Mostauthors 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.1The 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 style231are 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.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.2In 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 the232sky. 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.3Towards the latter end of the fifteenth century,V.4a 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 been233produced by means of a lozenge-pointed tool, in imitation of cross-hatching.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 thegroundsof this opinion.see textsee textThere 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 their234superiority 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 indrawingon wood it is easier to produce a shade by this means, than by thickening the lines; but inengravingon 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 produceapprenticesto cut fac-similes of any cross-hatching that is to be found, not only in the wood engravings supposed to have beenexecutedby 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 asquare yardof 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 engravings235which 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.5As 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.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 you236the 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.6This 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.7From 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 thejournalor 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.8This 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.9Neudörffer, who in 1546 collected some particulars relative to the237history 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.10and 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.11Although 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.12I 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 to238have been painters of considerable reputation in their day, were not engraved by those artists, but only designed or drawn by them on the block.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.13is 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.14He 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 exertion239in order that she might obtain money, is said to have embittered the life of the artist and eventually to have hastened his death.V.15It 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.16As 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.17The 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 geburtM. 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 whole240much 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 of241the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman.”see textIn 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.18Though 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.19and 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.242In 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 BelliniV.20however 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.21The others laugh, and say if he were good for anything he would live in Venice.”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.22In the fourth letter Durer says that the painters were much opposed243to 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 engraveV.23well, 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.see textIn 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.24Impressions 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 Virgin244is 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.see textThe 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 introduced245are 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 well246as the human figures, have evidently been supplied by his owncountry.Durer’s mark is at the bottom of the cut on the right.see textChrist’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.25The 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.26The large subjects are about fifteen inches and a247half high, by eleven inches and an eighth wide. The following cut is a reduced copy of the vignette on the title-page.see textThe 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.see textThe 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 at248least 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.249see textThe 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,250above 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.see textThe 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 the251peculiar 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.27All 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 and252he 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.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.28As 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.253Among 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.29The 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.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, the254Wise 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 TriumphalCar, 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.30The 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, was255printed 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.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 byAlbert Durer,—which, however, have by no means escaped injury.”V.31It 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.32Such observations are very much in the style of the countryman’s, who had seentwogenuine 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 TriumphalCarof 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 ofAugsburgwith the figures as large as life.The TriumphalArchof the Emperor Maximilian, engraved on wood from Durer’s designs, consists of ninety-two separate pieces, which, when256joined 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.33Above 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.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 letter257of 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.34for 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.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 of258etching,V.35which 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.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 late259R. 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.36In 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.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 a260number 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.37Durer proceededfromNuremberg 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.38From 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.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 arrivalV.39he was invited to a splendid supper by Bernard Stecher, an261agent 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.40to 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 carpenterin 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.On the Sunday after the Assumption,V.41Durer 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 certain262distance, 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.42Though 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 the263neighbourhood 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.43a 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.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 stiverV.44two copies of the “Eulenspiegel,” a celebrated engraving by Lucas Van Leyden, now of very great rarity.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 June2641520. 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.”
Mostauthors 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.1The 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 style231are 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.
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.2In 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 the232sky. 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
Towards the latter end of the fifteenth century,V.4a 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 been233produced by means of a lozenge-pointed tool, in imitation of cross-hatching.
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 thegroundsof this opinion.
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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 their234superiority 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 indrawingon wood it is easier to produce a shade by this means, than by thickening the lines; but inengravingon 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 produceapprenticesto cut fac-similes of any cross-hatching that is to be found, not only in the wood engravings supposed to have beenexecutedby 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 asquare yardof 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 engravings235which 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.5As 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.
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 you236the 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.6This 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.7From 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 thejournalor 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.8This 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
Neudörffer, who in 1546 collected some particulars relative to the237history 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.10and 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
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.12I 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 to238have been painters of considerable reputation in their day, were not engraved by those artists, but only designed or drawn by them on the block.
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.13is 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.14He 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 exertion239in 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
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.16As 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
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 geburtM. 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 whole240much 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 of241the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman.”
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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
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.19and 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.
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 BelliniV.20however 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.21The others laugh, and say if he were good for anything he would live in Venice.”
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
In the fourth letter Durer says that the painters were much opposed243to 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 engraveV.23well, 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.
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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.24Impressions 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 Virgin244is 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.
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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 introduced245are 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 well246as the human figures, have evidently been supplied by his owncountry.Durer’s mark is at the bottom of the cut on the right.
see text
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.25The 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.26The large subjects are about fifteen inches and a247half high, by eleven inches and an eighth wide. The following cut is a reduced copy of the vignette on the title-page.
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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.
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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 at248least 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.
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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,250above 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.
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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 the251peculiar 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.27All 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 and252he 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.
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.28As 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.
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.29The 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.
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, the254Wise 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 TriumphalCar, 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.30The 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, was255printed 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.
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 byAlbert Durer,—which, however, have by no means escaped injury.”V.31It 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.32Such observations are very much in the style of the countryman’s, who had seentwogenuine 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 TriumphalCarof 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 ofAugsburgwith the figures as large as life.
The TriumphalArchof the Emperor Maximilian, engraved on wood from Durer’s designs, consists of ninety-two separate pieces, which, when256joined 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.33Above 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.
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 letter257of 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.34for 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.
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 of258etching,V.35which 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.
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 late259R. 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.36In 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.
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 a260number 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
Durer proceededfromNuremberg 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.38From 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.
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 arrivalV.39he was invited to a splendid supper by Bernard Stecher, an261agent 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.40to 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 carpenterin 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.
On the Sunday after the Assumption,V.41Durer 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 certain262distance, 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
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 the263neighbourhood 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.43a 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.
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 stiverV.44two copies of the “Eulenspiegel,” a celebrated engraving by Lucas Van Leyden, now of very great rarity.
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 June2641520. 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.”