies of the “Eulenspiegel,” a celebrated
engraving by Lucas Van Leyden, now of very great rarity.
[Footnote V-44: The stiver was the twenty-fourth part of a guilder
or florin of gold, which was equal to about nine shillings English
money of the present time; the stiver would therefore be equal to
about four pence half-penny. About the same time, Durer sold a
copy of his Christ’s Passion, probably the large one, for twelve
stivers, and an impression of his copper-plate of Adam and Eve for
four stivers. Shortly after his first arrival at Antwerp, he sold
sixteen copies of the Little Passion for four guilders or florins;
and thirty-two copies of his larger works,--probably the
Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, and the Great Passion,--for
eight florins, being at the rate of sixteen stivers for each copy.
He also sold six copies of the Passion engraved on copper at the
same price. He gave to his host a painting of the Virgin on
canvass to sell for two Rhenish florins. The sum that he received
for each portrait in pencil [the German is mit Kohlen, which is
literally charcoal], when the parties _did_ pay, appears to have
been a florin.]
After remaining at Antwerp till the latter end of September, Durer
proceeded to Aix-la-Chapelle, where, on the 23rd of October, he
witnessed the coronation of the Emperor Charles V. He afterwards
proceeded to Cologne, where, on the Sunday after All Saints’ day, he saw
a grand banquet and dance given by the emperor, from whom, on the Monday
after Martinmas day, he received the appointment of court-painter to his
Imperial Majesty. When at Cologne, Durer bought a copy of the
“Condemnation of that good man, Martin Luther, for a white-penny.” This
Condemnation was probably a copy of the bull of excommunication issued
against Luther by Pope Leo X. on 20th June 1520. In a day or two after
receiving his appointment, Durer left Cologne and proceeded down the
Rhine, and visited Nimeguen. He then went to Bois-le-duc, where he was
entertained by Arnold de Beer, a painter of considerable reputation in
his day, and treated with great respect by the goldsmiths of the place.
On the Thursday after the Presentation of the Virgin,[V-45]--21st
November,--Durer again arrived at Antwerp. “In the seven weeks and
upwards that I was absent,” he writes in his Journal, “my wife and her
maid spent seven gold crowns. The first had her pocket cut off in St.
Mary’s church on St. Mary’s day; there were two guilders in it.”
[Footnote V-45: In Von Murr the words are “Am Donnerstage nach
Marien Himmelfahrt,”--On the Thursday after the _Assumption_ of
the Virgin. But this is evidently incorrect, the feast of the
Assumption being kept on 15th August. The “Marien Opferung”--the
Presentation of the Virgin--which is commemorated on 21st
November, is evidently meant.]
On the 3rd of December, Durer left Antwerp on a short journey through
Zealand, proceeding by way of Bergen-op-Zoom. In the Abbey at Middleburg
he saw the great picture of the Descent from the Cross by Mabeuse; of
which he remarks that “it is better painted than drawn.” When he was
about to land at Armuyden, a small town on the island of Walcheren, the
rope broke, and a violent wind arising, the boat which he was in was
driven out to sea. Some persons, however, at length came to their
assistance, and brought all the passengers safely ashore. On the Friday
after St. Lucia’s day he again returned to Antwerp, after having been
absent about twelve days.
On Shrove Tuesday, 1521, the company of goldsmiths invited Durer and his
wife to a dinner, at which he was treated with great honour; and as this
was an early meal, he was enabled at night to attend a grand banquet to
which he was invited by one of the chief magistrates of Antwerp. On the
Monday after his entertainment by the goldsmiths he was invited to
another grand banquet which lasted two hours, and where he won, at some
kind of game, two guilders of Bernard of Castile. Both at this and at
the magistrates’ banquet there was masquerading. At another
entertainment given by Master Peter the Secretary, Durer and Erasmus
were present. He was not idle at this period of festivity, but drew
several portraits in pencil. He also made a drawing for “Tomasin,” and a
painting of St. Jerome for Roderigo of Portugal, who appears to have
been one of the most liberal of all Durer’s Antwerp friends. Besides the
little green parrot which he gave his wife, he also presented Durer with
one for himself; he also gave him a small cask of comfits, with various
other sweetmeats, and specimens of the sugar-cane. He also made him a
present of cocoa-nuts and of several other things; and shortly before
the painting was finished, Signor Roderigo gave him two large pieces of
Portuguese gold coin, each of which was worth ten ducats.
On the Saturday after Easter, Durer visited Bruges, where he saw in St.
James’s church some beautiful paintings by Hubert Van Eyck and Hugo
Vander Goes; and in the Painters’ chapel, and in other churches, he saw
several by John Van Eyck; he also mentions having seen, in St. Mary’s
church, an image of the Virgin in alabaster by Michael Angelo. The guild
of painters invited him to a grand banquet in their hall. Two of the
magistrates, Jacob and Peter Mostaert, presented him with twelve
flaggons of wine; and on the conclusion of the entertainment, all the
company, amounting to sixty persons, accompanied him with torches to his
lodgings. He next visited Ghent, where the company of painters also
treated him with great respect. He there saw, in St. John’s church, the
celebrated picture of the Elders worshipping the Lamb, from the
Revelations, painted by John Van Eyck for Philip the Good, Duke of
Burgundy. Durer thus expresses his opinion of it: “This is a well
conceived and capital picture; the figures of Eve, the Virgin, and God
the Father, are, in particular, extremely good.” After being about a
week absent, he again returned to Antwerp, where he was shortly after
seized with an intermitting fever, which was accompanied with a violent
head-ache and great sense of weariness. This illness, however, does not
seem to have lasted very long; his fever commenced in the third week
after Easter, and on Rogation Sunday he attended the marriage feast of
“Meister Joachim,”--probably Joachim Patenier, a landscape painter whom
Durer mentions in an earlier part of his Journal.
Durer was a man of strong religious feelings; and when Luther began to
preach in opposition to the church of Rome, he warmly espoused his
cause. The following passages from his Journal sufficiently demonstrate
the interest which he felt in the success of the great champion of the
Reformation. Luther on his return from Worms, where he had attended the
Diet under a safe-conduct granted by the Emperor Charles V, was waylaid,
on 4th May 1521, by a party of armed men, who caused him to descend from
the light waggon in which he was travelling, and to follow them into an
adjacent wood. His brother James, who was in the waggon with him, made
his escape on the first appearance of the horsemen. Luther having been
secured, the driver and others who were in the waggon were allowed to
pursue their journey without further hindrance. This secret apprehension
of Luther was, in reality, contrived by his friend and supporter,
Frederick, Elector of Saxony,[V-46] in order to withdraw him for a time
from the apprehended violence of his enemies, whose hatred towards him
had been more than ever inflamed by the bold and undisguised statement
of his opinions at Worms. Luther’s friends, being totally ignorant of
the elector’s design, generally supposed that the safe-conduct had been
disregarded by those whose duty it was to respect it, and that he had
been betrayed and delivered into the hands of his enemies. Durer, on
hearing of Luther’s apprehension, writes in his Journal as follows.
[Footnote V-46: Luther’s safe-conduct from Worms to Wittenberg was
limited to twenty-one days, at the expiration of which he was
declared to be under the ban of the empire, or, in other words, an
outlaw, to whom no prince or free city of Germany was to afford a
refuge. Luther, previous to leaving Worms, was informed of the
elector’s intention of secretly apprehending him on the road and
conveying him to a place of safety. After getting into the wood,
Luther was mounted on horseback, and conveyed to Wartburg,
a castle belonging to the elector, where he continued to live
disguised as a knight--Junker Jörge--till March 1522. Luther was
accustomed to call the castle of Wartburg his Patmos.]
“On the Friday after Whitsuntide, 1521, I heard a report at Antwerp,
that Martin Luther had been treacherously seized; for the herald of the
Emperor Charles, who attended him with a safe-conduct, and to whose
protection he was committed, on arriving at a lonely place near
Eisenach, said he durst proceed no further, and rode away. Immediately
ten horsemen made their appearance, and carried off the godly man thus
betrayed into their hands. He was indeed a man enlightened by the Holy
Ghost, and a follower of the true Christian faith. Whether he be yet
living, or whether his enemies have put him to death, I know not; yet
certainly what he has suffered has been for the sake of truth, and
because he has reprehended the abuses of unchristian papacy, which
strives to fetter Christian liberty with the incumbrance of human
ordinances, that we may be robbed of the price of our blood and sweat,
and shamefully plundered by idlers, while the sick and needy perish
through hunger. Above all, it is especially distressing to me to think
that God may yet allow us to remain under the blind doctrine which those
men called ‘the fathers’ have imagined and set forth, whereby the
precious word is either in many places falsely expounded or not at all
observed.”[V-47]
[Footnote V-47: Durer, though an advocate of Luther, does not seem
to have withdrawn himself from the communion of the Church of
Rome. In his Journal, in 1521, he enters a sum of ten stivers
given to his confessor, and, subsequently, eight stivers given to
a monk who visited his wife when she was sick. The passage in
which the last item occurs is curious, and seems to prove that
female practitioners were then accustomed both to dispense and
administer medical preparations at Antwerp. “Meine Frau ward
krank,--der Apothekerinn für Klystiren gegeben 14 Stüber; dem
Mönch, der sie besuchte, 8 Stüber.”--Von Murr, Journal, 7er Theil,
S. 93.]
After indulging in sundry pious invocations and reflections to the
extent of two or three pages, Durer thus proceeds to lament the supposed
death of Luther, and to invoke Erasmus to put his hand to the work from
which he believed that Luther had been removed. “And is Luther dead? Who
henceforth will so clearly explain to us the Gospel? Alas! what might he
not have written for us in ten or twenty years? Aid me, all pious
Christians, to bewail this man of heavenly mind, and to pray that God
may send us another as divinely enlightened. Where, O Erasmus, wilt thou
remain? Behold, now, how the tyranny of might and the power of darkness
prevail. Hear, thou champion of Christ! Ride forward, defend the truth,
and deserve the martyr’s crown, for thou art already an old man.[V-48]
I have heard from thy own mouth that thou hast allotted to thyself two
years yet of labour in which thou mightst still be able to produce
something good; employ these well for the benefit of the Gospel and the
true Christian faith: let then thy voice be heard, and so shall not the
see of Rome, the gates of Hell, as Christ saith, prevail against thee.
And though, like thy master, thou shouldst bear the scorn of the liars,
and even die a short time earlier than thou otherwise mightst, yet wilt
thou therefore pass earlier from death unto eternal life and be
glorified through Christ. If thou drinkest of the cup of which he drank,
so wilt thou reign with him and pronounce judgment on those who have
acted unrighteously.”[V-49]
[Footnote V-48: This inducement for Erasmus to stand forth as a
candidate for the honour of martyrdom is, in the original, as
simple in expression as it is novel in conception: “Du bist doch
sonst ein altes Menniken.” Literally: For thou art already an old
_mannikin_. Erasmus, however, was not a spirit to be charmed to
enter such a circle by such an invocation. As he said of himself,
“his gift did not lie that way,” and he had as little taste for
martyrdom as he had for fish.--In one or two other passages in
Durer’s Journal there is an allusion to the diminutive stature of
Erasmus.]
[Footnote V-49: Von Murr, Journal, 7er Theil, S. 88-93. In volume
X, p. 41, Von Murr gives from Peucer, the son-in-law of
Melancthon, the following anecdote: “Melancthon, when at
Nuremberg, on church and university affairs, was much in the
society of Pirkheimer; and Albert Durer, the painter, an
intelligent man, whose least merit, as Melancthon used to say, was
his art, was frequently one of the party. Between Pirkheimer and
Durer there were frequent disputes respecting the recent
[religious] contest, in which Durer, as he was a man of strong
mind, vigorously opposed Pirkheimer, and refuted his arguments as
if he had come prepared for the discussion. Pirkheimer growing
warm, for he was very irritable and much plagued with the gout,
would sometimes exclaim “Not so:--these things cannot be
_painted_.”--“And the arguments which you allege,” Durer would
reply, “can neither be correctly expressed nor
comprehended.”--Whatever might have been the particular points in
dispute between the two friends, Pirkheimer, as well as Durer, was
a supporter of the doctrines of Luther.”]
About this time a large wood-cut, of which the following is a reduced
copy, was published; and though the satire which it contains will apply
equally to any monk who may be supposed to be an instrument of the
devil, it was probably directed against Luther in particular, as a
teacher of false doctrine through the inspiration of the father of lies.
In the cut the arch-enemy, as a bag-piper, is seen blowing into the ear
of a monk, whose head forms the “bag,” and by skilful fingering causing
the nose, elongated in the form of a “chanter,” to discourse sweet
music. The preaching friars of former times were no less celebrated for
their nasal melody than the “saints” in the days of Cromwell. A serious
portrait of Luther, probably engraved or drawn on wood by Hans Baldung
Grün, a pupil of Durer, was also published in 1521. It is printed in a
quarto tract, entitled, “Acta et Res gestæ D. Martini Lutheri in
Comitiis Principum Vuormaciæ, Anno MDXXI,” and also in a tract, written
by Luther himself in answer to Jerome Emser, without date, but probably
printed at Wittenberg about 1523. In this portrait, which bears
considerable resemblance to the head forming the bag of Satan’s pipe,
Luther appears as if meditating on a passage that he has just read in a
volume which he holds open; his head is surrounded with rays of glory;
and the Holy Ghost, in the form of a dove, appears as if about to settle
on his shaven crown. In an impression now before me, some one,
apparently a contemporary, who thought that Luther’s inspiration was
derived from another source, has with pen and ink transformed the dove
into one of those unclean things between bat and serpent, which are
supposed to be appropriate to the regions of darkness, and which are
generally to be seen in paintings and engravings of the temptation of
St. Anthony.
[Illustration]
A week after Corpus Christi day[V-50] Durer left Antwerp for Malines,
where the Archduchess Margaret, the aunt of the emperor Charles V, was
then residing. He took up his lodgings with Henry de Bles, a painter of
considerable reputation, called Civetta by the Italians, from the owl
which he painted as a mark in most of his pictures; and the painters and
statuaries, as at Antwerp and other places, invited him to an
entertainment and treated him with great respect. He waited on the
archduchess and showed her his portrait of the emperor, and would have
presented it to her, but she would by no means accept of it;--probably
because she could not well receive such a gift without making the artist
a suitable return, for it appears, from a subsequent passage in Durer’s
Journal, that she had no particular objection to receive other works of
art when they cost her nothing.
[Footnote V-50: Corpus Christi day is a moveable festival, and is
celebrated on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday.]
In the course of a few days Durer returned to Antwerp, where he shortly
afterwards saw Lucas Van Leyden, the celebrated painter and engraver,
whose plates at that time were by many considered nearly equal to his
own. Durer’s brief notice of his talented contemporary is as follows:
“Received an invitation from Master Lucas, who engraves on copper. He is
a little man, and a native of Leyden in Holland.” Subsequently he
mentions having drawn Lucas’s portrait in crayons; and having exchanged
some of his own works to the value of eight florins for a complete set
of Lucas’s engravings. Durer in this part of his Journal, after
enumerating the portraits he had taken and the exchanges he had made
since his return from Malines to Antwerp, thus speaks of the manner in
which he was rewarded: “In all my transactions in the Netherlands--for
my paintings, drawings, and in disposing of my works--both with high and
low I have had the disadvantage. The Lady Margaret, especially, for all
that I have given her and done for her, has not made me the least
recompense.”
Durer now began to make preparations for his return home. He engaged a
waggoner to take him and his wife to Cologne; he exchanged a portrait of
the emperor for some white English cloth; and, on 1st July, he borrowed
of Alexander Imhoff a hundred gold guilders to be repaid at Nuremberg;
another proof that Durer, though treated with great distinction in the
Low Countries, had not derived much pecuniary advantage during the
period of his residence there. On the 2nd July, when he was about to
leave Antwerp, the King of Denmark, Christian II, who had recently
arrived in Flanders, sent for him to take his portrait. He first drew
his majesty with black chalk--mit der Kohlen--and afterwards went with
him to Brussels, where he appears to have painted his portrait in oil
colours, and for which he received thirty florins. At Brussels, on the
Sunday before St. Margaret’s Day,[V-51] the King of Denmark gave a grand
banquet to the Emperor and the Archduchess Margaret, to which Durer had
the honour of being invited, and failed not to attend. On the following
Friday he left Brussels to return to Nuremberg, proceeding by way of
Aix-la-Chapelle to Cologne.
[Footnote V-51: St. Margaret’s day is the 20th July.]
Out of a variety of other matters which Durer has mentioned in his
Journal, the following--which could not be conveniently given in
chronological order in the preceding abstract--may not, perhaps, be
wholly uninteresting. He painted a portrait of one Nicholas, an
astronomer, who was in the service of the King of England, and who was
of great service to Durer on several occasions.[V-52] He gave one florin
and eight stivers for wood, but whether for drawing on, or for fuel, is
uncertain. He only mentions having made two drawings on wood during his
residence in the Low Countries, and both were of the arms of Von
Rogendorff, noticed at page 236. In one of those instances, he
distinctly says that he made the drawing, “_das man’s schneiden
mag_”--that it may be engraved. The word “_man’s_” clearly shows that it
was to be engraved by another person.--He mentions that since Raffaele’s
death his works are dispersed--“_verzogen_,”--and that one of that
master’s pupils, by name “Thomas Polonier,” had called on him and made
him a present of an antique ring. In a subsequent passage he calls this
person “Thomas Polonius,” and says that he had given him a set of his
works to be sent to Rome and exchanged for “_Raphaelische
Sache_”--things by Raffaele.
[Footnote V-52: Durer says that this astronomer was a German, and
a native of Munich.]
It has been said, though without sufficient authority, that Durer, weary
of a home where he was made miserable by his bad-tempered, avaricious
wife, left Nuremberg, and visited the Low Countries alone for the
purpose of avoiding her constant annoyance. There is, however, no
evidence of Durer’s visiting the Low Countries previous to 1520, when he
was accompanied by his wife; nor is there any authentic record of his
ever again visiting Flanders subsequent to the latter end of August
1521, when he left Brussels to return to Nuremberg. In 1522, Durer
published the first edition of the Triumphal Car of the Emperor
Maximilian, the designs for which had probably been made five or six
years before. One of the best portraits drawn by Durer on wood also
bears the date 1522. It is that of his friend Ulrich Varnbuler,[V-53]--
mentioned at page 253,--and is of large size, being about seventeen
inches high by twelve and three-fourths wide. The head is full of
character, and the engraving is admirably executed. From 1522 to 1528,
the year of Durer’s death, he seems to have almost entirely given up the
practice of drawing on wood, as there are only three cuts with his mark
which contain a date between those years; they are his own arms dated
1523; his own portrait dated 1527; and the siege of a fortified city
previously noticed at page 253, also dated 1527. The following is a
reduced copy of the cut of Durer’s arms. The pair of _doors_ on the
shield--in German _Durer_ or _Thurer_--is a rebus of the artist’s name;
after the manner of the Lucys of our own country, who bore three
_luces_,[V-54] or pikes--fish, not weapons--argent, in their coat of
arms.
[Footnote V-53: Ulrich Varnbuler was subsequently the chancellor
of the Emperor Ferdinand I. Durer mentions him in a letter
addressed to “Hernn Frey in Zurich,” and dated from Nuremberg on
the Sunday _after St. Andrew’s day_, 1523. With this letter Durer
sent to his correspondent a humorous sketch, in pen and ink, of
apes dancing, which in 1776 was still preserved in the Public
Library of Basle. The date of this letter proves the incorrectness
of Mr. Ottley’s statement, in page 723 of his Inquiry, where he
says that Durer did not return to Nuremberg from the Low Countries
“until _the middle of the year_ 1524.” Mr. Ottley is not more
correct when he says, at page 735, that the portrait of Varnbuler
is the “size of nature.”]
[Footnote V-54: It is supposed that Shakspeare, in alluding to the
“dozen white luces” in Master Shallow’s coat of arms,--Merry Wives
of Windsor, Act I,--intended to ridicule Sir Thomas Lucy of
Charlecotte, Wiltshire, before whom he is said to have been
brought in his youth on a charge of deer-stealing.]
[Illustration]
The last of Durer’s engravings on copper is a portrait of Melancthon,
dated 1526, the year in which the meek and learned reformer visited
Nuremberg. The following is a reduced copy of his own portrait, perhaps
the last drawing that he made on wood. It is probably a good likeness of
the artist; at any rate it bears a great resemblance to the portrait
said to be intended for Durer’s own in his carving of the naming of St.
John, of which some account is given at page 259. The size of the
original is eleven inches and three-eighths high by ten inches wide.
According to Bartsch, the earliest impressions have not the arms and
mark, and are inscribed above the border at the top: “_Albrecht Durer’s
Conterfeyt_”--Albert Durer’s portrait. It would seem that the block had
been preserved for many years subsequent to the date, for I have now
before me an impression, on comparatively modern paper, from which it is
evident that at the time of its being taken, the block had been much
corroded by worms.
[Illustration]
It is probable that between 1522 and 1528 the treatises of which Durer
is the author were chiefly composed. Their Titles are An Essay on the
Fortification of Towns and Villages; Instructions for Measuring with the
Rule and Compass; and On the Proportions of the Human Body.[V-55] They
were all published at Nuremberg with illustrative wood-cuts; the first
in 1527, and the other two in 1528. It is to the latter work that
Hogarth alludes, in his Analysis of Beauty, when he speaks of Albert
Durer, Lamozzo, and others, having “puzzled mankind with a heap of
minute unnecessary divisions” in their rules for correctly drawing the
human figure.
[Footnote V-55: Etliche Underricht zu Befestigung der Stett,
Schloss, und Flecken; Underweysung der Messung mit der Zirckel und
Richtscheyt; Bucher von Menschlicher Proportion. All in folio.
Those treatises were subsequently translated into Latin and
several times reprinted. The treatise on the Proportions of the
Human Body was also translated into French and printed at Paris in
1557. A collection of Durer’s writings was published by J. Jansen,
1604.]