_Franz von Sickingen_ (Vol. i., p. 131.).--I regret that I cannot
resolve the doubt of H.J.H. respecting Albert Durer's allegorical print
of _The Knight, Death, and the Devil_, of which I have only what I
presume is a copy or retouched plate, bearing the date 1564 on the
tablet in the lower left-hand corner, where I suppose the mark of Albert
Durer is placed in the original.
I should, however, much doubt its being intended as a portrait of
Sickingen, and I can trace no resemblance to the medal given by Luckius.
I believe the conjecture originated with Bartsch, in his _Peintre
Graveur_, vol. vii. p. 107. Schoeber, in his _Life of Durer_, p. 87.,
supposes that it is an allegory of the nature of a soldier's life.
It was this print that inspired La Motte Fouqué with the idea of his
_Sintram_ as he thus informs us in the postscript to that singularly
romantic tale:
"Some years since there lay among my birth-day presents a
beautiful engraving of Albert Durer. A harnessed knight, with an
oldish countenance, is riding upon his high steed, attended by
his dog, through a fearful valley, where fragments of rock and
roots of trees distort themselves into loathsome forms; and
poisonous weeds rankle along the ground. Evil vermin are
creeping along through them. Beside him Death is riding on a
wasted pony; from behind the form of a devil stretches over its
clawed arm toward him. Both horse and dog look strangely, as it
were infected by the hideous objects that surround them; but the
knight rides quietly along his way, and bears upon the tip of
his lance a lizard that he has already speared. A castle, with
its rich friendly battlements, looks over from afar, whereat the
desolateness of the valley penetrates yet deeper into the soul.
The friend who gave me this print added a letter, with a request
that I would explain the mysterious forms by a ballad.... I bear
the image with me in peace and in war, until it has now spun
itself out into a little romance."
S.W. Singer.
Mickleham Aug. 13. 1850.
"_Noli me tangere_" (Vol. ii., p. 153.).--B.R. is informed, that one of
the finest paintings on this subject is the altar-piece in All Souls
College Chapel, Oxford. It is the production of Raphael Mengs, and was
purchased for the price of three hundred guineas of Sir James Thornhill,
who painted the figure of the founder over the altar, the ceiling, and
the figures between the windows. There may be other paintings by earlier
masters on so interesting subject, but none can surpass this of Raphael
Mengs in the truthfulness of what he has here delineated. The exact size
of the picture I do not recollect, but it cannot be less than ten feet
high.
There is a beautiful engraving of it by Sherwin.