A , •O (Jj THE LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. -A- Doir'n.y pmx . W‘ Hollar Sc. THE LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER OF NURNBERG WITH A TRANSLATION OF HIS LETTERS AND JOURNAL AND AN ACCOUNT OF HIS WORKS BY MRS. CHARLES HEATON SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED WITH PORTRAIT AND SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS SEELEY, JACKSON AND HALLIDAY, 54, FLEET STREET LONDON. MDCCCLXXXI % [ All Rights Reserved ] PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. It appears at first sight somewhat strange that a separate life of the greatest of German artists should never before have been published in England ; for the works — at any rate the engraved works — of Albrecht Diirer have for many years been held in high estimation in this country by a certain class of thoughtful students of art and literature. But the rapid de- velopment of art education and the growth of true feeling in art which the last few years have witnessed, were both neces- sary before such a work could, with any chance of success, be addressed to general readers. For Albrecht Diirer is by no means an artist who appeals to all the world. The beauty and holiness of Raphael, the grace of Correggio, the glorious colour of Titian and Rubens — even the power and majesty of Michael Angelo — can be appreciated to some extent by all but the most ignorant or insensible ; but the secret of Diirer’s strength lies further from the surface and requires more of intellectual and imaginative effort in its study than that of any of the Italian masters. His work is always transcendently good, but that it is also most beautiful will only be perceived by those whose eyes have been trained to seek out that high and subtle beauty which lies outside the region of the sensuous. VI PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. But this book does not pretend to deal with the hidden mysteries of Diirer’s art. I have not been favoured, as some critics claim to have been, with any especial revelations, and therefore refrain from putting forward any hypotheses of my own on this subject. I cannot even profess to have given a critical history of his works, or to have formed any new cata- logue of them for the benefit of connoisseurs, my principal aim having been to tell the story of Diirer’ s life, using, whenever I could, his own words for that purpose. The translation of the letters, journal, and other papers relating to his personal his- tory, has therefore formed the chief part of my task. These writings of his, which by rare good fortune have been handed down to us, reflect so vividly the simple loving heart with which his genius was associated, that I thought- my readers would far rather have them in their crude, rough, and some- times ungrammatical form, than any smooth biographical structure that I could build up out of them. I have taken the greatest pains to make my translations as faithful as possible, and they have at least this merit, that they are strictly from the original German ; but the difficulty of rendering provincial German of the fifteenth century into English of the nineteenth, is so great that I have been obliged in some places to own myself conquered by it. In such places I have given the original words in a foot-note, or in the text, instead of follow- ing the example of a French translator of Diirer’s letters, who sometimes supplies their places with neat phrases of his own ; phrases which Diirer might perhaps or ought to have used, but which assuredly he did not. The arrangement of the parts which I have adopted in this book is somewhat unusual, and needs perhaps a few words of explanation. Part I. is in ordinary chronological order, but Part II., instead of following up the history of the life, is PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. Vll entirely devoted to a consideration of the works of Diirer. My reasons for this were, firstly, that there is a considerable hiatus which cannot now be filled up in our records of this portion of Diirer’s life ; and as we are certain from the dates of his en- gravings and pictures that this time was almost entirely occu- pied with hard work in his studio, there seemed a certain fitness in describing in this place those works of art which form the real history of his life at this period ; and, secondly, that it is almost impossible to understand the journal and some other of the later portions of the narrative, without some knowledge of the art labours which had occupied the previous years of the artist. I feel sure that the irregularity of arrange- ment will not cause any inconvenience to the reader. The history of the works contained in Part II. is longer than I at first intended it to be, and on looking over its pages I find that there are not many important works which can with reasonable probability be ascribed to Diirer, that have not received some notice. I have indicated with great care most of the sources from which I have derived my information, but there are two or three which claim more than the mere casual recognition of a foot-note. The voluminous catalogue contained in the second volume of Joseph Heller’s f Das Leben und die Werke Albrecht Durer’s’ (the first volume, which was to have contained the life, was never published) has been a guide to me, as it must be to everyone who writes about Diirer. Equally valuable and learned, and far more lucid in style and arrangement, is Dr. von Eye’s ‘ Leben und Wirken Albrecht Diirer’s.’ To acknowledge my deep obligations to these two books is simply tantamount to saying that I have read them, for each has added so much to the history of the subject as to be essential to everyone who touches it. viii PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. My warm thanks are likewise due to the authorities of the British Museum ; especially to Mr. Winter Jones, Dr. W. Wright, and Mr. G. W. Reid, who have always given me the most cordial sympathy and assistance in my work. To the numerous other friends, both in England and abroad, from whom I have received much valuable help, I can only offer in this place a general but not the less grateful acknowledg- ment. M. M. H. Lessness Heath, Kent, 1869. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. / Several important contributions to Diirer literature have appeared in Germany during the eleven years which have passed since the almost simultaneous appearance in England of Mr. W. B. Scott’s interesting and scholarly biography and the first edition of this book. In 1870, Dr. Lochner, of Niirnberg, published a valuable monograph on the personal names mentioned in Diirer’s letters from Venice. These names, mostly those of old patri- cian families in Niirnberg, had in many cases misled previous translators. In 1871, came a suggestive study by Dr. Max Allihn, of Diirer’s enigmatical engravings, a study also pursued by Herr Adolf Rosenberg, in some articles which appeared in the Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst At about the same time Dr. Alfred von Sallet published a pamphlet on the drawings attri- buted to Diirer in the Berlin, Bamberg, and Weimar collec- tions, and Herr von Rettberg, a work of some importance on the copper and wood engravings. In England also, Professor Colvin has contributed much to the history of the subject by his interesting series of articles published in the Portfolio in 1877. But by far the most important additions to our know- X PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. ledge have been made by Professor Moritz Thausing, who has subjected Diirer’s life, writings, and artistic work to a critical analysis that had not previously been attempted. In 1872 appeared his translation into modern German of Diirer’s letters, journal, family chronicle, and verses, with notes explanatory of many of their obscure allusions. This useful labour was followed, in 1876, by an exhaustive biogra- phy, in which no doubtful point was suffered to escape exami- nation, and much new light was thrown upon the history of Dtirer’s works. It will be seen in the following pages that I often differ from Professor Thausing’s conclusions, his theories seeming to me to be sometimes as baseless as those he overthrows ; but this does not prevent me from acknowledging the great value of his work, and the scientific manner in which it has been performed. Aided by such valuable material, and by continued study of my own in the fascinating realm of Durer’s creations, I have been able to make important corrections and additions in the present edition, so that I trust it will be found useful to students, as well as interesting to general readers. MARY M. HEATON. Lessness Heath, Kent, December , 1880. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Nurnberg in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Modern Niirnberg — Its Mediaeval appearance — Its former glory — Artistic mind of Niirnberg in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries — Its me- chanical activity — The first paper-mill of Germany — Koburger’s printing-press — Regiomontanus — Workmen of Niirnberg — Peter Hele — Hanns Bullman — Wenzel Jamintzer — The Rath, or Town Council — Strikes — Form of government — High rank and importance of the merchants — Their wealth and magnificence — Rapid development of the Fine Arts — Sebald Schonhofer — The Ruprechts — Adam Kraft — Peter Vischer — Veit Stoss — Character of their works — Hans Sachs — Conrad Celtes — Martin Behaim Pages i — 26 PART L FROM INFANCY TO MANHOOD. Chapter I. — Parentage, Birth, and Early Years. Albrecht Diirer the elder arrives in Niirnberg — Of Hungarian descent — Enters into the service of the goldsmith, Hieronymus Holper — Marries Barbara Holperin — Family register of the births of children — Birth of Albrecht Diirer — Character of Diirer’s father — Birth of Willibald Perk- heimer — The schoolmaster in Niirnberg — Diirer’s first portrait of himself — Early drawings — Influence of the town-life on his cha- racter Pages 29 — 39 Chapter II. — Years of Apprenticeship and Travel. Works as a goldsmith under his father — Neudorfer’s inaccurate state- ments — Was never a pupil of Schongauer’s — Apprenticed to Michael Wohlgemuth — Michael Wohlgemuth — Engravings signed ‘W.’ — Xll CONTENTS. Martin Schongauer — Influence of Schongauer on Diirer — Early woodcut — Early drawings — Portrait of Michael Wohlgemuth — Wander-Jahre — Portrait of 1493 described by Goethe .... Pages 40 — 54 Chapter IIP— Marriage and Settlement in Nurnberg. Returns to Nurnberg — The testimony of Camerarius and Melanchthon to Diirer’s nobility of character — Hans Frey — Agnes Frey — Marriage — German courtship in the Middle Ages — Willibald ImhoFs diary of his courtship — Agnes Frey’s temper — Domestic unhappiness — House in Nurnberg — Masterpiece or diploma picture — Received into the guild of painters — Plague-picture — Portrait in the Uffizi and Madrid galleries — Portrait in the Munich gallery — Death of Albrecht Diirer the elder Pages 55 — 69 Chapter IV.— Journey to Venice. Letters to Pirkheimer. Motives for the journey — Illness on the way — Curious preservation of the letters — Letter I. — First mention of the painting for the Tedeschi — Letter II. — Description of artist society in Venice — Giovanni Bellini visits Diirer — Anecdote related by Camerarius — ‘ Master Jacob’ — Letter III. — Works at the picture for the Tedeschi — Bargaining — Letter IV. — Pirkheimer’s commissions — Letter V. — Summoned by the painters of Venice — His brother Hans Diirer— Letter VI. — Begins in bad Italian — Laughs at Pirkheimer — Letter VII. — Mock respect to Pirk- heimer — Letter VIII. — Manuscript only recently discovered at the British Museum — Announces the completion of the painting for the Tedeschi — Letter IX. — Learns dancing — Speaks of his return — He is ‘ a gentleman ’ at Venice — Journey to Bologna — Death of Mantegna — Letter discovered recently by Mr. W. Mitchell . Pages 70 — 100 Chapter V. — 1507-1520. No record of his personal history during these years of quiet work — Agnes Frey’s method of viewing her husband’s work — Death of Diirer’s mother — Interchange of presents with Raphael — Portrait sent to Raphael — Raphael’s Drawing sent to Diirer — Journey to Augsburg — Portrait of the Emperor Maximilian — History of Durer’s two sketch-books — Friends in Nurnberg Pages 10 1 — 109 PART II. WORKS. Chapter I.— Engravings on Wood. Argument as to whether Diirer cut his own blocks — The wood-engravers ( Formschneider ) of Nurnberg — Woodcuts of the Apocalypse — Descrip- tion of the cuts of the Apocalypse — Editions of the Apocalypse — The CONTENTS. Xlll Life of the Virgin— Description of cuts— The Great Passion— The Little Passion Editions of the Little Passion — Single subjects — Copies of the woodcuts Marc Antonio’s piracies — Other artists who imitated -Durer Pages 1 13 — 155 Chapter II.— Works for the Emperor Maximilian. Intellect of Maximilian — His encouragement of literature and art Anecdotes of Maximilian and Diirer— Diirer’s coat of arms— The Arch of Maximilian— Diirer’s difficulty in obtaining payment for his work— Various editions of the Arch— Early impressions— The Triumphal Car of Maximilian— Prayer-book of Maximilian— The Great Column- Apotheosis of Maximilian— Portraits of Maximilian . Pages 156—173 Chapter III— Engravings on Copper. Intellectual character of Diirer’s works— Idea of death — Fantastic element — Mystery of Diirer’s art— The Knight, Death, and Devil— The four Naked Women, etc., probably copies from Wohlgemuth— The Adam and Eve— The Prodigal Son— Other single subjects— The Passion in Copper — Etchings — St. Jerome — Melencolia — Virgin subjects— St. Eustachius — The Great Fortune — St. Anthony — Best watermarks on the prints Pages 174—216 Chapter IV.— Paintings, Drawings, and Plastic Works. Portrait of Diirer’s father — Four repetitions of this portrait — The Feast of the Rose Garlands — The Adam and Eve — Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Saints — Correspondence with Jacob Heller — The Corona- tion of the Virgin — Copy of this picture at Frankfort — The Adoration of the Trinity — The Four Apostles — Change in Diirer’smode of painting in his later years — Letter to the Rath accompanying the Four Apostles — Baumgartner altar-piece — Other paintings at Munich — Portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher — Paintings in England — The Death of the Virgin — Drawings in the Albertina collection at Vienna — History of the Imhof collection— Drawings in the British Museum — Drawings in private collections in England — Drawings in Berlin Museum — Drawings in other collections — Plastic works — Birth of St. John the Baptist — Preaching of St. John the Baptist — Medals . . Pages 217 — 262 Chapter V.— Literary Wopks. Number of works ascribed by Camerarius to Diirer — The Art of Fencing — The Art of Mensuration — Fortification of Cities — Book of Human Proportions — Editions and translations of it — Manuscript of the Book of Human Proportions — Diirer’s verses — Pirkheimer’s and Spengler’s mockery of them . Pages 263 — 273 XIV CONTENTS. PART III. JOURNAL AND LAST YEARS. Chapter I.— Journey to the Netherlands in 1520. Journal. Motives of the journey differently stated by different biographers — Did not go to escape from his wife — Probable that he went in order to gain his Conjirmatia from Charles V. — Objective character of his writing — Departure from Niirnberg — Journal from Niirnberg to Frankfort — From Frankfort to Koln — Arrival at Antwerp — Takes up his abode with Jobst Planckfelt — The Fugger family — Differ and his wife entertained by the Antwerp painters — Makes the acquaintance of Erasmus — Great re- ligious procession described — Goes to Brussels — Riches of the Nether- lands — Returns to Antwerp— Entry of Charles V. into Antwerp — Goes to Aachen — Sees the coronation of Charles V. — Goes to Koln — Receives his Confirmatia — Returns to Antwerp — Journey into Zealand — In danger of shipwreck — Returns to Antwerp — Entertained by the goldsmiths of Antwerp — Patenir’s painting of Lot and his Daughters — Goes to Bruges — Entertained by the painters, goldsmiths, and merchants — Goes to Ghent — Received by the painters in splendid style— Falls ill — Is at Joachim Patenir’s wedding — Outburst of religious feeling on hearing the news of Luther having been taken prisoner — Horse fair at Antwerp — Visit to Mecheln — Interview with the Archduchess Margaret — Lucas Van Leyden — Bad bargains in the Netherlands — Borrows money of Imhof— Goes to Brussels — Draws the King of Denmark — Festivities in honour of the King of Denmark — Leaves Brussels and travels to Koln — Abrupt conclusion of Journal Pages 277 — 344 Chapter II. — Last Years in Nurnberg, and Death. Return to Nurnberg — Progress of the Reformation in the town — Influence of Pirkheimer, Spengler, and others — Banishment of three of Differ’s pupils — Letter to Spalatinus — Effect on Differ’s art — Portraits of Klee- berger, of Erasmus, and of Melanchthon — Intercourse of Differ with Erasmus and Melanchthon — Portraits of Pirkheimer, the Elector Albrecht of Mainz, Friedrich of Saxony, and Ulrich Varnbiihler — Last portrait of himself — Latest works — Illness — Letter to the Rath about the investment of his money — Mean conduct of the Rath — Diirer’s death — Inscriptions on his grave — Pirkheimer’s grief — Pirkheimer’s letter accusing Agnes Frey — Subsequent life of Agnes Frey — Speedy extinction of the Differ family — Conclusion . . Pages 345 — 362 General index Page 363 Index to Works „ 369 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PORTRAIT OF ALBRECHT DURER. PART OF THE ENGRAVING BY W. HOLLAR, FROM THE PICTURE BY DURER IN THE UFFIZI GALLERY, FLORENCE; REPRODUCED BY E. CHARREYRE Front. ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD , PHO T OLITHO GRA PHE D BY J. A KERMAN. PAGE THE FOUR RIDERS. FROM THE AFOCALYPSE . . .120 THE ELECT WITH PALM-BRANCHES. FROM THE APOCALYPSE . 122 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. FROM THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN . 132 THE REPOSE IN EGYPT. FROM THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN . 1 34 CHRIST MOCKED. THE VIGNETTE OF THE GREAT PASSION . 1 38 THE DESCENT INTO HELL. FROM THE GREAT PASSION . . 140 THE CRUCIFIXION. FROM THE LITTLE PASSION IN WOOD . 1 44 THE SUBMISSION OF THE FLEMINGS. FROM THE ARCH OF MAXIMILIAN . . 164 ENGRAVINGS ON COPPER , REPRODUCED BY AM AND DURAND. ST. GEORGE ON HORSEBACK 19 ° THE LITTLE HOUSE . 194 ECCE HOMO. FROM THE LITTLE PASSION IN COPPER . .196 HEALING THE LAME MAN. FROM THE LITTLE PASSION IN COPPER 200 VIRGIN, WITH CRESCENT MOON ...... 2oS VIRGIN CROWNED BY TWO ANGELS 212 ST. ANTHONY WITH THE BELL . . . • . . 214 ST. CHRISTOPHER 354 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. -QeJoo- INTRODUCTION. NURNBERG IN THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. ♦ ‘ Wenn einer Deutschland kennen Und Deutschland lieben soli, Wird man ihn Niirnberg nennen, Der edeln Iviinste voll.’ ‘ Who Germany would know And Germany would love, To him old Niirnberg show, So full of noble art.’ Niirnberg Rhyme. Nurnberg at the present day is set in the midst of modern Germany, like one of its own rich mediaeval carvings in the midst of a modern wall. All around it surges and drives the nineteenth century, with its railroads, telegraphs, huge hotels, and stucco villas. But the nineteenth century stops outside the gates of Nurnberg ; everything within these still lives, breathes and moves in the Middle Ages.* Here '* This, it must be admitted, is less true now than it was when this book was first written, nearly twelve years ago. Since then, the modem taste for restoration has been developed in Niirnberg as well as elsewhere, and many of the old patrician houses, which formerly gave such an air of dignity to the streets, have been pulled down to make room for obtrusive modern dwellings, or else have been restored until no feature of their ancient face remains. Every year brings with it fresh destruction ; some quaint gable-end, some curious bit of carving or image of saint, disappears from view, and the old-world aspect of the town becomes gradually changed. But such changes as these, which take place in every old town, arc I 2 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. are still the narrow streets with their rows of quaint houses — each one differing from the other, and every roof forming a distinct study for an artist — where Albrecht Diirer walked up and down with his friend Willibald Pirkheimer. Here is still the ancient castle with its massive towers, some of them dating back into the times of heathendom, around which the town grew from a mere little settlement of peasants and small traders who sought the protection of the castle towers, to be one of the largest and most important trading towns in the world. Here are still the noble Gothic churches, built when Art and Religion yet walked hand and hand ; churches whose every stone is a thought clothed in all the solemn beauty of the past ; and here in these churches are still the archaic old Byzantine and German pictures, with their long-necked saints and staring green-complexioned Madonnas, which no doubt gave Nurnberg’s greatest artist his first ideas of pictorial art. No town, indeed, in all Europe preserves up to the present time such a vivid picture of the manner of life and mode of thought of the Middle Ages as this of Niirnberg. Even the very names of the inhabitants remain unchanged ;'and when the stranger inquires for the house of Peter Vischer, or Adam Kraft, he is directed very likely to the abode of some present Peter Vischer, or Adam Kraft who keeps a beerhouse or gingerbread shop in the town. Descendants of the grand old patrician families also, who were once the proud nobles of Niirnberg, still in many cases dwell in the curious old mansions inhabited by their ancestors, whose faded glory perhaps accords with their faded importance — for Niirnberg, alas ! is a place of small importance in the modern world. It is a free slight compared to one which now threatens Niirnberg. This is no other than the destruction of the old fortified wall which encircles the town and lends to it so much of its picturesque appearance. Loud is the outcry that has been raised against this latest ravage, but it is to be feared that in spite of the protestations of lovers of art and antiquity all over the world, this massive old wall, with its many historic associations, is doomed to be destroyed, to make room for a grand modern suburb; some parts of it, indeed, have already been razed. Of course it is always a difficult question to decide how far the memories of the past ought to be allowed to interfere Math the needs of the present; but until recently Nurnberg’s modern life has not been assertive, and it has remained to the joy of archaeologists as a little artistic oasis in the midst of this art-loving, but art-barren, nineteenth century. ARTISTIC MIND OF NURNBERG. 3 imperial town no longer ; its Rath has departed, its trade has sought other channels, its artists are dead, its stirring life is a thing of the past, and now it is chiefly the antiquarian and the art-loving stranger, who find attraction within its gates. A certain amount of trade, of course, is still carried on ; Niirn- berg toys are greatly in request by our little ones, and Niirnberg wood-carving is still of superior excellence ; its gingerbread also has a certain gastronomic fame ; but what is this compared with the active commerce that it carried on with all parts of the civilised world in the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries? It was then, indeed, the greatest manufac- turing town in Europe — the Birmingham of the Middle Ages ; but it differed in this respect from our modern Birmingham, that it had a soul in its manufacturing body, and produced not only beautiful fabrics and well-wrought iron and steel, but deep-thinking and inquiring minds, and noble artists and workmen who have left the impress of their thoughts and endeavours on all the work that was done by their hands. For the workman in Niirnberg in the fifteenth century was not a mere machine that turned out so much wood-carving, or so many sculptured saints a day, at the cheapest possible rate; he was not ‘ A tool Or implement, — a passive thing employed As a brute mean, without acknowledgment Of common right or interest in the end,’ — but he wrought with an understanding spirit, and took pride in the perfecting of his work. The artist and the artisan were indeed at that time more often and more intimately united than they are at the present day. The greatest artist did not then think it beneath him to do his own manual and mechanical work, whilst the poorest workman sometimes rose to the rank of an artist by the expression of some true sentiment, or noble individual thought ; thus realising Ruskin’s ideal, of thought made healthy by labour, and labour made happy by thought. It is this free and intelligent expression of the workman s mind which gives such high value to all noble mediaeval art, and separates it so widely from the soulless, though perhaps more dexterous and skilled, productions of later times ; for, after all, 1 — 2 4 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. it is the thought of the artist that we seek for in his work, nor can we rest satisfied with mere dexterity of execution, however much we may admire its ingenuity. Perhaps in no single city was this artistic mind ever more active than in Niirnberg during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Not only, as boasted in the proud burgher proverb, did £ Nilmberg’s hand Go through every land but Niirnberg’s thought, expressed in the art of the greatest of her sons, has travelled to lands which did not come within the limits of those old burghers’ geographical knowledge, and has powerfully influenced the artistic culture of the whole German nation. But even before the time when the great Reforming Spirit of Germany found its highest artistic expression in the works of Albrecht Diirer, there were other noble artists in Niirnberg who were stirred, though in a less powerful degree, by the same mighty influences, and whose works reveal much of that inde- pendent national character which from an early period formed one of the most marked features of old German Art. Before, therefore, considering the position that Albrecht Diirer occupied in the Art-history of his country, or forming any judgment as to the meaning of his life and work, it is necessary to try and understand something of the teaching of the century that produced him ; more especially to trace its influence on the active life and thought of the town in which he was born, and on the minds of those artists who were his immediate predecessors and contemporaries. For, if we would properly study a star in the heavens, we must diligently observe not only its position in the sky, but likewise the con- stellation in which it happens to be placed. As early as the very beginning of the fifteenth century a great mechanical activity was manifested in Niirnberg. The first paper-mill of Germany was established here in the year 1 390, by one Ulman Stromer, who also wrote the first work ever published on the art of paper-making. This mill employed a large number of persons, all of whom were obliged to take an ARTISTIC MIND OF NURNBERG. 5 oath not to reveal the secret of the process, or ever to make paper on their own account. The Nurnberg workmen, how- ever, proved somewhat refractory, and it appears that on the enlargement of his mill (to which they objected) Ulman Stromer had to bring them before the magistrates of the town, who imprisoned them until they returned to obedience and re- newed their oaths. Such was the fifteenth-century method of dealing with strikes.*' The printing-press also, set up in Nurnberg by Antonius Koburger, ranked second only to the celebrated one in Mentz, and had already in the fifteenth century as many as twenty- four presses, giving work to more than a hundred workmen a large number at that time. Thus at a comparatively early date Nurnberg was already in possession of two great sources of wealth and civilization paper of her own making, and books of her own printing. Nor were there wanting men who knew how to make use of these advantages. The invention of printing naturally brought with it a multiplication of writers, and the Nurnberg press in particular seems to have been well employed, and to have proceeded at an accelerating rate with the ever-increasing demands made upon it. At first, as at Mentz, Bibles, psalters, and primers, or prayer-books, were the principal works that were put forth by this press ; but soon we find edifying homilies, more or less veracious chronicles, bitter religious satires, rhyming histories, and even scientific treatises appearing one after another much in the manner of modern times. Weidler, indeed, mentions no less than twenty-one works by Regio- montanus alone that issued from the Nurnberg printing-press. The name of this celebrated mediaeval mathematician and astronomer brings us to the consideration of the influence he exerted on the development of that mechanical and artistic spirit for which, as before stated, Nurnberg was so early remarkable. Johann Muller, better known by his Latin appellation of * See Von Murr’s ‘Journal zur Kunstgeschichte unci Litteratur, vol. v., 1 7 7 7» where there is an interesting and detailed account of this Uhnan Stromer and his workpeople. 6 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Regiomontanus, derived, according to some, from Konigs- hoven, the name of the town where he was born, was early distinguished for his scientific learning. At the age of fifteen he became the favourite pupil of the celebrated Georg Peur- bach, who was then professor at Vienna, and for several years assisted him in his astronomical investigations. When Peur- bach died, Regiomontanus completed several of the works which his master had left unfinished, and then, at the invitation of the king, Mathias Corvin, he went into Hungary, where he was employed in revising Greek manuscripts. But distur- bances breaking out in Hungary, he determined to settle in Niirnberg, a town that must have offered many advantages for carrying out his scientific and mechanical inventions. He arrived at Niirnberg in the year 1471, the year in which Albrecht Diirer was born, and his settlement there undoubtedly gave a great forward impulse not only to the mechanical trades, but also to the mental progress of the town. Diirer himself seems to have owed something to the influence exerted by Regiomontanus. He has been called ‘ the mathematician of painters,’ and cer- tainly his knowledge of perspective and his scientific measure- ment of proportions prove that he must have possessed a considerable acquaintance with mathematics. The astro- nomical subjects treated in two of his woodcuts could not, one would imagine, have been designed unless he had known something of astronomy. On his arrival in Niirnberg, Regiomontanus appears to have entered into a sort of friendly partnership with one of the principal citizens of the town, named Bernard Walther, who supplied him with money, and otherwise assisted him in carry- ing out his numerous designs and inventions. Soon the workshops of Niirnberg vrere in the highest activity and excitement with the calls made upon the ingenuity of their workmen by Regiomontanus and Walther. Together they constructed the first effective observatory ever erected in Europe, and instituted a regular course of astronomical obser- vations such as few astronomers had then attempted. A comet that appeared about this time was the occasion of Regiomontanus writing his treatise on Parallaxes, first given to the world by the Niirnberg printing-press, which also put REGIOMONTANUS. 7 forth his celebrated ‘ Calendar of the Ephemerides/ a work that was so successful in its day, that in a short time, in spite of its immense price, the entire edition was sold out. Regiomontanus, it is true, only resided a few years in Niirn- berg, for he was called to Rome in 1475 to assist Sixtus IV. in reforming the calendar, and died soon after his arrival in Italy, at the early age of forty ; but the active, inquiring, and inventive spirit that he had awakened, or perhaps, to speak more strictly, had fostered in Niirnberg, did not die out when he departed from the town. On the contrary, it rose to still greater height, ever seeking new paths and producing new and astonishing results. From time to time, in the brain of one of those old Niirnberg workmen some useful invention was shaped, or some practical improvement suggested in the arts already in use, such as has proved of the highest impor- tance to the progressive civilization of mankind. Machinery of all kinds, but more especially as applied to ingenious and artistic contrivances, attained a high degree of perfection at this period. Watches, for instance, were invented by Peter Hele of Niirnberg, in 1500, and were at first, from their oval shape, called ‘ live Niirnberg eggs.’ The clock- makers and locksmiths (for the trades seem to have been united) of Niirnberg were indeed among her most dis- tinguished artificers; and Hanns Bullman, ‘who made clocks with men and women’s figures, which beat time on lutes,’ has the honour of having been the first to set up a true astronomical clock in one of the churches. The names of the various work- men of Niirnberg that have been handed down to us in connexion with some useful discovery are indeed too numerous to mention. In reading the laudatory account of them given by Johann Neudorfer,* who contributed himself not incon- siderably to the progress of thought in his native town, one feels almost inclined to believe that there could have been nothing left for the workmen of other towns and other ages to discover. The workers in metal, brasiers, and bell-founders (Rot/i- * In his 1 Nachrichten von den vornehmsten Kunstlern und W eikleuten so innei- halb hundert Jahren in Niirnberg gelebt haben, 1546.’ Printed in 1828 from an old manuscript in the Campe collection, and recently reprinted with notes in i.ic series of ‘ Quellenschriften fiir Kunstgeschichte.’ 8 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. giesser and Glockengiesser), were especially very numerous in Niirnberg, and some of them, as will be seen, deserve to rank among the artists rather than among the artificers of the town. The organ-makers also carried on an important trade, and the organs of Niirnberg were celebrated all over Germany; indeed the town seems to have had a general musical reputation, for its wind-instruments were also greatly in request, and Christo- pher Denner, a workman of Niirnberg, is said to have been the inventor of the clarionet. The glass-painters likewise rank with the Rothgiesser as artificers who showed high artistic merit. Of these the principal belonged to the family of Hirschvogel, one member of which, travelling in Italy in the sixteenth century, learnt the Majorca secret of enamelling pottery, and bringing it back with him to Niirnberg, established the first Majolica manufactory in Germany. Machinery for wire-drawing was employed at an early date. Its invention, however, does not seem to have been originally due to a Niirnberg workman, but to a Frenchman named Rudolf, who settled in the town at the end of the fourteenth century, and soon drove a most lucrative trade. But of all the trades followed in Niirnberg, that of the gold- smiths was perhaps the most important. There were often as many as fifty master goldsmiths working in the town at the same time, and their elegant and artistic designs were cele- brated all over Europe ; for their craft was not a mere handi- craft at this time. The goldsmiths of Niirnberg were not content with setting precious stones in costly but tasteless gold- work, or engraving silver and gold vessels with unmeaning designs : they executed real works of art, modelled and cast images in good metal, engraved seals and dies, and stamped coins and medals. All sham jewellery was eschewed by them ; indeed an old decree of their guild of the year 15 n especially forbids the goldsmiths of Niirnberg ‘from making golden trinkets, such as crosses and rings and other articles, hollow, and then filling up the hollow spaces with wax.’* Likewise they were not allowed '* See Baader, ‘ Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte Niirnbergs:’ Zweite Reihe Nord- lingen. 1862. WORKMEN OF NURNBERG. 9 to work in silver or gold that was below a certain standard of purity settled by law. Neither could they gild copper or brass without especial permission, for we find that Sebastian Lindenast, an artist who worked almost entirely in beaten or wrought copper, out of which he made, as Neudorfer tells us, ‘ vessels of all kinds, as if they had been of gold or silver,’ was ‘ graciously privileged by the Emperor Maximilian to gild or silver, his copper works ’ — a privilege that was refused to his son Sebald, who was likewise a worker in copper, but who, we may suppose, was considered too young to be allowed to practise the alchemical art of turning copper into gold. Such restrictions as these would, it is to be feared, greatly interfere with the Birmingham trade of the present day ; but the Niirnberg of the fifteenth century was animated by a different spirit to that of our modern manufacturing towns. Cheapness and outward show were not the only things desired by the rich German burghers ; and when they bought their wives a golden ornament, or presented their god-children with a silver tankard, they took care that it should be ‘ the genuine article,’ showing therein a wiser discrimination and a better taste than their French and English representatives in the nineteenth century. Amongst the most renowned of the Niirnberg goldsmiths stands the name of Wenzel Jamintzer, who is celebrated for having executed the most beautiful and artistic representations of leaves, flowers, insects, and other natural objects in delicate filagree silver. Some of his beautiful work is still shown in the town collection in the Rathhaus. The seal-engravers and die- sinkers of Niirnberg were likewise famed, and important com- missions were entrusted to them by many of the kings and princes of the Fatherland. Thus we find that in 1452 King Ladislaus of Bohemia applied to the Rath for an engraver for his great royal seal. The Rath recommended a certain gold- smith and burgher named Seitz Herdegen, who, at the king’s request, was permitted to go to Prague with another goldsmith named Holper, to prepare and engrave the king’s seal. Manns Krug also, in 1508, executed several dies for the coinage of the Elector of Saxony.* This Hanns Krug became, in 1 5 1 3 » the Baader, loc. cit. 10 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. official die-sinker and medal-coiner to the town ; for Numbers* had her own master of the mint, as we should now designate him, who made her official seals, stamps, and medals, and who received, like the town carpenter, the town architect, and the town stone-mason, a small retaining salary from the Rath, over and above being paid for any work he might be called on to perform in the service of the town. The Rath always took the most fatherly interest in the welfare of the workmen of Niirnberg : indeed at times its watchful care appears to have been carried almost to the length of tyrannical supervision ; for, like some well-meaning but obstinate old fathers who refuse to perceive that their children have become men and women capable of thinking and judging for themselves, the Niirnberg Council continued to exercise authority, and to impose galling restraints upon the artists and artisans of the town, long after they had grown out of the feudal childhood of the dark ages. This paternal supervision, although sometimes carried to excess, proved, however, it must be admitted, far more productive of honest and noble work, than the careless indifference of the State towards her working children that has prevailed for so 'many years in England — an indifference from which she is now, alas ! painfully awakened by the noise of strikes, trades’ unions, and the other methods that her workmen take to prove that they are no longer children, but have a right to judge and act for themselves. Workmen’s strikes were not, as before said, utterly unknown in Niirnberg even in the fifteenth century, but any disputes arising between the master and his workpeople were settled, as in the case of Ulman Stromer and his paper-makers, by the Rath, which had absolute power to impose such conditions — or, if necessary, punishments — as it deemed fit. But before entering further into the consideration of the position of the workman in Niirnberg in the fifteenth cen- tury, it will be desirable to learn something of the form of government under which he lived. This is the more necessary, as the English reader, unless he happens to have studied what the Germans call the Stadt-wesen (nature of life in the towns) of the Middle Ages, will find it difficult to form any just con- TRUE STRENGTH OF NURNBERG. II ception of the confined circle in which men’s thoughts then moved, of the local and national prejudices acting on their minds, and of the narrowing influences and petty jealousies shut within a town’s walls. The free imperial town of Nurnberg, possessed of a consti- tution of its own, and enjoying numberless privileges and im- munities, granted by various emperors from an early date, held naturally a high position amongst the cities and towns of Germany, many of which were burdened by grievous exac- tions, and subject to the claims of tyrannous lords. The government, which was almost as oligarchal in its character as that of Venice (the great commercial city of Italy, as Nurnberg was of Germany), was entirely in the hands of a few patrician families, who generation after generation filled all the chief offices of state. Members of these families were eligible for what was styled the Kleine Rath , composed of eight patricians styled the Altengenannten , twenty-six burghers, and eight artisans chosen by their guilds. From the Kleine Rath were chosen seven aelteren Herren (Sep- temviri), and from these again the three eldest were selected as Hauptleute (Triumviri), one as commander of the forces, the other two, called the Losanger who were at the head of the whole body, and were invested with similar authority to that of the Doges of Venice. It was, however, quite possible for the other members of the council of state, the Kleine Rath , to restrain the arbitrary power of these Losunger , and even to call them to account for any infringe- ment of the laws. Justice, indeed, seems to have been as fairly administered by the government of Nurnberg as could well be expected from a despotic aristocratic body, unre- strained by the fear of the vox popnli . * Certainly there aic dungeons and torture-chambers under the castle, which tell of secret Imprisonments, and other hideous means that the * The first history of the town of Nurnberg was written about 1470 by Siegmund Meisterlein, a clergyman at Grundlach. That justice had, at all events, in <- respect to persons in mediaeval NUrnberg is proved by the account Meistei en given of the ‘Vorderster Losunger,’ the head of the whole government, ueingca e to account for having appropriated to his own use some of the public iuoul} . c was imprisoned and tortured aitf der Foltcr gel cgt, confessed his crime, >u un recanted, and was finally executed darch den S/rang /lingerie htet, on e uuai} 28th, 1469. 12 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. arbitrary governments of the Middle Ages used to take to stifle the complaints of their subjects, or silence the voice of their enemies ; yet, so far as we know, the old Rathhaus at Niirn- berg is unstained by any of those fearful crimes and deeds of cruel injustice that rise in our memories, and darken for us the fair face of the Doge’s palace in Venice. The policy of the Rath of Niirnberg was, on the whole, a wise and a peaceful one, and that it must have possessed a general reputation for integrity in its dealings is proved by the fact that the Princes and Electors of Germany often referred their disputes to its arbitration ; indeed, its government seems to have been respected abroad, and to have been productive of a fair amount of civil order and security at home. But the true strength of Niirnberg in the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries lay not so much in her aristocratic government as in the mercantile activity and advancing prosperity of her middle classes, and the intelligent minds and cunning hands of her workmen. Everywhere was manifested an all-embracing spirit of commercial enterprise, which poured new wealth into the coffers of the merchants, and developed new industries day by day. Successful commerce formed, indeed, the solid foun- dation of all the wealth and prosperity of Niirnberg. Her merchant-princes vied with those of Italy and the Netherlands in their opulence and magnificence, nor were they far behind these in their taste for art and encouragement of literature. For the merchants of Niirnberg were not men solely occupied with their gains and their losses, but were in many instances men of high cultivation of mind, and belonging to the noblest families in Germany. The great firm of Pirkheimer, for in- stance, which sent its merchandise half over Europe, did not merely represent the moneyed interest of the town, but, like that of the Medici at Florence, it was a great power in the state, and a focus around which all the intellect, knowledge, and refinement of the time- was gathered. The heads of this firm were statesmen and warriors, councillors and savants , patrons of art and literature, as well as landed proprietors and capitalists, and they knew how to appreciate , and not merely to patronise the men of genius and learning who turned to them for encouragement and reward. TRUE STRENGTH OF NURNBERG. 13 But even the simple burghers of Niirnberg, who had no ‘ claims of long descent/ nor any pretensions to the learning and culture of these great patrician merchants, displayed an amount of comfort and even luxury in their dwellings, which, although very insufficient to satisfy the wants of the humblest tradesman of our times, was yet deemed a rare and astonishing circumstance in the fifteenth century. ^Eneas Sylvius, after- wards Pope Pius II., who visited Niirnberg on his tour through Germany, was immensely struck by the wealth displayed by its inhabitants, and declares emphatically, “ that the King of Scotland did not live so handsomely as a moderate citizen of Niirnberg.’ SEneas Sylvius is certainly a well-known flatterer, and he might besides have had a double motive in extolling the citizens of Niirnberg, from whom he was endeavouring at the time to extort money for the Papal chair ; but Conrad Celtes, another contemporary witness, likewise tells us concern- ing these same citizens, that ‘ their wives went abroad loaded with rich jewels, and that most of their household utensils were of gold and silver.’ This outward magnificence existed, of course, side by side with the want of many comforts and refinements that we deem absolutely essential to the poorest homes. The sunlight still penetrated to the interiors of these burgher dwellings only through dim horn or oiled paper, for few of these ‘ moderate citizens ’ could afford the luxury of glass panes, even though they decked their wives with jewels. The ‘live Niirnberg eggs’ were rarities reserved for kingly gifts, and were regarded more as curiosities than as having any practical use ; even the great complicated clock of the Frauenkirche, with its brazen figures of the Emperor and the Seven Electors, who passed before him when the hour struck, was probably less trustworthy than the ordinary sun-dials by which the Niirnberg workmen regu- lated their hours of work and play. But although the fifteenth century was ignorant of many of the appliances and inventions that have become habitual to us in the nineteenth, we must remember that its active and in\cn- tive spirit fostered a large number of discoveries, without which our modern civilization would seem very defective. It was a time when knowledge was sought after with the untiling 14 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. energy of youth, when men’s minds leapt forward eagerly to grasp new truths, and during which this inquiring spirit was at last rewarded by ‘ the two grand discoveries by which the mind of man first attained its majority ’ — the discovery of the new hemisphere, and of the planetary motions. But this grand world-development of the fifteenth century only concerns us at present in its local manifestation in Niirn- berg. Here, as elsewhere, the great forward impulse given to man’s thoughts was made visible in his works, and it is not only in works of practical utility, such as those we have been considering, but also in the higher regions of art and poetry that this same progressive thought is discernible. For it must not be supposed that a practical and mechanical spirit was the only one that animated the burghers and artisans of Nurnberg. Beauty, as well as utility was sought after by them with ardent zeal, and noble works of art were produced at the same time as the more strictly utilitarian inventions were perfected. Gothic architecture, that petrified expression of the thoughts and longings of the Teutonic mind, was the first of the arts that rose to a high degree of perfection, forming the basis of the sculpture and other plastic arts for which Nurnberg is more especially remarkable. At first, as we usually find it to be the case, the sculpture of Nurnberg was strictly subservient to its architecture, the statues and other decorative carvings of the older Gothic churches, such as St. Sebald’s, having no separate existence from the sacred buildings they adorn. But gradually as the arts acquired greater strength and freedom, sculpture assumed once more, as it had done in ancient Greece, an individual life ; and although still chiefly employed in decorating and enriching Gothic architecture, yet it mani- fested a distinct growth of its own, and produced works which are capable of being regarded in their individual aim and significance. The sculptured Saints and Prophets, as well as the tradi- tional representations of events in the life of Christ, in the Church of St. Lawrence, still partake largely of the architec- tural character ; for although the forms are much more graceful, and the drapery less angular than is usual with DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARTS. 15 merely decorative sculpture, yet it is evident that they were intended by the architect simply to heighten the effect of his rich Gothic doorways, and not in any way to be con- sidered as possessing a separate merit and interest apart from his work. Next, however, in point of date to these statues of the grey old Church of St. Lawrence, come those above the porch of the Frauenkirche, executed between 1355 and 1361 by Sebald Schonhofer, the first artist sculptor , as distinct from the masonic stone-cutter , of whose works we find any remains in Niirnberg. The celebrated Branthtir of St. Sebald’s with its statues of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins belongs to the same period, and reveals much the same freedom of conception. The Schone Brunnen (Beautiful Fountain) likewise, which rises in graceful and slender beauty in the market-place, was executed, it has always been supposed, by the same architects (Georg and Fritz Ruprecht) as the neighbouring Frauenkirche, and enshrines in its delicate open tracery no less than twenty- four statues by Schonhofer, all possessing a distinctly sculp- tural character. They represent the Emperor and the Seven Electors, the nine strong heroes celebrated in mediaeval romance, and Moses and the Seven Prophets. Lord Lindsay praises these noble statues as being ‘ in design and expression not unworthy of Italy.’ It is not, however, possible to institute any just comparison between such works as these and the sculptures of the same period in Italy ; for while the latter reveal the study of classic models, and exhibit a revived feel- ing for antique grace and beauty of form, the former are marked with the strong stamp of the Teutonic mind. This, indeed, is what principally strikes us in the works of the fifteenth and the early part of the sixteenth centuries in Germany. They are for the most part purely German, un- tinged, as yet, by that classico-Italian feeling that afterwards exercised such a powerful denationalising influence on Flemish and German art, for the ideal beauty of Italy proved in the seventeenth century a fatal siren to the artists of Germany and the Netherlands, luring them away from their own trueNorthern loves to serve a foreign mistress. This attractive but dan- gerous siren was as yet unknown to the artists of Niirnberg in 1 6 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. the fifteenth century, and their art, consequently, is essentially national, and even local. Especially is this strong national character observable in the two great artist-workmen whose rich creative fancies, carved by the one in stone, and cast by the other in bronze, have left enduring memorials of beauty in their native town. The art of Adam Kraft and of Peter Vischer belongs to the Niirnberg of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and to no other place or time ; and those connoisseurs who can only admire the expressions of the classical and the Italian minds, will find no beauty in the strange fantastic forms and homely sentiment of these early German artists. Yet, if we take the two styles of art as expressive of two different forms of thought, the Gothic sculpture of the fifteenth century in Ger- many seems not unworthy of holding a position side by side with the noble sculpture of Italy, as known to us in the great works of Donatello and Ghiberti. The ‘ Sacraments-Hauslein,’ and the ‘ Shrine of St. Sebald,’ the chefs d'ceuvre of Adam Kraft and Peter Vischer, may indeed not unfitly be taken as the Northern expression of the same artistic development which produced in Italy the cele- brated Ghiberti gates. The Sacraments-Hauslein, or receptacle for the Host, springs up like some slender tree covered with thick hoar-frost, to- wards the roof of the Church of St. Lawrence, in the interior of which this growth of Gothic fancy has its root. It rises from a platform supported by the kneeling figures of Kraft and his two apprentices, to a height exceeding fifty feet, throwing forth, as it shoots upward, the most delicate foliage and intertwining branches ; in the midst of which are set statues of the saints, and exquisite bas-reliefs representing the Passion of our Lord. The luxuriant fancy and artistic skill displayed in this work are something surprising. Every minute detail is finished with the most loving care, and each separate ornament has its own individual character, although the whole is so evidently the emanation of one master-mind. It appears to have grown up naturally in its place, differing remarkably in this respect from modern structures, the separate parts of which so often have the appearance of having been ADAM KRAFT. 17 brought from different parts of the world, and constrained, against their will, to unite into one inharmonious whole. Adam Kraft, the creator of the high-aspiring Hauslein, was probably born at Niirnberg some time between 1450 and 1460 * and died in the hospital at Schwabach (so at least say some of his earlier biographers) in 1507 or 1508. He could work, Neudorfer informs us, as well with his left hand as with his right, and was altogether so skilful in the use of his tools that he was able to execute the most delicate work in the hardest material. Neudorfer and Sandrart,t indeed, are of opinion, from the extreme fineness of his cutting, that he must have known some process for softening his stone before working on it, and then rendering it hard when his labour was achieved ; but it seems more probable that he made use of one of those sorts of stone that are comparatively soft when first hewn from the quarry, but which become hard by exposure to the air. Another famous work by Kraft is the ‘ Entombment,’ forming the Schreyer monument, a rich sculpture in high relief set in the outer wall of St. Sebald’s. This, with the ‘ Seven Stations,’ or ‘ Falls of Christ,’ set up by Martin Kotzel, a citizen of Niirnberg, who went twice to the Holy Land in order to measure the exact distance that Jesus traversed on His road to Calvary are the principal works that remain by this de- lightful master in Niirnberg. Even in their restored condition they testify to his skill in delineation and dramatic power of expression. The portrait of Kraft given in Neudorfer and in Sandrart, is taken from the most northern of the figures supporting the Sacraments-Hauslein, but there seems much greater reason for supposing that the western figure is the one that the sculptor really intended for his own portrait. This alone wears the mason’s apron, and is distinguished by the club of the masonic order. It represents a man of about forty years of age, in the full vigour of physical and mental power ; which is sufficient, if this be accepted as his portrait, to disprove those biographers who represent him as a very old man when he accomplished his great work. * See ‘Adam Kraft und Seine Schule,’ by Fr. Wanderer. Niirnberg, 1S69. + Sandrart, ‘Teutsclie Academic.’ 1 8 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. With Adam Kraft there lived in constant communion and art-fellowship, the celebrated Meister Peter Vischer, the elder, and Sebastian Lindenast, who worked chiefly in beaten copper, ‘ making vessels of all kinds as if they had been of gold or silver.’ These three brother-artists used, we are told, to meet together on feast-days and holidays to practise the art of designing, and so intent were they on their labours that they would often, although on a feast-day, ‘ separate without eating or drinking.’ Meister Peter Vischer, according to the most authentic accounts, was born at Niirnberg about the year 1455, and belonged to a family that had already a certain reputation in bronze-work. Like most of the apprentices of his time, he appears to have enjoyed a few ‘ Wanderjahre ’ abroad, before he settled down as a Meister in his native town : at least, Sandrart affirms that he studied in Rome ; and his works cer- tainly reveal a knowledge of the antique that he would scarcely have been able to gain had he stayed at home all his life. This knowledge of classic form did not, however, as with weaker artists, destroy the national tendency to the fantastic in Vischer’s art ; it only added to the quaint Teutonic imagina- tion a certain touch of grace and refinement such as we rarely meet with in any other Northern artist, except those who are tinged by that pseudo- Italian sentiment which undermined the originality of the Teutonic mind, and led eventually to its bringing forth bastard weaklings of Grecian and Roman parentage instead of the honest offspring of Northern thought and fancy. The Shrine of St. Sebald, the masterpiece of Vischer’s art, was begun in the year 1 507, and was finished at last, as the inscription on it tells us, ‘ by Peter Vischer and his five sons, to the glory of Almighty God alone, and to the honour of St. Sebald, Prince of Heaven,’ in 1519. For twelve years Peter Vischer and his five sons laboured incessantly on this grand tomb, which was designed to hold the bones of the holy St. Sebald, the apostle of the Niirnbergers,the messenger of heaven, who by his miracles had first converted their ancestors to the true faith, and who had remained the patron saint and loved benefactor of their town ever since. PETER VISCHER. 19 Peter Vischer was paid for his work, it appears, out of the alms of ‘ pious contributors,’ at so much the hundredweight. There is an exact statement preserved of the various sums that he received at different times as his work progressed, and it is supposed that the hard-working Rothgiesser did not make at all a good bargain in the matter, and that the tomb was truly executed by him, as he declares, to the ‘ glory of God alone, and honour of St. Sebald,’ rather than to his own profit. It is scarcely probable, indeed, that the alms of the pious, how- ever incited by the promises of absolution that were held out from time to time by the Bishops of Bamberg to all who should assist in the work, would have been sufficient to pay six men for twelve years’ labour out of their lives. Such work was never done in the modern spirit of demand and supply. The bronze out of which the tomb was cast might perhaps be paid for at so much the hundredweight ; but the honest piety and artistic thought that these workmen infused into it arc things impossible to pay for by voluntary contributions or otherwise. No description of this wonderful tomb* can convey any just idea of its luxuriant richness of workmanship. Every minutest portion of it is in itself a charming little work of art : genii, mermaids, lions, fabulous monsters, delightful little boys, and all sorts of strange creatures out of the realms of fancy, spring up at every turn ; even the platform itself on which the whole structure rests is supported by enormous snails, and the rich fretwork canopy is likewise fantastically ornamented. And when the eye gets tired of all this fantastic imagery, it has only to turn to the twelve figures of the Apostles that arc placed on brackets against the slender pillars that support the canopy, to find entire rest and satisfaction. The calm dignity and noble expression of these statues is indeed something remarkable for an early German master. It is what Diirer only attained in the last years of his life, in his great paintings of the Four Apostles. Around the platform or pedestal on which the shrine is placed are bas-reliefs, representing the various miracles per- formed by the saint. Once perishing with cold, and finding no * There is a cast of it in the South Kensington Museum. 20 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. fuel in a cottage where he took refuge for the night, he placed an icicle on the fire instead of a fresh log, which immediately burnt as brightly as the best coal. Another time he rescued a man who had doubted his inspiration as a prophet, from being swallowed alive by the earth as a punishment for his unbelief. Turning tinker on another occasion, he mended a broken kettle for his host simply by blessing it. These and other marvellous deeds of the holy St. Sebald are all pictured by Peter Vischer on his tomb, the whole being cast in bronze with the most exquisite smoothness. Meister Peter Vischer, like Adam Kraft, has left us a statue of himself as a part of his work. It represents a man of middle life, wearing the ordinary working dress of a mason, with cap, leather apron, and a chisel in his hand, as a sign of his calling. This statue stands unobtrusively in a niche facing the altar, whilst on the opposite side, facing the entrance to the church, there is a fine statue of St. Sebald. Peter Vischer calls himself simply a Rothgiesser (brasier), and he even designates himself by that title on the St. Sebald tomb, laying no claim to its artistic conception. This has led some critics to suppose that he did not really design this mag- nificent work of art, but was simply employed to cast in bronze another man’s conceptions. Herr Heideloff, indeed, a well- known German architect, who has restored many of the ancient buildings in Ntirnberg, goes so far as to assert* that the whole credit of the designing of this tomb is due to Veit Stoss. But this view, founded chiefly on the discovery of a five-foot design for the St. Sebald tomb, dated 14 88 — that is, several years before Vischer began his work — and signed with the monogram of Veit Stoss, has been fiercely controverted by other writers, t and there really appears no just ground for robbing the modest Meister of St. Sebald’s tomb of the glory due to its conception, by supposing that, contrary to the usual practice of Ntirnberg artificers, who mostly worked from their own designs, the greatest Rothgiesser amongst them was in- debted to another man for his ideas and models. * In his ‘ Ornamentik des Mittelalters.’ + Especially by Dobner in the ‘ Ivnnstblatt ’ for 1847, No. 36. PETER VISCHER. 21 The few records that have been handed down to us of Peter Vischer’s domestic life give us a pleasant idea of the old Niirnberg workman and his simple way of living. He and his wife and his five sons, with their wives and numerous children, all dwelt harmoniously together under one roof, in a house near St. Catherine’s churchyard ; and he and his sons, all of whom followed their father’s trade, might be seen any day working with their own hands in the Gieshiitten (foundries) belonging to Peter Vischer, where they were constantly visited by the Princes and Electors of Germany, and other potentates, none of whom ever thought of passing through Niirnberg without seeing the Gieshiitten of the celebrated Meister Roihgiesser . Peter Vischer died in 1529, one year later than Albrecht Diirer. He was buried in St. Rochus’ Churchyard. Strange to say, there is no evidence of any friendship having subsisted between him and Diirer, although they lived in the same town at the same time, and were probably well known to one another. There can be small doubt, however, that even if they were personally unacquainted, they must yet have exercised an influence over each other’s art ; for no two great minds, living in daily sight of each other’s works, can fail to be thus mutually modified. It would be pleasant, however, to know that Albrecht sometimes formed a fourth on those holi- day evenings, when Kraft and Lindenast and Vischer used to meet together, and work at their designs. I have already mentioned the name of Veit Stoss,* another Niirnberg workman, whose works fall within the same period of rich artistic development as those of Kraft, Vischer, and Diirer. It has always hitherto been supposed that Stoss was a native of Cracow, in Poland, and only settled in Niirnberg at the end of the fifteenth century ; but it has recently been satisfactorily ascertained that he was really a born Niirnberger, who gave up his rights of citizenship in 14 77> i n orc ^ er to allowed to settle in Cracow, where some of his works arc still to be seen. In 1496, however, he returned to Niirnberg, and * For the true history of Veit Stoss see Baader, ‘ Beitrage zur Kunstge>chichte Niirnbergs. ’ Several interesting particulars have recently been disco\eied inspect- ing him, which throw an entirely new colouring on his life. 22 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. paid three Rhenish florins for resuming his rights as a citizen. Veit Stoss is principally known to us by his marvellous wood-carvings ; but Neudorfer and Sandrart tell us that he was not only a carver in wood, but was also a sculptor, a painter, and an engraver. Unfortunately, none of his paint- ings or sculptures are preserved, but there are several en- gravings in existence bearing his mark. Bartsch describes three. They are very rare. But his wood-carvings alone, which still adorn many of the churches and private dwellings in Niirnberg, are quite suffi- cient to reveal to us the extraordinary artistic skill of this Bildschnitzer (carver in wood), who, we are told, sculptured his figures so perfectly that they ‘ only wanted speech to be alive.’ Veit Stoss, it is said, fell blind in his old age, and died in great poverty and misery in the hospital at Schwabach. Un- fortunately the sentimental interest that has attached itself to his life, and the pretty pathetic stories that are told of the blind old artist, are very ill-founded, for, sad to say, this ‘ pious and charitable ’ wood-carver is characterised in the town records as ‘ an unquiet burgher, who has given an honourable Rath and the Common State much trouble.’* Moreover, we find that on St. Barbara’s Day, in the year 1503, he was publicly branded on both cheeks with a hot iron by the town executioner as a forger. The proper punishment of his crime — a crime committed ‘ in order to obtain possession of un- righteous wealth ’ ( iinrechtmassigen Gates ) — was, according to the laws of Niirnberg, death ; but a ‘ merciful Rath ’ graciously commuted this sentence to branding on the cheeks. Soon after being subjected to this public shame, Veit Stoss fled secretly from the town, although he had taken a solemn oath on being let out of prison not to do so, and the Rath had ‘ much trouble ’ and had to make terms with him and his son- in-law, Georg Trummer (who had likewise escaped from its fatherly care), before he would come back again and consent to four weeks’ imprisonment as an acknowledgment of his perjury. At last, however, this was accomplished, and Stoss * Baader, ‘ Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte Niimbergs.’ VEIT STOSS. 23 appears once more to have returned to his native town, and, in spite of the ugly marks on his cheek, to have regained much of his former trade. He was truly too valuable a work- man to be despised by those who required noble works of art. But although the Emperor Maximilian took him into his service, and employed him on several works, his relations with his art-companions appear to have been anything but pleasant. They refused, indeed, to work with or for him, so prejudiced were they in favour of honest men, and he consequently had the greatest difficulty in getting his orders executed. The Rath, to which he made a formal complaint on this subject in 1508, refused to force the workmen of Niirnberg to enter into his service, although it did not prohibit them from doing so. It granted him, however, protection from any ill-usage he might receive at the hands of the masters and apprentices of the different guilds, and altogether seems to have behaved very fairly towards its clever but troublesome child, who remained an ‘ unquiet burgher ’ to the end of his days, constantly entering into lawsuits, and petitioning the Rath against one or other of his fellow-citizens. He died in 1533, a very old man. The great crucifix in St. Sebald’s, and the curious wood- carving of the £ Salutation of the Angel ’ ( Engelische Gruss) in the church of St. Lawrence, are his greatest works in Niirnberg, but many other carvings by him are scattered about in various private houses and churches, and many more are attributed to him ; indeed, as a rule, every wood-carved altar-piece in Niirnberg is said to be by Veit Stoss, as every painted one is attributed to Wohlgemuth. We are told, as an instance of the life-like appearance of his statues, that when two figures of Adam and Eve, that he had executed for the King of Portugal, were unpacked from their cases, ‘ the king started back from them in horror, thinking they were alive. He appears to have painted his carved figures in oil-colours, and to have enriched them with gold. Besides these three famous artists, Adam Kraft, Peter \ ischer, and Veit Stoss, whom I have selected as illustrating the growth of plastic art in Niirnberg in the fifteenth century, there were numberless other artist-workmen of lessei fame, 24 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. who were likewise moved by the spirit of the time to do work of noble note, that might have been left undone, or have been done in a dishonest manner, in a less stirring age. But the limits of this chapter will not allow me to speak of the good old Hanns Beheim, the elder, ‘ stone-mason on the Pegnitz, an honourable, pious, and God-fearing man, who was friendly to everybody, particularly to the working people, and was beloved by an honourable Rath, and the whole Common State or of Hanns Glockengiesser, who cast the great fire- bell, weighing over forty hundredweight, a wonder in its day ;* nor Georg Hensz, “ who made the astronomical clock with the seven crown princes in the Frauenkirche,’ and Hanns Bullman, who, ‘ although not very clever in reading and writing, was very learned in astronomy, and was the first to set the Theoria Planetarum in motion by clockwork.’ The history of these, and all the other worthies of Niirn- berg, the reader may find, if he desires, in the little volume of Neudorfer’s ‘ Nachrichten/f which contains the simple and genuine expression of an old Niirnberger’s admiration for his fellow-citizens. His facts, it must be admitted, are not always very correct ; but the substantial truth of his narrative remains as unimpeached as that of Vasari, who likewise was apt to confuse dates, places, and facts, but who yet has given us a more truthful , as well as a more vivid picture of the artist-life of Italy than is possible to the modern art-biographer ; for however conscientiously the latter may seek in registers and town-records for the verification of his assertions, he is unable to give those little life-like touches to his subject which form the charm of such histories as those of Vasari and Neudorfer. Of the early painters of Niirnberg I have purposely said * On this bell was written — ‘ Die Tagemess und Feuerglocken heisst man mich, Hanns Glockengiesser goss mich, Zu Gottes Dienst und Ehr gehor ich.’ ‘ I am called the mass and the fire bell, Hanns Glockengiesser cast me : I sound to God’s service and honour.’ + See note page 7 . OTHER NURNBERG WORTHIES. 25 nothing as yet. There were, indeed, none of any general celebrity prior to Michel Wohlgemuth, who will be considered, in another chapter, as the master of Albrecht Diirer. Such other painters as there were do not betray in their works any of that freedom of thought and fancy which so strikingly characterises the plastic art of this period. But there must not be forgotten here the celebrated Hans Sachs, the cobbler poet of Niirnberg, who is said to have done as much for the Reformation by his songs and satires as Luther and the other Reformers by their preaching. Such a man as this, although perhaps he exercised no direct influence on the growth of art in his native town, must yet have had a consi- derable indirect share in the formation of its peculiar character. A poet who composed and wrote with his own hand, as Hans Sachs tells us he did, ‘ four thousand two hundred master- songs ; two hundred and eight comedies, tragedies, and farces ; one thousand and seven fables, tales, and miscellaneous poems, and seventy-three devotional and love-songs,’ can scarcely fail, considering that these songs and satires were in the mouths of all the people of Germany, to have materially affected the thoughts and opinions of his fellow-townsmen. Of these, none would be more likely to acknowledge the poet’s influence than the artist-workmen who formed such a large portion of the population of Niirnberg, and who, as they sang his songs over their work, could scarcely have helped infusing into it some of the ideas they had gained from his teaching. The vigorous but coarse humour of the master-singer of Niirnberg is, indeed, distinctly traceable in some of the art-productions of his time, particularly in many of those rude woodcuts directed against the Romish clergy, which occur so frequently in the sixteenth century. Conrad Celtes, also, a poet of very different type, belonged to Niirnberg for a period. He was the favourite poet of the Emperor Frederic III., and was crowned by him at Niirnberg in 1487, as the first laureate in Germany. He is chiefly interest- ing to us here, however, as being a friend of Pirkheimer’s, and moving in that learned circle of men of letters, reformers, etc., to which Diirer also had entrance. The Latin comedies and verses of Celtes were highly admired by the humourists of his 26 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. day, but they had none of the power to stir men’s minds that existed in Hans Sachs’ rough satires. „Celtes was the poet of the court, Hans Sachs of the people. The latter, indeed, con- tributed largely to foster the growth, in Niirnberg, of a radical spirit of progress. Notwithstanding the restrictive and some- times oppressive government of a paternal Rath, and the exclusive and protective policy of the various guilds and cor- porations of artisans, a free and independent spirit dwelt in those old burghers and workmen, which caused them to be amongst the first to cast off the chains wherewith the Church of Rome sought to bind the inquiring intellect of her children, and led to Niirnberg being the first free imperial town of Germany that declared for Luther and the Reformation. Before concluding this chapter, I would remind the reader of one other Niirnberg worthy who contributed not a little to the growth of knowledge in the fifteenth century. Although the fame of Martin Behaim, burgher of Niirnberg, has been eclipsed by that of Christopher Columbus, it appears tolerably certain that this same burgher, who sailed through the Magellan Straits in 1485, and discovered Brazil, was the first European navigator who touched the New World of America. Martin Behaim likewise, who was not only a sailor but a geometrician and geographer, made the first terrestrial globe that was ever seen, thereby doing inestimable service to all who followed in his wake across the unknown ocean. This globe, or at all events one made about this period, is still preserved in the old Town Library at Niirnberg, one among many memorials of that spirit of invention and pro- gress which brought forth so many valuable results in the Niirnberg of the Middle Ages. PART I. FROM INFANCY TO MANHOOD. CHAPTER I. PARENTAGE, BIRTH, AND EARLY YEARS. ‘ There was bom here, once more, a Mighty Man.’ Carlyle. It happened on St. Eligius’ Day (25 th of June), in the year of our Lord 1455, that a young working goldsmith entered the gates of Niirnberg, with the hope of finding employment with one of the far-famed master goldsmiths of that busy town. He had come originally from a village named Eytas, or Ajtos, near Gyula, in Hungary, where his ancestors had for many generations tended horses and cattle.* Some time before his * It has long been a disputed point whether Albrecht Diirer was of German or Hungarian descent. The name of Diirer is undoubtedly German, but Albrecht Diirer himself tells us that his father was born of a race of herdsmen in Hungary, and it has lately been almost distinctly ascertained that he belonged to a Hun- garian family named Ajtos. This family, whose name of Ajtos derived from Ait 6 , a door, signifies the same as Diirer or Thiirer as it was first called, lived in a small village of the same name near Gyula. The ruins of this village still remain, and Pfarrer Haan, a member of the Hungarian Academy, has recently discovered seven documents relating to the family who once occupied it, and who, it would seem, belonged to the smaller nobility of Hungary. This family undoubtedly used the same crest as Diirer, namely : the well-known open doors under a pent-house roof; and it would seem, therefore, more than probable that the elder Diirer was of the same race. If so, he could not have been exactly of peasant origin, as has been inferred from his son’s statement as to his ancestors living by tending cattle and horses. Indeed, Durer’s own expression that his father was ‘ born of his race (GescJzlecht) would seem to imply that his family belonged to a higher class than their occupation denotes. In this case we must regard the name Diirer as being simply the German translation of the Hungarian Ajtos . Even Professor Thausing, who had before held to Diirer’s Gorman origin, considering with Yon Eye that the Diirer family had merely settled in Eytas from an early period, is obliged to admit the force of Pfarrer Haan’s evidence ; he has indeed almost settled the matter beyond reasonable doubt.— See ‘ Zeitschrift fiir bildende Kunst, ’ October, 1S7S ; and ‘Academy,’ December 7, 1878. 30 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. birth, however, his father had renounced this patriarchal calling, and had set up in Jula as a goldsmith. The son adopted his father’s trade, and, in the years before we find him at the gates of Nurnberg, had lived among the great artists of the Netherlands learning the goldsmith’s craft. When he entered the town he found that it wore an un- usually idle and festal appearance. The clang of labour had ceased for a time, the workshops were all deserted. It was not long before he learnt that the reason of this unwonted idleness was that Philip Pirkheimer, son of one of the richest and noblest patrician families of Nurnberg, was celebrating his wedding feast, and that the sons and daughters of Nurnberg, dressed in holiday array, had left their customary occupations to take part in the great dance that was going on under the old Linden-tree in the court of the Reichsveste, a tree which, according to tradition, had been planted by the hand of Queen Kunigund.* Albrecht Dtirer the Elder , for such was the name of the traveller (the distinguishing appellation of ‘ the Elder ’ having been bestowed on him in after-times by his more celebrated son), could have had small chance of finding work on such a gala-day as this ; and we may well imagine that, although he had not on a wedding garment, but clothes all soiled and dusty with his long journey, he yet lingered awhile to watch the gay proceedings and merry dancing going on in the shade of the patriarchal Linden. But little could he have dreamed, as he watched the German maidens in their long-peaked shoes, high towering head-dresses, and sweeping trains, flitting by him in the dance, and the proud dames and noble Raths- herrn, who contemplated the animated scene with pleased pride, that the name of the great Pirkheimer family, in whose honour all these gay guests were assembled, would in after- years be inseparably associated with his own ; and as little thought those fat burghers and their wives, and those earnest, thoughtful-looking workmen, who jostled one another to get a good view of the dancing, that the arrival of that unknown artisan, who had suddenly appeared amongst them, was an event of greater consequence to their town than even the * This tree, which was reckoned old in Diirer the Elder’s time, is still standing. ALBERT DURER THE ELDER. 3 * marriage, of the noble heir of the Pirkheimers. Yet such it was destined to be. Whether Albrecht Diirer the Elder found the employment he desired immediately on his arrival in Niirnberg, or whether he had to wait some time seeking for work, is not certain, but before very long, at all events, he entered the service of Hieronymus Holper,* a well-known master goldsmith in the town, whom he served, as his son tells us in the short rccordf from which these details are drawn, for ‘ a tolerably long period, until the year 1467/ — that is to say, for twelve years, after which time he received, as a fitting reward for his long service, the rank of master goldsmith in the town, and also the hand of the youthful Barbara Holperin, his master’s daughter, in marriage. ‘ My mother,’ says Albrecht Diirer, ‘ was a beautiful and virtuous maiden,’ but we cannot suppose that it was from any romantic attachment to her that Albrecht Diirer the Elder stayed so long with her father, for she was only fifteen years old at the time of her marriage, and must there- * This name had always been written Llaller until Dr. Lochner, to whom we owe so many researches in Dtirer-history, proved from examination of archives that it was a goldsmith named Holper, or Holder, with whom Diirer worked, and who afterwards became his father-in-law. This Master Holper is mentioned several times in the town records, and was perhaps the same as the goldsmith mentioned in the introduction, who was sent by the Rath to Prague to engrave the king’s seal. See Nttrnberger Ivorrespondent, No. 431, Die Personal! Namen in Albrecht Durer’s Briefen aus Venedig. Dr. G. W. K. Lochner, 1870. Llaller for Holper was probably a mistake of the copyist of Durer’s MSS. t This brief family history, if such it may be called, does not appear to have been put together by Diirer with any idea of helping his future biographers, the motive that usually gives rise to such works, but seems to have been undertaken simply in a spirit of pious reverence for the memory of his father and the other members of his family, whose deaths he records in few words, but with exact details of the time and conditions under which they happened. He begins his narrative in these words : — ‘ /, Albrecht Diirer the Younger , have collected from my father's writings from whence he was descended , , how he came hither , and remained and ended blessedly. God be gracious to him and us. Amen.' For the whole of this narrative see ‘ Reliquien von Albrecht Diirer, * first fully collected and published by the patriotic Dr. Friedrich Campe in 1S28. This little volume that Dr. Campe dedicated ‘ to all those who honour Diirer ’ is of the greatest interest, for it contains all Diirer’s personal writings, his letters to Pirkheimer, Ins business correspondence with Jacob Lleller, and the journal he kept dining his tour in the Netherlands, etc. The letters and journal had certainly been published before in Von Murr’s ‘Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 1775 — I 7^>S,’ but there they were inconveniently scattered in different volumes of the journal, wheieas in Campe’s edition they appear in a complete form. They have since then, namely, in 1872, been translated into modern German and republished by Professor Thausing in the ‘ Quellenschriften fiir Kunstgeschichte.’ 32 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. fore have been a child of three when her bridegroom, who was a man of forty when he married, first came to Niirnberg. Their marriage took place ‘ eight days before St. Vitus ’ (7th of June), in 1467. ‘ It must also be recorded,’ writes Diirer, ‘ that my grandmother, my mother’s mother, was the daughter of the GEllingers of Wissembourg, and was named Kunigund.’ This marriage was abundantly — it would not perhaps be far wrong to say superabundantly — blessed with children. No fewer than eighteen births are recorded in the exact family register kept by the elder Albrecht Diirer, and piously pre- served by his son, who ‘ sets down everything as his father wrote it in his book, word for word.’ The first entry in this register states : I. Item. It the year 1468 after the birth of Christ, on the evening of St. Margaret’s Day, at the sixth hour, my wife Barbara was delivered of my first daughter. The godmother was the old Margaret of Wissembourg [probably the grand- mother of the child], and she named the child Barbara after its mother. ‘ 2. Item. In the year 1470 after Christ, on the day of St. Mary in Lent, two hours before daybreak, my wife was de- livered of a second child, a son. His godfather was Fritz Goth of Bayreuth. He named my son Johannes.’ But it is only the third entry in this long registry of births that is of significance to us. This states that in c the year T471 after Christ, on St. Prudentia’s Day, at the sixth hour [that is, according to our reckoning, at eleven o’clock A.M. on the 21st of May], on a Tuesday,* my wife was delivered of a second son. His godfather was Antonius Koberger.t He called him Albrecht after me.’ Thus, with no greater distinction than the rest of his seven- teen brothers and sisters, is the birth of the great German artist announced. Few of these numerous children, each of whose birth is * Dr. Campe reads ‘on a Friday ( Frevtag ),’ but Von Eye, in the appendix to the second edition of his ‘ Leben und Wirken Albrecht Diirer’s,’ points out that this is a mistake, for that St. Prudentia’s Day fell on a Tuesday in that year, and that Campe had probably misread Frey tag for Eritag , an old expression for Dienstag (Tuesday). f The celebrated book printer of Niirnberg. ALBERT DURER THE ELDER. 33 recorded with the same exactitude, and almost in the same words, lived to be men or women ; most of them died quite young’ and at the time when Albrecht Durer copied this history of their respective births from his father’s papers, there were, he tells us, but three brothers living of the whole family, namely, himself, his brother Andreas, who became, . like his father, a goldsmith of Ntirnberg, and Hans Durer, who, eighteen years younger than Albrecht, was his pupil in art. He was after- wards made court-painter to the King of Poland. The good father appears to have had a hard struggle to win bread for his young wife and increasing family ; for although he was now a master goldsmith in Ntirnberg, yet it was only ‘ with great toil and constant hard work ’ that he could supply the daily wants of his household. The wearing anxiety of a hand-to-mouth existence, and the necessity for increasing labour, seem indeed to have pressed somewhat heavily on the elder Durer, and this no doubt brought that earnest and care- worn expression into his face that we notice in his portrait by his son. He looks in this portrait, taken in the year 1497, like a man who had had a hard fight with the world, and who had accustomed himself to walk in the stony path of duty, rather than in the softer ways of pleasure, and we can well understand that he was ‘ little inclined to worldly pleasure ; a man of few words, and who went seldom into company, and was a God- fearing man! A God-fearing man, somewhat after the type of our English Puritans, who also had little taste for the sweets of life, but concerned themselves chiefly with its eternal interests. Yet Albrecht Dtirer the Elder was by no means morose or self- centred, but, on the contrary, ‘ had good praise from everyone that knew him ; for he led an honourable Christian life, was a patient and gentle man, peacefully inclined towards everybody, and very thankful to God. His daily speech to his children was ‘ that they should love God and do rightly towards their neighbours,’ and in these high duties he seems to have set them a noble example. Thus we may conclude that, although the good father’s life was disturbed by ‘ many troubles, vexations, and disappoint- ments,’ it still contained many secret sources of peace and joy; indeed, the fire that beams forth from the eyes of the seventy- o 0 34 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. years-old man in his son’s portrait of him, proves that his anxieties and troubles had not been able to crush his spirit or undermine the sure foundation on which he rested his hopes. We have unfortunately no authentic portrait of Dlirer’s mother,* nor has her son, in spite of the love and reverence he always showed her, left us any written description of her character and mode of life, like that he has given us of his father. He tells us, certainly, that at the time of her early marriage she was ‘ a beautiful and virtuous maiden,’ but he does not give us any picture of the overburdened young mother, whose children came and went with such sorrowful rapidity. The births and deaths of children seem, indeed, for a long course of years to have formed the only incidents in the monotony of the Diirer household. The house inhabited by his parents at the time of Albrecht’s birth was situated in the Winkler Strasse, behind the great Pirkheimer mansion. It was a dwelling of some importance for a man of the rank of the elder Diirer, and proves that at the time that his third child was born he could not have been in very straitened circumstances. The fact also that he was able to ask Antonius Koberger, who was a man of considerable importance in Niirnberg, to stand godfather to his son, shows that the master goldsmith must have held an honourable position in the town of his adoption, and that he must have been acquainted with some of its most distinguished in- habitants. The house in the Winkler Strasse seems to have formed a part of the general Pirkheimer building, for it is called by Germans the Pirkheimer Hinterhaus (back-house) ; it was rented by the elder Diirer from the Pirkheimer family, so that even before the birth of the two children whose names were destined to be handed down together to posterity, some sort of a connexion must have existed between their parents. Albrecht Diirer the artist was, as we have already learnt, born on the 2 ist of May, 1471, in the Hinterhaus of the Pirk- heimers. Six months before this event, Willibald Pirkheimer, * Karel van Mander affirms that in 1604 there was a portrait of Diirer ’s mother in the Rathhaus at Niirnberg. Other writers also mention it, but it is not known what has become of it. There is, however, a drawing, supposed to represent Barbara Holperin, in the British Museum. EDUCATION IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 35 the statesman, savant, reformer, and soldier, the friend of Albrecht Diirer, first saw the light of the fifteenth century. He was not, however, born at Niirnberg, but at Eichstadt, where his father, John Pirkheimer, held the post of Councillor to the Bishop. It seems, however, that his parents must have re- turned soon after his birth to Niirnberg, so that there is nothing to contradict the supposition that the two children, in spite of the difference of rank of their parents, which at that time usually formed a wider separation between classes than it even does at the present, grew up together under much the same influences, and, probably enough, were companions in their childish joys and sports. When Albrecht was about five years old, however, his father moved from the Pirkheimer Hinterhaus to a house at the foot of the castle hill, and Willibald also departed from the family mansion for a period, receiving his education chiefly at Eich- stadt, wnere he was trained in all ‘ noble exercises and liberal arts,’ and afterwards at the University of Padua. Albrecht also had the advantage of being very well instructed for an artisan’s son of that period. ‘ Especially,’ he tells us, ‘ had my father a pleasure in me, because he saw that I was diligent in trying to learn.’ On this account, probably, his father sent him at an early age to school — most likely to the St. Sebald parochial school in the neighbourhood — and here he acquired his first knowledge of reading and writing, a knowledge that was not gained in those times without much more difficulty than the youths of our day have to experience. For we must remember that in the fifteenth century printed books were still expensive luxuries, far too valuable to be entrusted to schoolboys, and our young Albrecht had therefore to learn his lessons without their aid. Dr. von Eye thus describes the ordinary mode in which instruction was imparted to the schoolboys of the fif- teenth century in Germany. ‘ Let us look,’ he says, ‘ at the boy Albrecht, in his low-girdled tunic, going on his way towards the school. At his side hangs a little slate with a slate-pencil attached to it, or perhaps a small board spread over with a layer of wax ; but that is his only apparatus. W ith this everything must be learnt. The schoolroom is a half-daik room, with bare, dusty walls. A desk stands at one side, made 3— 2 36 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. of thick oak planks roughly joined together, and above it, against the wall, hangs a black-painted board. The remaining space is taken up by narrow benches, hardly half a foot in breadth ; on these the various, not too cleanly-combed, scholars are ranged. A panting form mounts the seat, armed with nothing more than a heavy stick or rod. After the noise is still, the lean schoolmaster writes a letter on the black-board, names it, and the zealous scholars scream it out after him. The teacher then admonishes them to copy the letter that he has given to them on the black-board, and again to name it. Those who are clever or industrious do this. From letters they pass on to syllables and words, and finally to sentences, and in this way attain a knowledge of reading and writing.’* Thus was the schoolmaster abroad in Niimberg in Albrecht Dtirer’s youth ! But in spite of the difficulties in the path of learning, a great desire for knowledge must have laid hold of the German people in the fifteenth century. Free Latin schools were then established in many towns, and ‘ poor scholars,’ as they were called, rushed to these from all parts of Germany with an eager thirst for the new learning, often begging their bread from door to door, and undergoing in- credible hardships, in order to be able to prosecute their Latin studies without interruption. . Albrecht Diirer, however, had not, like his great contem- porary, Martin Luther, to suffer the misery and ill-usage incident to the life of a poor scholar. He appears to have lived comfortably at home under his father’s roof, receiving his father’s wise admonitions and instruction, as well as the more regular teaching of the town schoolmaster. The first of Albrecht Diirer’s numerous portraits of himself occurs at this period, and enables us to judge what the Niirn- berg schoolboy was personally like in his thirteenth year. This drawing*f* is most interesting, not only as being the first work that we possess by his hand, but also as proving that he must already in his boyhood have had a considerable know- ledge of drawing. It represents a handsome, yet thoughtful, boyish countenance, in which we distinctly trace the noble * ‘ Leben und Wirken Albrecht Diirer’s,’ p. n. t Now in the Albert Collection at Vienna. EARLY DRAWINGS. 37 features and expression of the later Diirer portraits, and in which, in spite of its imperfect execution, a certain tenderness or melancholy of soul makes itself vaguely felt. The large soft eyes, although incorrectly drawn, gaze out at us with a touch- ing and solemn expression, and we cannot help wondering, as we look at the rough boyish sketch, what thoughts were rising in the young heart when it was made. The head in this drawing is covered with a soft cloth cap, from beneath which the long hair, as in the later portraits, falls down over the neck and shoulders, but is cut straight across the forehead. The face forms a soft oval, from which the well-formed nose already stands out in a prominent manner ; the eyebrows are slightly arched, and the full childish lips pout out as if waiting to be kissed. The dress is a loose jacket with wide sleeves open in front, and showing the bare throat ; one hand only is seen, and this has evidently been drawn, not, like the face ‘ from the looking-glass,’ but from some preconceived idea of a hand, probably gained from one of the old Byzantine pictures that the youthful artist had no doubt observed and studied in the churches ; for the long ugly fingers look more as if they belonged to a lean ascetic saint than to a joyous young school- boy. For the rest, this drawing bears the direct impress of a true portrait ; for although it is weak and faulty in design, it presents us with what many portrait-painters are unable to give, a real personality. Diirer himself seems to have preserved this early portrait ; and esteeming it, perhaps as a relic of happy childhood, he wrote under it in after years these words : ‘ This I have drawn from myself from the looking-glass , in the year 1 484, when I was still a child,— Albrecht Durer.’ Possibly he may have had some dim suspicion that this early portrait would some day be of interest to mankind. To the following year, 1485, belongs also a pen drawing of the Virgin and Child, seated under a canopy and attended by two angels with musical instruments. This drawing — formerly in the Posonyi Collection, and now in the Berlin Museum — is executed with remarkable skill for so young an artist. It is evidently not original, and was probably copied from some earlier master. 38 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Professor Thausing, who reproduces it in his volume, sees in it the influence of Wohlgemuth, but I should rather take it to be a direct copy from some engraving by a Cologne master. It is signed with the initials A. D., apart from one another — his earliest mode of signature — and bears the date at the bottom, 1485. Another drawing of this early period of youth is in the British Museum. It is a light chalk drawing, on tinted paper, of a woman with a bird in her left hand. On one side it bears an inscription in old German, written, it would seem, by its first possessor, saying : ‘ This was drawn for me by Albrecht Diirer , before he became a painter , in Wolgemuts house , on the upper floor of the back house , in the presence of Cunrat Lomazens! This accidentally preserved inscription on the little sketch reveals to us in some measure the employment of Albrecht’s leisure hours. Like all boy-artists, he no doubt delighted in making sketches of all that struck his fancy, and his school- fellows and companions were probably enriched with many specimens of his early powers. But the portrait of himself and this little drawing, preserved most likely by some young Niirn- berger with an early-developed taste for hoarding, are about the only remains of his boyish productions that are known to have escaped destruction. There is mention made, certainly, of a drawing of three heads, done when he was eleven years old, which formerly formed part of the Imhof Collection ; but this does not seem to be any longer in existence. This early taste for drawing must have been a great source of enjoyment and employment in the boy’s home life. The constant deaths of children, and the anxiety that seems to have weighed so heavily on the good father, could scarcely have failed to have cast continual shadows over the Diirer house- hold, and our young Albrecht must thus have become acquainted with grief at a very early age ; indeed, the large melancholy eyes in the portrait when he was ‘still a child,’ seem to tell us that he had already looked upon earth’s pain and sorrow, and had learnt something of that great mystery of death which overshadows so many of his greatest works. Many indeed were the influences acting on the boy’s stirring EARLY DRAWINGS. 39 soul, and prompting it ever to higher flights, and chiefly there was the constant influence of the active town life into which he was born, which could not fail to have a great share in fashioning the character and awakening the activities of the master gold- smith’s thoughtful young son. Indeed, the noble development of the arts of design that was going on at this time in Niirn- berg may reasonably be regarded as having given that peculiar bent to Diirer’s genius that made him an artist. Born in another place and at another time, he might have been a great poet, a great philosopher, or a great teacher of religion ; for all these capabilities lay within him ; but born in Nurnberg, in the fifteenth century, he was destined to become the great artist of Germany. CHAPTER II. YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP AND TRAVEL. {Lehr und Wander-Jahre.) 1 The Youth, who daily farther from the East Must travel, still is Nature’s Priest, And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended.’ Wordsworth. ‘ And when I had learnt reading and writing/ says Diirer, 1 my father took me from school, and taught me the gold- smith’s work.’ This is all that he tells about the time that he worked under his father as a goldsmith ; and we have no certain record of any work done by him at this period, although it is supposed by some that a beautiful silver piece representing the Seven Falls of Christ was executed by him when in his father’s workshop. It is stated by Neudorfer and several of Diirer’s early biographers, that it was old Diirer’s intention to place his son under the great Colmar painter, Martin Schongauer, for in- struction, but that the death of this master hindered this design from being carried into execution. But good old Neudorfer appears to have made some blunder on this point. He did not write his ‘ Nachrichten ’ until the year 1 547, long after all the events he records had occurred, and probably the old man’s memory often failed him in exact dates and statements of facts. Certain it is, at all events, that Martin Schongauer’s death could not have been the reason why Albrecht did not become his pupil ; for although the YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP AND TRAVEL. 41 precise time of the death of this master is still somewhat uncertain, it has been distinctly proved that he lived beyond the year 1484, when Albrecht was thirteen years old, and when, according to Neudorfer, his father conceived the idea of sending him to Colmar. In spite of this discrepancy in Neudorfer’s narrative, he has, however, been followed by many subsequent writers, some of whom even go so far as to state not only that it was intended that Albrecht should be Martin Schongauer’s pupil, but that he really studied under him at Colmar. Deschamps and several other art biographers especially mention Schongauer as Albrecht Durer’s first master. It is therefore necessary to state distinctly that Albrecht was never, in the ordinary sense of the term, a pupil of Schongauer ; nor does it appear that he ever even saw Hupsch Martin,* as he was called, although there seems no reason to doubt Neudorfer’s further statement that he afterwards, during his Wander-jahre , became acquainted with Schongauer’s three brothers at Colmar. Diirer himself says nothing of his father’s intention of placing him with Schongauer. This of itself would not prove much, for his statements regarding himself are confined to bare records of events, related in the simplest and fewest possible words ; and besides, as he was only a boy of thirteen at the time, he might not have been consulted about the matter ; but from his father’s evident desire that Albrecht should follow his own profession, and from other circumstances connected with the case, there seems no reason, in face of Neudorfer’s evident inaccuracy, to doubt Albrecht’s own simple declaration, that when he had learnt reading and writing his father took him from school and taught him the goldsmith’s work, having no thought at that time of his becoming a painter. The precise date at which he left school and began his work as a goldsmith has not been ascertained, but it most pro- bably was, as Neudorfer affirms, when he was thirteen years old ; for he must have continued some time under his father’s tuition to have learnt to ‘ work neatly ’ ( sauberlich arbeiten ), * An English writer on Diirer has made a curious mistake concerning his first master. Finding out that it was an error to suppose that he studied under Schon- gauer, he seeks to correct it by stating that Hupsch Martin (Handsome Martin) was really his master ; they being in fact the same person. 42 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. as he tells us he had done before he was apprenticed in i486 to Michel Wohlgemuth. These two years — namely, from the age of thirteen to that of fifteen — we may therefore conclude were spent by Albrecht in his father’s workshop, and they could scarcely have failed to have taught much to the young goldsmith, though he had before, as we have seen, gained sufficient knowledge of drawing to be able to execute from the looking-glass a characteristic portrait of himself. Albrecht Diirer the Elder was, his son records, an ‘ ingenious ( kunstlichen ) man ;’ and that he was highly esteemed in his profession is proved by the fact that he was appointed in 1494 by the Rath to test the silver and gold work submitted to the Company of Goldsmiths for approval during the tem- porary absence on travel of the Master Goldsmith, to whom the office properly belonged.* The probability is that Albrecht could have had few better instructors in the arts of modelling and design than his father, and that he profited by his instruc- tion is clearly seen in the few plastic works which he afterwards executed. But Albrecht Diirer, as we know, was not destined to be a -goldsmith in Niirnberg. A far wider domain was needed for the free expression of his genius ; and already, in his fifteenth year, we find that his wish was strong to become a painter. ‘ My inclination,’ he says, ‘ carried me more towards painting than to the goldsmith work.’ His father seems at first to have been somewhat opposed to this inclination. He repented the time the boy had lost, as he considered it, in learning the goldsmith’s work ; and perhaps the grave and overburdened old man desired to keep his noble- hearted and richly-gifted young son by his side to cheer his declining years. We can indeed well understand that a father must have had a ‘ particular pleasure ’ in such a son. But whatever struggle it cost him, the elder Diirer was too wise a father long to oppose his son’s fixed inclination towards painting ; and having once given in to his wish, he did all in his power to further its accomplishment. With this view, ‘ in i486, on St. Andrew’s Day,’ Albrecht was bound apprentice by his * Baader, ‘ Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte Niirnbergs.’ APPRENTICED TO MICHEL WOHLGEMUTH. 43 father to Michel Wohlgemuth ‘ to serve him for three years,’ the ordinary term of apprenticeship at that period. Thus his true vocation in life was finally and happily deter- mined. Not in high words, not in heroic deeds, but in thought- ful and noble works of art he was to find a fitting expression for the longings, the strivings, the deep thoughts, the vague melancholy, the light and the darkness of his soul. And now, whilst Wohlgemuth’s new apprentice is learning to rub colours, to wash palettes, cut blocks, and engrave plates, in his master’s workshop, let us consider for a few minutes the position which that master occupied in the art-history of his country, and the influence his teaching was likely to exert on his young pupil. Michel Wohlgemuth or Wolgemut, born, according to the date given on Dtirer’s portrait of him, in 1434, is a somewhat perplexing figure in German art-history. Hitherto his fame has been greatly merged in that of his celebrated pupil, and he has been remembered rather as the master of Diirer than for his own individuality. Professor Thausing, however, in the exhaustive chapter he has consecrated to Wohlgemuth in his ‘ Life of Diirer,’ brings forward strong evidence to show that he was by no means the mechanical copyist that he has been deemed by some writers, and that in the department of engraving, as well as of painting, he exerted a considerable influence over Diirer. This influence, however, becomes apparent only under the reasoning whereby Professor Thau- sing restores to Wohlgemuth a number of copper engravings which for more than a century have passed as the work of another master. These engravings are those signed with ‘ W.’ in the middle of the sheet, at the bottom, an initial which was supposed by most writers to refer to Wohlgemuth, until at the beginning of the present century Adam Bartsch lit upon an old inscription on one of these prints, stating that ‘ the engraver of this was called Wenceslans, and was a goldsmith! Upon this he at once made over the whole of the ‘ W .’ prints to a certain Wenceslaus von Olmutz, an obscure goldsmith and engraver of Moravia, of whom nothing is known with any certainty, except that his name appears on a copy of Schongauer’s ‘ Death of the 44 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Virgin.’ Such an authority as that of Bartsch was, of course, accepted without examination by most succeeding writers. I own, for one, that I followed it blindly in the first edition of this work. But Professor Thausing has brought forward such powerful arguments in favour of the old view that the letter ‘ W.’ is the mark of Wohlgemuth, that, in spite of all the diffi- culties it involves with regard to Diirer’s work, I cannot help acknowledging that it is more than probably the right one. What these difficulties are we shall see further on. Mean- while, accepting the Meister W. as being no other than Michel Wohlgemuth, necessitates our regarding him as an accom- plished engraver on copper as well as a painter and engraver on wood. His paintings — or perhaps it should be said the paintings that pass with his name — are very unequal in merit ; but it must be remembered that the early German artist was not troubled by any high-flown notions about art for art’s sake, but looked upon his calling simply as a trade, agreeing, when he received a commission for an altarpiece, to use so much good oil-paint, so much ultramarine, or gilding, as the case may be, and to put so many saints or donors in it, without either patron or painter thinking of regarding the matter as one involving more than mere technical ability, or in any other light than as an ordinary commercial transaction. We see this clearly by Diirer’s letters to the Frankfort merchant, Jacob Heller, wherein he evidently regrets having made a bad bargain con- cerning his splendid altarpiece of the ‘ Ascension of the Virgin.’ Michel Wohlgemuth, in particular, seems to have kept not so much a studio in Niirnberg as a huge workshop or manu- factory of works of art. He executed faithfully enough what- ever commissions came to him — orders for votive pictures, altarpieces, painted chests, illustrations for books, engravings of all kinds — but it was never supposed that he executed them all with his own hand. He had a large number of apprentices, pupils and assistants, all at work under him, and it may be inferred that the inferior, or ill-paid work, was left mostly to them, while he occupied himself with supervising all and designing or even painting some of the more important pictures. Among those that may with tolerable certainty be ascribed to MARTIN SCIIONGAUER’S INFLUENCE. 45 him, we find several, such as the Peringsdorf altarpiece in the Moritz-Kapelle at Niirnberg, distinguished by much richness of invention and force of colour. His style, like that of several German painters of his kind, unites the realism of the Nether- lands with somewhat of the ideality of the early school of Cologne. It would seem probable that he studied in his youth both in the school cf the Van Eycks and in those of the Lower Rhine. Some writers make him a pupil of Roger Vander Weyden, while others consider that he must at some period have had personal relations with Schongauer. Schongauer and Wohlgemuth have, in truth, many things in common. They stand together just at the transition period of German art, and may be regarded as the last of the old school, the forerunners of the new. For although they adhered faith- fully to the old forms of belief, and piously sought to interpret to the people in pictorial shape the doctrines and belief of the Church of Rome, in spite of their obedience to the voice of St. Peter, the germ of a new idea was already working in their art ; and in the works of Martin Schongauer especially, mingled with their pure Catholic devotion, we constantly perceive the cropping up of that strange new growth of freedom and reform which was destined to reach its real significance and noblest height in art in the works of Albrecht Diirer. Martin Schongauer’s influence, indeed, seems to me almost more perceptible in Albrecht Diirer’s early works than Wohl- gemuth’s. This, no doubt, has strengthened the popular belief that Albrecht was at one time a pupil of that master ; but although, as we have seen, this idea rests on too slight a foun- dation to be entertained, there is no reason to doubt that a knowledge of his works contributed in some degree to the development of Albrecht’s genius. This knowledge he might well have gained in Wohlgemuth’s workshop, for if that master be the same as the Meister W.,it is certain that he copied no fewer than forty-eight of Schongauer’s engravings. Diirer very possibly may have been employed on some of these copies. That strange weird element that gives such a peculiar character to almost all of Diirer’s works, is likewise to be found in many of Schongauer’s. The fantastic spirit of German art, which had been kept down as a relic of heathen- 4 6 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. dom by the masters of the Cologne school, breaks forth un- restrainedly in several of Schongauer’s engravings ; witness the celebrated one of St. Anthony tormented by demons, which Michelangelo is said to have copied ; and these engravings were doubtless known to Albrecht at an early period, and could scarcely have failed to have attracted his attention and admiration. It is not surprising, therefore, that the art of Martin Schon- gauer, the greatest that Germany had as yet produced, should have exercised an influence over that of Albrecht Diirer ; it is only remarkable indeed to find how small that influence really was, for an artist such as Martin Schongauer might well have been followed with too exclusive veneration by an enthusiastic young artist endowed with less original genius than Albrecht ; indeed, even in his case, it is perhaps fortunate that he was not thrown into more direct contact with the Colmar master, for an education in Wohlgemuth’s workshop was probably a far wiser training for his genius than if it had been directed in its first budding capabilities by any great master-mind. The three Lehr-jahre spent in Wohlgemuth’s service were no doubt a useful preparation for Albrecht’s after-work. He learnt during these years the whole technical process of paint- ing, of which he was before entirely ignorant ; the art of mixing and laying on his colours ; and something of the chemical nature of the pigments employed, a knowledge which was then of essential importance to a painter, as most artists at that time prepared their colours themselves, and did not get them ready ground from the colourman — a procedure that has, no doubt, contributed to the wonderful state of preserva- tion in which we find many of their works at the present day. Probably, also, he first gained a technical knowledge of wood- engraving as well as of copper-engraving during this student- period, for block-cutting was one of the principal employments in Wohlgemuth’s busy workshop ; and although that master’s great work, the ‘Niirnberg Chronicle,’ was not begun until after Diirer had started on his travels, it is very likely that he may have been employed on some of the cuts of the ScJiatz- behalter , or ‘Treasury of Salvation and Eternal Happiness,’ a TOWN EDUCATION. 47 work illustrated by ninety-one large woodcuts designed by Wohlgemuth, which was published by Koburger in 1491, and which seems by its success to have stimulated Niimberg enter- prise to the production of the famous ‘ World Chronicle,’ written by the learned Nurnberg doctor Hartman Schedel, and illustrated by Michel Wohlgemuth and his stepson Wil- helm Pleydenwurff. Wohlgemuth’s cuts in this vast work are like all his other works, very unequal both in design and execution. He certainly does not appear in it as the advanced artist that Professor Thausing considers him to have been, still there are indications here and there of a knowledge superior to preceding designers, and it may well be that Diirer profited by his instructions in carrying on the progress still further. ‘In time God gave me industry,’ says Albrecht, ‘ that I learnt well.’ This is all he tells us concerning his Lehr-jahre , except that he ‘ had much to suffer ’ from his fellow-appren- tices ; and, considering the love of tormenting inherent in the boyish character, and the greater barbarity of manners and recklessness of human pain that existed in the fifteenth cen- tury, we may form some notion of what his sensitive nature may have had to endure from the rough treatment and gross insults of his master’s Knechten. For although Albrecht was at this time a well-grown boy, and able no doubt to defend himself from the personal attacks of his enemies, yet his artist- nature was probably endowed with keener sensibilities and a more delicate organization than were common amongst the Nurnberg youth. He was a genius, in short ; and the large, tender, and melancholy eyes that look out from that boyish sketch seem to tell us that he had to suffer all the numerous pangs and miseries that genius has so often to endure from a cold and mocking world. But the thoughtful young apprentice must have often escaped from the noise and confusion of the workshop, and from the jeers and insults of his companions, into that bright world of imagination in which the artist-mind delights to dwell. We can picture to ourselves the beautiful youth, with soft light hair flowing down on his shoulders, and that same tender dreamy expression of countenance that we see in the face of the youthful Raphael, wandering about the busy streets 43 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. of Niirnberg, stopping maybe to gaze at the already old statues of the Schone Brunnen, or to examine the Gothic carvings of the Frauenkirche, or entering into St. Sebald’s and falling into a musing mood before some Byzantine Madonna set up for his worship, but whose eyes stared out at him with unsympathetic and unmeaning regard, and whose limbs, as it already pained his true artist’s eyes to perceive, were terribly out of drawing. , Unfortunately, we cannot imagine Albrecht wandering forth alone into the fields and forests that lay outside the town, or deriving refreshment after his day’s work by peaceful com- munion with Nature. The sweet companionship of Mother Nature, the deep teaching of mountains, forests, and rivers, the soft charm of sunshine falling on the harvest-fields, the murmuring noises of the woods, and all the thousand influences — the ‘ Sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart,’ that come to us in our country rambles, were denied to the inhabitants of Niirnberg in the fifteenth century. Rarely, except on business to other towns, or other necessary travel, did the townsfolk of Niirnberg go far beyond its protecting walls. Shut in by them from their enemies, they were also shut in by them from all real intercourse with Nature, and were only able to gain occasional glimpses of the wide- extending country that lay around them through the strong fortified gates or above the high battlemented walls of their town. The frequent feuds with neighbouring states, and the con- stant depredations of the Free Knights — who were always lurking around the precincts of the rich towns — rendered 'it indeed unsafe for any unarmed townsman to go forth alone to take a quiet evening walk in the country. Probably, had he done so, he might have found himself seized and carried off to some robber-castle, there to learn by sad experience in its dark dungeons, that, in spite of Wordsworth’s assurance to the con- trary, Nature can sometimes ‘betray the heart that loves her.’ PORTRAITS OF WOHLGEMUTH. 49 Albrecht was forced then, even by the outward circumstances in which he dwelt, as well as by the secret promptings of his soul, to listen more frequently to ‘the still sad music of humanity,’ than to the softer harmonies of inanimate nature. Soul-cries of agony, doubt, and longing fell heavily on his young ears ; and the mystery of death, as we have seen, threw, even in childhood, its shadow on- his life. We have evidence of this in some of his earliest productions ; a key- note of sadness sounds through them all ; and, as in his more mature works, instead of the joyful triumph of springing manhood, we have thoughts about evil and death. A strange woodcut, executed in 1491, is reckoned by some critics among his early works ; it is certainly characteristic of his tone of thought and treatment of a subject. It represents three armed knights attacked by powerful skeletons in a narrow valley. One of the death-forms is just about to fell a knight from his horse with an enormous jawbone which he wields with immense strength ; another, swinging his death-scythe, stands over the second knight, who has already fallen to the earth ; whilst the third skeleton lays hold of the flying mantle of the other knight, who is seeking to save himself by the swiftness of his horse — the whole producing a terrible impression of the helplessness of human might against the powers of darkness. Of the works executed by Albrecht during his three years’ service with Michel Wohlgemuth very little is known. Pro- bably he worked, like the other apprentices, mostly on subjects designed by his master, at all events only two drawings of small importance can be reckoned with any certainty as belonging to this period. One of these, now in the Berlin Collection, represents three lansquenets in earnest confabulation. One of them lifts his hand to heaven. They are called in old cata- logues the three Swiss patriots — Werner Staufacher, Arnold von Melchthal, and Walther Furst. Another, in the Bremen Museum, depicts a company of six horsemen riding across a plain towards a town. Both drawings are signed A. D., with letters apart, as was Durer’s first mode, and are dated 1489. The portrait Dlirer has left us of his master Wohlgemuth does not appear to have been taken until some years after his apprenticeship. 4 50 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. He is drawn as an old man, with a face all wrinkled with years and cares, but with eyes in which the youthful fire of his spirit has not yet quite died out. He wears a small cloth cap on his head, from which a few straggling locks of hair escape, and a fur collar round his neck, then reckoned a mark of honourable distinction in a man’s dress. This portrait is now in the Munich Gallery, and an inscrip- tion on it tells us — ‘This portrait Albrecht Durer has painted after his master, Michel Wohlgemuth, in the year 1516, when he was 82 years old ; AND HE LIVED UNTIL THE YEAR 1519, WHEN HE DIED ON St. ANDREW'S DAY, EARLY, BEFORE THE SUN HAD RISEN.’ It is signed with Dtirer’s monogram, and bears the date 1516. An admirable drawing of Wohlgemuth also is preserved in the Albertina Collection. It probably formed the study for the painting. It was engraved by Bartsch in 1785, and lately in Professor Thausing’s Life. In 1490 Albrecht’s Lehr-jahre were accomplished, and his father appears to have provided him with the means for travel. ‘ And when I had served out my time,’ he writes, ‘ my father sent me away ; and I remained four years abroad until my father desired me to come back again.’ These years of travel ( W cinder -jahre), following a young man’s apprenticeship, have always been deemed in Germany a necessary, or, at all events, a desirable training for his in- tellectual powers, before he settled down as a master work- man in his native town, and was received into one of its guilds. This custom must have been extremely beneficial to the young artist-workmen of Niirnberg, who by this means were able to make acquaintance with the works of foreign artists before they finally adopted a style of their own. But more especially to the young painter with a soul open to all the influences of nature, and all the glories of art, this pleasant period of travel must have been a grand growing time for his artistic powers, inuring him ‘ To see, throughout all nature, varied stuff, For better nature’s birth by means of art.’ Unfortunately Albrecht is utterly silent concerning this FOUR YEARS OF TRAVEL. 51 time. He does not tell us where he went or what he saw, or what he learnt during those four Wander-jahre ; he simply says that he set out from Niimberg in the year 1490, after Easter, and returned after Whitsuntide, in 1494. Such a gap in his history is of course very provoking for his biographers, who have from time to time exercised much ingenuity in trying to find out where he went during this period. Thus various writers, determining from their own sense of fitness the places to which he ought to have gone, have affirmed, some that he spent these years among the great masters of the Netherlands, others that he travelled during them into Italy. This latter view, after having been given up for some time, has lately been revived, and has been adopted by Professor Thausing, who certainly supports it by an ingenious chain of reasoning. His strongest argument is derived from a number of highly finished drawings from nature, many of them in water-colour, which lie scattered in various collections. Several of these represent places in the Tyrol and the valleys of the Alps, which very probably were executed during a journey to Italy. The question is, at what date ? Professor Thausing holds that, being undated and unsigned, these drawings must have been made before 1 503, after which date Diirer was ac- customed to place his monogram on even his smallest works. But we find one of these landscape sketches executed exactly in the same way as the others, with the most delicate finish, which is both signed and dated 1506. Why should this belong to one time, and all the rest, which so strongly resemble it in character, to another ? Professor Thausing indeed asserts that Diirer, journeying to Venice on business in 1 505-6, would not have the time to stop to make landscape studies ; but how does he know this — or how does he know that they were not made upon his return journey, or, as M. Ephrussi ingeniously suggests * why should they not have been made during an excursion from Venice, in the summer of 1506 ? A mysterious sentence, also, in one of Diirer’s letters from Venice, has often been supposed to refer to a previous visit to * In a series of articles on Diirer’s drawings, contributed to the ‘ Gazette des Beaux Arts,’ in 1877 — 1878. 4—2 52 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. that town. In this letter he says: ‘ The thing that pleased me so well eleven years ago, pleases me now no more,’ and Pro- fessor Thausing believes he refers to the early school of painting in Venice. But this is a mere guess, an unlikely guess, moreover, for it is almost certain from the context thatDiirer is speaking of the works of a certain ‘Master Jacob, 5 of whom more hereafter. Altogether the hypothesis that Diirer visited Venice during his Wander-jahre seems to me to be founded on too slight a basis of fact to be accepted, especially when we take into con- sideration the entirely German character of Diirer’s art. Had he been subjected to Italian influences during this impression- able season of youth, is it likely that he would have remained so impervious to them that they would not have affected his style in the slightest degree ? It is true he copied a few works by Mantegna in his youth, and now and then introduced an Italian motive derived from that master or from Jacopo de 5 Barbarj, into his prints, but for the rest he is German to the heart’s core. Look, for instance, at the noble Apocalypse series, begun immediately after his return from his Wander- jcihre. Can anyone believe that this was the work of one who had received Italian training, and had worked in a Venetian studio ? There seems, however, no reason for doubting Neudorfer’s statement* that Albrecht was in Colmar in 1492, and that he became acquainted whilst there with Martin Schongauer’s three brothers, ‘ who received him honourably, and entertained him in a most friendly manner. 5 Hiipsch Martin himself had died three or four years previously to Albrecht’s arrival in Colmar, who was thus deprived of any benefit, or harm, which might have accrued to him from personal intercourse with the older master ; but Martin’s principal works still remained in his native town, and Albrecht would scarcely have failed to have studied them deeply and attentively. According to the testimony of Christopher ScheurlJ- Diirer ■' r Especially as it is confirmed by Pirkheimer. + ‘ Commentarii de Vita et obitu Dora. Antonii Kress, 1515.’ Scheurl was a citizen of Niirnberg, who was well acquainted with Diirer. In speaking of his Wander-jahre , he says expressly tandem peregrata Germania. In another of his works, however, the ‘Lib. de land Gemaniar,’ 1508, he certainly writes concerning the Italian journey the words qui qnum nnper in Italia rediisset , seemingly as if he EARLY PORTRAIT OF DURER. 53 visited also Basle and Strasberg during his W ander-jahre , and a picture is still preserved in the Art Museum of the former place, which is signed with his monogram and the date 1491. It is to be feared, however, that the authenticity of this work is more than doubtful. Two portraits are also mentioned, formerly in the Imhof Collection, which, according to the inscription upon them, were painted in 1494, and represented Diirer’s ‘ Meister mid Meisterin ’ at Strasburg. Who these persons were there is no means of knowing ; but if the inscription were genuine (and there is no reason to doubt that it was) it certainly points to a residence at Strasburg towards the end of Diirer’s W ander- jahre. But although the materials are too scanty to allow us to form any clear picture of Albrecht’s journeyings or mode of life at this period, there exists an interesting relic of these years in a portrait he has left us of himself at the age of two- and twenty, and which, therefore, must have been painted during his travels. I have already described the strange, melancholy impression conveyed by Diirer’s earliest portrait of himself— that, namely, drawn at the age of thirteen. This vein of sadness touches us likewise in his later portraits, but in the two or three taken in the full vigour of manhood this melancholy is absent ; or if it still lies at the bottom of the heart, it is not apparent on the bright, noble countenance — the fire-glancing eyes speaking to us of life’s enjoyment rather than of life’s pain. This particular portrait, painted in 1493, is unknown to me, except from a description that Goethe has given of it, but I should imagine that, although somewhat younger in age, it corresponds in character with the well-known portrait in the Uffizj Collection. Goethe says of this portrait : ‘ 1 hold as beyond value the portrait of Albrecht Dtirer painted by himself in 1493, an d therefore in his twenty-second year. It is half life-size, a half length, with no hands visible ; a purple cap, with short narrow strings ; neck bare to the collar-bone ; em- had been there before, and this is one of the arguments brought forward by Professor Thausing in favour of his view. But the one phrase is vague, whereas the other, written afterwards, is explicit. He mentions his reception by Schongauer s brothers at Colmar and at Basle, but not one word about Italy. 54 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. broidery on the shirt, the folds of the sleeves bound with peach- coloured ribbons ; and a loose blue-grey cloak with yellow strings, very becoming to a handsome young man ; in his hand a piece of the significant blue flower called in Germany Man’s- faith (Manns-treue) ; an earnest, youthful face, with sprouting hair on the mouth and chin, the whole admirably drawn, rich and harmonious in its parts, and of the highest execution, per- fectly worthy of Diirer, although painted with very thin colour which in some places has drawn up.’* Thus we can form some idea of what the outward appearance of the handsome young Nurnberg artist was at this time, with his ‘ blue-grey cloak with yellow-strings,’ and ‘ sleeves bound with peach-coloured ribbons,’ but we have no means of know- ing anything of his inner life and thought during this early period of manhood. Another work dated in the same year as this portrait — 1493 — is preserved in the Albertina Collection at Vienna. It is a tempera painting on parchment of the Child Jesus standing within the niche of a window, surrounded by foliage, executed with miniature-like minuteness and delicacy. * The portrait described by Goethe is probably the one mentioned by Heller as being in 1803 in the collection of the Hofrath Beireis. Herr Beireis obtained it at Rome, and on this account it has been considered to be the portrait that Diirer sent to Raphael. But the interchange of presents between Diirer and Raphael took place long after the date of this picture, and it was not likely that Diirer would have sent Raphael a likeness of himself which represented him eight or ten years younger than he was at the time when it was sent. CHAPTER III. MARRIAGE AND SETTLEMENT IN NURNBERG. ‘ I will be quiet and talk with you, And reason why you are wrong : You wanted my love — is that much true ? And so I did love, so I do ; What has come of it all along ?’ Robert Browning. In the year 1494, after Whitsuntide, which fell that year on the 1 8th of May, Dlirer finished his four years’ wanderings, and returned to his native town. Goethe’s description of his portrait has already given us some idea of his personal appear- ance at this time, but we have a more direct testimony to his great dignity both of body and soul in the words of his friend Joachim Camerarius, who is himself memorable as having been the first Rector of the first Protestant college of Ntirnberg, the Gymnasium or Latin school inaugurated in 1526 by Me- lanchthon. In the preface to his Latin translation of Diirer’s ‘ Lour Books of Human Proportion,’ Camerarius says : — ‘Nature gave our Albrecht a form remarkable for proportion and height, and well suited to the beautiful spirit which it held within ; so that in his case she was not unmindful of the harmony which Hippocrates loves to dwell upon, whereby she assigns a grotesque body to the grotesquely-spirited ape, while she enshrines the noble soul in a befitting temple. He had a graceful hand, brilliant eyes, a nose well formed, such as the Greeks call rerpaycopop ; the neck a little long, chest full, stomach flat, hips well-knit, and legs straight. As to his fingers, you would have said that you never saw anything 5 6 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. more graceful. Such, moreover, was the sweetness and charm of his language that listeners were always sorry when he had finished speaking.’ Nor were his mental and moral qualities less remarkable than his physical ones. Camerarius continues : ‘ He did not indeed devote himself to the study of literature, though he was in a great measure master of what it conveys, especially of natural science and mathematics. He was well acquainted with the principal facts of these sciences, and could apply them as well as set them forth in words ; witness his treatises on geometry, in which there is nothing to be desired that I can find, at least so far as he has undertaken to treat the subject. But Nature had especially designed him for painting, which study he embraced with all his might, and was never tired of considering the works and the methods of cele- brated painters, and learning from them all that commended itself to him.’ Such is the tribute that Camerarius, himself a man of dis- tinguished merit, pays to the high character of his friend Albrecht, whom he further extols as the ‘ truest preserver of modesty and chastity.’ Still more forcible are the oft- quoted words of that true gentleman Philip Melanchthon, who, writing after his friend’s death, says of him that ‘ his art, great as it was, was his least merit.’ Albrecht Durer the Christian man was worth even more in Melanchthon’s eyes than Albrecht Durer the artist ; and Melanchthon, as we shall learn further on, had good opportunity for knowing him. Christopher Scheurl also speaks of him as ‘ facilis, humanus, officiosus, et totus probus and all his early biographers testify to the great esteem in which he was held by everyone who knew him. It could scarcely indeed be otherwise. Like his great Italian contemporary, Raphael Santi, Albrecht was fitted by his personal grace and sweet dignity of character to hold intercourse with men whose rank in society was far above his own ; and, as in Raphael’s case, kings and emperors were among those who sought his acquaintance and acknowledged the charm of his conversation. These remarks, it is true, apply principally to his developed character in later years ; but even at the time of his return to Niirnberg in 1494, the handsome face, noble bearing, and HIS MARRIAGE. 5 7 amiable temper of the young artist could scarcely have failed to have excited general interest and admiration among his fellow-townsmen and townswomen. Surely many of the fair daughters of Niirnberg must have cast glances of favour and kindness on the beautiful youth as he paced the streets of the town in his blue-grey cloak with yellow strings, with just the faintest possible smile of self-satisfaction (it is hard to call it conceit ) on his bright face ; or as he sat, on the pleasant summer evenings, after Whitsuntide and related to the German Desdemonas of the fifteenth century the story of his four years’ wanderings, which he has neglected to tell for our benefit, but which doubtless he set forth with glowing de- scriptions of foreign towns and grand works of art, to the delight of the home-staying youth who listened to him, many of whom perhaps had never travelled beyond their town’s walls. Happiness and love may possibly have come very near to him at this period, peeping forth timorously from beneath the drooping eyelids of some pure-hearted German maiden whose soul was yet large enough to understand and sympathise with the high aspirations and noble endeavours of the artist ; but if it were so he passed them by unconsciously, and went on blindly to meet his fate in the shape of a narrow-minded and unsympathetic wife, who, it is to be feared, embittered his life by the continual droppings of her contentious spirit. Agnes Frey, the daughter of Hans Frey, a man of property and position in Niirnberg,* was, as we see by her portraits, a pretty woman ; but it does not appear to have been her beauty or any other personal charm that led Albrecht to seek her in marriage. The match, indeed, seems to have been entirely arranged between the two fathers ; and the way in which Albrecht narrates the circumstance leads us to suppose that he had little or no personal knowledge of his bride before this time. ‘And when I came back,’ he says, ‘ Hans Frey treated * Hans Frey had always been considered a mechanist or else a musician ; some writers, speaking of him, indeed, as merely a poor player on the harp ; until the recent researches of Dr. Lochner, author of ‘ Niirnbergs Vorzeit und Gegenwart,’ proved that he was a man possessed of large property both within and without Niirnberg, and that he had only an amateur acquaintance with mechanics and music. The match therefore, from a worldly point of view, was a good one for Diirer. 53 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. with my father, and gave me his daughter, by name Jungfrau Agnes, and he gave me with her two hundred florins. The wedding took place on the Monday before St. Margaret’s Day (July 7), 1 494-’ It would certainly appear from these few words in which Albrecht records one of the most important events of his life that he himself had very little choice in the matter, but simply accepted his wife as the result of a successful negotiation be- tween the parents on either side ; but this need not necessarily have been the case. It is of course possible that he may have met Agnes Frey in the burgher society of Ntirnberg, have been struck by her beauty and her conversation, and himself have incited the negotiation between the two fathers ; but if this were so, it appears strange that in recording the circum- stances he should not have said, ‘ My father treated with Hans Frey,’ instead of ‘ Hans Frey treated with my father.’ As the passage stands, the inference is strong that the first movement in the matter came from the lady’s side; and if we consider the mode in which love and marriage were generally regarded in the fifteenth century we see no improbability in this view, and find it more natural to take Diirer’s words in their literal sense. There was much less sentiment, in spite of what poets have sung, in the hearts of men and women in those Middle Ages than there is at the present time. True and honest love of course existed then as it does now, and will continue to do, it is to be hoped, in every age ; but love-making and wooing were carried on in the fifteenth century in a much more practical and business-like manner than in the nineteenth. Young people were expected to be more submissive and obedient to the commands of their elders than they are now, and even in the personal matter of marriage they seem to have exercised a most prudent respect for the wisdom of their parents and relations, not venturing, like the bold froggy of nursery song, to go a-wooing without the consent of both father and mother. ‘ Marriage,’ says Gustav Freytag, in his ‘ Pictures of German Life in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries,’ ‘ was considered by our ancestors less as a union of two lovers than as an institution replete with duties and rights, not only of married people towards one MEDIAEVAL COURTSHIP. 59 another, but also towards their relatives, as a bond uniting two corporate bodies. . . . Therefore in the olden time the choice of husband and wife was always an affair of importance to the relatives on both sides ; so that a German wooing from the oldest times, even until the last century, had the appearance of a business transaction, which was carried out with great regard to suitability.’ The matter-of-fact way in which German courtship was then conducted is well seen by a passage from the journal of Willi- bald Imhof, Pirkheimer’s grandson, quoted by Dr. Von Eye. It is so characteristic of the point in question that I cannot forbear translating it here. Willibald Imhof was a man of refinement, and of ‘ a poetic nature for the century in which he lived,’ and he thus describes the course of his true love, which certainly in his case appears to have run smoothly enough : ‘ Adj. 24 June, 1544 , I saw my bride for the first time. ‘ Adj. July 5 and 13. It [meaning the marriage] was talked about with me. ‘ 23 ditto. I resolved, and the same evening she was asked for me in marriage. ‘ Adj. 28 ditto. My father-in-law gave his answer. ‘ Adj. 29 ditto. I talked with her in the garden. ‘Adj. 31 ditto. It was decided in God’s name. ‘Adj. 2 August. I wished her happiness. ‘ Adj. 1 1 ditto. On a Monday the Handschlag [i.e. shake of the hand, in token of good faith] was given. ‘Adj. February, 1545, on a Thursday, St. Gerhart’s Day, I celebrated my marriage with Jungfrau Anna Harstorferin. God the Lord give us His blessing. Amen.’ Such then being the usual method in which the German youth of the fifteenth century accomplished their wooing, it need not strike us as in any way remarkable that the elder Dlirer and Hans Frey should have settled their children’s marriage without consulting them very much on the subject. The union may even have been arranged before Albrecht’s return to Ntirnberg, and it perhaps formed one of the reasons that led his father to ‘ require him back again.’ No blame can be attached to the two fathers on this account. The marriage, 60 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. so far as outward circumstances went, seems to have been suitable enough. Agnes Frey, as we have seen, brought to her husband a portion of two hundred florins, no inconsiderable sum for a daughter’s dowry in those days. Whether he had, as an old writer* expresses it, ‘ for these two hundred florins at least two thousand unhappy days — a pound of silver and a hundredweight of misfortune !' is a question we have no means of deciding with certainty. All that can be said is that the general belief in the un- happiness of Dtirer's married life, rests on far stronger evidence than can be found usually for such beliefs, which often enough have their origin merely in vague rumour magnified in passing from one biographer to another. Agnes Frey, however, is not one of the sufferers from this sort of traditionary scandal. The sole testimony against her lies in a letter written after Diirer’s death by his friend, Willi- bald Pirkheimer, to another friend, Johann Tscherte, Court architect at Vienna. In this letter, after expressing his great love for Albrecht, whom he calls ‘ the best friend he ever had in the world,’ Pirkheimer goes on to say that his death grieves him the more because ‘ after the Providence of God, I can ascribe it to no one but his wife, for she so gnawed at his heart and worried him to such a degree, that he went from hence sooner than he would otherwise have done.’ This is indeed a grave accusation to bring against a woman, and perhaps it would have been more generous had Pirk- heimer, whatever he might have thought, been silent on the subject, and left Agnes to the upbraidings of her own con- science ; but he seems to have been so overwhelmed with grief for the loss of his friend that he could not help breaking forth into loud reproaches against the wife whom he considered responsible for it. ‘ She urged him day and night,’ he says, ‘ to work hard only that he might earn money, even at the cost of his life, to leave to her when he died.’ And again he repeats emphatically, ‘ The sum of the matter is, she alone is the cause of his death.’ There is no room for doubt about the authenticity of this letter, for the original concept for it is still preserved in the * Jerome Ziegler, in his ‘ Schauplatz.’ UNHAPPINESS OF THE MARRIAGE. 6 1 town library at Niirnberg, having passed with Diirer’s own letters from the Haller Collection into that of the town. Nor can I see any reason for doubting its substantial truth, but it must be stated that the champions of Agnes Frey, chief of whom is Professor Thausing, find in it merely an evidence of rancorous spite on the part of Pirkheimer against his friend’s wife, and affirm that it was written in a fit of rage because Agnes had annoyed him by selling at a low price some stag- antlers belonging to Diirer, which he especially coveted. He certainly mentions these stag-antlers in another part of the letter, and is evidently incensed with her for having sold them, but it is difficult to believe that any gentleman, even under the influence' of the gout, would allow his temper so far to get the better of him as to cause him to invent all these fearful charges against the wife of his dear dead friend, merely to gratify a feeling of petty spite. The learned Councillor, Reformer and Humanist was not, it is to be feared, a man of exemplary moral life. He seems indeed, in his latter years, to have been a vain self-indulgent irritable old pedant, but we have no reason to suppose that he was, therefore, an unscrupulous and malicious liar, as we must do if we accept Professor Thausing’s view of his character. Possibly his irritated feelings may have led him to take a darker view than he otherwise would have done of Diirer’s sufferings, but, unhappily, a nagging tongue in a woman is not of such rare occurrence that we need go out of the way to frame hypotheses to disprove its existence, par- ticularly when it is certified by evidence which in any other case would be deemed sufficient. Yet it must not be supposed that Agnes Frey was a bad wife in the ordinary acceptation of that term. No breath of scandal seems ever to have blown over her moral character, as over that of the beautiful woman who is supposed to have wrecked the happiness and honour of Andrea del Sarto. Pirk- heimer expressly states that she and her sister ‘were honourable, pious, and very God-fearing women.’ She was ever faithful to her husband, and loved him no doubt in selfish fashion ; but she seems to have been utterly unable to comprehend the height of his artist nature — not only unable to reach up to it, as few .women perhaps in that age could have done, but 62 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. unable to recognise that it lay beyond her own small and sordid sphere of vision. Diirer himself, it is true, is ever silent concerning his domestic unhappiness. He seldom, indeed, mentions his wife either in his letters or his journal, but his very silence respecting her seems sometimes ominous of evil ; and when he does by chance allude to her, it is scarcely in the tone that a loving husband would speak of a loving wife. - His marriage was never blessed with children — at least there is no record of any having been born to him in the account he has left us of his life, and it is not likely that he would have omitted to mention such an event.* This circumstance may have contributed somewhat to sour the temper of the unhappy Agnes, and may have fostered that repining and fretful spirit of which Pirkheimer accuses her : for some women need the warm sun of motherhood to ripen their true nature ; and when this is denied to them, their hearts shrivel up into cold petrifactions, unable to feel God’s love in the universe, and therefore unable to sympathise in the sorrows and joys of others. But it is useless to speculate on the cause of Agnes Frey’s bad temper, or to frame hypotheses concerning the domestic troubles of her husband. His heart knew its own bitterness, and he desired not that strangers should intermeddle with it. If he really loved his wife, which is quite probable, in spite of all, he may have had true heart-joy in his married life, which more than made up for its irritating sores. At all events, we know so little for certain on this subject, even when all information, hints, and probabilities are added together, that it seems idle to attempt to construct, as many writers have done, any theory concerning Diirer’s married life on so slender a foundation. I should not indeed have dwelt on it so long, but for the controversy there has been on the subject — some writers abusing her in unmeasured terms as a second Xantippe, and others, adopting Professor Thausing’s view, considering that Pirkheimer’s statements concerning her were dictated by ill-will and prejudice. A few of her defenders, * In a sentimental tale by Scheffer, founded on Durer’s married life, a little daughter is bestowed upon him, whose early death adds to the sorrow of his life. HIS HOUSE IN NURNBERG. ^3 indeed, have even gone so far as to represent her as a suffering angel, sorrowing in agony of doubt over her husband’s apostasy from the Church of Rome, of which she always remained a faithful member. During the first years of his married life, Diirer must still have continued to live in his father’s house ; for, according to recently-discovered documents, it was not until the year 1 509 that he purchased the house in the Zissel-strasse (now Albrecht Diirer-strasse), which is pointed out to strangers as Albrecht Diirer’s dwelling in Niirnberg. The outside of this house has undergone but little change since the time when he first inhabited it. Like almost everything else in Niirnberg, it belongs to the fifteenth century ; only the windows, pro- bably, have been enlarged, and a little projecting chamber on the roof taken away. The lower part of the building is of massive stone ; but the upper part, like that of many other old houses in Niirnberg, is interspersed with rough-hewn and irregularly disposed beams, which give it a picturesque appearance, that is further enhanced by the low gable roof and little wooden balcony beneath, which run along one side of the building. Inside, a greater change has taken place, the arrangement of the rooms, etc, having been altered to suit the tastes of successive proprietors ; still, even here, much remains the same as when Albrecht Diirer and Agnes Frey dwelt together in the dark rooms, unlit, it is to be feared, either by warm sunlight or warm love. It has altogether a somewhat melancholy aspect, and the room that tradition points out as Diirer’s working-room has a very dreary look, there being only one low arched window in it, looking out straight on to the dark castle wall. The house is now the property of the town, and will no doubt be preserved from further changes. It is used by the Diirer Kunstverein as a place of exhibition, but the gay modern pictures in some of the rooms disturb some- what the solemn associations with the past. In the same year as his marriage, Diirer was received into the guild of painters at Niirnberg. Sandrart affirms that his masterpiece* on this occasion was a pen-drawing of * The term masterpiece does not denote the most celebrated work of a German artist, but is used to designate a diploma picture ( Probe-arbcit ) painted before his 64 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. ‘ Orpheus abused by the Bacchants,’ which afterwards came into his own possession. It is now in the Harzen Collection at Hamburg, and appears to be a free copy from a rare Italian print, probably by Baccio Baldini. Diirer afterwards repeated the same design with slight variations in the print known as ‘ Hercules ’ or ‘ The Effect of Jealousy.’ This seems a strange subject for Diirer to have chosen for illustration; but he appears just at this period to have inclined somewhat towards classical art ; for in the Albert Collection at Vienna there are two other mythological subjects of the same date as the Orpheus, namely, ‘ A Bacchanal of ten figures ; in the midst a Faun borne by two Satyrs,’ and ‘A Fight between Tritons,’ both spirited copies of prints by Mantegna. Perhaps during his Wander-jahre he had adopted to a certain extent the then rising fashion of clothing German Art in Greek and Italian garments ; but if this were so, his healthy nationality and his individuality of genius soon proved too strong to be bound by any classic clothing, however gracefully worn, for some of his earliest works are conceived in the true Diirer spirit, and cer- tainly have no classic beauty to recommend them, but rather a grim German ugliness. In the year 1494, Niirnberg was a prey to one of those fatal epidemics which so constantly ravaged the towns in the Middle Ages, producing in all minds the utmost terror and awe. Dr. Theodore Ulsenius, a celebrated doctor and poet, who hap- pened to be town-physician at the time of this visitation, seized the occasion of the agitation it produced in the public mind to publish a sort of medical and moral tract, wherein he set forth, in learned Fatin verse, his opinions concerning the plague and its proper treatment, mixing them up with many moral reflections and solemn warnings to his fellow-townsmen against their sins. In order to give greater impressiveness to this work, Ulsen determined to have it illustrated, and applied to Diirer, it is thought, to design a frontispiece for him. This commission was executed in a manner that strictly accords with the taste of that time, which, as we know, delighted in admission as a master into his guild. This would not, however, have been required of Diirer, as the guild of painters was a free one in Niirnberg. EARLY WORKS. 65 Dances of Death and other ghastly subjects for art-representa- tion. A fearful man’s figure, in a mantle and hat adorned with a feather, stands forth in this picture, with his bare neck, arms, and legs covered with horrible plague-boils. On either side of him are the imperial arms of Niirnberg, and the half-eagle and crossbeam, the coat of arms belonging to the corporation of the town, whilst at his feet lies another shield with a sun. Above is a celestial sphere with the zodiac marked on it and the date 1484, probably denoting the year when the plague first broke out, for the inscription beneath the picture bears the date 1496. This Pest-bild , or plague-picture, is now of the greatest rarity. It has not Diirer’s monogram, but it is not improbable that it was executed by him. Whether it be his work or not, it is, at all events, significant as illustrating the taste and feeling of the time. More pleasing to contemplate as one of Diirer’s earliest works, is the excellent portrait of himself now in the Uffizj Gallery at Florence. This portrait is supposed to be identical with one that was formerly in the collection of Charles I., for in an old inventory of the king’s pictures a portrait of Albrecht Diirer is mentioned, the description of which exactly coincides with the one now at Florence. Moreover, it is known that the town of Niirnberg presented such a picture to our art-loving Stuart. It is likewise affirmed that this portrait ‘ with another of Durer’s father,’ was bought by a Grand Duke of Tuscany for the sum of ^100 at the sale of the royal collection at the time of the Revolution, and thus found its way to Florence. This certainly seems to be conclusive evidence for the identity of the two pictures ; but, on the other hand, it must be ad- mitted that on Hollar’s engraving of this portrait there is an inscription stating : ‘ Wenceslaus Hollar Bohenias fecit cx Collectione Arundeliana , A. 1645, Antwerpice ,’ whereby it would seem as if this picture had formed part of the Arundel Col- lection, and not of the king’s. Probably there were from the first two copies of this por- trait, for one is to be found also in the Madrid Gallery. The Madrid example is indeed deemed to be the original by some critics. This fine portrait forms the frontispiece of this volume, 5 66 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. so that it is scarcely necessary to describe it here. The artist, a half-length figure, stands at a window, resting one arm on the window-sill, with his hands folded in front of him. He wears a shirt cut low in the neck, and finely plaited and embroidered ; a white jerkin striped with black ; and a cloak thrown over the left shoulder and held by a long cord which seems to fasten it at the right shoulder. His hair is cut short on his forehead, but hangs down in curls on both sides. His beard is short and curly, and he wears a soft curiously-shaped cloth cap on his head. The face is strictly handsome ; no fault can be found with it, but somehow there is a certain self- consciousness about it, or, as Kugler calls it, ‘ a naive delight in his own splendid personality,’ which destroys that sense of calm dignity and lofty wisdom that we gain from his other portraits. Far more in accordance with our conception of the character of the man is the noble portrait of the Munich Gallery, which is much better known than any other. This is the portrait that most lovers of Albrecht Durer turn to as satisfying the ideal they have formed in their minds of the mystic and unfathom- able and yet gentle and loving Durer. It was painted in 1500, consequently only two years after the Uffizj portrait, but he seems suddenly to have grown in it from a merely handsome young man into what Carlyle might call ‘ The Hero as Artist .’ What calm majesty of intellect lies in that high unwrinkled forehead, and what exquisite tenderness of spirit in those sad tender eyes ! The deep-thinking mind of the man broods in silence over its thoughts of life and death, but we feel that with one little touch of sympathy the whole face would melt into soft pity and love * Looking at this portrait, we can well believe Camerarius when he says that Albrecht ‘ was rightly esteemed one of the best of men.’ One ‘ who desired to perfect himself both intellectually and morally,’ but ‘ who never showed any stern- ness towards others or assumed any invidious merit.’ * The resemblance that this portrait bears to the traditional portraits of Christ has been often remarked. INTERCOURSE WITH PIRKHEIMER. 67 Besides Camerarius, who was evidently much attached to Durer, our artist appears to have enjoyed a friendly intercourse with many of the principal citizens of Niirnberg. This must have contributed to a great extent to dispel the depressing- influences of his home, and to have brightened his dull life by affording it glimpses of a wider intellectual kingdom than that in which the burgher society of Niirnberg generally moved. From the time of Pirkheimer’s return from his Swiss campaign under the Emperor Maximilian, at the beginning of the six- teenth century, Durer and he lived in constant communion, and such communion as theirs could scarcely fail to have had an enlarging and beneficial influence on both minds. At the Pirkheimer mansion also Durer met distinguished and learned men from all parts of the world, for scarcely any man of dis- tinction ever visited Niirnberg without meeting with a friendly welcome at the house of the great merchant, statesman, and scholar. Poets, scholastic doctors, divines, men learned in gems and coins — of which Pirkheimer was a collector — pedants, merchants, and Church reformers, were all alike to be met with from time to time at his house, and Diirer must thus have had frequent opportunities of intercourse with men whose learning and whose knowledge of the world far trans- cended his own. Diirer’s father, the good old goldsmith whose portrait his son had painted in 1497, when he was seventy years old, still continued to live on for another five years, rejoicing no doubt greatly in his son’s rising fame, and spared, we will hope, the sorrow of knowing that the wife he had ‘ treated for ’ for him had failed to bring him any better portion than the two hundred florins. At last, in 1 502, the father was called away from his work on earth. His son relates, in the following words, the circumstances of his Christian and peaceful death : ‘ After this,’ he says, ‘ it happened by chance that my father fell ill of dysentery, in such a way that no one could cure him ; and when he saw death before his eyes he resigned himself willingly and with great patience, and he recommended my mother to me, and charged us to live a godly life. Then he received the Holy Sacrament, and departed in a Christian 5—2 68 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. manner, as I have related at length in another book, in the year 1502, after midnight, before the eve of St. Matthew, to whom God be gracious and merciful.’ Curiously enough, the only leaf out of this ‘ other book ’ mentioned by Diirer that has escaped destruction, is the very one to which he alludes here as containing a longer account of his father’s death.* This accidentally-preserved page, num- bered 19, appears to have been torn from out some old note- book of Diirer’s, wherein he had set down, as in the short autobiographical sketch so often quoted, some of the principal events of his life, apparently as if he intended at some time or other to write a history of his own life. Unfortunately this purpose, if he ever had it, was never accomplished. What would not be the value of such a history now, when every little scrap of information that can be gained by diligent research is hailed in Germany as a real treasure-trove. The passage relating to his father’s death runs as follows : ‘ So the old woman helped him up, and his night-cap became suddenly wet with big drops of sweat. He asked for drink, and she gave him some. He took a little, and then wished to go to bed again, and thanked her ; and as soon as he was in bed he fell into the last agony. Then the old woman lit the candles, and said aloud St. Bernhard’s verses (St. Bernhard’s hymn for the dying). But. before she got to the third verse he had departed this life. God be merciful to him. ‘ And the young maid, as soon as she saw the change, ran to my chamber and waked me, but before I could get down he was gone. I felt great sorrow, because I had not been worthy to be present at his death. And my father died on the night before St. Matthew’s Eve, in the above-mentioned year (Sept. 20, 1502). May the merciful God help me also to a blessed end ; and he left my mother an afflicted widow. He always highly praised her to me as being such a good, pious woman. Therefore I now take her under my care nevermore to forsake her. ‘ Oh ye, all my friends, I beg you in God’s name, when you read of my pious father’s death, to remember his soul with a Paternoster and an Ave Maria, also for your own soul’s sake, that we, thereby serving God, may inherit eternal life, and die in grace. For it is not possible that one who has lived righteously should depart badly from this world — for God is full of mercy. May God in His mercy give us, after this miserable life, the joys of eternal happiness ; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, one eternal Lord, for ever and ever. Amen.’ The elder Diirer, who, as we have seen, had always to earn his living ‘ with great toil,’ could not have left much to support his family after his death. Indeed, we find that his widow, the * Printed by Campe. It contains likewise the affecting narrative of his mother’s death. Diirer relates such events in the most simple, but at the same time most reverent manner. HIS MOTHER COMES TO LIVE WITH HIM. 69 once pretty young bride Barbara Hoi perm, soon spent all she possessed, and became ‘ quite poor.’ But her son Albrecht took her under his own care, as well as young brother Hans, who was only twelve years old at the time. He became Diirer’s pupil, and was educated by him as a painter. The other brother, Andreas Diirer, followed his father’s trade of goldsmith, and appears to have set forth for his Wander- jahre about this period : he also was still a youth, so that of all her children the good mother had only her son Albrecht to depend upon. His love and care for her is shown by several little passages in his letters ; indeed, his childlike obedience and reverence for his parents is apparent through- out the whole of the simple record he has left us respecting them. CHAPTER IV. JOURNEY TO VENICE. LETTERS TO PIRKHE1MER. ‘ Venice once was dear, The pleasant place of all festivity, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy.’ Byron. Toward the end of the year 1505, Diirer undertook a journey to Venice. At that time a regular trade was carried on between Ntirnberg and its more illustrious commercial rival, so that it is probable that Diirer’s works were well known in Venice before the time of his visit, and it may well be supposed that he was attracted to the far-famed city, not only by a desire of studying the works of the great masters of colour who then reigned in it, but also by the hope of generous recognition from the artists themselves, and possibly of more material encouragement from the art-patrons of Italy. Other motives, it is true, have been assigned as the cause of his visit ; some writers regarding it as a mere pleasure trip, and others, follow- ing Vasari, asserting that he went to Venice expressly to defend his rights against the Italian pirates of his works, especially against Marc Antonio.* But the wholesale piracy of his works which was carried on in such an unjustifiable manner at a later period, had scarcely begun so early as this ; and as Diirer makes no mention of this grievance in any of his letters, it is reasonable to suppose that it could not have troubled him much ; or, at all events, that it could not have been the especial reason for which he made his journey. He mentions certainly in one place that the Italians copied his * Seepage 151. OBJECT OF THE JOURNEY. 71 ‘ thing ’ — presumably his picture — in the church, but this he says satirically, when deprecating their criticism of his works, as ‘ not being according to ancient art,’ without the least allusion to any systematic plagiary. Probably one of his chief objects in undertaking the journey was to widen his circle of friends, and thereby to gain larger and more profitable commissions than the limited society of Niirn- berg was likely to bring to him. Niirnberg, indeed, seems to have paid her artists so badly for their labours that they were often driven by force to seek foreign patronage. It is also evident that he desired to make a profit by selling his works, for he took with him, as he mentions in one of his letters, eight small paintings, besides, no doubt, a large stock of his engraved work. During the ten years that had elapsed since his marriage and settlement in Niirnberg he could not have gained much ; for now, when he wanted a small sum of money to defray the expenses of his journey, he was obliged to borrow it of his friend Pirkheimer ; and the trifling sum that he mentions having left at home with his wife and mother for their household expenses during his absence, proves that his establishment in Niirnberg could not have been conducted on a very large scale. He made his journey on horseback, with all the necessaries for it strapped behind him — the quickest and pleasantest mode of travelling that the Middle Ages afforded. On the way, however, it is supposed that he fell ill, for among some papers belonging to the Attem family, dating back to the sixteenth century, there has been discovered an old inscription to the effect that Albrecht Diirer was taken ill at a village called Stein, near Laibach, and was nursed there by a kind painter of the place, for whom, when he got well again, he painted a picture on the wall of his house, as a token of his gratitude for the painter’s attention during his illness.* He had also been ill, we know, in Niirnberg some time before, for in the British Museum there is a drawing of a Christ’s head crowned with thorns, with a deeply sorrowful expression, and underneath it is written : ‘ I drew this face in my sickness, 1503.’ Indeed, Diirer’s health seems never to * See ‘ Anzeiger fiir Kunst, 1864.’ 72 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. have been very robust, and possibly this very journey was undertaken as much for the sake of health and relaxation as from prudential motives. But from whatever motive it was undertaken, it certainly afforded him a great amount of enjoyment, and proved a bright spot in his ordinarily dull life. It was not only that he escaped for a time the ‘ res angusta domi 5 that pressed so heavily upon him in Niirnberg ;’ but here, for the first time, he found himself appreciated at his true value, and his society eagerly sought, both by the great artists and the great world of Venice. ‘ Oh, how I shall freeze/ he writes pathetically to Pirkheimer, when the time for his return draws nigh, ‘ how I shall freeze after this sunshine !’ and again, ‘ Here I am a gentleman ; at home I am only a parasite.’ These letters to Pirkheimer reveal to us more of Diirer’s own thoughts about things than most of his other writings, but unfortunately even these are more taken up with his friend’s business than with his own ; and we are annoyed at details about precious stones and other treasures that Pirk- heimer had commissioned him to buy, when we want to hear what Diirer himself is doing. However, they afford us a slight glimpse of Venetian society at its brightest time ; at a time when Giovanni Bellini, the patriarch of Venetian art, was still alive, and when Giorgione and Titian, his two great pupils, had already surpassed their master in the glory of their colour. It is strange that Diirer does not allude in any of his letters to the two latter masters, for they must have been already engaged in painting the outside of the Fondaco de’ Tedeschi, the Hall of Exchange of the German merchants in Venice, when he was there, and he himself was likewise, as we shall see, employed by these same German merchants on a great altar-piece. All the letters written to Pirkheimer bear this superscription, ‘ To the honourable and wise Herr W illibald Pirkheimer , Burgher of Niirnberg, my gracious Lord', and are sealed with the Diirer crest ; namely, a pair of open doors on a shield. There is no punctuation whatever in the original manuscript, and the LETTER I. 73 » sentences run one into another in the most extraordinary manner.* The first letter is dated from Venice, on Twelfth Day, 1506. LETTER I. My willing service, in the first place, to my dear Herr Pirk- heimer. Know that my health is much better, thank God. Item : I wish you, and all yours, many happy and blessed new years. Item : with regard to the pearls and precious stones that you have commissioned me to buy. Know that I can obtain nothing good, or worth the money asked for it, for everything is snapped up by the Germans, who go about on the Riva. They always want to make 4 times what they are worth out of them, and they are the most faithless people that ever lived, so that one need not expect any honest service from them, and I have been warned to be on my guard against them. You can buy better things at Frankfort for less money * These letters, after Pirkheimer’s death, passed into the possession of the Imhof family, which inherited besides most of the art treasures of Pirkheimer’s collection, he leaving no direct male heir. They seem to have owned their preservation to a lucky chance, for instead of being sold, lost, and destroyed, like so many of Dii- rer’s works in this same collection, they were for some reason walled up with other family papers in the Imhof mansion during the Thirty Years’ War, and remained forgotten, until recent times, when on making some alterations in the house, they were again brought to light. They were finally sold by the Haller family to the town of Nurnberg, and are now preserved in the old town library, where, by the courtesy of the librarian, I was permitted to examine them. They have been somewhat roughly treated, and the seals that were formerly attached to them have been broken off, but the writing is still perfectly distinct, and the paper, although yellow and brown with age, is strong and good. I noticed that the water- mark of the paper of the first letter was a flower, and that of the seventh an anchor in a circle. They were first printed by Von Murr, whilst still in the possession of the Haller family, in his “Journal ziir Kunstgeschichte unci Litteratur,” vol. x. 1781, and again by Dr. F. Campe, in 1828. There are slight differences in the text of these two versions, although they both profess to be printed quite correctly from the original. “ Nach dem Originalen ganz treu abgedruckt, ” says Dr. Campe. The translation here given is from Von Murr, collated with Campe. I have endeavoured in it to be as faithful to Diirer’s old-fashioned style as possible, but sometimes it has not been possible to render provincial fifreenth-century German into nineteenth-century English, Those who have ever attempted anything of the kind will know the extreme difficulty of the task, and will be lenient to small errors. In the present edition I have availed myself of the help of Prof. Thau- sing’s modernised version, but have not found much to correct, except in the matter of surnames. 7 4 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. than at Venice. As to the books that I was to order for you, the Imhofs have already done all that, but if you want any- thing more, let me know, and I will use my utmost diligence to execute your wishes. I wish to God that I could do you a . greater service. I would do it joyfully, for I recognise that you have done much for me, and I beg you to have compas- sion on my debt, of which I think oftener than you do. As. soon as God helps me home again, I will repay you honour- ably, with the greatest thanks, for I have received a commission to paint a picture for the Tedeschi. They are to pay me for it, a hundred and ten Rhenish florins, and not more than 5 will go in expenses. I shall have prepared and scraped the panel in eight days’ time, and then I shall begin at once to paint, so that I may, if God will, have it into its place above the altar a month after Easter. I hope,, by the help of God, to be able to save all the money, and out of it I will pay you, for I do not think I need send either my mother or my wife any money at present. I left my mother IO florins when I rode away, and since then she has 9 or 10 florins from art, and Dratzieher has paid her 12 florins ; I have also sent her 9 florins by Bastian Imhof, out of which she is to pay 7 florins owing to the Pfinzing family for her rent.* I have given my wife 12 florins, and she has received 13 from Frankfort, making in the whole 25 florins. I do not think she will want any more, but if she does, her brother-in-law must help her until I come home again, when I will repay him honourably. Herewith I commend myself to you. Dated from Venice on Holy Three Kings’ Day (Jan. 6), in the year 1506. Greet Stephen Baumgartner for me, and any other of my friends who ask after me. Albrecht Durer. It will be seen by this letter that Pirkheimer had burdened his friend with many commissions for precious stones and * It appears that Diirer’s mother still paid an annual ground-rent of four florins to the Pfinzing family for the house that had been left her by her husband in which they all lived. Durer, however, in 1507, redeemed this payment by the sum of 1 16 florins paid down. LETTER I. 75 other rare and valuable articles in which he was, or fancied himself, a connoisseur, and about which he seems to have given poor Diirer — who repeatedly tells him he has no knowledge of such things — a vast amount of trouble and annoyance. It has always been imagined, until quite recently, that the picture which the Tedeschi, or guild of German merchants in Venice, commissioned Diirer to paint, and to which he alludes in this letter, represented the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, the saint to whom the Church in Venice, in which the picture was destined to be placed, was dedicated. Von Murr, in- deed, distinctly states that this was the subject of the picture, and says that it afterwards came into the possession of the Emperor Rudolf II., who hung it in his gallery at Prague. But it has lately been satisfactorily ascertained that the picture that Diirer painted during his stay in Venice was the one that is now in the Monastery of Strahow at Prague, and this repre- sents, not the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, but the Feast of Rose Garlands, a feast instituted by St. Dominic in honour of the Virgin. LETTER II. My willing service to you, dear Herr. When all goes well with you, I rejoice with all my heart as if it were myself. I have lately written to you. I hope that you have got my letter. In the meantime my mother has written to me, and scolded me for not writing to you, saying that you are offended with me for not having done so. She is much troubled about it, and thinks I can scarcely excuse myself to you. If it is so, I have nothing to reply, except that I am idle in writing, and that you have not been at home. As soon as I understood that you were at home again, or were expected home, I wrote to you at once. Moreover, I particularly charged Kastell to present my service to you. Therefore I pray you humbly to pardon me, for I have no other friend on earth but you. I cannot, however, believe that you are angry with me, for I think of you not otherwise than as a father. 76 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. I wish you were here in Venice ; there are so many pleasant companions amongst the Italians ( Walschen ), with whom I am becoming more and more intimate, so that it does one’s heart good. There are learned, men amongst them, good lute- players, pipers, some having a knowledge of painting ; right honest people, who give me their friendship with the greatest kindness. On the other hand, there are also among them the most lying, thieving rascals that ever lived on the earth ; and if one was not acquainted with their ways, one would take them for the most honest men in the world. I often laugh to myself when they speak to me, for they know that all sorts of knavery is known of them, but they care nothing about it. I have many good friends among the Italians, who warn me not to eat or drink with their painters, for many of them are my enemies, and copy my things in the church, and wherever they meet with them. And yet notwithstanding this they abuse my works, and say that they are not according to ancient art, and therefore not good. But Sanbellinus (Gio- vanni Bellini)* has praised me highly before several noblemen, and he wishes to have something of my painting. He came himself and asked me to do something for him, saying that he would pay me well for it. And all the people here tell me what a good man he is, so that I also am greatly inclined to him. He is very old, but yet he is the best painter of them all. And that thing which pleased me so well eleven years ago, pleases me now no more. If I had not seen it myself, I could not have believed anybody else about it ; also be it known to you that there are many better painters within this city than Master Jacob is without it, although Anthony Kolb swears that there is no better painter on earth than Jacob. The others laugh at this, and say if he were good for anything he would stay here. To-day, for the first time, I have begun to sketch out my picture, for my hands have been so sore that I have not been able to work at it hitherto. Now, be considerate towards me, and do not get in a rage * Zan Belin in the Venetian dialect of that time, which Diirer renders San- hellinus. LETTER II. 77 with me so soon. Be as sweet-tempered as I am. You never will learn from me. I do not know how things are faring with you. I should like to know, my dear, whether any of your loves are dead, that one near the water, or that resembling Given* at Venice at nine o’clock at night, on the Saturday after Candlemas (Feb. 7), in the year 1506. Present my ser- vice to Stephen Baumgartner, Herr Hans Harstofer and Vol- kamer. Albrecht Durer. This letter is written in a much brighter frame of mind than the last. Durer finds himself appreciated by the ‘ Walschen,’ amongst whom he now feels at home. It is noteworthy, how- ever, that he is warned by his good friends {gut gesellen : Durer calls all his acquaintance, whether gentlemen or work- men, gut gesellen) not to eat or drink with his brother artists. This reveals a dark current running beneath the brilliant sur- face of Venetian society in the sixteenth century. Assassina- tion and poisoning were indeed the means frequently made use of to extinguish rivalry either in art or love. Many deeds of this sort are told of the artists of Venice and Naples at this and a later period ; it is, however, pleasant to find that one at least of these artist-poisoning cases, namely, the poisoning of Domenic Veniziano by Andrea del Castagno, is unworthy of credit ;~f- and we may hope that the Italian artists had a worse name at this time than they deserved ; and that, although they copied Durer’ s ‘ thing ’ in the church, and blamed his work for not being ‘ according to ancient art,’ he yet might have received their invitations to dinner with safety. Camerarius relates a pretty little anecdote a propos of the * The following sentence precedes this in the original — 30 1 Madle ciu'ff I>‘ ein ander an derselben stattprecht .’ + Crowe and Cavalcaselle, ‘ Hist, of Painting. ’ 73 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. visit of Giovanni Bellini to our artist, which he probably learnt from Diirer’s own lips. He says that Giovanni, on seeing Diirer’s works, was particularly struck with the fineness and beautiful painting of the hair in them, and asked Diirer, as a particular mark of friendship, to give him the brush wherewith he executed such marvellously fine work. Diirer offered him a number of brushes of all sorts, and told him to choose which he preferred, or, if he liked, he was welcome to take them all. Giovanni, thinking that Diirer had not understood him, again explained that he only wanted the particular brush with which he was accustomed to paint such long and fine parallel strokes; whereupon Diirer took up one of the ordinary brushes, such as he had offered to Bellini, and proceeded to paint a long and free tress of woman’s hair, thereby convincing Bellini that it was the painter, and not the brush, that did the work. Bellini avowed afterwards that he would not have believed it possible had he not seen it with his own eyes. The mysterious sentence in this letter — c the thing that pleased me so well eleven years ago pleases me now no more ’ — is one of the arguments upon which Professor Thausing rests his elaborately-constructed theory of a journey to Venice having been made by Diirer at the end of his Wander-jahre. It has indeed often been supposed to refer to something seen previously in Venice, and Professor Thausing imagines this to have been the early school of Venetian painting, which had given place in the interim between Diirer’s visits to the more brilliant school of the Bellini. This, however, is a mere surmise, for there is not the slightest foundation for so vast an assumption. Moreover, the context tells against such an in- terpretation, for Diirer runs on with an allusion to a certain ‘Master Jacob,’ who was evidently at that time away from Venice — da draussen. This Master Jacob was for a long time a puzzle to Diirer commentators, but since the history of that perplexing master, called by Italians Jacopo de’ Barbarj and by Germans Jacob Walch, has been more thoroughly investi- gated, it seems tolerably certain that he was the master to whom Diirer referred. Diirer mentions him also in another place. In a rough draft for the preface to his ‘ Book of Human Proportions,’ he tells how ‘a man named Jacobus, ANECDOTE OF BELLINI. 79 born at Venice,* a clever and gracious painter, showed me a man and woman which he had drawn according to proportion, and at that time I would rather have known what his opinions were than have seen a new kingdom ; but I was then very young, and had never before heard of these things.’ Diirer’s vague expression — ‘ at that time ’ — gives no clue to the exact date when his intercourse with Barbarj took place ; but he says it was when he was very young, and it would seem probable from many reasons that it was soon after his return from his Wander-jahre. Barbarj, who is reckoned as a Niirnberg artist by Neudorfer, must have been for some years at least settled in that city, and as he was back in Venice before 1500, Diirer’s acquaintance with him must have been before that date.-)' If, therefore, we assume 1494 or 1495 to have been the time spoken of by Diirer when he was so delighted by a figure drawn by Barbarj according to propor- tion, we find that it agrees with the date — ‘ eleven years ago ’ — mentioned here. Why, therefore, should not Diirer be al- luding to some work of Barbarj ’s as the ‘ thing ’ which pleased him so much eleven years ago. This of course is merely hypothesis, but it affords a far simpler solution of the mystery than the one propounded by Professor Thausing, for Diirer runs on to speak of Master Jacob, therefore it is only natural to suppose the thing referred to to be one of his works, though it must be owned, Diirer often jumps from one subject to another without there being any apparent connexion between them. The hieroglyphic drawings at the end of the letter probably refer to some persons whose names, or nicknames, are thus symbolically set forth in a manner that no one but Pirkheimer, or some one who was aware of the allusion conveyed in them, could understand. We cannot tell, at this distance of time, whether the frequent ‘allusions that Diirer makes in his letters to his friend’s amours were intended chiefly in playful, and, it must be owned, not very refined jest, or whether his sarcasms and reproofs were sometimes meant in sober earnest ; but, at all events, Diirer could not have ventured even to have joked his noble friend on this subject, had he remained inconsolable * This chance statement of Diirer decided the vexed question of Barbarj’s nationality. f See ‘Notes Biographiques, sur Jacopo de Barbarj.’ Charles Ephrussi, 1876. 8o LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. for the loss of his wife, who had died two years before the date of these letters, and of whom he records, in a Latin in- scription on the picture that Albrecht Diirer drew of her death-bed, that she ‘ never caused him any grief except by her death.’* LETTER III. My faithful service to my dear Herr Pirkheimer. If all goes well with you, it is a great joy to me. Know that by the grace of God I am well, and that I am working diligently (fltigs), but I do not think I shall be ready (that is, with the picture for the German Company) before Whitsuntide, and I have sold all my pictures except one. I have given two for twenty-four ducats, and the three others for these three rings, which were valued when I bought them at twenty-four ducats ; but I have shown them to some good workmen (gesellen), who say they are worth only twenty-two ducats ; and as you wrote to me to buy you some stones, I thought I would send you the rings by Franz Imhof. Let some one see them who under- stands them, and if you like to value them you can keep them * Pirkheimer’s wife, Crescentia Rieterin, died in child-birth, in 1504, after a few years of happy married life. This picture of her death-bed by Diirer is spoken of by Heller as a beautifully executed painting in water-colours. According to Pleller, the original painting was in the Forster collection at Niirnberg, but Von Eye believes that the painting in that collection was only a copy, and that the original was sold ‘ to a distinguished merchant in Amsterdam,’ in 1633. He founds this opinion on a passage to that effect in the note-book of Hieronymus Imhof, the last possessor of the great Imhof collection of Diirer’s works. This Hieronymus Imhof was obliged, in consequence of the ‘hard times,’ to turn into money (yer- silbern ) many of the ‘useless art things’ that he had inherited, and amongst them several of Diirer’s pictures. The water-colour painting in question is thus de- scribed by Von Eye : ‘ The middle of the picture is taken up by the great red- curtained bedstead upon which the sick person dies and receives the last sacra- ment. Her husband sits at the head of the bed dressed in black, and with his face turned away, and hidden in a handkerchief. Around the dying woman are many persons of both sexes, lay as well as clerical ; a kneeling Augustine monk, probably the prior, Eucharius Karl, who was intimate with both friends, reads from a book ; a nun in black dress, probably Pirkheimer’s sister, wipes the death- sweat from the pale forehead. A doctor at the foot of the bed appears to observe the coldness of the feet of the patient ; other persons minister around or remain as quiet spectators of the scene. Above the curtains in front is a Latin inscription in gold letters, in which Pirkheimer bears witness that his wife never, except by her death, caused him any trouble. On the curtains at the back is written, like- wise in Latin, the year and day of her death.’ LETTER III. 8r for what they are worth. But if you do not want such things any longer, send them back to me by the next messenger, for they will give me here in Venice twelve ducats for the emerald and ten ducats for the ruby and the diamond, so that I shall not lose more than two ducats. I wish that it suited you to be here. I know you would find the time pass quickly, for there are many agreeable people here, and good artists ; and I have sometimes such a press of Italians to visit me that I am obliged at times to hide myself ; and all the gentle- men wish me well, but^very few of the painters. Dear Herr, Andreas Kunhoffer desires his service to you, and will write to you by the next messenger. Herewith I also greet you, and I recommend my mother to you. I wonder very much at her not having written for so long, also my wife ; it seems as if they were lost. Also I wonder that you have not written to me, but I have read the letter that you have written to Bastian Imhof about me. Also I beg you to give the two enclosed letters to my mother, and I beg you to have patience with me (i.e. with regard to his debt) until God helps me home again, when I will honourably repay you. Greet Stephen Baumgartner for me, and my other good friends ; and let me know whether anyone you love is dead. Read this letter according to the sense. I am in haste. Given at Venice on the Saturday before White Sunday, February 28th, in the year 1506. Albrecht Durer. To-morrow, it is good to confess ( Morgen 1st gut peichten ). Durer seems here to have been doing a little bargaining on his own account, taking rings in exchange for pictures ; but it is evident that he will lose at least two ducats by the trans- action — probably more. Stephen Baumgartner or Paumgartner, as he writes it, to whom he sends greeting in this and several other letters, be- longed to an important family in Niirnberg, and was an intimate friend of Diirer’s. The portraits of Stephen Baum- gartner and his brother Lucas are now in the Munich Gallery; o 82 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. they form the side-wings of an altar-piece that Diirer painted for their family. LETTER IV. My willing service to my dear Herr Pirkheimer. I send you with this a ring with a sapphire, about which you have written to me so urgently. I could not send it sooner, for I spent two days going about to all the German and foreign goldsmiths in Venice, with a good comrade, whom I have paid for his trouble. We have compared it with others (‘ parungan gemacht /’ French, Parangon ?) but have found none equal to it for the same money, for I have bought it by earnest entreaty for 1 8 ducats and 4 martzel of a man who wore it on his own hand, and who wished to do me a service, and thought I wanted it for myself. As soon as I had bought it, a German goldsmith offered me 3 ducats more for it than I had given ; therefore, I hope you will be pleased with it, for everyone says it is a rare bargain, and the stone is worth 50 florins in Germany. You will know whether they speak the truth or lie. I do not understand such things. I bought at first an amethyst, from a so-called friend, for 12 ducats, but he cheated me in the matter, for it was not worth 7. However, some good fellows arranged the matter between us, so that in the end I gave him back his stone, and only paid for some fish. I was very joyful at this, and took my money back again very soon ; and when my friends estimated the value of the ring, they told me it was not worth more than 19 florins Rhenish, for it weighed about 5 florins in gold. I have not, therefore, overstepped your limit, for you wrote to me from 15 to 20 florins. But I have not yet been able to purchase the other stone, for one seldom finds them together. But I will still use my best endeavours for it. They say that in Germany such things are cheaper, particularly now at the time of the Frank- fort fair, for the Italians import such things from thence. They laughed at me when I offered 2 ducats for a little cross of jasper. Therefore write to me soon, and tell me what I am to do. I know where there is a good diamond ornament to be had, but LETTER IV. 83 I do not know yet for how much. That I will buy for you if you write again and wish for it. The emeralds are dearer than anything I have seen in all my days. One can get an amethyst more easily for about twenty to twenty-five ducats. I am almost inclined to believe that you must have taken to yourself a wife. Take care she does not become your master. But you are wise enough on occasion, d. h. p. Andreas Kunhoffer sends his service to you, and begs that you will, if necessary, answer for him to the Rath that he does not wish to stay at Padua ; he says there is nothing for him to learn there. And I beg you do not be angry that I do not send you all the stones at this time, for I have not been able to do it. The goldsmiths here say that you should have the stone put on new foil. Then, even if the ring is old and the foil spoilt, it will look as good as new. Also tell my mother to write to me and to take care of herself. Herewith my greeting. Given at Venice, the second Sunday in Lent (March 8), in the year 1 506. Greet your household from me. Albrecht Durer. One of the rings about which Durer had taken so much trouble did not happen to please his learned friend, and in the next letter it will be seen he receives it back again. LETTER V. My willing service in the first place. Dear Herr, I have received a letter from you on the Thursday before Palm Sunday, and with it the emerald ring, and I went immediately to him from whom I had the three rings, and he will give me back the money for it, although not very willingly ; but he agreed to redeem it, and therefore must keep to his word. I know that the jewellers here buy emeralds in foreign towns, and import them into Venice. The goldsmiths ( < gesellen ) here tell me that each of the other two rings is worth 6 ducats, for they are cleanly and finely cut, and have no impurities in them, and 6 — 2 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 84 they say you should not go to the valuer, but simply ask for such rings and then compare them with your own and see if they are similar. Bernhard Holtzpock, who was present at the purchase, would have bought the rings of me again at once if I did not mind losing two ducats on the three rings. Since then I have sent you a sapphire ring through Hans Imhof. I think I made a good bargain about it, for I could have sold it again at once for more than I had given. But I should like to hear from you that such was the case, for you know I understand nothing about such things, and can only believe those who advise me in the matter. Learn also that the painters here are very ungracious towards me. They have summoned me three times before the magistrates, and I have been obliged to pay four florins to their school. You must also know that I should have been able to make much more money if I had not undertaken the picture for the Tedeschi. There is a great deal of work in it, and I cannot get it done before Whitsuntide. They have only given me eighty-five ducats, and you know that soon goes in living expenses. I have also bought a few things, and have also sent off some money, so that I have not much left. But my deter- mination is, not to leave this place until God enables me to pay you back with thanks, and have a hundred florins over. These I should gain easily if I had not to work on the German picture, for, with the exception of the painters, every one wishes me well. With regard to my brother, tell my mother to speak to Wohlgemuth, and see whether he wants him, or will give him work until I return, or whether he can help him with others. I would willingly have brought him with me to Venice, which would have been useful to him and to me, and also on account of his learning the language, but my mother was afraid the heavens would fall upon him. I pray you have an eye to him yourself ; he is lost with the womenfolk. Speak to the boy as you know well how to do, and bid him behave well and learn diligently until I return, and not be a burden to the mother, for I cannot do every- thing, although I will do my best. For myself, I should not LETTER V. 85 hurt, but it is hard for me to have to support so many, for no one throws away his money. Herewith I greet you, and tell my mother to have a sale on the feast-day.* .... But I have forgotten that my wife will be home by then, and I have also written to her about these things. I will not buy the diamond ornament until you write again. I cannot be sure of leaving here before the autumn, for the payment for the picture, which is to be ready at Whitsuntide, all goes in living expenses, buying, and payments of all kinds, but what I earn after that I hope to keep ; and if you think it advisable do not mention this any further, for I will delay from day to day and write as if I were going. For I remain undecided. t I do not know myself what I shall do. Write to me again soon. Dated the Thursday before Palm Sunday (April 2) in the year 1506. Albrecht Durer, Your Servant. Between Letter V. and Letter VI. it seems probable that some letter is lost ; for Durer mentions in Letter VI. that he has written to Pirkheimer but a short time ago, and he cannot surely refer to the communication on the Thursday before Palm Sunday, four months before, Letter VI. being dated plainly, without reference to any saint or holy day, the 18th of August, 1506. LETTER VI. Grandissimo primo homo de mundo woster servitor ell schiauo Alberto Durer disi (dice) salus sun (a suo) magnifico * This sentence, ‘ Day sy aioff day Herltib feil las liaben ,’ Von Murr declares to be quite unintelligible. Campe, however, supposes that the word Herltib , which he reads Hertteln , alludes to a game played with Easter eggs, and therefore surmises that Durer’s mother prepared such eggs for sale. This is, however, a wild hypothesis, and it seems more likely that if Diirer enjoins his mother to have a sale, he means of some of his woodcuts and engravings. + This sentence is also somewhat obscure, so I give it in the original : ‘ Uber dunckt es veil gerotten so sorget nit wan ich will von Dags zu Dags verzilhen .’ Verzilhen , according to Von Murr, means verzuinsen , to pay interest, but one can scarcely imagine that Diirer would pay interest for the money he had borrowed from Pirkheimer. Prof. Thausing reads verzilhen as verschieben, and so makes it refer to Diirer’s delay in returning home. 86 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Miser (Messer) Willibaldo Picamer my fede el aldy Wolentiri cum grando piser (piacere) woster sanita e grando honor el my maraweio como ell possibile star vuo homo cusy (cosi) wu (voi) contra thanto sapientissimo Tirasibuly milytes non altro modo ' ysy vna gracia de Dio quando my leser woster Litera de questi strania fysa de catza (viso di cazzo) my habe tanto pawra et para my vno grando kosa, but I think that the Schotto have frightened you also ,* for you look wildly around especially on feast-days when you go trippingly along. But it has a very bad odour when a soldier wishes to smear himself with civet. You are becoming quite a fop {seidenschwanz, silk- tail), and think if you only please the women that is all that is necessary. If only you were a nice amiable fellow such as I am, I should not be so angry. You have so many loves that if you only courted one at a time it would take you a month and more to get done with them. I thank you for having arranged my business with my wife. I recognise your wisdom fully. If only you were as gentle-hearted as I am, you would have all the virtues. Also I shall thank your for all the kind- ness you have shown me, if you will only leave me free of those rings. If they do not please you, break their heads off and throw them away. Why should I occupy myself with such dirty work? I am a gentleman ( Gentilnorno ) in Venice. AJso I have heard that you are making pretty rhymes. You would be acceptable to our violin-players here ; they play so beautifully that they weep themselves at their own music sometimes. Would to God that our Rechen-meisterin could hear them, she would weep also. At your command I will once more moderate my anger and behave more firmly than is my wont ; but I cannot leave here for two months, for I have not enough to take back with me, as I have before informed you, and therefore I beg you to lend my mother ten florins if she should apply to you, until God helps me home, when I will repay it to you honourably with the rest. * I cannot understand the meaning of this passage. The whole reads thus : ‘ Aber ich halt daz dy schottischen ewch awch gefurcht hand wan Ir secht awch wild und Sunderlich im Heilten wen Ir den schritt hypferle gand.’ Dr. Lochner explains that the Schottischen were the followers of one Konz Schott, a sort of free knight who had been taken and beheaded by the Niirnbergers in 1499, with whose ^descendant the feud was still going on. LETTER VI. 87 Item : The vitrum ustrum (Venetian glass; I send you by this messenger, and as to the two carpets, Anthony Kolb will help me to buy the prettiest, broadest, and cheapest he can get, and when I have them I will give them to the young Imhof to send to you. Also I will see after the crane feathers. I have not yet found any, but only swan quills, used for writ- ing. How would it be if you stuck one of those in your hat ? Also I have asked a book-printer, who says he knows of no Greek (books) lately published, but if he hears of any he will let me know that I may write to you. Item : Let me know what paper you mean that I am to buy, for I know of none better than can be got at home. Item : With regard to histories, I see nothing in particular done by the Walschen that could be useful in your studies. It is always the same thing. You know yourself more than they tell. Item : I have written to you a short time ago by the messenger Kannengesser. Item : I should like to know how you have settled things with Kuntz Imhof. Herewith I greet you. Present my service to our Prior.* Beg him to pray that God may have care of me, and may preserve me from the disease. I fear it greatly, for everyone is taking it here. Many people die of it. Also greet Stephen Baumgartner, Herr Lorentz, all our sweethearts, and all those who ask after me kindly. Dated at Venice, on the 18th of August, 1506. Albertus Durer, Norikorius sibus (perhaps meaning civis). Item. Andreas is here,* and desires his service to you. He is not yet very strong, and has great want of money, for his long illness and debt have eaten up everything. I have lent him eight ducats, but say nothing about this to come back to him again, he might otherwise think I had done it from want of confidence. Know that he is conducting himself wisely and honourably, and that everyone likes him. * Eucharius Karl, Prior of the Monastery of the Augustines in Niirnberg, and a friend of Pirkheimer and Durer. + This Andreas was probably Andreas Kunhofer, whom Diirer has mentioned in preceding letters. 88 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Item : I have it in my mind, if the King comes to Italy, to go with him to Rome. Diirer must have been in excellent spirits at the time he wrote this letter, for he chaffs — as we should now call the mocking strain in which he writes — his wise and gracious lord with infinite relish. He even breaks forth into the most bar- barous Italian, and declares himself, in amusing ‘ Welsch,’ to be the servant and slave of the first man in the world — the magnificent miser Willibaldo Pircamer ; forthwith, however, proceeding to call the said first man in the world to account for his vanity and immoral proceedings. Diirer’s letters seem indeed to have lost of late a certain de- ference of tone, that is observable in the earlier ones. He never, it is true, quite forgets the difference in social rank between him- self and his friend ; he always, for instance, addresses Pirk- heimer as ‘ Ihr/ and never with the more familiar ‘ Du/ which otherwise he probably would have used to such an intimate friend, but in all other respects they stand as equals, for, as Diirer reminds Pirkheimer in his letter, ‘ he is a gentleman in Venice/ hinting at the same time that he is not disposed to run on his friend’s errands any longer : ‘ Only leave me free of those rings !’ he exclaims, somewhat impatiently. We also cannot help wishing that Pirkheimer had bought his jewellery ‘ cheaper and better in Frankfort/ for Diirer might then have filled his letters with more interesting details of his own life in Venice, instead of having them taken up with accounts of emerald rings, crane feathers, and other vanities that his corre- spondent required to make him attractive to the female popu- lation of Niirnberg. How would it be if you stuck a goose- quill in your hat, you immoral old pedant ! Agnes Frey was probably growing angry at her husband’s protracted stay in Venice, and although Diirer “ recognises his wisdom,” we cannot suppose that Pirkheimer made matters any better by his mediation ; indeed, he confesses that he never received anything but ingratitude ( Undank ) for his advice and warnings to her. One is glad to find that one accusation that has been brought against Diirer — that he left his wife and mother LETTER VI. 89 unprovided for in Nlirnberg whilst he enjoyed himself in Venice — has, at all events, no foundation. They do not seem to have had any great superfluity of money for their household expenses, but neither had he in Venice ; and in almost every letter to Pirkheimer there is some reference to the state of money matters at home — either the wife or the mother need money, which he requests Pirkheimer to lend them until he returns, when he will honourably repay him ; or he mentions having sent them a remittance ; or, as in Letter VII., he tells Pirkheimer not to lend them any more, as they ‘ have money enough.’ It is plain, from his remarks on this subject, that the mother and the wife had separate interests and housekeeping expenses ; but they must have both depended entirely on him for their support, as did also his younger brother Hans. It is tolerably certain that Durer never went to Rome, although many of his biographers have thought that at some period of his life he did. The king here spoken of is the Emperor Maximilian. Durer always speaks of him as ‘ our king.’ LETTER VII. Most learned, wise, many-languages-knowing, truth-from- falsehood-quickly-recognising, greatly-approved, honourable and highly-esteemed Herr Willibald Pirkheimer, your humble servant, Albrecht Durer, wishes you health and great honour cu Diawulo tanto pella tyansa chi tene pare. To vole denegiare cor woster. You would think I also was an orator of 100 partire {partite'). A room must have more than four corners to place in it all the images of memory. I will not impare my caw (capo — bother my head) with them, for I think there are not so many chambers in the head as to allow you to keep something in each. The Margrave will not give so long an audience. 100 articles and every article one hundred words would need 9 days 7 hours and 52 minutes, without counting the suspiry (. sospiri , sighs), therefore you will not be able to have all your say at 90 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. one time. Your speech would extend like that of an old blockhead. Item : I have done my utmost about the carpets, but I have not been able to find any broad enough ; they are all narrow and long, but I will still make inquiries for them, as will also Anthony Kolb. I have given Bernhard Hirschvogel your, greeting, and he desires his service to you. He is in great affliction, for his son is dead, the nicest youth that I have ever seen. Item : I cannot get any fool’s feathers. Oh, if you were here, what would you think of the fine Italian soldiers ! I often think of you, and wish that you and Kunz Kamerer could see them. They have spears with 218 spikes, so that if they only touch a soldier with them he dies, for they are all poisoned. Well, even I could do that. I think I shall become an Italian soldier ( Landsknecht ). The Venetians are pre- paring for war, as well as the Pope, and also the King of France. What will come of it I do not know. They laugh at our king (i.e., Maximilian). Item : Wish Stephen Baumgartner much happiness for me. I am not surprised to hear that he has taken a wife. Greet Borsch Herr Lorentz for me, and our fair friends, and also your Rechen-meisterinn , and thank your ser- vant-maid for having greeted me. Tell her she is a slut. I have sent off the olive- tree wood from Venice to Augsburg. There I let it lie, full 10 hundred -weight. She says she did not expect this. Percio il puzzo (hence the stink). Item : Know that my picture says you would give a ducat to see it. It is very good and beautiful in colour. I have gained great praise for it, but very little profit. I could well have earned 200 ducats in the time, and have refused great works in order that I may return home. And I have silenced* all the painters who said that I was good in engraving, but that in painting I did not know how to use my colours. Now everybody says they never saw more beautiful colouring. Item : My French mantle desires to greet * Von Campe reads this word gestillt , silenced. He says the word gcstriegelt , which is equivalent to our expression 1 a rubbing down,’ or ‘ a dressing,’ was not in use in Diirer’s time. LETTER VII. 91 you, as does also my Italian coat Item : I smell out what you are after even at this distance.* They tell me, when you go courting, you give it out that you are not more than 25 years old. Double it, and I will believe you. My dear, there are ever so many Italians here who look like you. I do not know how that is. Item : The Doge and the Patriarch have also been to see my picture. Herewith I remain your servant to command. I must really go to bed, for it is now striking seven in the night ; for I have already written whole sheets full to the Augustine Prior (Eucharius Karl), to my father-in-law, to the Dietrichin, and to my wife ; besides I have been in haste, so read this according to the sense. You, who speak to princes, can improve it. Many good nights to you, and days also. Given at Venice on the day of our Lady in September (Sep- tember 8). Item : You need not lend my wife, or my mother, anything more. They have money enough. Albrecht Durer. The mock respect and humility of the beginning of this letter need some explanation. In 1506, Pirkheimer, we find, was appointed, with three other Kathsherrn of Niirnberg (namely, Dr. Ulrich Nadler, Georg Holzschuher, and Caspar Nutzel) to represent the town of Niirnberg at a meeting of the Suabian League at Donauworth, and he had in his character of ambassador to deliver a long address to the Margrave Friedrich von Brandenburg. Probably he had evinced some conceit in his letter to Durer at the honour that had been conferred upon him, and had doubtless dilated on the eloquent speech he had made before the Margrave, for Durer exclaims, in allusion to his own burst of mock oratory on the occasion, ‘ One would think I was also an orator of 100 parts !’ Curiously enough, a report of this speech of Pirkheimer’s has been preserved amongst the Niirnberg archives.f As one * Von Murr illustrates this item by a passage from Swift which is nearly as bad. Durer lived, it must be remembered, two centuries before Swift, and there is there- fore some excuse for his occasional coarseness. But, upon the other hand, Von Murr scarcely appreciates the great English wit, when he says of this and Letter IX. that they are ‘ written very much in Swift’s humour !’ f Vide Von Murr, vol. x. The document ( Deductionschrift ) relating to this circumstance is entitled * Handlung zwisc/ien Marggrave Fridcrichcn zu Branden- burg vnd einem Erbern Rate der Stat Nuremberg vor der Versamlung zu I Vercl beschehen , 1 506. ’ 92 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. report of it takes up eleven folio sheets, perhaps Durer’s reckoning of the time taken in its delivery may not be so excessive after all, ‘ without counting the sighs,’ which must, one would imagine, have come pretty often both to the orator and the listener. Had Diirer been reading metaphysics that he gives his opinion on such an important question as the chambers of the brain ? ‘ A room must have more than four corners to place in it all the images of memory’ {gedechtnus gotzeii). Pirkheimer himself, that learned metaphysician, could not have expressed the difficulty with greater aptness. The power of Venice at this period was enormous. Her commerce extended half over the then known world, and her selfish state policy had been eminently successful in securing the greatest advantages to herself from the endless wars then going on in Italy. The Emperor Maximilian ever sought to curb this encroaching spirit, and even urged on the other powers of Europe the necessity of the destruction of this great power ; attributing most of the evils in Italy to the crafty policy and lust of conquest manifested by Venice. But the proud Venetians had no fear of the noble but impracticable Emperor. ‘ They laugh at our king ’ {Den rinser knnigs spott man ser ), writes Diirer, who does not seem to occupy himself very much with the wars and rumours of wars by which he is surrounded, but branches off from this subject to send congratulations to his friend Stephen Baumgartner on the occasion of his mar- riage, and also to inform one of Pirkheimer’s domestics, of whom he draws a most fascinating likeness, that ‘ she is a slut.’ There is evidently some allusion here that might have amused Pirkheimer, but which is quite unintelligible to us. The manuscript of the following letter has only recently been discovered amongst Diirer’s papers in the British Museum, It must by some means or other have got separated from the rest of the correspondence and stowed away with the draw- ings, writings, etc., of the Imhof collection that finally passed into the possession of Sir Hans Sloane, and by his bequest to the British Museum. Neither Von Murr nor Campe were LETTER VII. 93 aware of its existence, but Dr. Waagen printed it in a German review in 1864*“ The translation here given is not, however, from the printed text, but from the original manuscript, and has been made by Dr. Wright of the British Museum, who has kindly assisted me likewise in the interpretation of several dif- ficult passages in these letters. The letter, as will be seen, is not quite perfect ; the begin- ning and end having been lost, and words here and there are unintelligible, but it forms a most important link in the series, for in it Diirer at last announces the completion of his picture for the German Company, which he has mentioned so fre- quently in the preceding letters. It has always been supposed that there must have been a letter lost in which he told Pirk- heimer of the completion of this great painting, and this dis- covery has proved that conjecture in this instance was not wrong. LETTER VIII. I had great joy ( allegrezza :) from your letter, which informed me of the superlative praise you have received from nobles and princes. You must have quite changed to have become so gentle. You will seem almost a stranger to me when I go back. Know also that my picture is ready, as well as another painting, the like of which I have never yet made, and as you don’t mind praising yourself, so will I. Therefore, I give you to understand that there is no better picture of the Virgin Mary in the land, beeause all the artists praise it as well as the nobility. They say they have never seen a more noble, a more charming painting.-f- Item : Your oil ( Olla ), about which you wrote, I send you by the messenger ( Kannengiesser ). Also let me know for certain that the burnt glass (vitrum ustrum ) which I sent you by the * In ‘ Recensionen unci Mittheilungen iiber bildende Ivunst,’ No. 19. Wien, 1864. f All this evidently refers to the painting of ‘ The Feast of the Rose Garlands, and not to any other painting ; indeed, the allusion to another is very obscure. 94 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. messenger (Ftirber) has come to hand. Item : Regarding the carpets, I have not yet bought any because I cannot manage to procure such as are square, for they are all narrow and long. If you want any of these, I will gladly buy them. Let me know about this. Also know that I shall be ready in four weeks at the farthest, because I have still to take the portraits of some to whom I have given the promise ; and, in order to come quickly, I have, since my picture was finished, declined work to the amount of more than 2,000 ducats. All know that. Herewith I com- mend myself unto you. I had much to write to you, but the messenger is ready to start. I hope, please God, soon to be with you myself, and to learn new wisdom from you. Bernhard Holtzbock has spoken to me in the highest terms of you ; but I think he does so because you have now become his brother-in-law. But nothing makes me more angry than their saying you have become handsome ! In that case I must be ugly ! It is like to drive me mad ! I have actually found a grey hair that has grown on my head out of sheer agitation. I fear because I am so full of fun now that many bad days are in store for me. My French cloak, the Kasacke, and the brown coat greet you well, but I would fain see what your .... Dated 1506, on the Wednesday after St. Matthew (Sept. 23). Albrecht Durer* LETTER IX. You know that you have my willing service, therefore there is no need to write it to you ; but I must tell you the great joy I have in the great honour and glory that you have attained through your manifold wisdom and learning. This is the more wonderful, as such gifts are seldom or never found in so young a man, but it comes by the especial grace of God, as it does also with me. How well we have both done, as we * This letter is now exhibited in a glass case in the King’s Library. LETTER IX. 95 imagine — I with my picture, and you cun woster (con vostro) wisdom ; so when people glorify us, we stretch out our necks, and believe them, but some bad spirit (lecker) stands perhaps behind who mocks at us. Therefore do not believe those who praise you. You are so ungainly that you need not believe anything. I think I see you standing before the Margrave making the most beautiful speeches, bowing and cringing, just as you do when you go to see the Rosenthalerin. I perceive quite well from what you have written that you are quite taken up with worthless women. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, old as you are ; you yet think yourself attractive, but such behaviour be- comes you as much as a great shaggy dog playing with a young kitten. If you were as good-looking and agreeable as me I could understand it ; but as soon as I am Burgermeister I will give you a turn in the Lugsinsland, as you would have done to the pious Zamesser and me. I will lock up at the same time the Rech, the Ros, the Gart, the Por, and many more whom I will not name for shortness’ sake, but whom you will understand But I am more inquired after than you according to what you yourself write, that the girls and the ladies often ask after me. It is a sign of my virtue, and if God helps me home again I know not how I shall live with you on account of your great wisdom. But I am rejoiced at your virtue and goodness ; your dog will have a good time of it, and not get beaten lame any more. But now you have become so highly thought of in the town you will never be seen speaking in the street to a poor painter. It would be a great disgrace cun piiltron de pentor. O. 1. Hr. p. [Oh dear Herr Pirkheimer] just now, whilst I was writing in merry spirits, there came a cry of fire, and six houses are burnt at Peter Pender’s. And a piece of woollen cloth of mine is burnt, for which I gave only yesterday eight ducats, so I am also damaged. There are many rumours of fire here. Item : You write to me that I ought to return soon. I will do so as soon as possible, but I must first earn sufficient for my expenses. I have spent ioo ducats in colours and other things. I have also ordered two carpets, that I must pay for 9 6 LIFE OF ALBRECIIT DURER. to-morrow, but I have not been able to buy them very cheap. I will pack them up with my things. And as you wrote to cne that if I did not come soon you would seduce my wife, it is not allowed ; you would be her death. Item : Know that I have begun to learn dancing, and that I have been twice to the school, where I was obliged to give a ducat to the master, but no one shall make me go there again ; I would willingly have given all that I had earned for it but could not accomplish it.* The next messenger will take you your v it rum ustrum. Item : I cannot hear that they have printed anything new in Greek ; also I will enclose you a ream of paper ; but I cannot procure any feathers such as you want, but I have bought some small white feathers, and if I see any green ones I will buy them, and bring them with me. Item : Stephen Baumgartner has written to me to buy fifty small pieces ( komer ) of cornelian for a paternoster. I have ordered them, but they are dear. I have not been able to get any bigger, and I will send them to him by the next messenger. Item : I will let you know, as you desire, when I shall be back, so that my Lords (i.e. the Rath) may know what to do. In ten days I shall have finished here. Then I shall go on horseback to Bologna, for the sake of my art, because some one there will teach me the secret art of perspective ; after staying eight or ten days there, I shall ride back again to Venice, and then I will return with the next messenger. Oh, how I shall freeze after this sunshine ! Here I am a gentleman, at home only a parasite. Item : Let me know how old Kormerle is I had still many things to write to you, but I shall soon be with you. Given at Venice, I know not what day of the month, but about fourteen days after Michaelmas, in the year 1506. Albrecht Durer. Item : When will you let me know whether you also have * ‘ Ich wolt wohl alles daz ferlert haben daz ich gewunen hett vnd hette danocht awff dy letz nix kiint.’ LETTER IX. 97 lost any children? You have written to me on one occasion that Joseph Rumell has married somebody’s daughter, but you do not write whose. How should I know what you mean ? Had I but got my cloth again ! I fear my mantle is also burnt ; if so, I should go out of my mind. I am doomed to ill-luck ! Only three weeks ago a debtor ran away with viii ducats owing to me. This time it would seem as if Diirer meant to congratulate his friend in sober earnest, reminding him, however, that his wisdom comes by the especial grace of God, and therefore there is no occasion to be puffed up by men’s praise. He takes the truth of this home to himself also. ‘ How w r ell we have both done, as we imagine,’ he writes, ‘ I with my picture, and you with your wisdom ;’ but ‘ vanitas vanitatum ! Do not let us believe too much when people glorify us, for a mocking devil is still lurking behind.’ Diirer at least does not deal much in flattery to the great ambassador, whom he again reproves in very coarse uncompromising language for his immoral conduct, censuring it, however, more from the ludic- rous point of view — ‘ a shaggy dog playing with a young kitten ’ — than from any high ground of virtuous indignation. Perhaps he considered that Pirkheimer would be more open to ridicule than to reproof. One can scarcely imagine the thoughtful and mystic poet of the Melencolia learning his steps from a Venetian dancing- master ; but the lightness of Diirer’s heart during this pleasant sojourn in Venice seems on this occasion to have run over into his finely-formed limbs, and, aided most likely by the force of example, to have prompted him to acquire the fashion- able accomplishment. He got tired of it, however, after two lessons, and seems to have been disgusted at having wasted his ducat. The question of his return to Ntirnberg has become urgent, and Pirkheimer is evidently very desirous for him to come home. It is painful to notice Diirer’s delays and reluctance to return, for they signify plainly that he had not much hope of happiness awaiting him in his native town. Bitter indeed is the exclamation that seems, as it were, forced from him at 7 9 8 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. the prospect of leaving the brilliant city where he had found so many appreciative friends. ‘ Oh, how I shall freeze after this sunshine ! Here I am a gentleman, at home only a parasite !’ Yet he could not make up his mind, as Holbein did under similar circumstances, to desert the country that had given him birth, and to accept employment from a foreign State. We learn from a letter that he wrote at a later date to the Rath of Niirnberg, that had he been willing to have remained in Venice, he might have had a pension of 200 ducats* a year from the Government, whereas as he remarks he never received so much as a hundred florins from his native town ; yet from some cause or other, either from a sense of duty, or from that mysterious feeling of ‘ Heimweh 5 that impels so many affectionate natures like Durer’s towards the scenes of their early recollections, he gave up the brilliant career that no doubt might have been his in the gorgeous city of Venice, and returned like a true child of the North to accept the prophet’s small dole of honour in his own country. It is strange to think that, had he elected to have remained at this time in Venice, his name would have been added to the great constellation of painters that shone in the glory of purple and gold over the Venice of the sixteenth century. Would he, in such a case, have become eventually absorbed into the sensuous colour-school of the South ; or would he, even in the presence of the ‘ glorious Titian,’ have preserved his own individuality of mind, and have still been known to the world as the artist of thought rather than as the painter of vigorous life and sensuous beauty. The question is difficult to decide, but seeing the fatal conse- quences that have so often accrued to artists who have deserted their own national mode of expression for the language of a foreign country, it is perhaps a matter of rejoicing that our Teutonic artist was not for any great length of time subjected to such a temptation. We should probably not have gained another Titian, and we might have lost an Albrecht Diirer ! We know that Diirer carried out his intention of going to Bologna, where he was received with much honour, but whether * About ninety pounds of our present money. VISIT TO BOLOGNA. 99 he acquired any further knowledge of the ‘ secret art of per- spective ’ whilst there does not appear; at all events he impressed his countryman, Christopher Scheurl, whose ac- quaintance, as we have before stated, he made during this visit, with his uprightness of character and obliging disposition. Camerarius tells us that Differ fully intended to have gone on from Bologna to Mantua, in order to see and pay his respects to the Italian master, Andrea Mantegna, who was still living, though of a great age ; but before he could do so, Mantegna died, an event which, Diirer afterwards told Came- rarius, ‘ caused him more grief than any mischance that had befallen him during his life.’ One other letter belonging to the Venice period has been discovered recently by Mr. William Mitchell, in the archives of the Royal Society. It has not much interest, being entirely occupied with the sapphire ring, of which we heard in the letter of March 8. The new letter is dated April 25, 1506, so would come between Letters V. and VI., as here given. It runs as follows : ‘ Receive first my willing service, dear Sir. ‘ I wonder that you have not written to tell me how the ring with the sapphire pleased you, that Hans Imhofif sent you by Schon, the Augsburg messenger. I do not know whether you have received it or not. I went to Hans Imhoff and asked him about it ; he said he did not think otherwise than that the ring had reached you : and I sent you a letter with it, and the stone was put in a little sealed box, and was about the size of this drawing.’ (Then follows the drawing of a ring.) ‘ I had great trouble to procure it, for it is pure and clean-cut, and my comrades say it is very fine for the price I have paid. ‘ It weighs about five florins Rhenish, and I paid for it eighteen ducats and four marzelli. If it is lost I shall go half mad. It is worth double what it cost. Hardly was the bar- gain made than I was offered more for it. Therefore, dear Herr Pirkheimer, beg Hans Imhoff to look after the messenger so as to know what he has done with my little box and letter. And the messenger was sent off by the younger Hans Imhoff 7— 2 TOO LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. on the nth day of March. Herewith I commend you to God. Also I commend my mother to you. Persuade her to put my brother at Wolgemuth, so that he may work and not idle his time. Your servant always. Read this according to the sense. I have been in a hurry, having seven letters to write. Some are already written. I pity Lorentz ; greet him and Stephan Bamugartner for me. ‘ Venice, St. Mark's Day, 1506. ‘ Reply soon, for meanwhile I have no repose. Andrea Kunhofer is mortally ill. A messenger has brought me word of it.’ CHAPTER V. 1507—1520. ‘ He had ever those perennial fire-proof joys called employments.’ Jean Paul ( Carlyles Translation). Durer, unfortunately, has not left us any account of his personal history or mode of life in Nurnberg during the years that elapsed between his return from Venice in 1507, and his journey to the Netherlands in 1520 ; we can, however, judge from the enormous number of works that he accomplished within this period, that his life, like that of his father the good old goldsmith before him, must have been one of ‘ constant and hard toil.’ Idleness, indeed, does not seem to have been a vice known to those old Niirnbergers ; each one of them ate his bread in the sweat of his brow, and enjoyed it all the more for thus turning ‘ God’s curse into man’s blessing.’ We must therefore imagine Dtirer at work during these years from morning until night in his workshop, surrounded by numbers of pupils, apprentices, and workmen ; some occupied in grinding colours, others in preparing panels for painting, others, probably, in cutting the blocks of the wood-engravings, and others, the most fortunate of all, in listening to the words of wisdom and instruction that dropped from the lips of the master. A busy and happy mediaeval scene ; such an one as Dtirer himself was introduced into on St. Andrew’s Day, i486, when he first entered the service of Michael Wohlgemuth. Diirer’s school does not seem ever to have been as large as Wohlgemuth’s — he did not, that is to say, carry on that master’s extensive manufacture of pictures; but after Wohlge- 102 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. muth’s death, it was certainly the principal Art school in Niirnberg, and Diirer numbered amongst his pupils many ex- cellent artists. But the master, we may well suppose, was fain to escape sometimes from the noise and bustle of the workshop and the school to the quiet and peace of his own studio. There, like his own Melencolia, he would sit brooding in silence over the mysteries of the universe ; or peopling his dreary room with the bright children of his imagination till it would no longer seem dreary to him, but full of fantastic forms and images, such as he has drawn in so many of his works. But even in his own studio he was not always safe, tradition affirms, from disturbing influences. There was formerly, it appears, a small grated opening in the ceiling of this room which communicated with the room immediately above it, and the absurd story is still told to visitors that through this opening Agnes Frey used to spy her husband at his work, giving ad- monitory taps with her foot whenever he seemed to her to be idle. Scandal must have been somewhat unusually destitute of material, one would think, not to be able to find any more probable invention than this against the Diirerin. But although this story of the spy-hole may be regarded as utterly false as a matter of fact, it may have been true enough, if we accept it in a symbolical sense. Just through such a narrow grating of prejudice and suspicion do mean and small natures view the great souls of the earth with whom they come in contact, but whom they are incapable of comprehend- ing. That a hero is not a hero to his valet, is a worse fact for the valet than the hero ; and still sadder is it when a great and noble man is not a hero to his wife, when she looks not at the everlasting significance of his life and work, but simply at their temporal and prudential use. This, according to Pirkheimer, was Agnes Frey’s method of viewing her husband’s work. She understood only the money value that it possessed, and ‘ urged him day and night ’ only towards such work as she deemed would bring in the most money. The dear pious old mother whom, as we have seen, Diirer had taken to live with him two years after his father’s death, because she was then ‘ quite poor,’ doubtless exercised a puri- HIS mother’s death. 103 fying and loving influence in the household of her son, for she appears, from what he records of her, to have been a gentle and charitable woman, whose life was devoted to her God and her children, bearing all things with patience, and endeavour- ing no doubt to make her son Albrecht’s life as harmonious as she could. Butin 1514 this good mother was taken away from her loving son. In the fragment of the note-book already men- tioned, he gives the following account of her life and Christian death. The simple narrative is so touching, and reveals to us so much of the character both of mother and son, that I offer no excuse for giving it in full, although it contains little more than what the reader already knows : ‘ Now you must know that in the year 1513, on a Tuesday in Cross-week, my poor unhappy mother, whom I had taken under my charge two years after my father’s death, because she was then quite poor, and who had lived with me for nine years, was taken ill unto death ( tottlich Kranck) on one morning early, so that we had to break open her room, for we knew not, as she could not get up, what to do. So we bore her down into a room, and she had the sacraments in both kinds ad- ministered to her, for every one thought that she was going to die, for she had been failing in health ever since my father’s death, and her custom was to go often to church ; and she always punished me when I did not act rightly, and she always took great care to keep me and my brothers from sin, and whether I went in or out, her constant word was “In the name of Christ,” and with great diligence she constantly gave us holy exhortations, and had great care over our souls. And her good works, and the loving compassion that she showed to every one, I can never sufficiently set forth to her praise. ‘ This my good mother bore and brought up eighteen chil- dren ; she has often had the pestilence and many other dangerous and remarkable illnesses ; has suffered great poverty, scoffing, disparagement, spiteful words, fears, and great reverses. Yet she has never been revengeful. A year after the day on which she was first taken ill, that is, in the year 1514, on a Tuesday, the 17th day of May, two hours before midnight, my pious mother, Barbara Durerin, departed 104 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER, in a Christian manner with all sacraments, absolved by Papal power from pain and sin. She gave me her blessing, and desired for me God’s peace, and that I should keep myself from evil. And she desired also before drinking (i.e., the sacramental wine) St. John’s blessing, which she had, and she said she was not afraid to come before God. But she died hard, and I perceived that she saw something terrible, for she kept hold of the holy water, and did not speak for a long time. I saw also how death came and gave her two great blows on the heart, and how she shut her eyes and mouth and departed in great sorrow. I prayed for her, and had such great grief for her that I can never express. God be gracious to her ! Her greatest joy was always to speak of God, and to do all to His honour and glory. And she was sixty-three years old when she died, and I buried her honourably according to my means. God the Lord grant that I also make a blessed end, and that God with His heavenly hosts and my father, mother, and friend, be present at my end, and that the Almighty God grant us eternal life. Amen. And in her death she looked still more lovely than she was in her life.’ Before this date — probably in 15 11 — Diirer’s brother, Andreas, had returned to Niirnberg, and settled down in the paternal trade.* Hans Dtirer, likewise, it may be supposed, was still residing with Albrecht at the time of his mother’s death, -f* so that the pious old mother had at least the comfort of having the three surviving sons of her eighteen children around her in her last hours, although Diirer does not mention anyone but himself. The year 1514 — the year in which his mother died — was, as we shall see, one of the most productive years of Diirer’s genius. Several of his finest and most thoughtful copper-plates belong * A document is preserved in the German Museum, dated Nov. 24, 1518, in which Andreas Diirer testifies that ‘ his dear brother Albrecht Thiirer ’ has paid him his share of the paternal inheritance, the witnesses being Willibald Pirkheimer and Lazarus Spengler, whose seals are affixed to the deed. The paternal estate seems only to have consisted in the dwelling-house at the corner of the Burg- Gasse. f Hans Diirer, the seventeenth child and third son of the name of Hans of the Diirer family, was nineteen years younger than Albrecht, to whom he served as assistant. He seems afterwards to have entered the service of the King of Poland. JOURNEY TO AUGSBURG. 10$ to this period ; seemingly as though sorrow had driven him more closely than ever to think and to work. In this year also occurred that pleasant little episode in his life— the interchange of presents and civilities between himself and Raphael Santi — between the Artist of the South and the Artist of the North. Their intercourse probably began by Diirer sending his own portrait to Raphael as a specimen of his art and a testimony of his esteem. This mark of friendship was warmly responded to by Raphael, who at once sent several drawings off to Niirn- berg, as a present to Diirer. Both artists evidently esteemed the other’s work very highly. Of course it is not likely that we should find jealousy between two men of such great but different powers, but still it is pleasant to know that the Italian Poet of Feeling appreciated to the full the German Poet of Thought, and did not, as the more narrow-minded Italian artists of that day were too apt to do, esteem all art as bar- barous that was not the expression of the mind of Greece or Italy. The portrait that Diirer gave to Raphael was inherited, after the latter’s death, by his pupil and heir, Giulio Romano, who took it with him to Mantua, and, according to Vasari, esteemed it as one of his greatest treasures. It is not known what has become of it. One of the drawings sent by Raphael to Diirer is, however, still preserved in the Albertina Collection at Vienna, and is authen- ticated by an inscription on it in Diirer’s own handwriting, as follows : I 5 I 5- ‘ Raffahell di Urbin der so hoch peim Pobst gecicht ist gewest hat der hat dyse Nackette Bild gemacht und hat sy deni Albrecht Diirer gen Nornberg geschickt Im sein hand zu weisenl (Raphael di Urbino, who is so highly esteemed by the Pope, has drawn this study from the nude, and has sent it to Albrecht Diirer at Niirnberg, in order to show him his hand — i.e. his manner of drawing). This ‘ Nackette Bild ’ (Naked Picture) is executed in red crayon, and represents two naked men-figures, the one seen from behind, the other from the side, with the head of a third 10 6 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. slightly sketched out in the background. It is boldly drawn, and was probably a more acceptable present to Dtirer, who as we know was greatly interested in the anatomy of the human figure, than even a Raphael Madonna and Child would have been. In contradistinction to this respect paid him by a great foreigner, we find that in the next year, 1515, one of his fellow- townsmen, a certain Jorg Vierling, of Kleinreuth, near Niirn- berg, was put into prison by the Rath of Nlirnberg for having uttered disgraceful libels against Diirer, and even having struck him and threatened him in consequence of some quarrel between them, the cause of which is not known. Vierling would not only have been imprisoned but punished in other ways, had not Diirer, with the kindness of heart to which all his biographers bear witness, and of which this little incident is in itself a sufficient proof, interceded with the Rath for his enemy, and obtained his deliverance from prison ; not, how- ever, without his relations giving security in person and estate (mit Leib und Gut ) that he should keep the peace agains»t Diirer and all concerned.* In 1518 Diirer was joined with the two patricians, Gaspard Niitzel and Lazarus Spengler in the representation of the town of Niirnberg at the Imperial Diet which was held at Augsburg at that date. He had the good fortune, whilst he was there, to obtain a sitting from the Emperor Maximilian. This we learn from an inscription on a portrait of the Emperor, now in the Albertina Collection at Vienna, drawn by Diirer at this time, and from which the well-known wood- cuts appear to have been executed, and probably also the painted portrait in the Belvidere Gallery, dated 1519, the year of Maximilian's death. The inscription states : ‘ Das ist kaiser Maximilian den hab ich Albrecht Diirer zu Augspurg hoch oben Aujf die pfalz in seine kleine stiibli kun- terfekt do man zah 1518 am Montag nach Johannis tawfferl A.D. (This is the Emperor Maximilian, whom I, Albrecht Diirer, * Baader, ‘Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte Niirnbergs, Zweite Reihe.’ durer’s friends IN NURNBERG. 107 drew at Augsburg, in his little room high up in the imperial residence, in the year 1518, on the Monday after St. John the Baptist.) Besides this portrait of the Emperor, Diirer made a number of other sketches during his visit to Augsburg, most of which, as well as many of those taken during his tour in the Nether- lands, came eventually into the possession of Joseph Heller, the learned and laborious author of the work so often quoted. The history of the two sketch-books ( Bilderbucher ) that Diirer made use of on these two journeys is somewhat interest- ing and remarkable. It appears that soon after his death they passed into the hands of a noble Niirnberg family,* that highly esteemed his works, and for the members of which he had often executed small commissions. But after a genera- tion or two, the descendants of this family seem to have for- gotten or to have been unaware of the art treasures they possessed, and Durer’s Bilderbucher were stowed away amongst family documents, and remained totally hidden for more than two hundred years. No one even in Niirnberg appears to have been aware of their existence, and it was not until the beginning of the present century, when the family became extinct, and the property it possessed passed into other hands, that these two books again came to light. They were then fortunately obtained by that well-known collector and antiquarian, the old Baron von Derschau,*f- who after- * It is supposed through the medium of his brother Andreas, who appears to have had business dealings with this family, probably the Pfinzing. f The Baron, according to his own account, seems also to have had possession at one time of Durer’s Journal; for Dibdin tells us in his £ Bibliographical Tour,’ that when he visited the old man, “ he commenced his work of incantation by in- forming him that he once possessed the Journal or Day-book of Albert Diirer, written in the German language, and replete with the most curious information re- specting the manner of his own operations, and those of his workmen. From this journal it appeared that Albert Diirer was in the habit of drcnving upon the blocks , and that his men performed the remaining operation of cutting away the wood. ’ . . . £ On my eagerly inquiring,’ says Dibdin, ‘what had become of this precious volume, the Baron replied with a sigh, which seemed, to come from the very bottom of his heart, that it had perished in the flames of a house in the neighbourhood of one of the battles fought between Buonaparte and the Prussians.’ (See Dibdin’s ‘Bibliographical Tour,’ vol. iii.) This circumstantial story certainly sounds authentic, but in spite of Dibdin’s assurance that the Baron was ‘ a man both of veracity and virtu,’ it cannot unfortunately be accepted on his bare word, for it is io8 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. wards sold part of the drawings to Herr von Nagler, and the other part to Joseph Heller, who has given a detailed descrip- tion of them in his work. Those formerly belonging to Nagler are now at Berlin, the Prussian Government having purchased the whole of his col- lection ; whilst Heller’s collection is still preserved in the Bamberg Library. Diirer himself refers several times in his journal to these sketch-books. For instance, he records at Aix-la-Chapelle : ‘ In my own Bilderbuch I have drawn Paul Topler and Martin Pfinzing ;’ and again, ‘Jean de Has his wife and two daughters I have drawn with charcoal, and the maid and old woman with crayons in my little book ( Biichlein ).’ A portrait of Paul Topler, and another of one of the daughters of Jean de Has, occur in Heller’s catalogue, but they do not seem to be those mentioned here. Most of these interesting drawings are roughly and slightly sketched, either in charcoal or crayon, and were evidently intended by Diirer merely as reminiscences of the dis- tinguished men he had become acquainted with during his journeys, and of any noteworthy object or person that struck his artist’s fancy. We can imagine the pleasure he would have in showing these hasty jottings down of his pencil to his friend Pirkheimer on his return home, and the somewhat patronising manner with which the more learned and more experienced Willibald would listen to his friend’s simple recital of the wonders he had seen in foreign towns. But besides Pirkheimer, who, in spite of his pedantry always remained a real and faithful friend to the companion of his boyhood, there were other distinguished men in Niirnberg who were proud to receive the artist into their homes, and with whose families he appears to have been on terms of social intimacy. In his letters he constantly mentions names that are amongst the most honourable in his native town, sending known that the Baron’s ‘virtu’ sometimes got the better of his ‘veracity.’ There is no such account of the manner of Diirer’s operations in woodcutting in the journal that has been handed down to us, so that, if there ever was such a volume, it must have been some other record kept at a different period of his life. durer’s friends in durnberg. 109 his greeting for instance to Stephen Baumgartner, Hans Volkamer, Hans Harsdorfer, and to the Augustine Prior, Eucharius Karl, all of whom belonged to the highest patrician families of Niirnberg. Lazarus Spengler, also, the clever Secretary to the Rath of Niirnberg, ‘who set the whole state machine in motion/ was an intimate friend both of Pirk- heimer’s and Durer’s, and his society must have contributed a very agreeable and sparkling element in the learned gather- ings at Pirkheimer’s house ; so that whatever may have been the narrow and depressing influences of Durer’s own home, it is evident that he must have had plenty of relaxation and food for his thought and imagination by mixing in the most intel- lectual society that his native town afforded. It is now time to turn from these details of Durer’s personal history to the consideration of his work as an artist. We have indeed, as before said, scarcely any knowledge of his life during the years that elapsed between his residence in Venice, in 1506-7, and his journey to the Netherlands in 1520, except in so far as we gain it from his works. In these, therefore, it becomes necessary to study it, if we would learn anything of its true value. Nor is this study at all a hopeless one, for Durer’s art is not a thing apart from his life, it is not a mere handicraft or extrinsic faculty, but it is the expression of his deepest nature, the means that he adopted for giving outward shape to the noblest conceptions of his mind. PART II. WORKS. 4 Not what I Have, but what I Do is my kingdom.’ Carlyle. CHAPTER I. ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. ‘ There are people who, because they do not see at once in a great work of art all that they are told is there, satisfy themselves that therefore it does not exist . 5 Mrs. Jameson. Heller enumerates no fewer than one hundred and seventy- four wood engravings by Diirer, and there are many more which bear his mark and are ascribed by other writers to him. En- graving, or rather designing on wood, was indeed the readiest means that his prolific mind could find for expressing the thoughts that arose in it ; and accordingly, from the beginning to the end of his artistic life, he made use of this means for multiplying and disseminating his ideas. Thus it has happened that Diirer has done more for the art of wood-engraving than any other artist before or since. Before his time no artist had ever employed it for the expression of any great thought : representations of saints and small illustrations to religious books having been the only subjects entrusted to the hands of the wood-engraver. It is not my intention in this chapter to enter at any length on the long-disputed question as to whether Diirer really engraved with his own hands the woodcuts that bear his mo- nogram, or whether he merely drew the designs for them on the wood, leaving the more mechanical part of the work to be executed by the Formschneider (wood-engravers) of N iirnberg. Prior to the present century, the former was the generally received opinion on the subject ;* but of late the opposite view * Von Murr, for instance, ‘wonders how anyone can doubt that Diirer executed his own woodcuts . 5 (Journ. vol. viii.) 8 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 1 14 has been steadily gaining ground, and it has been supported by such powerful arguments that it is now almost universally accepted by writers on the subject. This latter view was adopted by Bartsch, who states his opinion in the following words : ‘ If Dtirer had himself engraved on wood, it is probable that among the numerous and circumstantial accounts he has left us of his life, his occupations, and the various kinds of work on which he was employed, the fact of his having also applied himself to wood-engraving would certainly have been transmitted to us in a manner no less explicit ; but far from finding any trace of this, everything that relates to the subject proves that he never employed himself at all in this kind of work. He always appears as a painter, a designer, an editor of works engraved on wood, but never as a wood- engraver.’* Dr. von Eye likewise argues that to assume that Diirer must have been an excellent engraver on wood just because he was a great artist, is about as foolish as to conclude that Shakspeare was a clever theatrical tailor because he was a great dramatist. ‘ Any person,’ he says, ‘ who has ever taken a graver in his own hand, would certainly, out of compassion for the poor artist, have spared him this deadly amount of work.’ But the principal argument against the idea that Diirer cut his own blocks is furnished by Jackson,*)* whose technical knowledge on the subject enables him to speak with much authority, and renders his opinion of the highest importance. One of the chief grounds on which the supporters of the older view rested their assumptions was, that there were no wood-engravers in Diirer’s time capable of cutting the fine cross-hatching that he has so frequently introduced into his cuts. But Jackson brings forward this same cross-hatching as an argument on the other side, and affirms that any wood- engraver of any repute of the present day could produce ap- prentices capable of cutting fac-similes of any cross-hatching to be met with in Diirer’s work. Its production, in fact, seems * Bartsch, ‘ Peintre Graveur.’ f Jackson and Chatto, ‘ Hist, of Wood Engraving.’ DID DURER CUT HIS OWN BLOCKS? 115 to be a mere question of patient labour, and by no means a proof of any great genius or skill. It is therefore, as Jackson points out, extremely unlikely that Diirer would have resorted so constantly to this mode of work had he been compelled to execute the mechanical por- tion of it himself ; for although cross-hatching is the readiest means of producing an effect to the artist who draws on the block, it is attended with an immense amount of labour to the workman who cuts it ; and it is at all events probable that if Diirer had been forced to engrave his own designs, he would have endeavoured to gain his object by means which were easier, or less tedious of execution. But although Jackson is probably right in assuming that Diirer could not have engraved all the woodcuts that bear his mark, on the other hand, it is too much to assert that he engraved none of them. Wood-engraving and wood-carving (. Bildschnitzerei ) we know for certain were carried on to a considerable extent in Wohlgemuth’s workshop ; and even if Wohlgemuth himself never engraved on wood, as some writers have asserted, yet it is very unlikely that an apprentice such as Albrecht Diirer would have remained four years in his service without acquiring some knowledge of the art. The artists of the fifteenth century did not disdain to do the mechanical part of their work themselves, and Diirer would certainly as soon have been his own Formschneider as not, had he had the time to bestow upon the cutting of his designs. Want of time was probably the only cause that prevented him, and this cause was less in operation at the beginning of his career, when his first woodcuts were published, than in his after-life, when he was weighted with numerous commissions, and when great thoughts came surging into his mind faster than he could express them even by much quicker modes than cutting them in wood. If, therefore, we wish to discover the woodcuts that Diirer not only designed, but probably executed with his own hand (and this does not seem to me so impossible as Jackson thinks it), we should seek for them amongst his earlier and not amongst his later productions. We have in- deed the testimony of Neudorfer that Hieronymus, the best Formschneider of his time, cut the blocks for the ‘ Arch of 8—2 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 1 1 6 Maximilian/ which was the last great work that Differ designed on wood, and he probably engraved many other of Durer’s later designs. The earliest wood-engravings that bear Durer’s monogram are the sixteen folio cuts illustrative of the Apocalypse, ‘ Die Heimlich Offenbarung Johanis ’ which were first published in 1498 ; that is, four years after his marriage and settlement in Niirnberg, and before he had achieved the position that he attained after his journey to Italy. These cuts mark a period in the history of wood-engraving. They are admitted by Jackson to be ‘ much superior to all wood-engravings that had previously appeared, both in design and execution / and this superiority is not only due to the nobler artistic spirit in which they are conceived, but also to the bolder and more skilful manner in which they are executed. Diirer, indeed, by these illustrations raised the art of wood-engraving to a higher position than it had ever before occupied, and brought it, so to speak, more into fashion. At the beginning of the six- teenth century, many of the greatest artists of that fruitful time made use of this mode of multiplying their works, and the vilely-executed religious woodcuts representing the lives of the saints and other sacred legends, that before this time were in vogue, were superseded by noble works executed in the most masterly manner by artists like Diirer, Lucas Cranach, Holbein, Hans Baldung Grim, Hans Lutzelburger, and others. Even Titian, it is affirmed, did not disdain, in one instance, to cast off his glorious garb of colour, and to draw in simple black and white upon the block.* The demand thus created for skilful Formschneider naturally created a supply, and by the time Diirer published his later works no doubt many were to be met with in Niirnberg cap- able of cutting even his magnificent designs ; but at the early period (1498) when the cuts of the Apocalypse appeared, I doubt very much, in spite of Jackson’s assertions to the * On the title-page of a book of costumes, printed in Venice in 1590, it is stated that the illustrations were ‘ done ’ by Titian ; and Papillon, an early writer on wood-engraving, mentions several woodcuts by him. Papillon’s statements, how- ever, require to be received with extreme caution, as he has been proved by later and more trustworthy authorities to have drawn largely on his imagination for his interesting facts. WOODCUTS OF THE APOCALYPSE. ny contrary, whether any working Formschneider in Niirnberg was sufficiently master of his art to be able to express the thoughts and meaning of the artist so unhesitatingly and powerfully as the engraver of these illustrations has done. The striking boldness of the cuts of the Apocalyse, which is due as well to the self-reliant knowledge of the Formschneider as to the free drawing of the designer, first led me to think it probable that Diirer was, in this instance at all events, his own Formschneider , and afterwards my opinion was greatly strengthened by the study of some very early impressions of these cuts in the possession of the late Herr Cornill d’Orville, of Frankfort. These impressions were probably struck off as trial proofs, even before the edition of 1498. They have no letter-press at the back, but, unlike the later impressions without letterpress, every line is as firm and distinct as in the original drawing on the block ; the bold hand and confident knowledge of an artist is indeed much more distinctly visible in these illustrations than the mechanical skill and accuracy of a good engraver ; and this we should naturally expect if Diirer not only designed but executed the work himself. Added to this intrinsic evidence there is the extrinsic, that even if he could at that time have found a Formschneider capable of cutting his blocks, it is unlikely that he would have been able to pay him for his labour ;* for he published the cuts at his own cost, and would therefore, we may safely assume, be desirous of saving expense in such a responsible undertaking. Jackson’s argument respecting cross-hatching is likewise confirmatory of this view, for there is less cross-hatch- ing in these than in any other of Diirer’s woodcuts. But it is time to turn from the comparatively unimportant consideration of the cutting of these designs to the contempla- tion of the mind which conceived them. It was a bold attempt certainly for a young man to give to the world almost * That Diirer could not have had a large choice in the selection of Formschneider is shown by a decree of the Rath, dated July 28, 1571, by which we find that no Formschneider , Brief maler, or Buchdrucker, was allowed to settle in Niirnberg without permission, and that this permission to set up a workshop in the town was only granted to five book printers, five Formschneider, and six Briefmaler, ‘ A lies aus guten erheblichen beweglichen Ursachen. ’ (Baader, ‘ Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte Nurnbergs.’) 1 1 8 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. as the first-fruits of his genius his translation into outward shape of the marvellous visions of the Mystic of Patmos. Few besides Albrecht Diirer would have dared to realise the awful dreams recorded by the aged Evangelist, but to Diirer the four Angels of the great river Euphrates prepared to slay the Third Part of Men, the Four Horses and their powerful Riders, the Seven Angels and the plagues that followed the sounding of their trumpets, the throne of God, the Lamb on Mount Sion, the Woman clothed with the Sun, and the Red Dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads, were visible images, and he has represented them with a vivid force that produces a strange feeling of fascination and awe on those who behold them. The first illustration of the Apocalypse series represents the martyrdom of St. John, which, according to tradition, was accomplished by his being boiled in a kettleful of oil. This was a favourite subject of mediaeval art, and Diirer has repre- sented it in the approved and orthodox fashion. St. John sits naked in the kettle or boiler, with flames springing forth all round him. An executioner in the foreground quickens the fire with a pair of bellows, whilst another pours the boiling liquid over the Saint. The Emperor Domitian, who has the reputation of having invented this ingenious mode of martyr- dom, looks on at its accomplishment, and appears somewhat annoyed that the Saint bears his sufferings with so much patience ; he evidently would enjoy the sight more if St. John were to roar well. Some spectators, amongst whom we recognise the stolid German burgher, the man in a turban, and several other well-known Diirer types, regard the scene from the other side of the wall, which cuts straight across the pic- ture, dividing the place of martyrdom, within which is placed the Emperor’s throne, from the outer world. This subject has, of course, no proper place amongst the illustrations of the Apocalypse, but Diirer, no doubt, thought that it would give a more practical character to his work, and would please such purchasers as were incapable of understand- ing the symbolism of the remaining cuts. The conception of the scene is in no way different to other representations of the same subject, for Diirer’s imagination was here restrained by THE APOCALYPSE. 119 the necessity of depicting the event according to established custom.* The second cut of this series, which is really the first illustra- tion of the Apocalypse, has for its subject The Vision of the Seven Golden Candlesticks : ‘ And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And, being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks ; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow ; and his eyes were as a flame of fire.’ (Revelation i. 12 — 14.) Such is the first symbolic vision of the Seer, and Diirer has rendered it with curious realism. The seven large candlesticks, of the shape common in Catholic churches, surround the Son of Man, who is seated throned on the rainbow, with the Book in His left hand, and the seven stars circling round His right, which is uplifted, one star being in the centre of the palm. The figure of the Saviour is of majestic form, clothed in long flowing drapery, and resembling the representations of ancient art. St. John, a powerful young man, with long curling hair, which in his amazement has fallen over his forehead, kneels before the throne to receive the Revelation, and does not lie at Christ’s feet £ as dead,’ but this is the only point in which Diirer has deviated in the slightest degree from the text of the Apocalypse. The third cut has for its subject the Throne of God with the four and twenty elders and the four beasts : ‘ And, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine-stone : and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats : and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment ; and they had on their heads crowns of gold . . . And round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And * A woodcut representing the same subject had already appeared in the German Bible, published by Koberger in 1483. 120 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.’ (Revelation, chaps, iv., v.) St. John surveys this marvellous scene through the open door of heaven. He is already in the clouds, or rather above them, for they float beneath him and separate him from the earth, which lies in peaceful, unconscious beauty beneath the stage of the heavenly drama. One qf the elders appears to be instructing him in the meaning of the mysteries he beholds. Above the head of the Father are suspended, in a half-circle, the seven lamps of fire, ‘ which are the seven spirits of God,’ and on His knees lies the Book with seven seals ; the Lamb, who alone is worthy to open the seals thereof, standing upon it. One of the most noteworthy things in this and several of the other cuts is the contrast between the momentous scene enact- ing above, and the quiet of the earth beneath, unharmed as yet by the terrible plagues that are about to follow the opening of the seals. In the fourth cut (see illustration) four of the seals have been opened : ‘And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals ; and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse : and he that sat on him had a bow ; and a crown was given unto him : and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red : and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another : and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo, a black horse ; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand . . . And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse : and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell fol- lowed with him. And power was given unto them over the THE FOUR RIDERS , —The Apocalypse. TIIE APOCALYPSE. 1 2 1 fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.’ This is one of Diirer’s most powerful creations. What can resist the superhuman might of these terrible riders to whom power is given to execute righteous vengeance on the earth ? The horses they ride are of no earthly breed, but go forth like their riders, ‘ conquering and to conquer,’ in their God-given strength. There is no exaggeration, no display of the artist’s own imaginative powers in this grand rendering of the Vision of St. John. Diirer adheres faithfully to the mystic record, and only gives the aged seer’s story an outward form and visible power. But what a form, and what power ! What other artist than Albrecht Diirer could have rendered with such fierce breathing life that awful figure of Death on the pale horse treading down, in avenging wrath, the fourth part of the earth ? Unlike the other riders, who appear urged on by some mighty impulse to fulfil God’s judgments on mankind, Death seems driven by fearful demoniac rage. Hell, indeed, follows close behind him in the shape of the wide-opened jaws of a monster into which a king-crowned head is sinking. Even the horse he bestrides betrays a feeling of devilish spite that is quite different to the noble anger of the animal ridden by the rider who swings the balance aloft with powerful outstretched arm. He, the third mighty rider, is, it is true, less calm in his bearing than the other two, but it is because he desires to be swift to execute the sentence that has gone out against a wicked and perverse generation, and not because he feels any fiendish exultation at human misery, like the horrible skeleton beneath him. The rider with the bow, and the rider with the sword likewise, have no thought but the accomplishment of their terrible mission. The execution of this cut is bold and powerful in the extreme. Every stroke tells ; yet there is not nearly the amount of mechanical work in it that there is in most of Diirer’s later woodcuts. The effect, grand as it is, is produced by simple elements. There are only eleven figures in this cut altogether, and of these six are the condemned human beings, who are trampled under the horse of Death. Diirer deals here with 122 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. grander masses and less complicated material than in most of the other cuts of this series, and the effect he produces is more striking than in the more elaborate compositions. The fifth cut represents ‘ The Opening of the Fifth and the Sixth Seals’ (Revelation vi. 9 — 17). The souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, lie beneath the altar, help- less and naked, until they are clothed in the white robes of imputed righteousness by the angels of God. Such is the scene in the region of heaven, depicted in the upper portion of the picture ; but on the earth, which occupies the lower part, a far different scene is taking place, for punishment has already overtaken the sinful race of man, and they find no place to flee from the wrath of the Lamb, though they call upon mountains and rocks to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne. The sun and the moon, two faces of sorrowful aspect, are set in the middle space between heaven and earth ; and from the same region the stars fall down flaming and hissing, a mighty rain of heavenly bodies. On the earth Diirer represents all classes of men as over- taken by the same calamities. Not the highest can escape. In the foreground to the right we see an emperor who raises despairing eyes to heaven ; behind him squats a pope with his triple crown still on his head ; a cardinal, less fortunate, has had his scarlet hat torn off by the storm, and his bare head is exposed. Several other ecclesiastics are also amongst the doomed sinners, a significant circumstance when we consider that this cut was executed twenty years before the Reforma- tion. But judgment falls on lay as well as clergy, on men and women alike ; neither young nor old may be spared. ‘ For the great day of his wrath is come ; and who shall be able to stand ?’ The sixth illustration is a very beautiful composition. It represents, firstly, the four angels standing on the four corners of the earth holding the four winds ; and secondly, the sealing the elect on their forehead (Revelation vii.). The four angels are of majestic and powerful form, as indeed are the angels generally in these cuts. Diirer perhaps felt that the graceful THE ELECT WITH PALM BRANCHES .— The Apocalypse. THE APOCALYPSE. I2 3 and vapoury beings that are often drawn to represent the angelic inhabitants of heaven were not capable of the hard work accorded to them by St. John. The angel to the left seems beating back the wind with a sword that he holds in one hand, and a plate or cymbal in the other. The servants of God are marked with a cross on their fore- head, and here Diirer is by no means invidiously Protestant in his sympathies, for many Catholic clergy are amongst the elect, and a monk is the one who is being sealed by the angel in the foreground. The next cut (No. 7) continues the vision recorded in chap, vii. of Revelations. The elect with palm branches in their hands, and clothed in white robes, behold the Lamb stand- ing on a rainbow in a glory. The glorified host of saints, with the palm branches, reminds one somewhat of Fra Angelico’s similar representations, but Diirer’s saints have much more individuality of character, much more muscle , if I may call it so, than Angelico’s lovely and holy, but impersonal forms. St. John on the earth, which is separated from heaven by a veil of fleecy clouds, beholds this vision as he kneels on a high promontory stretching out into the sea. A distant landscape of the quiet beauty that Diirer loved to depict, gives a tender, dreamy expression even to the lower half of the woodcut. No. 8 of the series treats of the sounding of the trumpets (Revelation viii. and ix.) after the opening of the seventh seal. Four of the trumpets have already sounded, and the plagues that follow their sounding have stricken the earth. The rain of fire, mingled with blood, falls on the grass and the trees ; the mountain of fire is cast into the sea ; the star named Wormwood is about to fall into a well of water ; and the third part of everything is smitten and destroyed. In Diirer’s representation of this vision, God the Father sits on a throne at the top of the cut, dealing out the trumpets to the angels, who have received all but two, which He is in the act of handing to the two angels nearest the throne. The angel with the censer, containing the prayers of the saints, stands at the altar immediately in front of the Father. The 124 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. two principal angels, with their long trumpets at their mouths, occupy the central space of the picture, together with the ' darkened visages of sun and moon. The landscape on earth is partly river or sea, and partly shore. Two great cities doomed to destruction lie on either side of the broad water, in which numerous vessels of all descriptions are suffering shipwreck. An eagle flying over the earth utters the cry of ‘Woe, woe, woe to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels which are yet to sound !’ No. 9. ‘The Four Angels of the Great River Euphrates killing the Third Part of Men ’ (Revelation ix. 13 — 19.) This is one of the most celebrated compositions of the series. The four angels, armed with great swords, hew down in ferocious vengeance all ranks of men alike. An emperor and a pope, as in the former illustration, are amongst the number of the slain, and the beggar’s rags protect him no better than the emperor’s purple. ‘ The angels in this cut,’ Von Eye remarks, ‘ appear more like furies from out a Greek tragedy than members of that holy company of spirits with which our imagination peoples heaven. But yet even in this respect the artist keeps strictly to the idea of the Evangelist, whose angels are truly destroying angels, driven on by their very nature towards murder.’ The riders on the lion-headed horses occupy the space immediately above the earth, and the fire, smoke, and brimstone that issue from their mouths destroy those whom the angels have not killed. God the Father, a half-figure sur- rounded by the rainbow, sits above ; to the right and left are the angels of the fifth and sixth trumpets. The sense of move- ment in this plate is something extraordinary. You feel the rush of those awful lion-headed beasts, and hear the wild tumult of the doomed earth, and the fearful cries that go up to heaven in vain. ‘ The Four Horses ’ produces the same feeling of rapid motion. No. 10 represents ‘ The Angel with the Column Feet ’ (Reve- lation x.) : ‘ And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud : and a rainbow was on his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire : and he had in his hand a little book open : and he THE APOCALYPSE. 125 set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,’ &c. Diirer’s extraordinary and powerful rendering of this angel must be seen in order to be conceived. It is impossible to describe so strange a form. At first sight, this woodcut strikes us as being grotesque and ludicrous, and one can hardly help laughing at the poor Evangelist who kneels on a promontory, and has the extreme right-hand corner of the big book that is presented to him by the angel already in his mouth, and is apparently in great danger of choking with it. This, I say, is the first idea on beholding this illustration, but after a time the solemn earnestness of the artist, and the grandeur of his con- ception of that mighty angel whose voice ‘ was as the voice of seven thunders,’ takes hold of the imagination, and one becomes haunted by that mysterious cloud-body, and that awful face breaking forth from the sun. The solid column feet and legs also, that end in flames at the knees, give a most curious appearance to the whole. A sea-monster of dolphin form swims out at sea, and near the shore two peaceful swans are floating along, quite unruffled by the strange phenomena around them. No. 11. Diirer could scarcely help being fantastic in the treatment of such a subject as ‘The Woman clothed with the Sun ’ (Revelation xii. 1 — 5). The woman stands, as St. John describes, with the moon (a crescent moon) under her feet, with the sun in the form of a glory around her, and with a crown of twelve stars upon her head, much in the same way as the Virgin Mary, as Queen of Heaven, is depicted by Catholic art. Yet Diirer, obvious as the inference appears, does not seem to have intended this woman for the Virgin, for he has added to her form a pair of powerful wings, which he would hardly have done had he meant her to represent the earthly mother of our Lord. She has already been delivered of the child, who is borne up by two angels towards the Father, a half-figure in the clouds. The great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads, rages and foams before her, his tail reaching up to the heaven and drawing down the third part of the stars. ‘ Michael and his Angels fighting the Great Dragon ’ forms 126 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. the subject of the twelfth cut (Revelation xii. 7 — 9). Dlirer has adopted quite a different mode of treatment of this subject from that usually employed in the older repre- sentations of the archangel Michael, or his earthly represen- tative St. George. St. Michael, a powerful and superhuman figure, is accompanied by his angels, all of whom are taking part in the fierce combat that is going on. Again in this picture a lovely landscape is seen on the earth, forming a strong contrast in its sweet repose to the war that is taking place in the sky. No. 13. ‘ And I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy . . . and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast ? who is able to make war with him ?’ (Revela- tion xiii.) A dragon of similar form to the one in ‘ The Woman clothed with the Sun ’ receives the worship of the world. Two groups of men of various conditions, foremost amongst whom we again recognise an emperor and empress, prostrate themselves before him, whilst he stretches his long necks above their heads in secure satisfaction, for ‘his deadly wound was healed.’ To the left is seen the beast with the ram’s horns, in form like a lion, at either side of which fire descends from heaven like thick rain. Above, on the throne, in the clear space of heaven we see the form of Him who is ‘ like unto the Son of Man,’ having the sharp sickle in His hand, ‘ for the harvest of the earth is ripe.’ The angel, indeed, of the harvest is already descending ‘ to gather the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God.’ The fourteenth cut personifies ‘Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.’ (Revelation xvii.) The woman arrayed in purple and scarlet, ‘ having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations,’ sits on the back of the seven-headed dragon, holding out her golden cup, and ‘drunken with the blood of the saints.’ She is elaborately dressed in the German costume of the fifteenth century, only exaggerated in THE APOCALYPSE. 127 its ornamentation. Weeds spring up in the path before her, and she leaves fire behind her. The dragon is of the usual form, but somehow his seven heads are too grotesque to be terrible. There is not, indeed, the same amount of force in the conception of this design as in most of the other cuts. The Babylonish woman does not strike one as being sufficiently powerful or beautiful to compel the homage of those who are worshipping her. These stand to the left, a careless group ; only one among them, a monk, seems aware of the coming destruction. He folds his hands in prayer, whilst the utmost horror and fright are depicted on his countenance, as if he had already caught sight of the angel above, who even then is uttering ‘ mightily, with a strong voice,’ the dread sentence, ‘ Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.’ Through a break in the clouds to the left side of the cut we see a vast host of heavenly riders who seem to be descending to the earth ; and to the right, on the shore of the sea, the city of Babylon is already in flames. The last illustration of the series represents ‘ The Binding of Satan for a Thousand Years.’ ‘ And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.’ This cut, also, is weaker in its conception than the earlier ones of the series. Satan is a poor snivelling dragon, with a face not unlike that of an Isle of Skye terrier. He is not nearly great and strong enough to realise the Christian per- sonification of the principle of evil, but would suit better for the devil of the old Scandinavian mythology outwitted by the powers of Good. The key of the bottomless pit that the angel holds in his hands is of enormous size, with a bunch of little keys (perhaps of the separate cells in hell) tied through the handle. A beautiful city in the background represents the Heavenly Jerusalem, ‘ whose light is the glory of God and in the foreground, on a hill above the Angel and the Dragon, we again have the Seer of all these visions accompanied by one of the elders, who declares to him their signification. St. John is always represented by Diirer as a powerful young, 128 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. or middle-aged man, and never as the aged Prophet of Patmos. The vignette on the title-page of the Apocalypse, which is reckoned as the sixteenth cut, and which Diirer added after the second edition of the work, has no reference to the mysteries recorded in it. It represents a vision of the Virgin, in a glory, with the Child in her arms, appearing to St. John, as he is writing his Book of Revelation. He sits on the earth, with his symbol, the eagle, by his side, and the book in which he is recording the mysteries that have been revealed to him, on his knees, Suddenly he beholds the glorious vision, and, arrested in his work, looks up to the Virgin as if for inspiration. The first two editions of the Apocalypse, the one with German text — Die Heimlich Offenbarung Johanis,’ — and the other with Latin — ‘APOCALIPSIS Cu FlGURIS ’ — were printed at Niirnberg, in the year 1498, by Albrecht Diirer himself, as is stated on the back of the last cut but one.* In 15 1 1 Diirer put forth a third edition of this work, adding to it, as I have already mentioned, the vignette cut on the title-page. At the end of the text in this edition there is a caution addressed to the plagiarist, informing him that the Emperor forbade anyone to copy the cuts or to sell spurious impressions of them within the limits of the Empire, under pain of confiscation of goods and further punishment. This caution was decidedly necessary, for already, in 1502, Hieronymus Greff, a painter of Frankfort, had published a pirated edition of the Apocalypse, and more were likely to follow, for this first great work in wood-engraving of Diirer’s seems to have met with a very favourable reception from the German public. The second of Diirer’s great series of wood-engravings has for its subject ‘ The Life of the Virgin.’ It consists of twenty large cuts, one of which forms the vignette on the title-page, and represents the Virgin sitting on the crescent moon, * ‘ Ein ende hat das Buch der heimlichen offenbarung Sant iohasen des zwelff- boten und evangelisten. Gedrucht zu Niirnberg durch Albrecht Diirer maler nach Christi geburt m.cccc. und darnach im'xcvin. Jar.’ (Here ends the secret revela- tion of St. John of the twelve apostles and evangelists. Printed at Niirnberg by- Albrecht Diirer, painter, in the year 1498.) THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN. 129 suckling the child, with a halo of glory around her and a crown of stars above her head — one of the most pleasing of the many similar representations that Diirer has given us of this subject. Above this cut is the title of the work : ‘ Epitome in Drge partpienices Marine historiam ab Alberto Durero Norico per figuras digestam cum VERSIBUS ANNEXIS CHELIDONII.’ The first edition was published at Niirnberg in 15 11, and was accompanied by the explanatory Latin verses of Cheli- donius, Benedictine monk of Niirnberg. The editions without text are the later ones. The ‘ Life of the Virgin ’ is of a totally different character to the Apocalypse. There is nothing mystic or awful here. Everything awakens the tenderest emotions of the heart, instead of feelings of awe and wonder. The mother of Christ is portrayed in her earthly condition, surrounded by the ordinary scenes of domestic life, but yet is she blessed among women in that the Lord hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden. In spite of the entire realism of many of these cuts, a soft halo of holiness, if I may so describe it, overspreads the whole, and turns the common incidents and cares of her virgin and maternal life into significant indications of her lofty destiny : . thus, even in the most prosaic scene of all — the birth of the Virgin — where Anna lies in bed, receiving caudle and some other refreshment from her nurses, and where a number of German gossips of the fifteenth century are seen regaling themselves with cans of beer, as they superintend the washing of the new- born child, a grand angel, swinging incense from a censer, the smoke of which floats over the big, old-fashioned German bed, gives a solemn meaning to an otherwise literal representation of a lying-in chamber in a Niirnberg family of some little im- portance in the sixteenth century. This charming idyllic poem — for such it may be called — of the life of the Virgin commences with the events that occurred, as related in the Apocryphal Gospel, before the birth of the heroine. The first cut represents : 9 130 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 1. The High Priest refusing the Offering of Joachim in the Temple. — The different expressions of the spectators, who behold Joachim’s rejection because he is ‘ childless in Israel,’ are no doubt faithfully rendered from the human nature that Diirer saw around him in Niirnberg. Pride, suspicion, bigotry, and inward satisfaction in the misfortunes of our neighbours are sins common to all times, and were as rife, Diirer perhaps meant to insinuate, amongst German burghers as amongst the Pharisees of the tribe of Judah. 2. The Angel appearing to Joachim in the Wilder- ness. — The messenger of God reaches to Joachim a parch- ment containing the heavenly promise that his old age shall be blessed with the birth of a child. Two shepherds and a huntsman look in amazement at the sudden glorious appear- ance of the angel. Joachim receives the announcement in joyful faith. The landscape is very beautiful, and varied with hills, wood, meadow, water, castle, and town. A leafless tree bough in the foreground of this cut is an admirable speci- men of Diirer’s fine tree drawing. 3. Joachim embraces Anna at the Golden Gate. — Again we have German spectators of the Hebrew event, amongst whom we recognise the usual Diirer types, in par- ticular the fat burgher with the low hat and stolid expression of countenance, who in this instance fails entirely to compre- hend the scene before him. The old husband and wife, with their arms thrown round one another in joyful relief and hope, form a very touching incident. 4. The Birth of the Virgin. — The scene in the lying-in chamber already described. It is most curious to notice how accurately and minutely every little detail of the furniture and accessories of the apartment has been studied by Diirer. This cut gives one an admirable notion of German manners and customs on such occasions in the sixteenth century. 5. The Presentation of the Young Virgin in the Temple. — The young girl with long hair floating behind her runs up the steps of the Temple before her parents, in her eagerness to be admitted to the service of God. The High Priest with three elders stand at the top of the steps to receive THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN. 131 her. Joachim and Anna follow with their offerings, which will not now be refused. 6. The Betrothal of the Virgin. — This is the best-known cut of the series, on account of the numerous copies and reproductions of it that exist in various forms. The High Priest stands in the middle, and Mary to the right and Joseph to the left, solemnly take hands before him. Behind the aged and sorrow-stricken High Priest, a man with a thick curly beard reads out of a book, apparently acting as clerk ; his prosaic, Sancho Panza-like expression of counte- nance forming a strong contrast to the dignified bearing of the principal figures. The Virgin looks sad and wan. She is dressed as a Niirnberg bride of the fifteenth century, and one of her attendants, or bridesmaids, wears the hideous stiff linen head-dress common at that period. Joseph is represented, as is usual in art, as an old man of mild and amiable, but some- what weak expression of countenance. The ark of the co- venant is seen in the background. Diirer’s monogram lies conspicuously in front, before the feet of the High Priest. 7. The Annunciation. — The Virgin sits under a canopy before a reading-desk. She bends with slightly crossed arms and bowed head before the Annunciate Angel, a powerful form, who appears to have entered at the door of the apart- ment — which is partly hall and partly bedchamber — and not to have come down direct from the skies. A strange element in such a subject is the introduction of the Devil, who in the form of a hog contemplates from the outside the scene that is going on within the Virgin’s apartment. 8. The Visitation. — The greeting of the two women takes place outside the door of Elizabeth’s house, with a charming landscape as a background. The little half-shorn poodle dog that Diirer has introduced so frequently into his pictures that it is usually known as ‘the Diirer dog,’ is seen in the foreground. Zacharias stands humbly with his hat in his hand within the portal of his dwelling, knowing perhaps that the honour of the visit is not intended for him. 9. The NATIVITY. — Dr. von Eye considers that Diirer was trammelled in this and several other cuts of this series by the traditional and conventional mode of representing such sub- 9—2 132 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. jects, which did not allow free play to his original genius. Be this as it may, the design of this cut does not materially differ from the usual treatment of the earlier German and Flemish masters. The new-born Child lies in the manger, beneath the imperfect shelter of some old stable buildings, which must be half ruinous, for the star of Bethlehem is visible through a hole in the straw roof just above where the Child is lying, adored by His mother, and surrounded by a number of little-child angels. A choir of child-angels also sing the birth-song of the Saviour in the air above. 10. The Adoration of the Kings. — This subject is likewise treated in the traditional manner, but it is one of the best examples of this mode of treatment. The Virgin sits on some dilapidated stonework in a ruined building that seems once to have formed a part of some mediaeval castle, for stone arches and a tower of considerable strength are seen above. She holds the Child on her lap, who stretches forth His little arms towards the grey old king, who kneels in solemn adora- tion before the God-child, but does not, as in another adoration by Diirer, bearing date 15 n (Heller, 1103), offer any earthly treasures for His acceptance. The younger king, with his gift in his hand, and the Moor, who in this instance is of a white complexion, although he has woolly hair, stand behind the principal king. A man in chain armour and several others belonging to the retinue of the kings are visible in the back- ground. Joseph stands behind the Virgin, holding a large ball (?) in his hand, perhaps the gift of the elder king, who may have wisely presented it to the earthly father rather than to the heavenly Child. One of the oxen, whose face peers out from beneath an old shed, rubs his head lovingly against the old man, and his solemn eyes look as if he had caught some glimmering of the divine mystery that was being enacted before him. Three boy-angels above complete the effect of this cut. 11. The Circumcision of Christ— Several other chil- dren besides the infant Saviour are brought to receive the distinctive Jewish sign, but the only mother who shows any feeling on the occasion is the Virgin. The circumcision of Christ is sometimes reckoned in art as one of the ‘ sorrows THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT . — The Life of the Virgin. THE- LIFE OF THE VIRGIN. 133 of Mary/ her life being - often represented by the early religious painters as a series of seven joys and seven sorrows. 12. The Presentation in the Temple.— The aged Simeon, whose face is nearly hidden by a large cap, holds the Infant in his arms, bending the while over a square altar covered with a white cloth ; Mary kneels at the other side of the altar, and makes her offering of doves contained in a sort of wicker cage. The prophetess Anna presses forward with outstretched arms, and a number of spectators, principally women in the dress of Diirer’s time, fill up the background. Immediately in the foreground of this cut there is a figure of a monk, whose face is hidden from us, but whose right arm is thrown round one of the pillars of the Temple, as if to support the building that was so soon to be overthrown. Could Diirer have meant this as any allusion to the overthrow of the Church of Rome ? We see that the monk’s arm would be wholly insuffi- cient to save the pillar from falling, should it once begin to totter.'*' 13. The Flight into Egypt. — (See illustration.) — The way lies through a shady forest of tropical trees, and Joseph leads the ass on which mother and Child are seated across a little arched bridge. Mary has a large sun-hat thrown off her head in the pleasant shade, and hanging at her back. The com- position is not unlike Martin Schongauer, only the trees do not, as in his engraving, bow down to give the holy ones fruit. 14. The Holy Family in Egypt. — (See illustration.) — This is one of the most charming designs of the whole series, and in execution also it ranks amongst the most perfect. Its delicate finish is indeed almost unrivalled in the history of wood- engraving. Joseph has here resumed his business as a carpenter, and with an adze in his hand is occupied in hollowing out a trough or a manger. In order better to enjoy the warm summer’s day, he has made the open air his workshop, and labours in the free space before his dwelling — a quaint mediaeval building of wood and stone, such as could scarcely be found in the neighbourhood of the Pyramids, but of which Diirer had plenty * Two studies for this cut are amongst the drawings in the British Museum. One of them is most carefully finished, and the Virgin’s face in the softly-coloured drawing is more tender and beautiful than in the woodcut. 134 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. of examples nearer home. The Virgin Mary sits near to Joseph, spinning, and rocking meanwhile the cradle of her Child, who lies peacefully asleep in it, watched by two grand angels, one of whom carries a pot of flowers. St. Elizabeth and the young St. John the Baptist are also present. Nothing can exceed the domestic happiness and peace of the whole scene. The castle-crowned hill behind the stone archway leading into the fruitful garden, and the tumble-down dwelling that has apparently been built up amongst the ruins of some old Norman building, all add to the home-spell that is cast over us in contemplating this picture of holy labour. Nor is this disturbed by the introduction of the fantastic element, which breaks forth in the shape of a number of funny little boy-angels, who are engaged in picking up and playing with the chips that fall from the carpenter’s work. One of these little angels carries the toy known as a ‘ windmill,’ and runs along with it, dragging by the hand one of his winged play- mates. God the Father, a half-figure in the clouds, with the dove of the Spirit beneath Him, does not, strange to say, seem out of harmony with the earthly scene.* 15. Christ found by His Parents disputing with the Doctors in the Temple. — The young Jesus sits on a raised seat before a reading-desk, and appears to be delivering a sermon rather than asking and answering questions. The doctors of the Church sit below Him, with different expressions of feeling visible on their countenances. This mode of treating the subject is common with the early religious painters, who seem to have had some reverential dislike to representing Christ mixing with the rest of the people in the Temple, as He is represented in the Biblical narrative. * A writer in the * Ivunstblatt,’ 1852, was the first to point out an interesting circumstance regarding a wooden post or pillar of peculiar construction that Diirer has drawn in this cut, as supporting a kind of balcony or overhanging chamber in Toseph’s dwelling. The very same construction is to be seen at the present day in the hall of the Diirer house in Niirnberg, and it is therefore most probable, indeed almost certain, that he drew this pillar from one of those in his own hall. It is split at the top with a wedge of wood inserted on which the beam it supports rests. The wedge therefore would only be driven farther in if the beam should give way. It has always hitherto been supposed that these rudely contrived pillars in the low Diirer hall were of much later date than his habitation of the house, but this little observation tends to prove that the house has not been so entirely altered since his time as has been supposed. THE REPOSE IN EGYPT . — The Life of the Virgin, THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN. 135 1 6. Christ taking leave of His Mother before His Sufferings. — Many anxious years have passed over the Virgin’s head between the last cut and this. Here she is weighted with years and cares, although, as she divines, her greatest sorrow is yet to come. The faithful Joseph is no longer near to support her, but, as she sinks to the earth in her agony of spirit at the trial before her, she is upheld by a stout female with a big turban on her head, of very unsympathetic aspect. Another woman stands by, who seems a little more affected by the scene she is witnessing. Christ, a grave figure in flowing garments, stands before His mother, holding up His hand with two fingers extended, as if He were teaching her the nature of His sufferings. The scene is in the open air before the door of Mary’s abode. A grand walled town and fortress on a hill immediately above the principal figures is surmised by Von Eye to bear allusion to the heavenly Jerusa- lem, but Differ so often introduces such buildings into his pictures that it seems to me unlikely that he intended any mystic meaning by their representation here. 1 7. The Death of the Virgin. — This had been a favourite subject of religious art from an early period, and Differ has not materially departed from the traditional treat- ment of it, yet he has infused such a portion of his own original genius into the scene he portrays, that we at once recognize it as the work of his mind and hand. Kugler places the Death of the Virgin ‘ very high amongst the works of Differ,’ and praises its ‘ perfect composition, fine forms, and deep feeling.’ It has been frequently copied in colours by his followers, and in many galleries pictures of this kind bear his name. The Virgin lies on the usual state bed, with a canopy over the top. The curtains are drawn back to admit the view of the Apostles, all of whom are assembled around her in her last moments. St. John places the lighted wax taper in her hand, Peter sprinkles the bed with holy water, a third disciple scatters incense, and a fourth holds the cross erect before her eyes ; the remainder of the twelve are sunk in prayer. 18. The Ascension of the Virgin. — No longer old and sorrowful, and bowed with the pains of an earthly existence, the Virgin ascends, as the ever young and beautiful Queen of 136 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Heaven, the object of the Church’s adoration and love, towards her heavenly abode, where God the Father and God the Son, whom she has borne as an Infant at her breast, are waiting to receive her and set the eternal crown of glory on her head. Below on earth is the open grave that could not retain its inmate, and around it stand the Apostles, their grief turned into wondering joy at the glorious sight they behold. 19. The Virgin and Child adored by Saints and Angels. — The glorified mother with the Child on her lap, the emblem of all that is purest in womanhood, and the symbol that the Christian Church in all ages has received as expressing God’s love to men, are worshipped by the saints and martyrs of the earth and by the angels who dwell above. Nearest to the Virgin kneels St. Catharine, behind St. Catharine stands St. Paul, and farther back St. Antony and St. John the Baptist. St. Joseph even (who is not always admitted by art into the company of the saints) stands humbly in the background, with his cap in his hand, apparently doubtful whether he ought to be there at all. It is difficult to determine in what locality this scene is supposed to take place, whether in heaven or on the earth. The dwelling in which the Virgin is seated is correctly described by Von Eye as ‘ a mixture of antique temple and a burgher’s ordinary dwelling- room.’ If such were Diirer’s notion of the mansions in the Father’s house, it is certainly a strange one. This is the last cut of the series, the vignette on the title- page, already mentioned, forming the twentieth illustration. To the same year as the Life of the Virgin (1 5 1 1) belong the twelve folio cuts known as the Great PASSION, and the series of thirty-seven smaller ones, distinguished by some writers as ‘ The Fall of Man and his Redemption through Christ,’ but which Diirer himself always called the ‘ Little Passion ’ ( Die kleine Passion ), in contradistinction to the large cuts of the Great Passion* * It must not be supposed because all these woodcuts were published in 15 11 that therefore they were all executed in that year. The greater number of the cuts in the Life of the Virgin series, for example, are reckoned to belong to the period before Diirer’s journey to Venice ; and it seems very probable that it was these cuts, THE GREAT PASSION. 137 The cuts of the Great Passion are very unequal, both in their design and in their execution, a circumstance that has led some critics to suppose that they were not all Dtirer’s creations, but that some amongst them were the work of inferior artists. Vasari, indeed, affirms that only four, namely, ‘ The Last Supper,’ ‘ The Saviour in the Garden,’ ‘ The Descent into Hell,’ and ‘ The Resurrection,’ were really con- ceived and executed by Diirer, and that the eight others are simple forgeries (for they are all signed with his monogram) ; but this does not seem very probable, and the difference in their execution, if not in their design, is very easily accounted for if we suppose that they were engraved by different Form- schneider , which it appears nearly certain was the case. The first edition of the ‘ Great Passion ’ is entitled : Passio Domini Nostri Jesu exhieronymo Paduano, Dominico Manico. Sedulio et Baptista Mantuano, PER FRATEM CHELIDONIUM COLLECTA, CUM FlGURIS Alberti Dureri Norici Pictoris. Under this title comes the grand figure of the suffering Christ, which serves as vignette to the title-page, and which comprises in itself the whole solemn tragedy that the rest of the cuts set forth. Nothing can exceed the touching grief of that human-divine face, in which infinite love is intermingled with finite sorrow. This and the similar woodcut on the title- page of the ‘ Little Passion ’ are two of the most pathetic designs that Diirer ever conceived of the suffering Redeemer, a subject that he often treated. In the vignette to the ‘ Little Passion ’ Christ sits naked and alone upon a square block of stone, His thorn-crowned head resting on His hand, and His elbow supported on His knees. He is lost in thought — thought the most profound, the most bitter. It is the hour when His humanity lies heaviest upon Him, the hour when He has drained the cup of bitterness to the uttermost, for ‘ the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,’ and the burden is almost too much for the man, although the God knows that ‘ He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.’ which were in circulation before they were published in book form, that Marc Antonio copied. 1 38 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. The Christ of the ‘Great Passion’ expresses a somewhat different idea to this, or perhaps only another moment in the same life. Christ still sits on a large square block of stone, but He is no longer alone ; one of His tormentors kneels in front of Him, and jeers at Him with bitter mockery, holding up a thick reed as a mock sceptre before His eyes. The scourge, one of the instruments of His passion, lies at His side, and His hands are clenched in agony. He is indeed ‘ despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,’ yet the grief here is not of the same dark, oppressive nature as that which overwhelms Him in the ‘Little Passion.’ He has passed through the hour of agonizing temptation, and now ‘as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.’ But yes, He opens it once, and prays, even at the moment that Diirer has chosen for representation, the noblest prayer ever uttered by man — ‘ Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do.’ It is evident that Diirer has not meant in these cuts to represent Christ merely in His historical character, for in each of them the feet and hands are already pierced with the nails of the cross, a mark of suffering that would not have been his- torically true until after the crucifixion ; but he sets forth on the title-page of his works the Man Christ Jesus as He reveals Himself to the eyes of the Christian world, the loving and sorrowing One, the type of our humanity made perfect through suffering, and free to do God’s will. The first historical cut of the series of the ‘ Great Passion’ has for its subject the ‘ Last Supper,’ and is dated 1510. Christ sits at table in a low-arched room resembling a refectory in some convent. The beloved disciple St. John leans from his seat right across the knees of our Lord, so that his head comes directly in the centre of the picture, resting on the breast of the Saviour, who enfolds him with one arm, and raises the other with the palm of the hand turned outwards, declaring, ‘ One of you shall betray Me.’ The rest of the disciples crowd round the table on which stand the remains of their meal, in the shape, apparently, of the skeleton of some large bird, although it may be presumed that Diirer intended to represent the Passover lamb. Judas sits in front on a three-legged stool, ♦ CHRIST MOCKED .— Vignette of the Great Passion. THE GREAT PASSION. 1 39 with his back to the spectator, but with his face turned round, away from Him he is about to betray. Another disciple to the left is pouring out wine from a flagon. The date is placed on the centre support of the table, and Diirer’s monogram on the ground in front of it. The elaborate and difficult execution of this cut has caused some critics to class it amongst Diirer’s finest works, but in conception and composition it does not seem to me to be quite worthy of the artist’s great powers ; at all events, when we compare it with the many noble conceptions of this subject by the great Italian artists, it fails to satisfy us, for we miss the holy atmosphere that Leonardo and Raphael have breathed into their representations of the solemn event. With regard to the mechanical execution Jackson says : ‘ Cross-hatching is freely introduced, though without contri- buting 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 second cut represents CHRIST ON THE MOUNT OF Olives, with His disciples sleeping in the foreground. Here again the conception falls far below the Christ of the title- page. CHRIST betrayed forms the subject of the third cut. This is a rich and powerful composition of many figures. CHRIST scourged (No. 4) is slight in execution and exag- gerated in its horror. It was the mistake of most of the early German masters, and one from which Diirer himself was not entirely free, to give a perfectly fiendish ugliness to their re- presentations of evil men. The executioners and Roman soldiers in this series, as well as in that of the ‘ Little Passion,’ are generally hideous, raging monsters, who seem to have lost all traces of human pity. Christ mocked (No. 5). — This also is one of the less important compositions of the series, one of those that have been supposed not to be by Diirer, and indeed the engraving that is usually met with is not by him, but is an etched copy in which the original date 1592 and the monogram of the 140 LTFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. engraver have been erased, and the date 1512 and Diirer’s monogram inserted.* Christ bearing the Cross (No. 6) is one of the most cele- brated compositions of the series, celebrated by some critics, probably because Raphael deigned to adopt its composition in his world-famed picture ‘ Lo Spasimo di Sicilia/ Diirer’s conception of this subject is undoubtedly very powerful. The grand and majestic Christ, the centre figure of the woodcut, sinks down on His thorny path to Calvary, beneath the burden of the heavy cross He is carrying on His shoulders ; a soldier in a fantastic mediaeval dress tries to drag Him up by a thick rope that is fastened round His waist, but the divine sufferer, crushed beneath the weight, not of the cross, but of the sins of the world, cannot be moved ; He rests one hand on a stone that lies beside Him, and remains in an attitude of dignified resignation and sorrowful composure. St. Veronica kneels at His side with the handkerchief outspread to receive the imprint of His features, and Simon the Cyrenian takes hold of the cross as if to lift some of its weight off Christ. The press of people follows behind, and in the moving train we recognize the Virgin and the disciple St. John. Two important person- ages on horseback with turbans on their heads make part of the procession ; one of them, a well-known Diirer type, is pre- sent again in the next cut, ‘ The Crucifixion.’ Christ crucified (No. 7). — The figure of Christ on the rough-hewn cross occupies the centre of the picture. Three angels of sorrowful countenance catch the blood that flows from His wounds ; the Virgin in the foreground sinks to the earth fainting, and is supported by St. John and one of the other Marys. A landscape of town, river, bridge, and tree- covered hill, forms the background. A skull and bones lie on the ground in front of the cross. Christ’s Descent into Hell and Release of the Ancestors (No. 8; see illustration). — In this cut the originality of Diirer’s genius again bursts forth in all its strength. There was no traditional mode of representation of this strange subject, and therefore his weird fancy rioted in its * See Heller, No. 1126, p. 544 * THE DESCENT INTO HELL .— The Great Passion, THE GREAT PASSION. 141 composition untrammelled by any previous form of orthodox treatment. Hell is represented here, not as usual as the fiery mouth of a dragon, but as a ruined underground mansion, out of the dark vaults of which Christ, holding the banner of vic- tory in one hand, is helping, or rather dragging, up the souls of the ancestors. Adam and Eve have been already liberated, and Adam, a powerful old man, stands behind Christ holding an apple in one hand, the symbol of his fall, and the cross in the other, the emblem of his redemption. Eve stands with her back turned to the spectator. A hideous demon of animal form — somewhat similar to the one that follows the knight in the plate of ‘ The Knight Death and the Devil ’ — leans out of a sort of window above the arched entrance to hell, and aims a blow at the Saviour with a short broken lance ; other fearful forms lurk behind, and above, a dreadful bat-like shape with ram’s horns and scaly tail sounds on a horn a note of alarm at the invasion of his territory by the powers of light ; for all these creatures are the children of darkness, and the glorious beams of light that radiate from Christ’s head are a terror and an offence to them. Dtirer’s monogram is seen on the side of a stone in front of the entrance to the vault, and the date 1510 on a projecting bracket above the arch. For originality of conception, for excellence of execution, and for effective combination of light and shade, this is certainly one of the finest of Dtirer’s woodcuts. The Body of Christ mourned over by the Virgin AND THE Holy Women (No. 9). — Kugler says of this com- position that it may ‘ unhesitatingly be placed by the side of the most profound works of the great Italian masters.’ Its simple and yet grand design and its deep pathos are indeed worthy of the highest admiration. Unfortunately it is badly engraved. Christ laid in the Grave (No. 10).— This cut also is badly executed, and it is always difficult to consider the merit of a design apart from the manner in which it is worked out ; it does not, however, show Diirer’s usual excellence either in conception or composition. The Resurrection (No. ii). — In this last scene in the 142 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. earthly history of our Lord, Diirer’s powers as an artist are fully put forth. The living Christ, whom the bands of death cannot hold, rises above the tomb in which He has been laid, and heaven opens to receive His glorified form. The weary soldiers, true German Landsknechte, sleep round the grave ; but above, hosts of angels in the clouds rejoice in the victory over sin and death. The monk Chelidonius, who was a friend of Diirer, and who supplied the verses for the ‘ Life of the Virgin,’ likewise wrote the Latin texts of both Passions. Bartsch is of opinion that the earliest impressions of these cuts are those that have no text on the back of them ; but Heller, and most of the later critics, hold that in this and in all other instances the first im- pressions are those with letter-press, and that it is the later ones that are without, and support this view by very con- clusive reasoning. The ‘ Great Passion ’ in its original book- form is now of great rarity, the leaves having been usually separated and kept in portfolios by their earlier possessors. The idea that the first impressions were without text at the back has given rise to printsellers passing off late and bad cuts as the earliest impressions, simply from their being without letterpress. The Little Passion is perhaps the best known of all Diirer’s wood-engravings. It begins with Adam and Eve in Paradise, and ends with the Last Judgment, thus embracing, in one grand epic poem, the whole history of man’s fall and final redemption through the sufferings of Christ. Space will not permit me to do more than point out a few of the most beautiful compositions of this series, which, as before stated, consist of thirty-seven quarto cuts. Adam and Eve in Paradise (No. i) is different in its arrangement to the celebrated engraving of the same subject, for here Adam and Eve both stand together at one side of the tree. The serpent’s head is adorned with peacock’s feathers, in allusion, perhaps, to the female vanity which prompted the acceptance of the fatal gift ; its body is twined in a double coil round the tree, but it has not a female face, as was common in representations of the Fall. A contented hog THE LITTLE PASSION. 143 grunts significantly at the foot of the tree of knowledge. He never sought to climb and taste of the dangerous fruit ! To man only is given that uneasy prerogative, the yearning desire to know. The angel in The EXPULSION (No. 2) is grand and power- ful, but Adam and Eve are undignified in their retreat before his uplifted sword ; they have literally to be pushed out of Paradise. Diirer’s nude forms have very little either of majesty or grace.* Christ driving the Money-Changers out of the Temple (No. 6). — Christ, a majestic figure, in full light in the centre of the cut, is armed with a thick lash of rope, with which He clears the Temple from its desecrators. A money- changer lies prostrate before Him, with his table overthrown and his money spilt on the ground. This cut is very effective in its light and shade, and a large amount of cross-hatching occurs in it. The Last Supper (No. 7) is somewhat similar in compo- sition to that of the ‘ Great Passion.’ The divine, calm grief on the Saviour’s countenance is well expressed. The Prayer on the Mount of Olives (No. 9). — Peter’s face is here very fine. He has fallen asleep through sorrow as much as through weariness. Christ before Annas (No. ii), and Christ mocked (No. 13), have both the painful exaggeration common in early German art. Christ before Herod (No. 15), and Christ scourged (No. 16), are weak in effect, the figure of Christ expressing meekness, but failing in grandeur. Christ bearing the Cross is similar in its composition, but not so noble in its conception as the same subject in the ‘ Great Passion.’ A monster in human form goads on the fallen Christ here with a thick stick. The Crucifixion. — This is much simpler in its composition, but altogether produces a more powerful effect than the cruci- fixion of the ‘ Great Passion.’ The darkness of the night * The early impressions of this subject may be known by the back of Eve being slightly shaded. This shading was taken out — a great improvement — in the later ones. 144 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. heightens the solemnity of the awful scene. Everything around is calm and at rest. No weeping angels fly about the cross ; neither sun nor moon is to be seen, only the black-lined sky above, throwing out into full relief the figure on the cross. Even the women are still and composed in their sorrow. Mary Magdalene, it is true, cannot refrain from kissing once more the feet of Him who loved her, but the rest stand by with restrained emotion. St. John only of the group round the cross testifies his grief in any violent manner ; he throws up his arms as if in the agony of despair. But above him, above the quiet women, and above the Roman guard, stands forth the everlasting image of the crucified Christ, the crown of thorns on His head, and the blood shed for mankind flowing from His wounded side. In its quiet yet profound feeling this small woodcut of the ‘Little Passion’ seems to me more touching than any of Diirer’s greater ‘ Crucifixions.’ Christ taken down from the Cross, The Entomb- ment, The Resurrection, Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene as the Gardener, and The Supper at Emmaus, are all simple and noble compositions, in which the figure of Christ has great beauty and holiness. In the ‘ Supper at Emmaus’ especially, the distinction between the risen Lord and His disciples would be fully apparent without the glory of light that breaks forth behind the divine head. The Last Judgment, the last cut of the series, is conceived much in the same spirit as some of the illustrations to the Apocalypse, and resembles in some degree the archaic pro- ductions of early art. Christ, as Judge of the earth, sits throned in the clouds with His feet on the earth-ball. A sword on the right and a flowering lily on the left have proceeded from His mouth. The Virgin and St. John the Baptist, figures of the same size as the Christ, kneel in worship before Him. Below on the earth, at the left hand of Christ, there is the usual mouth of hell in the shape of the open jaws of a dragon, into which the wicked are being driven by demons, whilst the redeemed spirits on the right hand, a much smaller company than the damned, are conducted by angels to heaven. Two THE CRUCIFIXION.— TTte Little Passion, THE LITTLE PASSION. 145 angels to the right and left of the Judge blow the trumps of doom. It seems a pity that this traditional mode of expression, of which we have so many examples, should have been adopted by Diirer, and that he did not rather view the subject in the powerful light of his own original genius. A truly Dtiresque conception of the ‘ Last Judgment’ would be very grand ; but this small woodcut of the ‘ Little Passion is, with the exception of a slight drawing mentioned by Heller, so far as I know, the only genuine example that we have of his treatment of this subject.’* The ‘Little Passion’ has appeared in several different edi- tions. The two first were published in the same year (15 1 1 ) in Niirnberg, the first with the title, ‘ Figvfle Passionis Domini Nostri Jesv Christi,’ in movable type above the vignette of the sitting Christ, and ending simply with the words, ‘ Finit impressum Noribergae, 15 1 1,’ so that, strange to say, the name of the artist does not appear either at the beginning or end of the book. The second edition may be known from the first by the title being arranged as follows : ‘ Jtesia Christi ab JUberta Jhtrrr 4ftttrrnbcrgensi rfftgiata ax bari j QCtmds rarminibns Jfrairis Jhncbidi Chtltbonij JftusaphiU.' Under the woodcut there are these Latin verses : * 0 mihi tantonim uisto mihi causa dolorum O crucis O mortis causa cruente mihi O homo sat fuerit , tibi me semel ista iulisse O cess a culpis me cruciare nonis. ’ and under these — ‘ Cum privilegio. ’ Besides these two editions published by Diirer in Niirnberg, * ‘ Le Jugement Universel ’ described by Bartsch, No. 124, is of very doubtful authenticity. There is a rough and half-obliterated drawing for this subject in the British Museum. 10 146 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. at least two others have appeared since his death. In 1612 the original blocks must by some means or other have travelled to Italy, for in that year an edition was put forth in Venice by a certain Daniel Bussuccio, with Italian verses instead of the Latin ones of Chelidonius. This edition is without the vignette of the sitting Christ on the title-page ; in its place there is a portrait of Diirer. From Venice they appear to have been taken to Naples,* where they were purchased in the last century by a gentleman, whose son afterwards sold them to the then keeper of the prints in our British Museum ; so that at last, after many vicissitudes, they have finally found a safe resting-place in their old age in the print-room of the Museum, with so many other interesting memorials of Diirer. They have not, however, beerf suffered to lie there idle : for although worn out and worm-eaten, Dlirer’s original designs still have interest to all lovers of his art ; and many students, especially English students of Differ’ s works, who are unable to indulge in the luxury of early impressions, have no doubt felt grateful to Mr. Cole for publishing in 1844 a fourth edition of these renowned cuts in the shape of a small and inexpensive volume, with descriptive letterpress from our English Bible, in place of the verses of Chelidonius. With regard to the engraving of these blocks, Mr. Cole tells us that Mr. John Thomson, ‘ by universal concurrence the most skilful engraver which the art has yet witnessed, and therefore the best authority on all its technicalities, has examined the blocks, especially with reference to this question, and he has pointed out those varieties of mechanical execution as apparent as the varieties of different handwritings, which conclusively prove the fact contended for’ — namely, that although Diirer designed and drew his designs on the wood of these blocks, he did not cut them himself. This year, 15 11, so richly productive in woodcuts, is comparatively barren in copper-plates, a ‘Crucifixion’ and ‘ The Virgin with the Pear’ being the only two that I can find are thus dated. But one of his greatest paintings, ‘ The Adoration of the Trinity,’ belongs to this period, and this * Ottley, ‘Hist, of Engraving,’ vol. ii. SINGLE WOODCUTS. — THE TRINITY. 147 alone would have been sufficient work for most minds and hands. Amongst the more remarkable single subjects that Diirer executed in wood-engraving may be mentioned The Trinity (Heller, 1646), dated 15 11. God the Father, with the papal crown on His head, bears up into heaven the dead body of His Son. The dove of the Spirit hovers above, and angels bearing the instruments of the Passion fly around.* This grand engraving is reckoned one of the most perfect works that the art of wood-engraving ever produced. The amount of cross-hatching in it is something wonderful ; even in copper- plate engraving such work would be considered very fine, and when we consider the infinitely greater labour that is required to execute the fine cross lines in wood, in which every little white interstice has to be carefully and separately picked out, the patient labour represented by a cut such as this is truly enormous. One wonders how the lives of those old Form- schneiper were ever long enough to execute such designs. There are several copies of this cut, but none at all equal to the original. St. Christopher, 15 11 (Heller, 1818). — This is the noblest of all Diirer’s conceptions of the Christ-bearing saint. There is something very tender and touching in the face of the great strong man who wades up to the shore, bearing on his broad shoulders the little Child, who is the monarch under whose banner the loving giant will henceforward fight. The long pole that St. Christopher uses in crossing the river breaks significantly into a sort of rough cross at the top. St. Christopher, 1525 (Heller, 1827.) — The Saint here is not so characteristic as in the last-named cut. The Child holds the earth-ball in his left hand, so that St. Christopher might likewise stand for a Christian Atlas bearing the weight of the whole earth on his shoulders. The Mass of St. Gregory, 15 ii (Heller, 1833). — A very extraordinary conception of the vision of the crucified Saviour that appeared to St. Gregory as he was celebrating High * Although both belong to the same year, the woodcut differs considerably in design from the painting of the same subject. 10 —2 148 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Mass. It must be seen to be understood. The composition is powerful, and the execution very fine. St. Jerome in his Chamber, 1511 (Heller, 1840). — This is different in composition from the celebrated plate of the same subject, but scarcely less beautiful. St. Jerome, in the dress of a cardinal, sits at his desk writing in a book that lies open upon it. The crucifix stands before him, and the lion, his accustomed companion and emblem, lies at his feet. An hour-glass with the zodiac above it, like that in the plate of ‘ The Knight, Death and the Devil,’ is fastened to the wall behind, and a large chest, such as was usually used for a seat in Diirer’s time, stands immediately in front of the desk of the saint. Two cushions and a book lie upon it, and the date 1511 is on the side. Death and the Soldier, 1510 (Heller, 1901). — Death draped in a mantle, and holding the hour-glass in one hand, stands in a churchyard, and lays hold of a warrior who does not seem at all terrified by his cold grip. This cut is somewhat rare. The early impressions have a long German poem an- nexed to them, containing a great deal of dilute proverbial philosophy. The first two lines printed above the cut inform us that ‘ Nothing avails from death to escape, Therefore serve God both early and late.’ * Keyn ding hilfft fur den zeytling todt , Darumb dienent got frrioe und spot. ’ These verses are signed A. D., and they are certainly very much in Diirer’s moralizing style. St. Francis receiving the Stigmata (Heller, 1829). — A very strange and essentially German and realistic rendering of the mystic subject. St. Francis kneels on the ground in a German landscape, with quaint mediaeval houses behind him. He appears in a state of ecstasy, and in the sky above the figure of Christ on the cross is seen, from which a number of thick lines descend, touching the hands, side, and feet of St. Francis, and impressing on them the stigmata or five wounds of the Redeemer. St. Francis is in the dress of his order, and another Franciscan monk is sitting on the earth a little in SINGLE WOODCUTS. I49 front of him, apparently asleep. The Diirer tablet hangs on the stem of a tree to the right. The Holy Family with Three Hares. — A very beau- tiful design. It is undated, and therefore assumed to belong to an early period. The Holy Family with the Guitar, 15 ii (Heller, 1802). — This is one of the most charming of Diirer’s Holy Families. Its title is derived from one of the angels who sits on the earth before Mary playing an accompaniment on the guitar to another angel who is singing. The Virgin crowned by two Angels, 1518 (Heller, 18 1 1). — The composition is rich and full of figures. Little angels and genii play about at the feet of the Virgin, some singing and others offering fruit for her refreshment. The Head of St. John the Baptist delivered to HERODIAS, 15 1 1 (Heller, i860). — Herodias, a vulgar, full- bosomed German landlady, receives the head of the Baptist from her smiling daughter as she sits at table with Herod. Herod, a solemn and noble-looking man, seems the only one moved by the curly horror that is brought to his banquet. In another cut of this subject the executioner delivers the head to Herodias before the gates of the prison. The decapitated body lies across the block, on which Diirer’s mark is engraved. The Adoration of the Kings, 15 ii (Heller, 1103). — The new-born Child fumbles with his little hand in the casket of treasures that the eldest king presents to him, and looks up in his face with sweet infantile unconsciousness. Some writers have reckoned this cut with the ‘Life of the Virgin’ series ; several old catalogues enumerate twenty-one cuts, but it is clear that as Chelidonius only wrote poems for twenty, that was the number published. In the well-known copy of this cut by Marc Antonio, the Virgin and Child are greatly idealized, and quite Italian in character. The Bath. — A large and curious woodcut, representing six men in a bath ; some of them play on musical instru- ments. Samson killing the Lion (Heller, 1 102). — A very power- ful conception of the subject. This cut is well-known, for LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 150 the original block is still in existence, and has been worked until it is quite worn out. It is probably one of Diireris earliest works in wood-engraving. The Rhinoceros, 1515 (Heller, 1904). — This cut is inter- esting, not only from its fine execution, but from its being a representation of the first rhinoceros brought to Europe in modern history. It was brought from India to the King of Portugal, who sent it as a present to the Pope ; but the vessel in which the animal was transmitted was shipwrecked on the coast of Genoa, and the poor rhinoceros drowned. According to other accounts the Emperor Maximilian possessed the original of Diirer’s portrait, which, however, does not seem to have been taken from life, for zoologists affirm that there are several errors in the drawing of the animal, which Dlirer pro- bably would not have made had he seen it.* The Great Head of Christ, undated (Heller, 1629). — The cut which Heller and Bartsch knew and have described by this title, many critics have considered to be of doubtful authenticity, but Professor Thausing is of opinion that the design is certainly that of Dlirer, though it might have been carried out by some of his pupils. An original impression was formerly in the possession of Baron von Rumohr, and was sold with his collection. Von Eye speaks of it as being of the greatest rarity. He never, he says, met with more than one impression of it. The copy only is known to me. It is bold and free in drawing, and effective though coarse in its cutting. It has a large monogram on the border of the paper. There have now been enumerated all the more important of Diirer’s wood-engravings, with the exception of the great works executed by him for the Emperor Maximilian, which I reserve to speak of in another chapter. There are, of course, other single cuts besides those mentioned, the description of * The original drawing of this rhinoceros is now in the British Museum. It is executed with extreme care, and is one of the great treasures of the collection . There are several editions of this cut. The first was published by Dlirer in 15 15, with a description of the strange animal. The cut was then put forth without text by his heirs, and after this it was published in the Netherlands with Dutch text. This is the edition most frequently met with. There are besides numerous copies both in wood and copper engraving. Parson translated Dtirer’s account of the animal in his ‘ History of the Rhinoceros,’ and it served for a long time for a representative rhinoceros in books of natural history. MARC ANTONIO’S COPIES. 151 which can be found in Heller’s comprehensive second volume,* which is a marvel in its way for laborious research, and ac- curate although most prosaic description. This work does not, as before said, profess to give a catalogue raisonne of Diirer’s works, but only seeks to point out to the reader the most significant productions of his genius, dwelling especially on those that seem to reflect most faithfully the mind of the artist who created them. Many cuts, therefore, have been passed by without notice, because they are remarkable chiefly for their execution, and not for the original thought expressed in them. This it is after all which, however we may admire perfect work- manship, gives the true value to every artist’s work. I have hitherto said nothing of the numerous copies that exist of Diirer’s works, more especially of his wood-engravings, but it is well known that no artist ever suffered more from pirated editions than he did. Even in his lifetime he had, as we have seen, to print a warning to plagiarists at the end of his books, stating that his rights were protected by his patron, the Emperor Maximilian ; but this availed him very little, for no sooner were his engravings published, than a host of fraudulent copyists fell upon them and reproduced them in every possible form. As early as the year 1512 we find a decree of the Rath of Niirnberg forbidding a foreigner, who it appears was selling ‘ Kunstbriefe* i.e., woodcuts or engravings, with a false Diirer signature, under the very Rathhaus itself, from doing so any longer under penalty of loss of his stock.f But by far the most formidable copyist of Diirer’s en- gravings was the great Marc Antonio Raimondi, who, as is well known, besides other copies, reproduced on copper, in the most perfect manner possible, the whole of the series of the ‘ Little Passion ’ and seventeen of the cuts of the ‘ Life of the Virgin ’ almost immediately after they were published by Diirer. Whether he did this with direct intention to deceive or not, it is difficult now to determine. Vasari implies that he did ; * The first volume of this work was never published. It was to have contained the personal history of Albrecht Diirer, and would no doubt have been a most valuable contribution to art-biography, but Heller died before completing it. f Baader, ‘ Kunstgeschichte Nlirnbergs.’ 152 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. and although Vasari’s statements require to be received with a large amount of cautious doubt, still, as Robert Browning remarks, ‘No man ever told one great truth, that I know, without the help of a good dozen of lies at least, generally un- conscious ones : and as, when a child comes in breathless and relates a strange story, you try to conjecture from the very falsities in it what the reality was — do not conclude that he saw nothing in the sky because he assuredly did not see a flying horse there, as he says — so through the contradictory expression, do you see, men should look painfully for, and trust to arrive eventually at, what you call the true principle at bottom.’ Vasari is just such a breathless child, with tales of flying horses and other incredible stories, yet it does not do to conclude, as modern critics are too apt to do, that the garrulous old chronicler saw nothing in the sky, because it has been proved by comparison of dates, and other methods of scientific research, about which he never troubled himself, that he assuredly did not see a flying horse there of the exact shape and colour he describes. Vasari’s account of the relations between Diirer and Marc Antonio is undoubtedly wrong in many important particu- lars ; there are ‘ a good dozen of lies ’ in it at least. Still we should not overlook the fact that there may be one great truth underlying his statement. His history of the matter is as follows : — ‘ It happened that at this time certain Flemings came to Venice with a great many prints, engraved both in wood and copper by Albert Diirer, which being seen by Marc Antonio in the Piazzi di San Marco, he was so much astonished by their style of execution, and the skill displayed by Albert, that he laid out on those prints almost all the money he had brought with him from Bologna, and, amongst other things, purchased the “ Passion of Jesus Christ,” engraved on thirty- six wooden blocks of a small quarto size, which Albert had recently published . . . Marc Antonio, therefore, having con- sidered how much honour as well as advantage might be acquired by one who should devote himself to that art in Italy, resolved to attend to it with the greatest diligence, and imme- diately began to copy those engravings of Albert, studying VASARI’S STATEMENTS. 153 their mode of hatching, and everything else in the prints he had purchased, which from their novelty as well as beauty were in such repute that everyone desired to possess them. Having, therefore, counterfeited in the copper with bold hatchings, like those in the wood-prints which Albert had engraved, all this series of thirty-six pieces of the “ Life and Passion of Christ,” and having marked them with the mark which Albert used upon his prints (that is, A.D.), they appeared so similar in their manner, that nobody knowing Marc Antonio had done them, they were believed to be the genuine works of Albert, and as such exposed to sale and purchased ; which circum- stance being made known to Albert in Flanders,* he was so indignant, that he left Flanders and came to Venice, where he made his complaints against Marc Antonio to the Government, from which, however, he could obtain no other satisfaction save that Marc Antonio was prohibited from using the name or above-mentioned mark of Albert upon his works in future.’ Now we know that the greater part of this circumstantial relation is utterly incorrect. In the first place, Marc Antonio’s copies of the ‘ Little Passion ’ do not contain Diirer’s mark, but are signed with the empty tablet by which his own works are generally known. In the second place, it is highly impro- bable that Diirer ever visited Venice after his residence there in 1506-7 ; and that his visit then could not have been for the purpose Vasari describes, is proved by the fact that the works Marc Antonio copied were not executed until some years after Diirer’s return to Nurnberg, namely in 1510-11. Thirdly, it appears very doubtful whether the Venetian Government would have been able, even had it desired, to prohibit an artist residing, as Marc Antonio did, beyond its jurisdiction from copying the works of another artist who lived in a foreign country. But although poor old Vasari has thus made a hopeless muddle of his statements, yet if we diligently sift the matter, we shall, I think, find that the tale he tells is not without a true principle at bottom. * Vasari always speaks of Diirer as a Flemish artist. 154 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Marc Antonio did not, it is true, affix Diirer’s mark to his copies of the ‘ Little Passion/ but he did to those of the ‘ Life of the Virgin/ previously published ; and in his copy of the large copper-plate, ‘ Adam and Eve/ 1504, he has not used the ordinary Diirer monogram, but has signed the tablet thus : — Albert Dvrer Noricos Faciebat 1504, exactly the same as it is in the original. The omission of the Diirer monogram in the copies of the ‘ Little Passion 5 becomes therefore, significant, and is a better argument for the funda- mental truth of Vasari’s narrative than its insertion would have been, for it looks very much as if Marc Antonio had been pro- hibited, as Vasari says, from signing his piracies with the Diirer monogram between the time of the publication of the ‘ Life of the Virgin/ and that of the ‘ Little Passion.’ Ottley, indeed, thinks it very probable that Diirer, who enjoyed the especial protection of the Emperor Maximilian, might have been enabled, through the Imperial Ambassador at Venice, to lay his complaints before the Government, and thus obtain the prohibition Vasari mentions. Ottley likewise points out that Marc Antonio did not use the mark of the uninscribed tablet until after he left Bologna, that is to say, until after he had forged the Diirer tablet, which it so strongly resembles, and had been prohibited from continuing to use it.* Altogether, I am afraid the case, although somewhat different to what Vasari has stated, looks just as black for the great Italian engraver as he has represented it. But no one who has any acquaintance with the works of the two artists is likely to be deceived by Marc Antonio’s copies, for although he might imitate the signature of Diirer with exactitude, he was far too great an artist and too original a genius not to infuse a portion of his owh mind even into his * The Marc Antonio tablet is similar to Durer’s, but without the monogram. IMITATORS AND COPYISTS. 155 plagiarisms ; accordingly we find that, however faithful his copies are in detail, there is a certain difference of thought and feeling in them, a certain touch of Italian ideality that distin- guishes them at once from the originals, and renders them less faithful reproductions of Durer’s works (although, of course, of infinitely more worth as distinct works of art) than many of the copies of inferior artists. Next after Marc Antonio, the most distinguished copyists of Durer’s works are Virgil Solis, an excellent engraver of Niirnberg, who usually signed his copies with his own initials; Hieronymus Wierx, whose faithful reproductions are well known ;* J. C. Vischer, Ulrich Kraus, Martin Rota, Joh. van Goosen, Hieronymus and Lambert Hopfer, and Erhard Schon. These are only a few names out of the large army of Durer’s imitators and copyists, but it is beyond the limits of my sub- ject and my knowledge to give any critical account of this parasitical host, or to enter into the respective merits of the men who composed it. Suffice it to say that Heller gives a list of more than three hundred artists who worked after Durer ( Kiinstler welche notch Diirer arbeiteten ), and he often enumer- ates as many as seventeen copies of one engraving.-p * Wierx executed most of his copies of Diirer’s works before" he was twenty- years of age. His copy of the Knight Death and Devil was made when he was only fifteen. It is without the Diirer monogram, and on the tablet is the date 1564. t The Rath of Niirnberg seems to have done its utmost to prevent the wholesale piracy that went on of Durer’s works, but even an ‘ honourable ’ and absolute Rath was unable to stop the dishonest trade. On October 1st, 1 532, the Rath summoned all the booksellers of the town, and solemnly warned them against selling pirated works. After this it passed the resolution to write to the towns of Strasburg, Frankfort, Leipsic, Augsburg, and Antwerp, and beg them to prohibit the sale of Durer’s pirated engravings in their domains as well as in other places of the Holy Roman Empire. CHAPTER II. WORKS FOR THE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN. ‘ Ich bin ein Mann, wie ein ancler Mann Nuv dass mir Gott die Ehre gann.’ ‘ I am a man like any other one. But God has made me to be Honour’s son. ’* The Emperor Maximilian was one of the most intellectual monarchs that Europe has ever seen. In spite of the constant wars in which he was engaged, he found time to keep up a close correspondence with many of the greatest scholars of his age, and entered with the zeal of a scholastic doctor into the philosophic disputes of his day. He planned, if he did not himself compose, several literary works, and in every way in his power encouraged learning and promoted scientific and historical research. Moreover, he was not only a patron, but a true lover of the fine arts, and was himself, it is said, no mean artist. He did not, it is true, like the popes and princes of Italy, expend large sums of money in paintings and sculp- tures, probably because he had not the money to spend ; he has left us no Sistine Chapel, no Raphael Stanze, but he did what he was able, and employed the best artists of Germany in executing for him a series of works, which had, at all events, this merit — that they were capable of reproduction, and that his subjects were therefore able to enjoy them as well as him- self. Maximilian, regarded from an artistic point of view, is * Couplet said to have been made by the Emperor Maximilian in answer to some one who sneered at his claims of long descent. THE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN. 157 chiefly known as the patron of wood-engraving ; for besides the works upon which, as we shall see, he employed Diirer, he likewise originated three other great series of woodcuts, known by the titles of ‘ Sir Theurdank,’ ‘ The Wise King/ and ‘ The Triumphs of Maximilian/ executed chiefly by Hans Burgmair and Hans Schaufflein. That so many of Maximilian’s plans were impracticable, and so many of his undertakings unsuccessful, was less the fault of the man than of the age. His comprehensive intellect saw far beyond the horizon of the century in which he lived, and he unwisely tried to hasten the march of time by anticipating some of its results ; thus it happened that his schemes often failed, and posterity, which judges of a hero’s greatness chiefly by his success, refuses to see that his failures were often nobler than other men’s successes. But it is no part of my task to vindicate the heroism of failure ; I have nothing to do here with Maximilian’s personal character or political aims : it is simply in his relations with Diirer that he has to be considered in this chapter. Unfortunately we have very little authentic information con- cerning the personal intercourse of the Emperor and the Artist : although Diirer must frequently have been admitted into Maximilian’s society, he has left us no account of his interviews with ‘ his King/ as he always calls Maximilian. One would have liked to have known how the great Emperor talked and reasoned when Diirer took his portrait in that ‘ little room high up in the palace at Augsburg ;’ whether he was impatient of the sitting, grudging the time taken from affairs of state, or whether he lingered talking art with the artist, and projecting grand works that could never be exe- cuted : but Diirer has told us nothing of all this, and almost the only piece of information that we have concerning the personal relations of Diirer and Maximilian lies in a little anec- dote related by Melanchthon, who heard it, it would seem, from Diirer himself. The story is as follows : — One day, whilst Diirer was occupied in making some design or sketch for Maximilian, the latter, to amuse himself, took up one of the artist’s charcoal crayons that was lying about, and began himself to sketch something ; his progress was, however, con- LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 158 stantly hindered by the breaking off of the stick of charcoal, and he complained to Differ that he could do nothing with it ; whereupon Differ took it out of his hand, saying, ‘ This is my sceptre, your majesty.’ He then taught Maximilian how to use it in an artistic manner. Besides this, we have the oft-told story w'hich has been applied to almost every artist who has ever happened to enjoy kingly favour, that the Emperor (it does not much matter what emperor) rebuked a proud nobleman of his court, whose dignity was touched by being asked to perform some trifling service for the painter, by the famous speech, ‘ Out of seven plough-boys I can, if I please, make seven lords, but out of seven lords I cannot make one Differ’ — or Holbein, or Titian, according to the need of the narrator. Furthermore, it is stated that Maximilian granted Differ a patent of nobility and the well-known Differ crest, but there seems to be no real foundation for supposing that such was the case. The opinion to this effect most probably arose from the fact that Maximilian really granted, not to Differ alone, but to the whole Guild of Painters in Niffnberg, a coat of arms — three silver shields on one large shield, gules (or, as is now more usual, on an azure field), but I cannot find any record of his ever having granted any armorial coat to Differ especially for his own use. The device which Differ adopted for his crest — the pair of open doors on a shield, with a sort of pent-house roof above them, and three steps leading up to them — was, as we have seen, that of the Hungarian family to which by birth he be- longed. It was a sort of rebus on the name Ajtos , which signifies a door, the same as the German Diirer , or Thiirer , as Albrecht Diirer the elder, and Diirer himself in early life, appear to have spelt it. The wit of former times delighted, we know, in such exercises, and could not refrain from them sometimes even when composing an epitaph, as witness the many punning tombstones that we meet with in our church- yards. It is not, therefore, at all extraordinary to find it cropping up in an artist’s crest ; but it is absurd to suppose it was bestowed upon Diirer as a patent of nobility from Maxi- milian, for we find that he made use of it long before he had durer’s coat of arms. 159 any dealings with £ his King.’ His letters to Pirkheimer, for instance, in 1 506-7, are all sealed with this device. But besides this shield with the open doors, Durer’s ordinary crest, he sometimes made use of a coat of arms in which the shield with the doors is only an accessory, the principal motive being the head and bust of a negro without arms, but with a wing (a curious idea, a winged negro !) spring- ing from either side, and a large amount of conventional foliage falling around. The negro’s bust is supported on a closed helmet, and under this leans, a little to the right, the usual shield. This coat of arms was executed by Diirer in wood-engraving in the year 1523. He seems, however, to have made use of it before this date.* The woodcut is now rarely met with. It may be, of course, that this was the coat of arms granted by Maxi- milian, but there is no proof of it, and it is far more likely that the story refers to the arms of the Guild of Painters in Niirnberg, and that Diirer in his individual character was not indebted to Maximilian for any arms or patent of nobility whatever. It is by no means uncommon, certainly, to find princes paying for substantial services in this cheap manner, but Maximilian, as we shall see, had a different, although quite as inexpensive, a method of paying his debts. It was probably in 1512 that Diirer was first employed by the Emperor. Whether Maximilian himself, or Stabius his crown poet and ‘ Historiographer,’ as he styles himself, first conceived the idea of the great Triumphal Arch, does not appear ; but at all events the idea when once conceived met with the Emperor’s decided approval, and it grew and grew until at last it arrived at such colossal dimensions that it is surprising that any artist was found able or willing to give it an outward shape. The idea was nothing less than to set forth in one great woodcut the life and illustrious deeds of the great German Emperor Maximilian I., together with his ancestral history, family alliances, and the most important events of his reign. This laudatory history, it was decided, * Dr. Rudolf Marggraff, ‘ Kaiser Maximilian I. und Albrecht Diirer in Niirn- berg,’ 1840. Dr. Marggraff says that Diirer, as a member of the council alter gena?inter of Niirnberg, always made use of a large seal with these arms upon it. i6o LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. should take the form of a triumphal arch, ‘ after the manner of those erected in honour of the Roman Emperors, some of which are destroyed, and some still to be seen/ and Diirer, who had no doubt become acquainted with Stabius at Pirk- heimer’s house, received the commission to furnish the design for this gigantic undertaking. But Diirer, with a prudence for which one would scarcely have given him credit, desired some assurance of payment before he began such an important work. This might have caused some difficulty, for the Imperial trea- sury was always empty, had not Maximilian bethought him of an excellent method of paying his artist and yet not robbing himself. A letter from the Emperor Maximilian to the Rath of Niirnberg, bearing the date December 12, 1512, is still preserved, in which he enjoins the Rath to hold ‘ his and the empire’s true and faithful Albrecht Diirer exempt from all the town taxes and rates in consideration of our esteem for hiscelebrated art,’ andalso no doubt becauseof ‘several sketches that he has made for our undertaking with good diligence ; and he has furthermore professed his readiness henceforward to do his utmost, that we may receive particular pleasure/ i.e.y in the execution of the Arch. But the Rath persuaded Diirer voluntarily to forego this privilege ; it feared, perhaps, that it would prove too unsafe a precedent, and Diirer for a long time appears to have received no payment at all for his work ; for although the Emperor, on finding that the Rath did not fall in with his scheme for paying for his works of art out of the town rates, granted him a pension of 100 florins a year, he does not seem to have received the money very regularly, for in an undated letter addressed to a certain Herr Kress (no doubt a member of the Kress family at Niirnberg) he begs his correspondent to find out whether Herr Stabius had done anything in his matter ( meiner sac/i) with the King’s Majesty, and to let him know how the matter stands. ‘ But if/ he goes on to say, ‘ Herr Stabius has done nothing in my matter, or my desire was too difficult for him to attain, then I pray of you to be my favourable lord with his Majesty Point out to his Majesty that I have served his Majesty for three years, that I have suffered loss myself from doing so, and that if I had not used my utmost diligence his ornamental work HIS PENSION OF ONE HUNDRED FLORINS. 161 would never have been finished in such a manner, therefore I pray his Majesty to reward me with the ioo guilders. You will know what to do in the matter.’* The case certainly seems very hard for the poor artist, who, as this letter informs us, after having worked for three whole years at a design in which one would imagine he could not have felt very much interest — for he was only allowed to work out in it another man’s ideas, and had very little room for the display of his original fancy — had not only to give up the tax-exemption granted him as a mark of particular favour, but also could not obtain the payment of the ioo florins annuity (equivalent to about ^40 of our present English money) granted to him, the greatest artist of Germany, as a reward for his services to an Emperor ! But either this letter to Kress, or Stabius’ bringing his 4 matter’ before his Majesty, accomplished something, for we find by an Imperial decree, dated September 6th, 1515, that Diirer was assured the payment of his pension out of the tax paid yearly to the Emperor by the town of Niirnberg ; so that the town, this time, had nothing to lose by paying its artist. Even then, however, the Rath protested, but Diirer appears to have got his money pretty regularly until Maximilian’s death, which happened in January, 1519. Upon this the ‘ provident’ Rath at once refused to continue paying Diirer’s pension, or to give him 200 florins in payment for drawings for which Maxi- milian had likewise given him an order on his Niirnberg treasury, until the new Emperor, who was not then chosen, should confirm the old Emperor’s promises. In a letter to the Rath, dated April 29, 1519, Diirer begs his ‘ Provident, Honourable, Wise, Gracious, and Dear Lords ’ to pay him the money due to him from the deceased Emperor, which he says he has well earned by the diligent manner in * See £ Reliquien Albrecht Diirer,’ where this letter is given in full. Dr. Campe considers it was written in the time of Charles V., and was meant to remind that Emperor of his grandfather’s debt, but, as Dr. von Eye points out, it appears much more probable that it was written as a reminder to Maximilian himself, in the year 1515, the year in which the designs for the Arch were completed. The sen- tence ‘I have served his Majesty for three years’ brings us to this date, for we know that the Arch was begun in 1512, and the date on one of the columns, which probably signifies the date when Diirer had done his part of the work, is 1515. 1 62 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. which he has worked for him. He holds Maximilian’s order for the payment of his pension, ‘ which I did not obtain/ he adds, ‘ without much trouble and many demands,’ and also a receipt in the handwriting and with the seal of Maximilian for 200 florins, ‘ to be paid to him as if to Maximilian himself out of the town taxes due to the Emperor on St. Martin’s Day/ He even offers, in case any future Emperor should lay claim to this miserable 200 florins, to leave the house that he inherited from his father in pledge to the Rath, in order that his gracious and provident (_ fursichtig ) Lords might not suffer any damage in case of the worst. But it was all of no use. The Rath resolutely refused to pay the dead lion’s debts until it was assured that it was safe to do so by the young living lion, Charles V., who was elected Emperor in June, 1519, and from whom Durer at last, as he notes in his journal, ‘with great trouble and labour’ ( mit grosser Muhe tmd Arbeit ), on the 4th of November, 1520, at / Coin, obtained his ‘ Confirmatia ,’ i.e., the ratification of the pension granted him by Maximilian. As his journey to The Netherlands was probably undertaken chiefly with the view of gaining this Confirmatia , and as he had to make interest with numerous courtiers both at the courts of Margaret and Charles V., before obtaining it, we can well understand that it must indeed have cost him ‘ great trouble and labour,’ and all for the sake of 100 florins a year ! Truly art was not too well paid in Niirnberg in the sixteenth century! After this it is pleasant to find that Durer received his pension regularly until the time of his death. His receipts for the same, from 1521 to 1527, are still preserved in the archives of Niirnberg. But we must now turn from the consideration of the pay- ment that Diirer received for the works he executed for Maximilian, to the works themselves. The Triumphal Arch of Maximilian, the most im- portant of these works, forms, when the ninety-two separate blocks of which it is composed are put together, one huge woodcut, ten feet six inches high, by nine feet wide. It is almost impossible to give the reader who has not seen it any idea of this elaborate production. Like ‘ The Wise King,’ ARCH OF MAXIMILIAN. 163 ‘The Triumphs of Maximilian/ and ‘ The Adventures of Sir Theurdank/ it is intended to show forth in allegorical repre- sentation the glory and might of the German monarch, who, in spite of his humility on his death-bed, appears to have liked glorification during his life. The Arch itself, which is somewhat in the form of the old Roman triumphal arches, has three gates or entrances, the centre one being named the Gate of Honour and Power, and the two side entrances respectively the gates of Praise and Nobility. Above these gates rise three great towers, of which the highest is called by Stabius ‘ the Grand Tower/ and at either side are pillars with the most fantastic devices, all, however, intended to set forth some allegorical meaning : thus, six chained harpies are supposed to allude to conquered temptation, and two Archdukes in full armour keep watch for the possible enemy within or without. Two men hold a large fruit and flower garland swinging above the middle entrance, in the centre of which a female figure holds forth the Imperial crown ready for the head of Maximilian when he shall pass through the Arch. But the principal part of this remarkable design is the great genealogical tree of Maximilian’s line, which rises above the Arch itself to the very top of the woodcut. Three female figures, representing P'rance, Sycambria, and Troy (for Maxi- milian claimed descent from Hector of Troy), stand at the foot of the tree ; Clodovic the Great, the first Christian prince of the line, comes next, and after him six-and-twenty ances- tors, all represented in half-figure, with portrait-like distinc- tiveness of character visible in their countenances. These six- and-twenty dukes, princes, and kings bring the line up to the Emperor Friedrich the Pious and his wife Leonora of Portugal, the parents of Maximilian. Then follows Maximilian himself, with his first wife, his beloved Mary of Burgundy,* and the whole of his family. Philip the P'air of Spain, Maximilian’s only son, stands in the middle, a full figure in armour, between his two sons, Charles (afterwards Charles V.) and Ferdinand, and his four daughters. Maximilian’s daughter, Margaret, * Strange to say, his second wife, the Italian Maria Bianca, is not represented in this line. 1 1 — 2 1 64 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. afterwards Regent of the Netherlands, and Philip of Spain’s wife complete the group. Besides this ancestral and family history, we have also a pictorial representation of all the most remarkable events in Maximilian’s own life, comprised in four-and-twenty distinct cuts. Here are depicted the wars in which he engaged, the political alliances he formed, his daring adventures whilst hunting chamois on the Alps, his meeting with Henry VIII. of England, his marriage, and other scenes from his private and public life. All these separate little pictures are executed with the most delicate skill and minute accuracy, and are accompanied by explanatory verses by Stabius, doggrel rhymes enough to have been written by a crown-poet, but which serve the purpose for which they were intended, namely, the laudation of the hero of the Arch ; likewise, what is much more important, they enable us to understand the meaning of its designer ; for few people, it is to be feared, are sufficiently well versed in the history of Maximilian to be able to compre- hend all the allusions made in these pictures without some such key. It is, therefore, pleasant to find a verse above each subject stating, ‘ This is the house that Jack built,’ etc. These verses are all cut in the wood, as are also the names of all the Roman emperors, Maximilian’s ancestors, and others who are introduced, thus forming an integral part of the whole. It is, however, as before said, impossible for the reader to form any idea of this Arch from a written description. Its details are so numerous and various that it would take pages to enumerate them ; and Heller, who has devoted thirteen of his closely printed pages to this purpose, leaves after all a most vague and confused impression on the mind. No work of Diirer’s perhaps evinces more clearly than this the perfect mastery he had acquired over his art. ‘ The extent and difficulties of the task,’ says Dr. von Eye, ‘ appear to have called forth the powers of the artist to their highest exercise. In no work of Durer’s do we find more beautiful drawing than there is here ; each single piece might be taken out and prized as an independent work of art.’ And yet we miss in it somehow the thought of Albrecht Diirer. The triumph that this Arch really expresses is the THE SUBMISSION OF THE FLEMINGS . — The Arch of Maximilian. - 'I X; • ' ARCH OF MAXIMILIAN. 1 65 triumph of wood-engraving ; it is a perfect marvel of delicate and intricate cutting, and for this the Formschneider as well as the artist must receive his share of praise. Luckily we know in this case who the Formschneider was : Neudorfer, who was likely to know, tells us that it was Hieronymus,* of Niirnberg, the best Formschneider of his time, so that we are sure Diirer in this instance, at all events, did not cut his blocks himself. Indeed, considering the amount of patient labour that this great woodcut represents, it would be absurd to credit him with such a performance in the midst of all his other work. Jackson estimates that the execution of the whole of this design would occupy a single wood-engraver not less than four years ; even allowing him to engrave more rapidly on pear- tree than a modern engraver does on box, and supposing him to be a master of his profession. The Emperor himself, it is said, was greatly interested in the engraving of his Arch, and visited Hieronymus, who lived in the Frauen Gasslein, very often, to see how the work progressed. During one of his visits, it is related that a number of cats, pets of the Form- schneider, came scampering into the Emperor’s presence, a circumstance which gave rise to the proverb, ‘ A cat may look at a king.’ But notwithstanding the Emperor’s interest in the work, the engraving of it proceeded very slowly, partly, no doubt, on account of the Formschneider not being any more able to get his money than the artist, and it still remained unfinished at the time of Maximilian’s death. Of course there was then no one to pay for the great work. Diirer, as we have seen, could not get his 200 florins, and he and Hieronymus obtained no further satisfaction than the permission to use the work as best they could for their own profit. They, therefore, at once pub- lished, as a sort of memorial of the deceased Emperor, twenty- one out of the twenty-four historical subjects included in the whole design, in the form of a large round woodcut, with the Emperor’s full titles and the date of his death in one corner. This woodcut appears to have been very successful, for it * His surname would appear from various records to have been Andrea , but he was known in Niirnberg simply as Hieronymus, the Formschneider. There seems to be no authority for thinking his name was Resch. LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 1 65 quickly went through four editions,* Maximilian being, with all his faults, much loved by the German nation, and any memento of him being highly prized. Meanwhile the blocks for the entire work remained idle on the hands of Hieronymus, who probably was afraid of printing the whole design at his own cost and responsibility, until at the request of the Archduke Ferdinand, grandson of Maximilian, they were at last, after various delays and dis- putes,-!" sent to Vienna, where the complete design was finally published in 1559 by Raphael Hofhalter.J The well-known Adam Rartsch likewise brought out an edition, the last that has been published, in 1799. The places of such blocks as were then missing he supplied with etched plates. But besides these two editions of 1559 and 1799 a few impressions of this work are still in existence, which were probably printed by Hieronymus, at an even earlier date than the round woodcut. Most probably they were struck off as trial-impressions during the Emperor’s lifetime to satisfy his impatience before the whole work was complete, for in each one of these impressions that has been discovered, the place for cut No. 24, which in the later impressions is filled up with a repre- sentation of the Milan war, is empty. Two of these earl y impressions are at Copenhagen ; another at Stockholm ; and another, it is said, was sold with the col- lection of the Count of Fries at Vienna. The copy of the Arch in the British Museum appears to have escaped the notice of all German writers on the subject. It has never hitherto been reckoned as one of the original proofs, but from careful examination of this work I have been led to the conclusion that it is almost certainly of the same date as the other known early impressions. For, firstly, the clearness and beauty of the engraving are far greater than in the cuts of the later editions; secondly, the place for cut No. 24 * The third edition has Latin text. The fourth edition was published after Durer’s death, and contains the other three subjects, which probably were not ready at the time when the first edition was published. + Baader, ‘ Beitrage,’ etc. X The blocks for this work, as well as those for Burgkmair's ‘ Triumph,’ are still preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna. ARCH OF MAXIMILIAN. 167 is empty ;* and thirdly, the watermark on the paper is the same as that on the copy at Copenhagen, namely, the Imperial Eagle. The evidence is strong, therefore, that this impression was taken about the same time as the other three that are known, and which, although differing from each other in slight particulars, all agree in the points named. It was bequeathed to the Museum in 1799 by the Rev. Mordant Cracherode, who pro- bably acquired it at the sale of Mr. Charles Rogers’ collection, for, according to an old writing preserved with it, it was in the possession of the latter gentleman in 1744. This writing like- wise states that it was formerly in the Arundel Collection. Such being the case, it could not certainly have been the copy said to have been sold with the Fries Collection (a copy derived from the Praun cabinet) ; for the sale of that collection took place long after the impression in question had been safely housed in the British Museum. What has become of the Fries copy of the Arch I cannot say ; for although Germans affirm that it is now in England, I can find no trace of it in this country, and rather think they must be deceived by some vague tradition of the one that is really here, about which they seem to have no accurate information. The impression in the British Museum is, undoubtedly, a rare treasure ; and I would advise all English students of Diirer’s works to gain permission to see it, for only by this means can they form any idea of its marvellously elaborate execution-]-. If the copy sold at the Fries sale be genuine, and •still preserved, the one in the British Museum makes the fifth perfect copy of the Arch as printed ( by Hieronymus that is known to be in existence. Imperfect copies and detached cuts are often met with. * I was deceived in the first instance about this cut, for some ignorant person, who did not know that its absence was a proof of the value of the impression, has cleverly pasted a later cut in its place, taking to himself no doubt great merit for thus completing the series. The verses above the cut are, however, absent, and the cut itself is printed on different paper to the rest, so that its insertion is easily detected. + Mr. G. W. Reid, the keeper of the prints in the British Museum, tells me that he is thinking of having the separate parts of this great work put together, and then exhibiting it as a whole in one large frame. Such a plan would be most excellent, for the Arch would interest not only the art student, but likewise the general public, if it were properly explained. At present it is kept in strips in a portfolio, and very few people are aware of its existence. i6S LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. I have dwelt thus long on this woodcut chiefly on account of its historical interest, and likewise as illustrating the rela- tions between Dtirer and the Emperor Maximilian, and not because, except in point of size, it is an especially great work of Diirer’s. He was trammelled in it, it is evident, by having to express another man’s ideas ; and only here and there in some quaint fancy, or some grotesque exuberance, do we catch sight of his own rich imagination. It cannot therefore be reckoned strictly a representative work of his genius ; but it is nevertheless a marvel of art in its way. I must pass over more briefly the other works that Diirer executed for Maximilian. The Triumphal Car of Maximilian, confused by some writers with the ‘ Triumphal Procession of Maximilian,’ exe- cuted by Burgmair, of which it was destined to form the centre subject, is likewise an allegorical representation in glorification of Maximilian ; and thus, as Pirkheimer, who drew up the plan for it,* writes to the Emperor, the car is ornamented, ‘ not with gold and precious stones and other riches which are common to good and bad alike, but only with virtues which none but the truly noble possess.’ The Emperor is represented seated in his car in the virtuous com- pany of Truth, Clemency, Justice, etc., graceful female figures who hold forth wreaths for his head. The driver of the car is ‘ Reason ’ — ‘ Ratio ;’ the wheels are inscribed ‘ Magnificentia ’ and ‘ Dignitas the reins ‘'Nobilitas ’ and ‘ Potentia :’ whilst the female figures who lead the twelve horses attached to the car, are called by the names of ‘ Moderatio,’ ‘ Alacritas,’ ‘ V elocitas,’ and other abstract virtues. The whole is a some- what prosaic and foolish allegory, which owes its entire merit to the splendid manner in which Diirer has carried it out. Little original, imaginative touches of his own enliven it here and there, such for instance as the fight of an eagle, signifying Maximilian, with a dragon ; and the exuberance, but yet not exaggeration, of ornamentation was no doubt in this, as well as in the Arch, entirely the work of his own fancy : indeed Pirkheimer, in his letters to Maximilian on the subject, gives Diirer much of the credit of the plan itself, but one cannot * This plan is now in the Frankfort Museum. PRAYER-BOOK OF MAXIMILIAN. 169 help thinking that if he really had much to do with it, he must have been terribly overpowered at the time by his friend’s classical learning, or he would have designed some- thing of far deeper meaning than these worn-out scholastic entities. A careful sketch of the Car drawn by Durer is pre- served in the Albertina Collection. This work also was engraved on wood by Hieronymus. It is composed of eight blocks joining on one to another, and is about 7 feet 6 inches long by 1 foot 6 inches high. The first edition was brought out by Durer at his own cost in 1522* (for the Emperor did not live to see the completion of either his Car or his Arch) ; it has German text and a dedication to Charles V. The second edition appeared in the following year with Latin text. Two other editions have appeared since, and it has likewise been engraved on copper. There may also be mentioned in this place a painting of a Triumphal Car on the walls of the hall of the Rathhaus at Nurnbcrg, which probably was designed by Durer : he cer- tainly received from the Rath in 1522, 100 florins ‘ for the great trouble he had had with the sketches ( Visirung ) for the Rathhaus.’ The Rathhaus was repainted and decorated be- fore the Imperial Diet was held there in 1522 ; and Durer probably furnished some of the designs for its decoration, but it is not likely he carried them into execution himself — indeed his pupil, George Pencz, is known to have painted the group of musicians over the entrance, the best of these wall-paintings ; but all the paintings in the hall are now so utterly ruined and over-painted that it is impossible to judge of their original merits or their original painters. But of all the works that Durer executed for Maximilian, none are more delightful than the little pen-drawings he made for the borders of what is called Maximilian’s Prayer- book. These drawings have often been severely commented * It would appear from a notice in Baader’s £ Beitrage ’ that some at least of the figures belonging to this Car must have been printed before this date, for in 1518 a pedlar was brought up before the Rath charged with selling ‘ some printed figures belonging to the Emperor’s Triumph.’ This could not have been the triumphal procession designed by Burgmair, for it is tolerably certain that none of the cuts of this were engraved until after Maximilian’s death, and therefore the triumph alluded to was most probably Diirer’s Triumphal Car. 170 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. upon by solemn critics, who lament that he should have allowed his fantastic humour to run riot in such a place, and regret in this instance more than in any other his want of classical taste and conception of ideal beauty. What, they very naturally ask, have pipers, monkeys, warriors, North American Indians, Turks, foxes, hens, ducks, devils, satyrs, pigs, to do with prayers to the saints ? Nothing whatever, of course ; and yet no true lover of Diirers imagination would wish one of these fantastic creatures absent. Here the artist’s imagination had full play, unrestrained by the classical tastes of his learned friends Stabius and Pirkheimer, and we see into what quaint realms of faery and wonder it conducted him. Side by side with nobly-conceived figures of the saints, we have the most strange and humorous representations. Thus, near a figure of a saint giving alms, we find a fox who has stolen a hen ; above King David playing on his harp we have a screeching water- fowl ; beneath a grand figure of St. Matthew, the temptation of St. Anthony, who is being offered something in a dish by a funny-looking old German lady with a high cap on her head (truly one would imagine that the tried saint would find no difficulty in resisting the lures of such a Hebe!) ; and in a representation of the Annunciation, a miserable little devil, upon whom the holy rays from above fall in burning hot drops, is tearing his hair and raising a terrible outcry. The solemn and the ludicrous are in this way inextricably mingled. Earnest and jest stand side by side ; tragedy and comedy are acted together ! Stiff and correct- minded people, who feel offended at such associations, can naturally take no pleasure in a work like this ; but even those critics who appreciate its charm, feel obliged, so it would seem, to make some excuse for Diirer having given the reins to a rich and grotesque fancy. We are told, apologetically, in Kugler and Crowe’s Handbook : — ‘ Here his task was not to represent a given subject of particular depth of meaning, but merely to fill up tastefully an allotted space ; and if he does not always seem to keep in mind the full meaning of the text which he has adorned with his arabesques, still the play of fancy is neither whimsical nor extravagant, the humour never degenerates into vulgarity, as is often the case in this kind of THE GREAT COLUMN. i;i ornament, and the combined effect makes so pleasing an im- pression on the spectator that criticism is content to be silent ,’ finding it difficult perhaps to know what to say. If any apology were necessary for the ‘play of fancy’ in these borders, it might be pointed out that Differ by no means invented this mode of illustration. We find grotesque animals and strange fantastic creatures in almost all the illustrated missals and prayer-books of the Middle Ages (at all events in those of Teutonic origin), done by devout monks in their monasteries, who would have been horrified at the imputation of irreverence ; and Differ and Lucas Cranach, who executed eight of these designs, but followed an old-established custom in making these borders ‘ fantastic.’ There are but two copies of this famous Prayer-book now known to exist. One is at Vienna ; and the other, with the drawings, Maximilian’s own particular copy, is now in the Town Library at Munich. The borders are well known from Strixner’s excellent lithographs, published in 1818 and 1850. A somewhat perplexing work, belonging to this period, and probably bearing some relation to the Emperor Maximilian, is the large and rare woodcut known by the name of The Great Column. What the meaning is of this strange and ugly column no one has been able to find out, so foolish and inartistic is it in design. Two small naked angels hold up between them a large turnip, whose root goes down into the ground. From this tur- nip springs a tall column, around the base of which are three rams’ heads and an animal skull. At the foot of the column sit two female monsters with lions’ claws, long hair, wings, and dragons’ tails, and on the top of the capital a horned satyr, crowned with leaves, and holding in his outstretched arms two wreaths ; these hang down to the third part of the column, where they are bound together by a knot of fruit. The four blocks of which the column is composed form, when put together, a cut 5 feet 4 inches in height. Many critics do not reckon it as a work of Differ’s, but as it is dated 1517, just the time when Differ was most busy with works for the Emperor, it may have been among ‘ the many other designs made for 172 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. his Majesty besides the Triumph,’ which Diirer mentions in the before-quoted letter to Kress, and for which he never seems to have received any payment beyond his irregularly- paid pension. Another of these designs was for the elaborate woodcut of the eight patron saints of Austria (H. 1880), of which the first proofs only contain six saints ; the two others — SS. Poppo and Otho — having been added by Diirer afterwards. The rich woodcut representing the APOTHEOSIS OF THE Emperor Maximilian, or his reception amongst the saints in glory, may also be mentioned in this relation, though it is of very uncertain origin. Heller places this cut amongst the ‘ doubtful ’ ones, but some critics consider that it was a com- mission from Stabius — whose arms are seen in the corner — to Diirer, and was designed by him soon after Maximilian’s death. It represents Maximilian kneeling before God the Father, in the courts of heaven, his imperial sceptre, sword, and symbolic apple laid at the feet of the King of kings and Lord of lords. He still, however, wears the imperial crown, or perhaps this has been converted into the golden crown worn by the elect. Six saints, including his patron saint, Maximilian, stand around. The ‘ Little Crucifixion,’ a copper-engraving, mentioned in the next chapter, is the only other engraved work that Diirer is known to have executed for his imperial patron. There remain, however, to be considered in this place the PORTRAITS of the Emperor Maximilian. Whether the drawing in the Albertina collection, taken at Augsburg, was the original of all these it is impossible to say, but most probably it was ; for all the other portraits resemble it. Besides, there is no record of Diirer having been honoured with any other sitting from his Majesty, whose vanity, at all events, did not take a personal form. Immediately after Maxi- milian’s death, however, Diirer brought out an excellent portrait of him in wood-engraving. The Emperor is represented with the Golden Fleece round his neck, and a cap on his head> with a medallion in the band of it of the Virgin and Child. He has a strong, good face, with a very pleasant expression. PORTRAITS OF MAXIMILIAN. 173 The inscription, ‘ IMPERATOR CAESAR DlVVS MAXIMILIANVS PlVS FELIX Avgvstvs,’ is written above his head. In another engraved portrait of about the same time the figure is set in a sort of ornamental frame composed of columns, the capitals of which are two griffins upholding the imperial shield. Beneath is an old German inscription, stating that ‘ The dear prince, the Emperor Maximilian, departed in a blessed manner from this life, on the xij day of January, in the lix year of his age, Anno Domini I5V9' The celebrated Earl of Arundel bought the original block of this portrait in 1623, at Niirnberg, from a dealer named Schwankhard. It would be interesting to discover whether it is still in existence. Besides these woodcuts, there are several painted portraits of Maximilian in different collections, that are affirmed to be by Diirer. Indeed, as a rule, every portrait of Maximilian and Charles V. is said to be by Albrecht Diirer, in the same way that every portrait of Henry VIII. is by Holbein. There is one in England, in Lord Northwick’s collection that Dr. Waagen has registered as genuine on the ground ‘ that no one but Diirer could have painted grey hair with such exactitude.’ We may certainly accept as authentic the fine oil-painting in the Belvedere at Vienna. This was painted by Diirer in 1519, the year of the Emperor’s death, and was evidently taken from the same sketch as the woodcuts. Dr. von Eye likewise men- tions a very beautiful water-colour portrait, ‘ of evidently genuine origin,’ in the Library of the University at Erlangen, derived from the Imhof Collection. CHAPTER III. ENGRAVINGS ON COPPER. 4 Comment oublier une gravure d’Albert Diirer ne l’edt-on vue qu’une seule fois.’ Charles Blanc. ‘ The power and boldness of Albrecht/ says Vasari, ‘ in- creasing with time, and as he perceived his works to obtain increasing estimation, he now executed engravings on copper, which amazed all who beheld them.’ This is no less true at the present time than it was in Vasari’s. After the lapse of more than three centuries we have still nothing to compare with them, unless it be the works of that other great Teutonic engraver, Rembrandt van Ryn ; even now they ‘ amaze ’ all who behold them, not only by their power, boldness, and mar- vellous execution, but by the number of new and strange ideas they present to our minds. ‘ When/ writes F. von Schlegel, ‘ I turn to look at the numberless sketches and copper-plate designs of the present day, Diirer appears to me like the originator of a new and noble system of thought, burning with the zeal of a first pure inspiration and eager to diffuse his deeply-conceived, and probably true and great ideas ; and all the heap of frivolous sophists and sweet ex- plainers who succeeded him, seem like those would-be con- noisseurs whose prattle is now to be heard in all markets both among amateurs of art and in every-day life.”* It is by his engravings that Albrecht Diirer is best known to the general public. Every one who has the least knowledge * F. von Schlegel, 4 Beschreibung einer Reise nach Paris und der Niederlanden.’ durer’s engravings. 175 of German art has seen, in some state or other, the celebrated plate of ‘ The Knight, Death, and the Devil,’ as it is usually called, the ‘ Melencolia,’ the ‘ St. Eustace ’ and perhaps the ‘ Adam and Eve and having seen these, they have seen some of his most remarkable and most original works. The deep-souled genius of Diirer is, indeed, more distinctly mani- fest in his engravings than in any other of his works. Here it is that his bold spirit expressed itself with the greatest freedom. Here it is that his intellect first shook itself free from the conventional bonds in which the Church of Rome had so long held the art of Germany. Here it is that he gave utterance to the questions, the doubts, the despairs that tormented his soul as they did so many other great souls in that surging sixteenth century, when the old foundations of belief were shaken, and the House that claimed to be built on a Rock was well-nigh swept away by the onward wave of progression. Diirer only, of all the great artists of the sixteenth century, has expressed in art anything of the restless activity, the noble longing, the widening vision, and the reforming faith of the age in which he lived. The painters of Italy, when their religious belief failed them, and the source from which Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo drew their inspiration was no longer attainable to them, fell back on a classic Paganism, which only sought to express the utmost grandeur of form, the utmost beauty of life, the deepest glory of colour, without occupying itself too much with the needs of man’s higher in- tellectual nature. Not so Diirer. It is to this higher intellec- tual nature that he constantly appeals. Those who seek merely sensuous pleasure in pictures need not turn to his ; they are often, indeed, hard and unbeautiful, and the meaning, when we arrive at it, is almost invariably a sorrowful one — a lesson of pain, sin, conflict, and death. In many of his engravings, besides those that are distinctly symbolical, we see dimly that there is some deep underlying thought, some hidden meaning which we endeavour in vain to find out ; for the mind of Albrecht Diirer is not easy to fathom, and often when we are regarding, as we imagine, a homely and realistic representation of German life, we are 1 76 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. startled by some strange suggestion, some wild fancy, some hint at an unknown mystery which at once lifts the subject from the region of the commonplace, and sets it in the realm of imagination and mystery. The idea of Death, indeed, seems to have been ever lurking in Diirer’s mind. ‘ Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be re- quired of thee,’ is the warning he gives, and Vanitas vani- tatum the lesson he teaches ; the sadness of the preacher had laid hold of the soul of the artist, and he also spoke from the depths of a nature that was stirred by the evil done under the sun. But although all Diirer’s works are thus marked, so to speak, with the monogram of his individual mind as well as with his well-known A. D., he is none the less pre-eminently the representative artist of Germany. The German mind in its high intellectual powers, its daring speculative philosophy, and yet deep-seated reverence ; in its patient laboriousness ; in its idealism and in its realism ; but, above all, in its strange love for the weird and grotesque in art, is faithfully reflected in all that he did. That peculiar element in German art, which writers on the subject have called the ‘ Fantastic element,’ and which, as I have elsewhere said, appears to have arisen from a lingering remembrance and love for the old Scandinavian mythology with its valkyrs, its ice giants, its world serpent, and all its uncouth monsters and impersonations of the powers of nature, has unrestrained play in Dlirer’s art. In spite of his general solemnity of meaning he loves to wander into wonderland, and to tell of the fantastic shapes and unearthly beings that are to be found there. He especially delights in the animal kingdom, and draws monkeys, rabbits, cocks, etc., with evident relish of their individual humour : he even introduces them prominently into many of his sacred subjects, and represents his Virgins and holy personages surrounded by quaint animals of all descriptions. One of his Madonnas is, indeed, known as ‘ The Virgin with the Animals,’ so many forms of animal and insect life disport themselves in unconstrained enjoyment about her ; several owls, a parrot, small birds of all kinds, a fox, a dog, a butterfly, a stag-beetle, a crab, a frog, a snail, a THE FANTASTIC ELEMENT IN ART. 1 77 dragon-fly, a stork, two geese, and a donkey, being all in- cluded in this wonderful picture.* This rich luxuriance of ideas, and this fanciful character of Diirer’s art, have been severely censured by writers who can see no beauty except in the severe and correct forms of classic art, and who admire nothing but ‘ The glory that w's Greece, And the grandeur that was Rome.’ The Venetians, Diirer himself tells us, blamed his works for not being according to ancient art ; and Raphael is said to have exclaimed, when he saw his engravings, ‘ Of a truth this man would have surpassed us all if he had had the master- pieces of art constantly before his eyes as we have.’ Vasari likewise kindly apologises for the rude German artist by saying, that the reason that he has not done better was because ‘ for want of better models he took one or other of his apprentices when he had to design the nude form, and these must have had very ill-formed figures ; as, indeed/ he adds, with true Italian conceit, ‘ the Germans in general have when they are undressed, although one sees many in those countries who appear to be fine men when they are dressed/ Nothing like making facts to fit one’s theories ! Even Kugler, one of the most appreciative of Diirer’s critics, laments that ‘ he was unable wholly to renounce the general tendency to the fantastic — a tendency which essen- tially obstructed the pure development of his power as an artist / and numerous other writers agree that Diirer would have been a greater artist had he had Italian training, and had he modelled his art on that of Greece instead of indulging a wild Teutonic imagination. But it seems to me that no one can thoroughly understand or enjoy Diirer’s art unless they regard this ‘strange tendency to the fantastic ’ as one of its chief charms. It is a very narrow perception of beauty that can only find it under one established standard. The art of the North has a peculiar character and beauty of its own, and it is a sad limitation of * Engraved by H^gidius Sadeler from a drawing by Diirer. 12 i;8 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. our capabilities of enjoyment if we refuse to admire a ‘fan- tastic ’ poem of Albrecht Diirer’s because it has neither the epic grandeur nor the sweet lyric elegance of the great artists of the ancient world. Beauty in the ordinary sense of the term is not, it is true, one of the distinguishing characteristics of Diirer’s art. We cannot predicate of one of Diirer’s Virgins that she is necessarily beautiful of face and form as we can of one of Raphael’s, and yet beauty of some sort is to be found, if we look for it, in every one of his representations of the Madonna. The strange figure of 4 Melencolia ’ is certainly not beautiful, according to our preconceived notions of beauty ; yet if you look long enough at that grand winged woman, she awes you with a solemn, sphinx-like beauty of her own, which is something apart from mere sensuous loveliness. Again, the stolid female figure with the massive braids of hair and fantastic crown who is about to be kissed by the hideous satyr, in the plate known as * Death’s Coat of Arms,’ almost repulses you at first by her extreme ugliness ; yet after a while you find you are strangely attracted by her, and are gazing into her deep eyes, vainly endeavour- ing to penetrate the mystery in which she seems enveloped. This feeling of mystery, this sense of some hidden meaning, in so many of Diirer’s works, adds wonderfully to their inte- rest ; for they are not merely childish symbolical puzzles, like many of the representations of moral attributes which were so fashionable at one period, but they express in poetic language the thought of the artist’; the realism of these weird engra- vings, and their minute accuracy of detail, are amongst the strangest facts about them ; even their wildest conceptions are patiently worked out. Some writer, I forget at the moment whom, speaks of being ‘haunted ’ by Dtirer’s ‘ Melencolia.’ He says that that grand brooding woman entered into his dreams and gave him no rest night or day. I can well understand this feeling. There is a certain vivid force about Diirer’s creations that gives them a terrible reality : they have, so to speak, a body as well as a soul, and thus they lay hold of our memory with a strength that no mere disembodied imps of the imagination could exert. THE KNIGHT, DEATH, AND THE DEVIL. 179 This realism of the fantastic imagination is a quality common to many great artists. What can be more weird, for instance, and at the same time more real, than some of the descriptions in Coleridge’s ‘Ancient Mariner’? ‘The skinny hand so brown ’ of that ancient man is laid upon us as well as upon the wedding guest, and we likewise are haunted by those dead men standing together on the rotting deck, and feel as though they fixed on us ‘ Their stony eyes That in the moon did glitter.’ The whole poem, indeed, holds us fast by the same sort of mysterious fascination as that exercised on the wedding guest. This is precisely the effect that many of Differs engravings have. They lay hold of us, whether we will or no, and force us sometimes to turn from the admiring contemplation of much more beautiful creations of art, to listen to their sad strange stories. The print known by the titles of ‘The Knight, Death, AND THE Devil,’ ‘ The Horse of Death,’ and ‘ The Christian Knight,’ is perhaps the most celebrated of all Differs engra- vings. All critics agree that it is one of his very finest works, and all agree that he meant something by it, but here their unanimity ceases, for every critic has a theory of his own as to what this meaning really was. A knight in full armour, with sword at his side and lance in his hand, rides through a wild rocky defile with Death and a horrible fiend for his close companions. Death rides a little in front of the knight, on a lame horse, the head of which is bent nearly to the ground as it limps along. He carries an hour-glass in one hand : the sand in it has nearly run out, and he holds this up before the knight with a sorrowful expression on his ghastly countenance. His head and neck are encircled with snakes that twist round the sharp-pointed crown he wears in token of his sovereignty, and his long white beard falls down on his hollow chest. A fearful demon of loathsome animal form follows close behind the knight’s horse and stretches forth his claws to clutch his prey, which, however, he does not quite reach. 12—2 180 r LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. But the knight takes no heed of these fearful apparitions : he is not in the least like one, who ‘ On a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round, walks on And turns no more his head, Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.’ Whether conscious or not of his horrible companions, he is at all events unmoved by their presence, and holds on to his purpose, whatever that may be, undismayed by the powers of death and hell. Nothing can equal the steadfast determina- tion of his face. The furrows of care and thought line his cheeks, but his mouth is set in firm resolution, and his eyes look straight forward on the road he is travelling, a road from which he will not be held back by any presentiment of coming danger. Is this road a good or an evil one ? Is the end he is setting forth to attain a righteous or an unrighteous one ? On this principal point the commentators on this picture are wholly disagreed ; some representing the knight as an evil man going forth to do deeds of darkness, and for whose soul the Devil is waiting, and others declaring him to be a Christian soldier pursuing his noble course through life undaunted by the terrors of the valley of the shadow of death. Thus Heller interprets this print as follows :* ‘ In a wild rocky landscape a knight is seen in the fore- ground wending his way towards the left. He is in the full knightly armour of that period, although his horse is not in armour, but in ordinary harness. He guides his horse with his left hand, and holds a lance in his right, on which hangs a fox’s skin, signifying cunning. His sword hangs at his left side, and on his right there rides, on an old tired-out horse, which has a bell round its neck, Death, the King of Terrors, in frightful human form ; on his head is a crown which, as well as his neck, is wound round with snakes. In his right hand he holds an hour-glass, the sand of which has already Heller, No. 1013. THE KNIGHT, DEATH, AND THE DEVIL. 1 8 1 run through one third, and this he shows with a fearful look to the knight, meaning by this, “ Turn from thine evil ways, for thy life will soon be over, and in a short time thou wilt belong to the evil one,” who stands behind with the frightful face of an animal that has long ears and two twisted and one bent horn. His feet are those of a satyr, and a tail can also be perceived. In his left claw he holds a grappling-hook, and with his right he nearly touches the knight’s back. Under the horse runs the faithful dog of the knight, who accompanies him even to death and hell.’ Such is Heller’s interpretation of the meaning of this pic- ture, and he has been followed with slight variations by several other commentators. But by far the greater number of critics take the opposite view of the knight’s character, and represent him as bearing out the names they give to the plate — ‘The Christian Knight,’ and ‘ The Knight of the Reformation.’ Dr. von Eye, indeed, considers that Diirer had in his mind the personification of the noblest type of German character, and recognises in the knight the ‘ upright German man,’ who has ‘ that attachment to a principle, to an idea, that marks every noble son of our race from his youth upwards,’ and who will not be frightened from endeavouring to realise his idea by the ‘ Depths and Horrors of Life.’ Kugler likewise belongs to the number who take the favourable view of the knight’s character. ‘ I believe I do not exaggerate/ he says, ‘ when I particularise this print as the most important work which the fantastic spirit of German art has ever produced. The invention may be ascribed unreservedly to the imagination of the master. We see a solitary knight riding through a dark glen ; two demons rise up before him, the most fearful which the human breast can conceive — the personification of thoughts at which the cheek grows pale — the horrible figure of Death on the lame horse, and the bewildering apparition of the devil. But the knight, prepared for combat wherever resistance can avail, with a countenance on which time has imprinted its furrows, and to which care and self-denial have imparted an expression of deep and unconquerable determination, looks steadily for- ward on the path which he has chosen, and allows these 1 82 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. creations of a delusive dream to sink again into their visionary kingdom/* Such are the interpretations that three of the principal writers on Diirer’s works have put upon this plate. They still leave it in mystery — a mystery to which everyone must find a key for himself in his own understanding of its teaching. Without seeking to propound any particular theory, I would merely suggest that Diirer may have had a much plainer meaning in his mind than most of his interpreters have found for him. Are not Death and the Devil the con- stant companions of every man in his journey through life ? The sand in the hour-glass of our lives, — is it not ever flowing, and does not death await us at every turn in our road ? Evil thoughts likewise, animal desires, and selfish aims, — are they not perpetually rising in our minds, so that we need every instant to say, ‘ Get thee behind me, Satan ?’ and is not the victory to him who goes on steadily in the path of duty, nor swerves to the right hand nor to the left in his course through the narrow pass of life ? It may possibly have been Diirers meaning to depict the ‘ Christian Knight ’ going forth to some difficult and danger- ous undertaking, in which he knows he shall probably meet w r ith his death. Satan seeks to hold him back ; thoughts of death rise up in his breast ; but he will not be deterred from the set purpose he has in view by any fears of the devil, or the grave, or any remembrance of the sweet home-life he has left in the castle on the hill. The Devil, therefore, cannot clutch him ; Death cannot make him afraid ; he but tightens the reins of his horse in his left hand, and goes on his way, deter- mined, as the German hymn expresses it, ‘ to ride through Death and through Devil/ It was in the same spirit as this that Luther said, ‘ I would ride into Leipsic though it rained Duke Georges for nine days running/*)* It has been supposed by some writers that the ‘ Knight ’ depicted was a portrait of Franz von Sickingen, one of the * Kugler and Crowe, ‘ Handbook of Painting : German School.’ | The fox’s brush which the knight bears on his spear signifies cunning in German ; it may mean here, that the knight has overcome the cunning or malice of his enemies, for the fox has been killed, and he carries the brush in triumph on his spear. THE KNIGHT, DEATH, AND THE DEVIL. 183 heroes of the Reformation, and the unaccustomed letter S. on the tablet bearing Diirer’s monogram at the left-hand corner of the picture, is thought to have reference to his name. But the features of the knight bear no resemblance to the known portraits of Sickingen, and besides there is no evidence to show that Diirer was ever acquainted with that turbulent Reformer. Several old catalogues likewise assert that a certain Philip Ring, who was a sort of official messenger of the town of Niirn- berg in Diirer’s time, is here represented — an idea founded on some foolish story about the said Philip Ring having had an alarming apparition of the Devil during one of his nightly journeys. In fact, there are almost as many different supposi- tions regarding the portraiture of the knight as about his character, one hypothesis being, that Diirer depicted him- self under this guise ; and another — the most extravagant of all — that the features of the knight are those of a criminal who was executed in Niirnberg about the date of the com- pletion of the plate, and whose name happened to begin with S, thus accounting for that letter on the tablet in the corner.* But if the features of the knight be really those of some in- dividual known to Diirer, the most probable conjecture seems to be that they are those of Stephen Baumgartner, the friend to whom, it will be remembered, Diirer sends greeting in several of his letters. The reason for supposing this is, that in an altar-piece that Diirer painted for the Baumgartner family, the portrait of Stephen Baumgartner, who is represented on one of the wings in the character of St. George, bears some resemblance to the knight of the engraving ; and, furthermore, in the background of the painting there is the same rocky pass and castle on the hill as in the copper-plate. Nor is this view disproved by the fact that Diirer probably copied in his en- graving a drawing that he had already made of a knight in * See an article on Diirer’s Allegorical Engravings ’ in the Gentleman's Magazine for October 1866. Mr. F. H. Holt, the writer of this and several other articles on the subject, puts forward startling, and in some cases it must be owned somewhat ingenious hypotheses concerning the meaning of several of Diirer’s best-known engravings ; but unfortunately, as is too often the case with would-be discoverers, he proclaims his unverified hypotheses as established truths, and thus fails to render any real service to the students of Diirer’ s works. 1 84 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. , armour in the year 1498. The figure of the knight is evi- dently taken from this study, now in the Albertina Collection at Vienna, but the features in the drawing are quite different to those in the engraving and in the painting ; there is no reason, however, why Diirer should not have portrayed his friend, and at the same time made use of a former study for a knight on horseback.* So much regarding the purport of this celebrated plate. Its execution, as everyone knows, is a perfect marvel of careful and difficult work. It is dated 1513, and therefore belongs to the most fruitful period of Diirer’s genius. It has several times been copied in oil, but no very good reproduction of it on copper has ever yet been achieved, probably on account of its enormous difficulty of execution. La Motte Fouque’s romance of ‘ Sintram and his Com- panions ’ was suggested, he tells us, by this engraving ; and that charming work therefore must be taken as one of the many interpretations that Diirer’s meaning has received. I have dwelt thus long on this one engraving, because I con- sider it, and the ‘ Melencolia ’ of the following year (1514), to be two of the most characteristic works of Diirer’s mind at the period of its ripest development. After his return from Italy, in 1507, he seems to have renewed his strength, for the activity of his mind, and the vast number of ideas to which it gave outward form at this time, are truly amazing. Several of his greatest works in wood-engraving belong, as we have seen, to this fruitful period ; some of his greatest paintings were likewise executed at this time, and most of his finest engravings on copper. But before this ‘ blooming time,’ as the Germans call it, of his art, Diirer had already executed many remarkable en- gravings, which must not be passed by without notice. The earliest dated copper-plate that we find signed with his monogram, is that known as ‘ The Four Naked Women', ox ‘ Four Witches ! It represents four naked women standing close f Over the drawing is written in Durer’s handwriting, c Dy ist der rustung zu der Zeit in Tewyschlant gewest. ’ ‘This is the armour of that time in Germany.’ There are two other studies of this horseman in the same collection ; one with and one without the dog, but in neither is there any other figure. THE FOUR NAKED WOMEN. 185 together beneath a large ball or globe that is suspended above their heads, and on which are the letters O. G. H. A skull and human bones lie on the floor, and a small devil is seen peering in through a door in the background, surrounded by flames and smoke. The subject has generally been supposed to relate to witchcraft, but no decisive interpretation has been found for it, although endless conjectures have been made. This plate is dated 1497, and although the execution is already very skilful, it would seem to belong to that early time. But the question has arisen as to whether this plate and several others, probably of about the same date, were original works by Diirer, or whether they were not copied from another master. For many of these plates supposed to belong to Diirer’s early time, are found also with the signature W. in the middle, at the bottom of the print. Now this signature of W. is referred by most old writers to Wohlgemuth, and was generally accepted by critics as his signature, until Adam Bartsch, the catalogue- maker and keeper of prints at Vienna, lit upon an old inscrip- tion on one of the prints so signed, stating that ‘ the engraver of this was called Wenceslans , and was a goldsmithl Since then, on Bartsch’s authority, they have been made over, without further examination, to one Wenceslaus von Olmutz, of whom nothing more is known than that his name appears on a copy of Schongauer’s ‘ Death of the Virgin.’ But is it so certain that Bartsch was right ? All the old Niirnberg catalogues of prints refer this letter W. to the Niirn- berg master Wohlgemuth, and especially it is stated in the catalogue of Baron Derschau’s collection, printed in Niirnberg in 1825, that the three prints marked with W. representing ‘ Amymone,’ ‘ The Dream,’ and c The Promenade,’ that Diirer copied , were certainly executed by Wohlgemuth, for the copper- plates towards the close of the last century were still in existence at Niirnberg, in the possession of the dealer Knorr, whose books show that they were bought by his firm from the heirs of Wohlgemuth. But besides this and other historical evidence, Professor Thausing, in his recent ‘ Life of Diirer,’ has brought forward some curious minute points of internal evidence that leave 1 86 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. little room for doubt that Diirer copied from the master W. and not the master W. from him. And if so, is not this master more likely to have been Wohlgemuth than any other? What more natural than for the pupil in his early time to have copied the works of his master. Professor Thausing indeed in his carefully studied chapter, entitled ‘ Der Wettstreit mit Wolge - mut und die friihen Kupferstiche / proves almost conclusively that such was the case. Though disagreeing with him on many points, on this I fully recognise the force of his reasoning. Of course this view of the subject robs Diirer of a certain number of plates of which he has generally been supposed to have been the originator ; but no one need grudge them to another master, for they are not usually pleasant inventions. Among them come The Four Naked Women before mentioned (Heller, 861). Amymone, or, The(Sea-Rider (H. 8oi). — One of the fifty daughters of King Danaus, borne off by a sea-god of mourn- ful aspect while she and her sisters were bathing. Such, at least, is the classical interpretation given to this very un- classical and ugly print. The Dream of Love (Heller, 854). — A prosaic-looking and portly gentleman has fallen asleep as he sits by a closed stove, and, prosaic as he appears, his fancy is disporting itself amongst the marvels and vanities of dreamland. A little flying demon, armed with a pair of bellows, blows into the ear of the sleeper. A naked woman, perhaps meant for Venus — for there is a winged Love by her side, and there is no saying under what guise, or disguise, she may have appeared to an obese German gentleman of the sixteenth century — stands by his side, and appears to be whispering her sweet insinuations to him. Love is about to raise himself on a pair of stilts. The Promenade, or Knight and Lady (Heller, 884). — A noble but sad-looking mediaeval couple taking a walk together, while Death lurks behind a tree and grins at them. A thoughtful and quite Diireresque subject, but it exists also with the sig- nature ‘W.,’ and Prof. Thausing points out that in Diirer’s version the knight wears his sword on the left side, and offers his left hand to the lady — thus making it almost certain that it was a reversed copy. OTHER PRINTS. 18/ The Great Hercules, or, Jealousy (Heller, 815). — A great deal has been written as to the meaning of this print, which Diirer called himself ‘ Erodes.’ It seems tolerably certain that it refers in mediaeval language to the classical story of Hercules and Dejanira. The Virgin with the Monkey (Heller, 628). — A well- known print in which a melancholy Virgin sits in the foreground on the bank of a far-flowing river. The child appears to be teasing a bird, while a chained monkey sits at the feet of the Virgin. On the opposite side of the river is seen a small chalet, of which there is a water-colour drawing by Diirer in the British Museum, with the word ‘ Weiherhaus ’ written across it. The Lady on Horseback (Heller, 991), a small plate called also the ‘ Little Amazon! These engravings are all found with the signature ‘ W.’ as well as that of Diirer, and if we accept this ‘ W.’ as denoting Wohlgemuth, the probability becomes great that Diirer was in these cases the copier and not the inventor. There was nothing unfair or dishonest in making such copies, for it was the general practice of the time. The master W., or Wohlgemuth, as we may perhaps again call him, is known to have copied no fewer than forty-three of Schongauer’s engravings, as well as several from the Master of 1480. The practice was only regarded as reprehensible when the copier put the mark of the original artist upon his plate, as in the case of Marc Antonio, who affixed Diirer’s mark and not his own to his copies of the ‘ Life of the Virgin. Then it was a forgery, and might be restrained, but otherwise artists might, and did, copy freely from one another, using their own parti- cular signature, or monogram, as a trade-mark protective of their rights. Besides those named, Prof. Thausing refers several other Diirer engravings to the account of Wohlgemuth or some older master ; but as no originals are known, the question of course remains doubtful. Turning from these early works of doubtful originality, we will now consider some of the great and undoubted creations of Diirer’s mind. Adam and Eve (1504) is reckoned amongst Durer’s principal works, and indeed, so far as execution goes, it can 1 88 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. only be equalled by some of his very finest engravings. The tree of knowledge stands in the middle of the picture, with Adam and Eve on either side of it. Eve is about to receive the apple from the serpent, who holds it in his mouth, having but just plucked it from the tree ; but in her other hand she has already a branch of the tree itself with another apple upon it. Adam’s glance is turned towards her, but neither of our first parents is the least moved by their rebellious act, and Diirer seems to me to have entirely failed in expressing this momentous crisis of their history. Animals of all kinds, as was customary in all the older representations of the Fall, surround them. A rat sits at Adam’s feet and a cat at Eve’s. A parrot swings on the branches overhead, and a cow and rabbit are together at the right ; an elk goes off into the darkness of the wood, and a goat — most likely an allusion to the sacrificial goat upon whom should be laid the sin of Eve’s descendants — is seen in the distance. The effect of the engraving is greatly enhanced by the dark stems of the trees in the background throwing into strong relief the figures of Adam and Eve. The Nativity of the Year 1504 (Heller, 127). — The mother kneels in rapturous adoration before her new-born babe, who lies on a block of stone beneath the shelter of a humble dwelling that seems to have grown up amidst the ruins of some old castle or abbey. The massive stone- work and Norman arches of this feudal building form a striking contrast to the wooden beams, latticed window, and thatched roof of the habitable portion of the picturesque home. Joseph outside is occupied drawing water, and an old shep- herd in the background enters to the holy presence of mother and child with folded hands and on his knees. The heads of the ox and the ass are likewise seen in the darkness behind. The execution of this charming little print is most careful ; every minutest detail, every tuft of grass on the decaying wall, is faithfully rendered, and the bold manner in which the clump of bushes at the top of the ruined turret stands out against the sky, shows most admirable skill in compo- sition ; take those rough branches away, and the effect of the whole is marred. Diirer’s tablet, with the date 1504, and his THE PRODIGAL SON. 189 monogram on it, hangs out as a signboard at the top of the dwelling. The Prodigal Son (Heller, 477) is one of the most tender and at the same time one of the most sorrowful of Durer’s conceptions. It is undated, and was probably an early work, but the conception is so entirely Diiresque, that it is impossible to conceive that it was copied from Wohlgemuth, although Gerard von Kinkelbach includes this in the prints he enumerates as copied by Diirer from the Meister W. No print signed W. is, however, known to exist, and even Pro- fessor Thausing cannot bring himself to believe that this is not an original conception. It is said by some that Diirer represented himself under the form of the Prodigal ;* and indeed the well-formed features, the arched nose, and the long curling hair of the younger son, who kneels in agony of spirit amongst the swine he is tending, bear some resemblance to the artist’s portraits of himself. If this were so, it gives us a deep insight into Diirer’s frame of mind at the time when he executed this plate. The hungry soul of that young swineherd can never be satisfied, though he should fill his belly many times with the husks that the swine are eating. He has sinned, it is true, against heaven and in his Father’s sight, but his restless, long- ing human heart cannot any longer find pleasure in the unthinking sensuality that his companions are enjoying ; his higher nature asserts itself, and even by his dissatisfaction of spirit he rises above the contented swine that are grunting in peaceful plenty around him. They are not tormented by doubt, they have no longings that cannot be satisfied ; why should not he also eat of their husks and be filled ? Down on his knees at the swine-trough he wrestles with the temptation, and at last, from out his bitter agony, a resolution springs up in his mind, ‘ I will arise and go to my Father.’ ‘ How many * In Rees’ £ Cyclopaedia ’ the writer of the article on the ‘German School of Engraving ’ distinguishes Durer’s ‘ Prodigal Son ’ by the title of ‘ The Infant Prodigy.’ This appropriate name was no doubt derived from some French cata- logue, in which, of course, the print in question would be called ‘ L’Enfant prodigue,’ which the Encyclopaedist, with an equal knowledge of French and Durer’s prints, thus translated. LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 190 hired servants of my Father’s have bread enough and to spare, whilst I perish with hunger !’ — a gnawing soul-hunger, a complaint that Diirer seems to have suffered from all his life. The farm-buildings in this plate are of the old-fashioned German sort, and give the idea of substantial comfort and well- doing. Everything around is suggestive of rest and peaceful enjoyment — the cock on the dunghill, the ducks in the pond, and the doves on the roof are all taking their pleasure as well as the swine at the trough ; only the sad figure of the prodigal swineherd, with his cheeks sunken from hunger and his hands clenched in agonizing prayer, tells of the severe conflict going on within his breast. This plate is finished, even in its most minute details, with the greatest care. The hogs are evidently drawn from life, and the little pig that is trying to reach to eat out of the same trough with them, is true to human as well as to porcine nature. The delightful little pigs in the foreground in their happy gluttony are indeed somewhat a relief from the too melancholy impression produced by this print.* The Penance of St. Chrysostom (Heller, 723) needs the explanation of the legend. This relates that a beautiful princess lost herself one day in the wood where the hermit St. Chrysostom dwelt. After long wandering she came to the door of his hut, and saw the holy man on his knees in prayer. She begged pitifully for shelter, which the saint for a long time refused, but at last, moved by her tears, he let her in, and assigned her one- half of his cell, drawing a boundary line across it, which neither of them was to pass. But the temptation proved too strong for the tried saint. The line was passed, and St. Chrysostom fearing that he should sin still further if he suffered the woman to remain with him, threw her down a steep precipice, and betook himself to the wood, where he crawled about on all- fours like a beast, in order to expiate his guilt. Meanwhile the princess, who was miraculously preserved from destruction, bore a son, who, when he was about to be baptized by the * There is a pen and ink study for this plate in the British Museum. The figure of the Prodigal is only indicated, but the pigs are drawn with great care. OTHER PRINTS. IQI Pope, declared three times that he would only be baptized by St. Chrysostom. The Pope, therefore, was obliged to desist, and the child might have gone unbaptized but that at this very moment some hunters came in, bearing with them a strange wild beast which they had caught. The child, on seeing it, spoke again, and said, * I will be baptized by thee.’ Then said St. Chrysostom, ‘ If it be God’s will, speak again and the child spoke again, and the saint knew that his sin was expiated. On seeking the mother of the child, they found her in the desert, and she related to them how God had taken care of her and her babe, and provided for them in the desert, ‘ for/ as she truly remarked, ‘ nothing is impossible to God.’ In the engraving the princess is seated in front of a rocky cave, suckling her child. She is quite naked, and is more graceful of form and more beautiful of face than most of Diirer’s female figures. There is, indeed, a certain tenderness about her that makes us think that perhaps Dlirer’s sympathies were not entirely with the repentant saint, who is seen in the background crawling on hands and feet, with a beard reaching to the ground, but still with the glory circle in undiminished brightness over his head. The Penance of St. Jerome (Heller, 776). — St. Jerome, a powerful old man, whose ascetic practices have not been able en- tirely to subdue the fire of his great intellect, kneels alone in a rocky desert place, and beats his naked breast with a stone, look- ing up the while at the image of his suffering Redeemer, which he has set up on one of the rocks before him. The lion, his cus- tomary companion, and fitting symbolical representative, lies beside him. Good impressions of this plate are very rare. It has been often copied. The Family of the Satyr (Heller, 819), a small plate dated 1505. The family consists of mother, child, and goat- footed sire. The father plays on a pipe, to which his wife and child, who have no animal proclivities, but appear to be well- formed human beings, listen with evident satisfaction. The whole scene is one of pure, light-hearted enjoyment. The Offer of Love (Heller, 891) is accompanied by an offer of money, that seems to be a great deal more acceptable to the young and pretty-looking woman to whom it is made 192 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. than the affection of the horrid old man who clasps her with one hand round the waist as they sit together on a bank, and with the other fumbles in his purse for coin to put into her, hand, which she greedily holds out for this purpose. The horse of the amorous old knight is fastened to a tree at the side. This plate has had all sorts of absurd names given to it ; it has been called, for instance, Judith and Tamar, though for what reason it is difficult to find ; and it has likewise, equally without foundation, been supposed to have reference to the love affairs of an ancient member of the Tucher family in Nurnberg, who married a young girl in his old age. Prof. Thausing considers it to have been copied from some older master. Another somewhat repulsive subject of this class is styled by Heller and others, A Woman DEFENDING HERSELF AGAINST AN ATTEMPTED Rape (Heller, 893), but probably the title that has been found for it has nothing to do with Diirer’s true meaning. A horrible wild and naked man holds fast in his grasp a frightfully ugly woman, who struggles pain- fully to get out of his arms, catching hold of the stem of a tree that grows near to wrest herself away. The print is not remarkable for anything except its ugliness, for there is none of the terrible force in it that produces a sort of shuddering sensation in the etching of ‘ The Woman borne off on a Unicorn.’ Coat of Arms with Death’s Head, 1503 (Heller 98) ; a large and very fine print. An escutchon with a skull for its only emblazonment, carries a helmet on the top of it, from which spring a pair of wings and some conventional foliage. The whole is supported by a woman, of German type, with a strange expression of countenance. Peering over her shoulder is seen the hairy head of a satyr who seems about to embrace her. The meaning is difficult to understand. A PRODIGIOUS Hog (Heller, 1019). — It appears that such a hog as Diirer has here drawn, having ‘two bodies, eight feet, four ears, and two tongues,’ etc., was really born in a village near Nurnberg, for the ‘ Nurnberg Chronicle ’ has preserved a record of it. This hideous monster, which for some time puzzled critics — who could not understand for what reason SINGLE SUBJECTS. 193 Diirer could possibly have invented it — was therefore really a sketch from nature — hog nature. Justice, formerly styled The Nemesis (Heller, 826).— A man sitting on a lion, with a sword and scales in his hand. Tiie Little Fortune (Heller, 837). — A naked woman standing on a globe, with a thistle in her hand. The Great Horse, 1505 (Heller, 1009); The Little Horse, 1505 (Heller, 1000). — Both these plates have probably some deeper signification than appears ; they certainly do not simply mean, as it would seem at first study of them, to interest us in the anatomy and fine proportions of the horse, accurately as these are rendered. There is a vague sense of mystery about both of them that makes itself felt even while we are thinking of the magnificent manner in which the work is executed. That solemn warrior, with the huge helmet, whose head just reaches above the back of the Great Horse, what mighty enterprise is he meditating ? to what nation does he belong? and what is the meaning of the wings on the feet of the warrior of the Little Horse ? and why is that pot of fire, or of incense, burning on the top of the ruined wall ? Such questions as these come naturally into our minds when we are regarding Diirer’s works. Explanations are, of course, easy to find, for Diirer is always suggestive of ideas. Yet the true answer, that is to say, the answer that he himself would have given had he been asked, is frequently not to be found. Much always remains that is enigmatical and myste- rious — and probably Diirer himself was not in all cases con- scious of the whole signification of his work. A great creative mind, such as his, is often unaware of the full power of its own conceptions ; it is not moved by them in the same way that other people are moved ; indeed, it is often amazed at finding what a strange growth has developed from the germ it has planted. Diirer, especially, threw out his ideas on all subjects with such incredible rapidity that he cannot always have stopped to meditate on what interpretation might be given to them. In looking over any large collection of his prints, the mind becomes fatigued in a very short time by the vast number of new and profound thoughts that are presented to it. This is 13 194 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. why I should recommend anyone who desires to gain any real knowledge of Duress works to study them one by one with diligence and patience, and by no means to attempt to examine a whole portfolio-full at one sitting. It is only to the loving and thoughtful student that Diirer reveals anything of the true nature of his philosophy ; others may, it is true, admire his marvellous execution, and take a certain delight in his fantastic conceptions, but the real soul of the man remains hidden for ever from them, and therefore they fail to gain any insight into the underlying thought of his art. I have now enumerated all the principal engravings bearing date before Diirer’s visit to Venice, or considered to belong to this early period of his art. There are some few besides of more or less importance that I have not named, for, as before- said, I do not pretend to give a catalogue raisonne of Diirer* s works, but only to point out the most significant. We now come to those bearing date after the Venice period, that is, after 1 507. Foremost amongst these stands the engraved series of the Passion : The PASSION IN COPPER, as Diirer calls it, to dis- tinguish it from the Great Passion and the Little Passion engraved in wood. This Passion is, perhaps, less known at the present day than the other two, for good impressions of the plates are less frequently to be met with, but it is certainly in no way inferior, indeed in many respects it is superior to either of the others. The plates are about the same size as those of the Little Passion, but there are not nearly so many of them — the Little Passion consisting of thirty-seven, and the Passion in Copper of only sixteen plates. As in the other two Passions, the frontispiece represents the Man of Sorrows. He stands on a slightly raised plat- form, beside a pillar, His arms crosswise upon His breast, and holding in one hand a scourge, and in the other a reed. His hands and feet are pierced as in the other representations, and the blood flows from His wounded side, so that it is evident that Diirer did not intend a strictly literal expression of the historical event ; but somehow the symbol here is not felt so perfectly as in the two touching figures of Christ that serve Heliog^ et imp , A-, Durand- Paris / THE PASSION IN COPPER. 195 as frontispieces to the woodcut Passions. The slightly cower- ing attitude of Christ mars the dignity of the typical Man ; and the Virgin and St. John, who stand below in sorrowful adoration do not express, as Diirer doubtless intended they should, the love and worship of Christendom, but only their own individual sorrow. Three crosses are seen through an arch on a hill in the distance. The plate is dated 1 509, so that it would appear to have been the earliest of the three conceptions. Christ on the Mount of Olives is the subject of Plate No. 2, thus beginning at a far more advanced stage of Christ’s history than the other Passions. The figure of Christ here is grandly conceived, but the manner in which He ex- presses PI is agony of spirit by throwing His arms up over His head is somewhat theatrical, and breaks the calm of the whole scene. St. Peter, who sleeps to the right, is a very noble figure. Dated 1508. The Betrayal (No. 3). — A rich composition of many figures, the grand one of Christ being well distinguished from that of Judas, who fastens his lips upon those of Jesus with greedy hate. A man, looking like a watchman, is conspicuous behind, holding in his hand a flaming torch : and in the far distance is seen the young man who left the linen cloth that he had about his body, and fled from the men who laid hold of him, naked. I do not remember having elsewhere seen this incident, recorded by St. Mark, introduced into a repre- sentation of the Betrayal. The usual incident — Peter cutting off the ear of the servant of the High Priest — is also depicted in the foreground. Dated 1510. Christ before Caiaphas (No. 4) is much the same in composition as the same subject in the Little Passion, only the figure of Christ is here much nobler. The right-hand man, who leads Jesus forward, is of the solemn old German type, and not at all the fiendish barbarian that Diirer has sometimes drawn. Dated 1512. Christ before Pilate (No. 5)- — Pilate stands near a column, under a sort of portico, listening to a Jew who gives his false witness against Jesus. One of the soldiers who drag Christ forward is bending down. Dated 1512. 13—2 196 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Christ scourged (No. 6). — Similar in treatment to that of the other Passions. Dated 1512. Christ mocked (No. 7). — He holds a reed as sceptre in His hand, and wears the crown of thorns upon His head, which one of his tormentors is pressing down upon His fore- head. Dated 1512. Ecce Homo : Christ presented to the People (No. 8). — Here the composition is quite different to that of the other Passions. Christ does not look forth from a window, but stands on an elevation of two steps, with Pilate by His side, who merely takes hold of Christ’s mantle, no insult being offered to Him. In the foreground, immediately facing Christ, is a man in a most curious costume. He is in armour, but he wears over his armour a long white linen garment, which reaches from the neck until it touches the ground both before and behind. It is open at the sides, so that the mailed arm and leg of the wearer are fully displayed ; indeed it chiefly resembles a long pinafore, such as girls used to wear some years ago.* He also has on his head a very peculiar white cap, cut into scallops and hanging over his forehead. Dated i5 12 - Pilate washing his Hands (No. 9). — Pilate sits on a raised seat, and a hideous little German soldier, with a high soft hat on his head, kneels before him with a basin in his hand, into which he is pouring water. Christ, conducted by two soldiers, is led away below. Dated 15 12. Christ bearing the Cross (No. 10). — Christ does not sink beneath the weight of the cross as in the more celebrated representation of this subject which Raphael copied, but bears it across his shoulder, only stooping slightly forward with his heavy burden. A brutal soldier, in fantastic mediaeval dress, is dragging him forward by the mantle, of which he has tight hold at the neck. The figure of Christ is very grand and touching ; altogether this is a nobler conception than the * Readers of ‘Froissart’ will doubtless remember that Sir John Chandos is described as having met with his death from wearing a similar robe to this : ‘ A large robe which fell to the ground, blazoned with his arms on white sarcenet.’ The brave knight stumbled over this inconvenient garment in a skirmish with the French, and was thus caught at a disadvantage by a squire, ‘ a strong, expert man,’ who made a thrust at him with his lance, and killed him. <\ ' THE PASSION IN COPPER. 197 other representations of this subject. Veronica kneels by the side of Christ, and the Virgin and St. John follow in the press behind. Dated 1512. The Crucifixion (No. ii). — A simple and quiet treat- ment of the subject, but exceedingly solemn from the absence of all theatrical effect. It is strange to contrast Dtirer’s earnest and pious representations of this subject with the magnificent displays of Rubens. The one master felt the truth of the scene he represented, the other seized on it as one calculated to show forth his own astonishing powers to the utmost. Dated 15 11. Christ taken down from the Cross (No. 12). — This, again, is simple in treatment. The arms of the cross are not seen, so that it stands in the centre of the print like a thick stem of a tree. Christ lies at the foot of it, with St. John supporting His head, and the Virgin one arm. The Mag- dalene throws up her arms in the conventional manner, and her stout and ugly German figure and vehement expression disturb somewhat the quiet of the awful scene. Another fault is that the Christ here does not look dead. Dated 1507. The earliest date of the series. Tpie Entombment (No. 13). — Three disciples, one of them wearing a high-crowned fur or beaver hat, place the body of Christ in a stone tomb. The holy women and St. John stand by. Dated 1512. The Descent into Hell ; or, Release of the Souls from THE Prison-House (No. 14). — Here again Diirer, as in the somewhat similar compositions in the Great and Little Passion, has entirely departed from the conventional method of representing hell ; indeed, I do not believe that he had any idea in his mind when it conceived this strange subject, of representing the Catholic hell, or purgatory, in the meaning that was then attached to those terms. This strange print seems capable of a far deeper and more universal application. These are not disembodied spirits, but real men and women, whom the coming of Christ sets free from the chain of their sins. The beams of divine love and pity have pierced the dark mansion in which they so long have dwelt, and gladly they accept the brother-hand that is held out to help them. 198 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. The figure of Christ here is very grand : majesty and love inextricably mingled ! strength and tenderness for ever com- bined ! But the principal idea that this figure conveys to the mind is that of help — power to help — help to ascend from the underground abodes of doubt, darkness, and despair towards the blessed light of God’s love, which shines over all His universe, although we sometimes bury ourselves in under- ground cells, and refuse to look out and see it. Possibly also Diirer may have had in his mind, when he drew these solemn but at the same time mystical and fantastic engrav- ings, that strange passage in the Epistle of St. Peter, which alludes to Christ preaching to the spirits in prison. Such a dark hint as this gives of some unknown mystery would be sure to take hold of Diirer’s imagination ; and if once it had done this, it was pretty sure to receive outward shape. Everything that Diirer felt powerfully, he saw vividly. He did not simply copy nature , but, if I may use the term, I would say he created nature — that is to say, he gave to his abstract ideas a distinct, concrete form ; witness, for instance, his de- scription of the death-bed scene of his mother (see p. 102). One feels in reading it that he really ‘ saw/ as he says, and not merely fancied, the figure of Death coming, and giving her ‘ two great blows on the heart.’ He could have painted the whole scene with wonderful distinctness ; indeed, his simple words are so many strokes of the artist’s brush which do really paint it for us. This, of course, is a faculty common to all great artists and dramatists. They all more or less project their thoughts into definite form, and then look at and mould them as something apart from themselves. Clearness of vision, indeed, next to creative power, is the great distinctive attribute of the true artist ; and this clearness of vision, so far as his eye could pierce, Diirer had to a remarkable extent ; only he differs from most other artists in this, that he recog- nises that there is a region into which his eye cannot pierce, and which his mind cannot know, but of whose existence it yet is dimly aware. It is this hint of the unknown which gives his pictures such strange fascinating power. It is not so much what they say as what they do not say that moves us. In this print we are now considering, it is not the grand figure THE PASSION IN COPPER. 199 of Christ, solemn and beautiful as that is ; it is not the well- drawn figures of Adam and Eve, although Eve here is much pleasanter to behold than Durer generally makes her ; it is not the noble and mournful face looking out wistfully from the vaults, although this awakens yearnings of sympathy in our hearts ; it is not the shapes bred of darkness that lurk around ; it is not even the great dragon curling over the arch through which Christ has entered, and poking at Adam’s head with a spear — a dragon who, ‘Wroth to see his kingdom fail, Swindges the scaly horror of his folded tail.’ No, it is none of these things, but it is the sense of some- thing beyond these things, something of which they are but the symbols, which affects us so strongly, and awes us with the same kind of giddy feeling we experience in looking down an abyss of which we cannot see the bottom. In execution this plate leaves nothing to be desired. It ranks amongst Diirer’s most finished works, as indeed do all the plates of the Passion in Copper. It is dated 1512. Heller enumerates no fewer than eighteen copies of it. The Resurrection (No. 15). — Christ rises in a blaze of heavenly light, from which one of the awakening Roman soldiers is obliged to hide his eyes, too weak to bear the glorious sight. The figure of Christ, standing on the slab of the tomb with the banner of peace in one hand and the other extended in blessing, is very nobly conceived. Peter and John healing tpie Lame Man at the Gate of ti-ie Temple (No. 16). — This plate is often not reckoned in the series ; but although its subject is somewhat beyond the personal history of our Lord, yet from its being of the same character and size as the other plates, it is convenient to include it amongst their number. It is dated 1513, a year later than any of the others ; it was therefore probably executed as an additional or supplementary subject. The face of the lame man in this print is very powerful and expressive ; he lies at the foot of one of the pillars of the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and looks up to Peter (who is here different in type to the usual representations of him) for 200 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. help, although a man with a beard, probably some noble Pharisee, stands close to him holding a big purse, from which he is distributing alms, in his hand. ‘ Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none ; but siich as I have give I thee : In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk.’ This is the last plate of the set. The Passion in Copper does not seem to have been ever published in book form like the woodcut series ; the plates were apparently put forth at different times, and in no regular sequence : Chelidonius, therefore, was not in this instance called upon to supply the work with Latin verses. It was never, so far as I can discover, published with text during Diirer’s life, but since his death the plates have often served as illustrations to prayer-books and devotional manuals ; numberless copies of this series exist, and even great artists have not disdained occasionally to borrow thoughts from it. Many of the paintings now designated in catalogues as after Albrecht Diirer are indeed so many ideas gathered by his followers from his printed works, and then expressed more or less faithfully, according to the power of the artist, in oils ; but, besides this direct copying of his own school, some of the great Italian masters of his day likewise used his thoughts pretty freely. Andrea del Sarto, for instance, received many suggestions from the works of the German master. Giacomo da Pontormo, a Florentine painter, is known to have copied an entire landscape from one of Differs paintings ; and even the great Titian was indebted to him for the figure of an old woman selling eggs, in the Life of the Virgin series, which he has introduced in his celebrated Presentation in the Temple, painted for the Scuola della CaritaA To the same year as the greater number of the plates of the Passion in Copper, namely, 1512, belong two pieces executed almost entirely, it would seem, with the dry point. The first of these is the figure of Christ WITH BOUND Hands (1512) (Heller, 445), a very rare print, but weak in conception and execution ; the second represents St. Jerome (Heller, 770) in a rocky desert, seated behind a board laid * Mrs. Jameson’s ‘ Legends of the Madonna.’ ETCHINGS. 201 across two projecting pieces of rock, and thus forming a table. An open book before him, and a crucifix, to which he appears to be praying, stands at one corner of the rude table. Diirer’s monogram is near the border of the print, and the date 1512 is placed on a tablet in the sky. Early impressions of this piece are very difficult to obtain. The authorities of the British Museum lately gave a hundred guineas for an impression without the monogram of the artist one of the eagerly sought prizes of collectors. The Holy Family, with Joseph and three other Figures (Heller, 648), is likewise a piece executed with re- markable fineness and beauty with the dry point. The soft warm effect, due to the burr , as it is technically called, which the dry point produces by throwing up the edges of the strokes, is very beautiful in early impressions. It has neither monogram nor date. Both Heller and Bartsch speak of this and the two preceding plates as having been etched on iron but it appears more probable that they were executed, as Ottley asserts, on a softer metal even than copper, and not by the aquafortis method, but simply with the dry point, the instrument with which Rembrandt accomplished much of his finest work. It is strange, considering that the invention of etching has been very generally ascribed to Diirer, that we have not more etchings by] his hand, but not more than, six real etchings are known to be by him. None of these are dated before 1515, and the process of etching must have been already known in the fifteenth century,* so it seems very improbable that he was really the first to discover it. He may possibly have invented some improvement in the method. Saint Veronica, 1510. — This was probably his first attempt at this process. His largest etching represents a Man BEARING OFF A Naked Woman on a Unicorn (Heller, 1813). It is called by Bartsch ‘ Fe Ravissement d’une jeun^ Femme,’ and by others ‘ Pluto carrying off Proserpine.’ It is a wild, weird * There is an etching by Wenzel von Olhniitz in the British Museum, dated 1496. It is a satire on Rome, which is represented in the form of a monstrous woman’s figure, with the head of an ass. Above it is written ‘ Roma caput mundit 202 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. conception, and produces a most uncomfortable, shuddering impression on the beholder. The woman borne off forcibly on the strange beast is frightfully ugly, and the subject alto- gether is dark and fearful. What Diirer meant by it, it is impossible to say, but probably his meaning bore no relation to the names that have been given it. It must be a strangely unimaginative person who could suppose that he intended to depict any ordinary rape, and it is certainly a stretch of French politeness to describe the hideous creature who struggles in the arms of the rider of the unicorn as ‘ une jeune femme.’ Christ seated and crowned with Thorns (Heller, 459); dated 1515. CHRIST ON THE Mount OF OLIVES (Heller, 425); dated 1515. — These two plates are likewise etched, but they are not so powerful as the same subjects in the Passions. Heller gives an interesting history of the original iron plate of the latter of these two etchings. He says that Joseph Schopf, of Innspruck, discovered it in the eighteenth century in the possession of a blacksmith, and rescued it from being converted into horseshoes. From Schopf’s possession, it passed into the hands of the painter and engraver, Johann Georg Schedler, who sold it finally to Heller, so that it is now, in all probability, preserved with the rest of Heller’s treasures at Bamberg. The plate, Heller tells us, was in very good preservation when it came into his hands, which accounts for impressions of it being extremely rare. An Angel bearing the Sudarium, and flying in the air with other angels, holding the instruments of the Passion — a very indistinct print. — The Great CANNON (Heller, 1017), and a Study of some Naked Figures, are the only other etchings with aquafortis decidedly known to be by Diirer, although there are several others ascribed to him. The Knight, Death, and Devil, already described, is the principal engraving of the year 1513; but Heller likewise ascribes The Little Crucifixion, as it is called, The Judgment of Paris, and The small round St. Jerome, to this period. The Little Crucifixion is one of the most exquisitely finished of Diirer’s engravings. It is a small round print, ST. JEROME IN HIS CHAMBER. 203 measuring only one inch five lines in diameter, but into this small circle Diirer has introduced six other figures besides the central one of Christ on the cross, and all represented with a clearness and individuality of expression that it is impossible to conceive without having seen a good impression of the plate. Such impressions are, unfortunately, extremely rare, and only fall as prizes occasionally to rich collectors : perhaps, as this is the case, it is lucky for poor students that there are several very beautiful copies of this print ; one or two, indeed, so exact, that even the best judges have great difficulty in dis- tinguishing them from the original. It has been thought that the Little Crucifixion was originally intended for an ornament on the pommel of the sword of the Emperor Maximilian, or, some critics say, for an ornament upon his hat, for it was not unusual in that age to wear portraits of Christ, the Virgin, or the patron saint, on some part of the dress.* The year 1514 is as distinguished in Dlirer’s history for the production of copper-plates as the year 1 5 1 1 for woodcuts. The two great prints of this year — the St. Jerome IN HIS Chamber and the Melencolia — form, with the Knight, Death, and Devil of the preceding year, the enduring triple crown of Diirer’s art. In these three prints he has put forth all the powers of his mind and all the skilfulness of his hand. Nothing in engraving, perhaps, has ever surpassed the perfect workmanship of the St. Jerome, or the intellectual power, conjoined with perfect workmanship, of the other two. The St. Jerome, in its accurate detail and minute finish, has been compared by Kugler to the works of Gerard Dow ; only the German master did not, like the wearying Dutch one, design the picture merely for the sake of finishing it, but added the careful finish because he took pleasure in the design, and wished to express his thoughts in as perfect language as he could find. Thus, although the details in the St. Jerome are r * In the St'adel Museum at Frankfort, there is an impression of this Little 'Crucifixion, underneath which there is an inscription by a certain Daniel Specklin who lived in the sixteenth century, stating that this Crucifixion was engraved on a gold plate for the sword of Maximilian, and that the writer had himself seen this sword at Innspruck, but that afterwards it had been taken to Vienna. This seems to be conclusive testimony. 204 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. executed with as much patient elaboration as any Dutch artist ever bestowed, they are not the first things that force them- selves upon our notice. The erudite Father of the Church, with his great Cardinal’s hat hung up on the wall just over his head, sits at a bare oak table, on which the light falls in dazzling whiteness, writing at a desk. He is a grand and powerful old man, and the intense white glory at the back of his head forms a fitting background for its aged beauty ; an inkstand stands beside him, and a crucifix at the other end of the table. The room in which he is sitting is by no means the cell of an ascetic, but a pleasant, cheerful apartment, although it is probably a part of some monastery. Two large arched windows occupy one side of it, through which the sun streams brightly, throwing the pattern of the little round panes of glass in a sort of diaper on the sides of the deep recesses in which the windows are set. A skull lies on one of the window-sills, but the light falls so full upon it that even the emblem of mortality has not the same ghastly effect that it has when it peers forth at us from some dim and unexpected corner. Everything in this print, indeed, breathes of repose and peace : the huge pumpkin that hangs from one of the oaken beams of the ceiling tells of the agricultural industry of the monks of the convent ; the fat, dozing lion and fast-asleep watch-dog that lie in the foreground seem to speak of danger past, but they point also to the perfect security and rest of the present time. The learned Father at the present moment is neither beset with temptations from within, nor with enemies from without ; his Cardinal’s hat is laid aside, and with it all the religious controversies in which he has fought so fiercely, and he is now peacefully at work upon that translation of the Holy Scriptures which we know as the Vulgate. A long wooden bench, with cushions lying here and there upon it, extends the whole length of the room be- neath the window-sills; a shelf against the wall holds a candle- stick, bottles, and other domestic utensils, whilst in a leather strap fastened to the wall behind the saint are stuck his loose papers, letters, and a large pair of scissors ; a sprinkling-brush and a rosary complete the wall furniture of that side of the chamber, but in a little niche in the dark wall between the two M ELEN CO LI A. 205 windows stands a small jar with a stick placed upright in it — the holy-water pot and sprinkling-brush, probably, though the jar, it must be admitted, has somewhat the appearance of a pot of blacking, the quaint wooden shoes of the saint, that lie beneath one of the benches, preclude however the idea of polish. Several massive tomes with clasps lie on the bench beneath the window, and testify to the deep studies of the Father of the Church. So much for the subject of this print, which one cannot help imagining was conceived by Durer in a more cheerful frame of mind than the ‘ Melencolia ’ and the ‘ Knight, Death, and Devil.’ With regard to the execution of the St. Jerome, no terms seem too extravagant in its praise. It is difficult to realize that it is merely the production of the graver, so life-like and real is the whole scene. The broad flood of light that pours down on the table and on the floor beneath in large white patches, that illumines every grain of the wood of the oaken beams of the ceiling, that washes the left side of the pumpkin and strikes the hour-glass and the crown of the saint’s hat, whilst it leaves the saint himself half-light, half- shade (though the saint-shine behind his head, which is not dependent on earthly light, extends equally to the dark side of his body) transfigures every object by the glory it sheds around. Nor is the shade of St. Jerome’s chamber less faith- fully expressed than the light. Look at the wall between the windows and the floor beneath the benches. They are a per- fect miracle of delicate cross-hatching, and the great lion in front, whatever may be thought of him from a zoological point of view, is in point of execution most admirable, every hair of his coat catching or shading light. A tablet with Diirer’s monogram and the date lies on the floor, in half-light, just behind the lion’s tail. And now, what can be said of the ‘ Melencolia ’ that will in any way suffice to convey a notion of the strange fascinating power that this print exercises over the mind ? We gaze at that mystic woman until our thoughts lose themselves in the same dark abyss into which hers are plunged. ‘ Heaven opens inward, chasms yawn, Vast images in glimmering dawn Half shown are broken, and withdrawn, ’ — 206 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. and we become quite giddy with the whirl of great but in- distinct ideas that the subject presents to us. It has usually been thought that Diirer meant by this print to typify the insufficiency of human knowledge to attain heavenly wisdom, or to penetrate the secrets of nature, and very probably he might have had some such idea in his mind at the time when it conceived that dark - winged woman. Perhaps his own soul’s wings had beaten in vain against the impassable wall that bounds our mental horizon, before he drew those wings that spring from her powerful shoulders, and seem a mere mockery in the cramped position in which she is placed. Burton in his ‘ Anatomy of Melancholy 3 tells us ‘why the Muses are melancholy,’ and defines ‘Love of Learning or over-much study ’ as one of the causes of it. This would seem to have been something of Diirer’s idea also.. His ‘Melencolia’ is not the f Pensive Nun, devout and pure, sober, stedfast, and demure,’ of Milton’s imagination, but rather the ‘glorious devil, large in heart and brain,’ of Tenny- son’s. The old Eve-craving for the forbidden fruit of know- ledge is strong in her breast, and, as may be inferred from the objects by which she is surrounded, she has sought it both by legitimate and unhallowed channels. Scientific instruments of all kinds lie scattered about; she holds a pair of compasses in her hand ; a sphere rolls on the ground before her; a plane, a saw, and a pair of tongs lie at her feet ; and a crucible is being heated at a little distance : but besides these legitimate instru- ments of human knowledge there are others about, which speak of magic and necromancy. There is, for instance, the astro- logical table of figures let into the wall, the numbers of which, which ever way we reckon them, always add up to the total thirty-four, a number of mystic signification. A huge block cut at very curious angles stands before her, and it may be suggested here that this block is not really of stone as is usually supposed but of rock crystal, a mineral which has such angles, and that, if so, it may have served as a di- vining crystal, such as wizards often made use of in their read- ing of the future. Into the depths of this crystal the woman, goddess, or devil — for it is difficult to determine which of the three she is — has apparently been long gazing, seeking to MELENCOLIA. 20 7 discover the hidden futurity. But none of these things have relieved the black melancholy into which her soul has fallen. She remains still * Shut up as in a crumbling tomb, girt round With blackness as a solid wall.’ A winged child, or angel, sits on a nether grindstone by her side, whose presence it is very difficult to explain, but it has been thought by some critics to represent the wonderful human soul. There the child sits on the grindstone of ne- cessity, subject to law, but unconscious of its workings, while the more fully grown soul, after ceaseless strivings with nature, falls into that melancholy, or W eltschmerz , as the Ger- mans call it, that at some time or another overclouds all great minds. The intensely melancholy character of the landscape in this print adds greatly to its weird and solemn effect. The light that falls on sea and shore is neither the light of sun nor moon, nor yet entirely of the poet’s imagination ; it is the light of a great comet which burns in solitary glory in the sky, betokening disaster and woe. The strange rainbow that throws its arch across the waters is certainly puzzling from a scientific point of view, for one cannot understand how it could possibly come there, but probably Diirer was less acquainted with the laws of reflection and refraction than he was with the means of producing effect ; for certainly the arch of the rainbow enhances strangely the unearthly effect of the whole, which is farther increased by the bat-like creature that flies across the sky holding the scroll with MELENCOLIA I. written upon it. What the I. on this scroll refers to no one has been able to discover, but it is surmised that probably Diirer intended to design the Four Temperaments, as they were called, a common subject of Art in his day, but that he never accomplished more than this representation of Melan- choly. But all interpretations of this wonderful print, and all the hypotheses that have been framed respecting it, fall to the ground when we once attentively study it, or yield ourselves to its attracting power. We are then sure to find something 208 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. that contradicts all the ingenious theories we had previously formed respecting its meaning, and remain as much in the dark as ever. About no picture of Diirer’s, perhaps, not even excepting ‘ The Knight, Death, and Devil,’ is there such a diversity of opinion as about this. Some people, of course, — common sensible people, — see in it only a strange, ugly woman in what they term ‘ a brown study/ with a number of < queer ’ things lying around her, and a little imp seated by her side on a grindstone ; others make it the text of a sermon on the beauty of Italian art, and mourning over Dlirer’s unfortunate tendency to the fantastic, end by saying with a sigh, ‘ What might he not have made of this subject had he treated it as the great painters of Italy would have done ; whilst others look into those far-seeing eyes of Melencolia until they themselves become affected by the madness, melan- choly, or Weltschmerz , to which she is the prey. As Ruskin says of the print of ‘ The Knight, Death, and Devil,’ we probably feel the ‘ Melencolia ’ to be a greater thought in the dark engraving than if Dlirer had perfectly painted this subject. Two of his finest Virgin subjects ( ' Mar ien-bilder ), namely, The Virgin as Queen of Heaven (Heller, 505), stand- ing on the Crescent-moon, and The Virgin as Earthly Mother, seated against a wall (Heller, 610), belong likewise to the year 1514. The first (see illustration) is one of the most charming of Durer’s conceptions of the subject. There is quite a Raphael- esque grace and beauty about the Virgin ; and although the Child is a real German baby, and not £ Humanity in infancy,’ as Coleridge says Raphael’s Divine Infants are, it is neverthe- less a very perfect specimen of babyhood ; indeed, both the Virgin and Child are treated here much more ideally than is usual with Dlirer. In the Virgin by the Wall (Heller, 610), the Virgin has more of the character of the good German housewife and mother. She sits on a stone against a rough wall, nursing the Child on her lap. A bunch of keys and a purse hang from her girdle ; hence this print is designated by some the Virgin with the Purse. Considering that Dlirer executed seventeen Helioo 1 ? et imp, A. Durand.. Paris • ! - ‘ J I \ ST. EUSTACHIUS. 209 copper-engraved M arien-bilder ( i.e . Holy Families and Virgins besides the separate woodcuts, the Life of the Virgin series, and his paintings of the Virgin and Child, it is not to be wondered at that it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish them. Some trifling accessory therefore, such as is usually used in denoting Raphael’s Madonnas, is likewise made to serve for distinguishing Dtirer’s. Thus we have the Virgin with the Pear, the Virgin with the Monkey, and the Virgin (a strange association) with the Keys and Purse. St. Paul (Heller, 686), 1514, and St. Thomas (Heller, 667), 1514. — These two small but well-executed engravings belong to a series of five apostles, of which the other three were not engraved until some time after the date of these, namely — St. Bartholomew and St. Simon in 1523, and St. Philip in 1526. A Dancing Boor and his Wife, a ludicrous, uncouth couple of merry-makers (Heller, 912), and the Bagpipe Player (Heller, 895), subjects evidently sketched from nature, complete the engraved works dated 1514. Another large and beautiful engraving, which, although it is undated, is generally supposed to belong to the same period as those before mentioned, is The St. Eustachius, or as it is sometimes called, The St. Hubertus, for the same anecdote that Diirer has here illustrated is told of both saints ; the latter being, indeed, but the Northern representative of the former. Diirer himself, however, seems always to have called the print ‘ St. Eustachius ’ (he mentions it repeatedly in his Journal), and that is therefore undoubtedly the most correct title for it ; although it is perhaps difficult to imagine a hero who served under the Emperor Trajan, and who was martyred by being burnt in a red-hot iron bull, appearing in the hunting costume of Germany of the sixteenth century. The legend of St. Eustachius relates that one day (accord- ing to some accounts one Good Friday) when the saint — who was a sinner then, it must be understood — was out hunting in a wood, a stag with the image of the crucified Christ be- tween his horns suddenly appeared before him, and the Crucified One spoke, and reproached St. Eustachius for pur- suing his favourite pastime of hunting when he ought to have 14 210 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. been engaged in Christian duties. Whereupon the bold huntsman fell on his knees, and became from that time forth a zealous Christian, receiving at last the crown of martyrdom. This legend Diirer has represented in his engraving with reverential piety. The figure of the huntsman, who kneels to the left of the plate, and gazes up with intense faith and devotion at the miraculous appearance of the crucifix set in the stag’s forehead, is extremely pathetic. He belongs to the noblest type of the old German character, earnest, strong, and God-fearing, with a slight tinge of mysticism withal in his nature, which renders him peculiarly susceptible to the in- fluence of such an apparition as that which now appears to him. His horse, which he has fastened to a tree, is of somewhat the same type of character for an animal as his master for a man. Although he does not perceive the crucifix-bearing stag, he has a thoughtful look in his eyes, as if he knew that something more than usual was taking place. Every smallest detail, every strap of the trappings upon his neck and back, is finished with the most perfect care, but the horse itself is not very accurately drawn. The five hounds also that sit and stand about in the fore- ground are marvels of delicate finish, and, like the little pigs in the foreground of ‘ The Prodigal Son,’ they give a quaint touch of every-day life to the solemn scene. This engraving has, from the earliest times, been reckoned one of Diirer’s most beautiful works. It is so, perhaps ; but it is not so characteristic of the mind of the artist as many others, certainly not as much as * The Knight, Death, and Devil,’ and the ‘ Melencolia.’ It will be said that this is because he here depicts a legend of the Catholic Church, whereas in the other two the subject, as well as the expression of it, was a creation of his own ; but this is not all. Nowhere is Diirer’s individual thought more clearly shown than in his treatment of the often- represented parable of the Prodigal Son. There we have his direct thought on the subject, expressed in a manner that no one v/ho has any acquaintance with his heart could mistake as being his personally, and not that of any Church or Creed whatever ; but here in the ‘ St. Eustachius ’ we have the orthodox spirit and teaching of the Middle Ages, expressed, it ‘ THE NEMESIS.’ 2 1 1 is true, in a Diireresque manner, but without the deep-indented and peculiar stamp of his original thought set upon it. The art-loving Emperor Rudolph, who set a great value on Diirer’s works, had the original plate of ‘ St. Eustachius,’ which somehow came into his possession, gilded. It is still, I believe, in existence, but in private hands. The saint, according to some authorities, is a portrait of the Emperor Maximilian, and according to others a portrait of a member of the Rieter family.* It has likewise been affirmed that Diirer painted this subject, but no such picture is recorded in any of the catalogues of his works. Heller relates an anecdote about it, certainly, but the story, if true, would apply as well to the engraving as to the supposed painting to which it is made to refer. He says that Pirkheimer, visiting Diirer one day, saw this picture in his studio, and pointed out to him a fault in it, namely, that one of the stirrups was longer than the other ; a fault which the artist immediately rectified by hiding the offending stirrup in the shade of a thick branch of oak. Heller likewise quotes some stupid verses written about this utterly insignificant criticism of Pirkheimer’s. The print usually known as The Great Fortune (Heller, 839), but which is probably the one called by Diirer The Nemesis, is another important but undated engraving that most critics consider was executed about this time, though Prof. Thausing refers it to an earlier period. A large naked, winged woman, whose ugliness is perfectly repulsive, stands on a globe in the middle of the plate, holding in one hand a rich chalice, and in the other a bridle. The landscape on the earth beneath this strange figure represents a mountainous country, with a village surrounded by two rivers, lying at the foot of the mountains. This village is affirmed by Sandrart to be the village of Eytas, in Hungary, the birthplace of Diirer’s father ; but it is extremely unlikely that Diirer ever travelled into Hungary and saw the ancestral home ; and moreover, the landscape of this engraving is evidently of a purely imaginary character, and is not sketched from any real place in Hungary, or elsewhere. * A patrician family in Niirnberg, connected by marriage with Pirkheimer. 14—2 212 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. It is strange that the engraving that Diirer mentions several times in his Journal by the title of * The Nemesis’ has never been satisfactorily determined upon. Most of the others are easy enough to identify: the ‘ Eustachius,’ the ‘ St Jerome,’ the ‘ Melencolia,’ etc., to which he frequently alludes, either as having made presents of them to his friends, or having sold them for such and such a price, are all well known ; but ‘ The Nemesis/ which he enumerates in several cases with the others, has always remained a mystery. The reasons, however, for thinking it ‘ The Great Fortune ’ are certainly very strong. In the first place, it must be one of the large-sized prints ( halb - doge'll), for it is always included with these, and not with the smaller ones ( viertel-bogen ), and no other large engraving ex- presses even as well as this the notion of a Nemesis ; and secondly, the ancients were accustomed to symbolize this strange heathen divinity under the form of a female figure with a band round her head and a bridle in her hand, and in this instance it is quite possible that Diirer may have followed ancient art. Still, these arguments, which were first set forth in Naumann’s ‘ Archiv.,’ 1856, and have since been adopted by most writers on the subject, do not seem quite conclusive ; for Diirer, as we know, was not wont to adopt the symbolism of ancient art, and anything less classic than this engraving, taken as a whole, can scarcely be conceived. The chalice, also, that the winged woman holds in one hand is a Christian and not a Pagan symbol ; and although Diirer may have ‘ introduced it as a Christian emblem of reconciliation,’ it seems to argue a strange confusion of ideas if he attempted to sym- bolize in one figure the Christian doctrine of reconciliation and the Pagan one of Nemesis. But, as before said, there is no other large engraving that can be considered to be the Nemesis with such probability as this, and therefore, until the riddle is solved in some other way, it is convenient to call this print by that name. Fortuna-Nemesis would perhaps be its best title, for it would seem that the idea of Fortune was more often associated in the mediaeval mind with a figure standing on a shifting globe, than with one on a wheel, the attribute we are accustomed to look for as belonging to the blind goddess. Holbein, indeed, in one of his illustrations, has depicted Helioo r _ e et imp, A Durand. _ Paris O ST. ANTHONY. 213 fortune in exactly the same manner as Diirer — namely, as a naked female figure standing on a globe, holding in either hand a chalice and a bridle. Beneath are two groups of man- kind, the happy and prosperous over whom the chalice is held, and the wretched and poor over whom the bridle is shaken. In order that there may be no doubt about the meaning, Holbein has placed a scroll about the head of the goddess with the title ‘ Fortuna .’ The Little Fortune, as it is called (Heller, 70), a small and very rare plate, likewise represents a figure standing on a globe, but she holds in her hand a spray of the flower called in Germany Mannstreu (eryngo). The Coat of Arms with the Cock (Heller, 1020). — This is one of the finest subjects of the kind that Diirer ever engraved. It is supposed to have some allegorical significa- tion, and not to be the arms of any particular person or family. He often drew armorial bearings for his friends, and some of these are admirably executed as well in woodcut as in copper engraving ; but this and the ‘ Coat of Arms with the Death’s Head ’ seem more like the creations of his own fancy than the expression of any heraldic dignity. The Lion and the Cock in this plate are supposed to signify Faith and Vigilance. The Virgin as Queen of Heaven (Heller, 105), 1514 ; The Virgin against the Wall (Heller, 610), 1514 ; The Virgin on the Half Moon, with Crown and Sceptre (Heller, 526), 1516; The Virgin crowned by Two Angels (Heller, 547), 1518, a most charming little ‘ Marien- bild The Virgin Suckling the Child (Heller, 576), 1519 ; The Virgin crowned by One Angel (Heller, 537), 1520; The Virgin with the Child in Swaddling Clothes (Heller, 585), 1520, are all pleasing and well- executed Virgin subjects, done principally no doubt for the sake of the profit that such works as these were sure to yield, whilst the success of the larger and more original subjects was always more or less uncertain. St. Anthony (Heller, 695), 1519. (See illustration.) — This exquisitely finished little engraving represents the hermit saint seated on a small hill just outside a busy town, but the holy 214 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. recluse is entirely withdrawn from the town’s interests and commotion ; with his cowl drawn half over his face, he sits there lost in meditation ; he sees not the cheerful external nature that surrounds him, but is wholly absorbed in his own thoughts, or in his study of the book that lies open on his knees, as he sits with them bent upon the grass. A tall pole with a crucifix at the top, and a bell attached to it, reminds passers-by of the holy vocation of the saint. Perhaps there is a little slit somewhere in the pole, through which the pious may drop their alms. But the most wonderful thing in this print is the group of quaint mediaeval buildings that forms the town, and rises behind the figure of the saint. The town in question is Niirn- berg as it was in Diirer’s day. There is the grey old castle with its towers rising above the rest in feudal dignity. There are the innumerable gable roofs of the houses, each one having its own distinct individuality ; there is the broad moat with its embattlemented wall, and queer old houses dipping down into the water ; and there are the protecting towers giving a varied aspect to the picturesque scene. Every little detail is finished with the utmost delicacy, indeed, the careful execution of this plate cannot be too highly praised : there are, however, several very excellent copies of it ; one of these, indeed, is so exact, that it can only be known from the original by a little chimney-pot about the tenth of an inch in height being missing in the copy, and another chimney-pot of about the same size being placed slightly to the left, instead of exactly in the middle of a roof, as in the original. It is such little marks as these that collectors diligently study, and it makes all the difference in their estimation whether the chimney is to the left, or whether the back of Eve is shaded or not. Of course this is of the highest importance when, as in the case of the chimney-pot in question, it enables us to distinguish a copy from an original ; but often an engrav- ing gets prized, and a fabulous value set upon it, because of some trifling peculiarity which proves it to be an early im- pression, whereas in reality it is not so good as one in the later and probably more finished state of the plate. HeliogP. e et imp . A, Durand _ Pari / I EARLY IMPRESSIONS OF THE PLATES. 215 Very early impressions of Durer’s engravings are seldom now to be met with ; they are mostly in public collections, or in the possession of rich private collectors ; but when, by any chance, any such are sold, they fetch sums that would certainly astonish Diirer if he could know of them,* but which still are far below those given for the works of several other engravers ; nothing like, for instance, the enormous amounts often given for early impressions of Rembrandt’s etchings. Although it is perhaps an expensive enjoyment for a poor student, it is by no means necessary to be a millionaire to become a collector of Durer’s works. It is the knowledge more than the money that is wanting to most people, and excellent impressions of most of his prints may be obtained at a very moderate price with a little trouble bestowed on the search for them. One of the most accurate means of determining the date of an engraving is the examination of the watermark of the paper on which it is printed. It may not perhaps be unin- teresting to the reader to learn a few of the watermarks on Durer’s works that are most sought after by connoisseurs, for such marks often decide whether a print is worth pounds or shillings. Diirer, we find, at three successive periods of his artistic career, made use of paper of three different makes : thus the watermark on the paper of a print frequently enables us to decide not only the date of the impression, but likewise whether the print was an early or late work of the artist. Many of the engravings that were supposed by Bartsch and others to belong to one period, have been transferred to another by the study of their watermarks. A German art-critic")- has lately treated this subject in an almost exhaustive manner, and to his valuable book I must refer the reader for all special information on the subject. I * A fine impression of the ‘Adam and Eve ’ which Diirer sold for four stiver, fourpence (worth eighteenpence of our present money), fetched at the sale of the collection of Mr. Julian Marshall, in 1864, ^41 ioj-., The complete set of the ‘ Passion,’ in copper, was sold at the same sale for ,£60. The ‘St. Eustace’ was sold at the Posonyi sale in 1867 for ^21, and the ‘St. Jerome’ for ^49. Of course these were very fine and rare impressions. Good impressions even of the most celebrated prints may often be obtained at sales for a very small sum. f Oberbaurath B. Hausmann, ‘ Durer’s Kupferstiche, Radirungen, Holzschnitte und Zeichnungen, unter besonderer Beriicksichtigung der clazu verwandten Papiere und deren Wasserzeichen.’ Hanover, 1861. 21 6 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. can only enumerate here a few of the marks that have most value set upon them by collectors. The great Bull’s Head ( Ochsenkopf ) and the Gothic $S. are the principal watermarks of the first period, which extends until the journey to Venice. ‘ The Bulks Head is a right good head, there is no doubt about it,’ said a well-known collector to me one day, in accents of proud joy at being the possessor of a good many of these ‘ good heads.’ The Great Crown, the Imperial Apple, the Little Crown, the Imperial Eagle, the Anchor in a Circle, and the Wall and two Towers, belong to the second or middle period ; whilst during the last period, after Diirer’s return from the Netherlands, we find most fre- quently the Little Pitcher with a large handle ; sometimes, however, the arms of Nurnberg, and another coat with two Lilies and a Crown, are met with. CHAPTER IV. PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, AND PLASTIC WORKS. ‘ Albrecht Diirer may be called the Shakespeare of Painting.’ F. VON SCHLEGEL. The Venetian painters of Diirer’s time were at first, as we have seen, somewhat disposed to sneer at Diirer as a painter, declaring that, although he was good in engraving, he did not know how to use colour ; but after they had seen the splendid picture that he executed whilst in Venice for the German Company, they were, he tells us, ‘ silenced ’ {gestillt), for they were forced to admit to themselves, if not to others, that their German rival could paint as well as engrave. Even at the present time many who are well acquainted with Diirer’s woodcuts and engravings are scarcely aware that he ever painted a great picture, and would probably be inclined to endorse the opinion of the envious painters of Venice. But whoever has seen the wonderful Apostles at Munich, the Trinity at Vienna, or any one of his more remarkable por- traits, will require no further proof of his great power as a painter, and will probably see no exaggeration in the verdict of Schlegel, quoted at the head of this chapter, even though they admit that no higher praise could have been found. Nevertheless it must be owned that, even amongst the paintings by Diirer which may fairly be considered genuine, many are in the hard, unlovely manner of early German art, a manner that repels most observers, and prevents them from seeing the force of character and depth of meaning under- 218 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. lying the hard outlines and stiff forms presented to them. From this manner Differ, as we shall see, worked himself entirely free in his later years, but enough pictures remain, painted by him in his early or Wohlgemuth manner, to give a pretext for affixing his monogram to all sorts of hideous crucifixions, distorted saints, and angular Madonnas with drapery made out of tea-boards. Such pictures abound in the churches of Germany, and probably some few of them proceeded from his workshop, and were painted under his supervision by his pupils and assistants, much in the same way as we have seen pictures manufactured in Wohlgemuth’s shop. But always with Differ, even in his very earliest works, there is some originality of thought, some power of ex- pression, that distinguishes them from the crude productions of other German masters of his time ; for instance, the por- trait of his father, which is the earliest oil-pamting by his hand that we know, has a distinct character marked on it, rendering it quite unlike the usual German portraits of that period. It is almost as powerful as many of Holbein’s, or even Rembrandt’s portraits, and yet we should never think of mis- taking it for a Holbein or a Rembrandt, so marked is its individuality. There are four repetitions or copies of this excellent por- trait of Differ’ s father still in existence. One is now in Syon House, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland. It repre- sents an old, but not a decrepit man, with an earnest, almost sorrowful expression of countenance. The eyes look forth at you with grave, anxious thought, and the mouth is slightly compressed ; altogether giving a very good idea of the char- acter that Differ has himself drawn for us of his God-fearing father. With regard to the technical qualities of this painting, they prove that Differ had already acquired a considerable mastery over his brushes and palette. The modelling is good, and the colouring very effective, the prevailing tone being a deep rich brown ; it reminds one, indeed, in its colouring and general effect, more of early Venetian portraits, than of those by Flemish or German masters. Possibly Differ might have PORTRAITS OF HIS FATHER. 219 already seen a work by Giovanni Bellini, whom, as we know, he considered at a later date ‘ the best master of them all.’ Above the Syon House portrait there is the following inscription : — “ 1497 Albrecht Thvrer der Elter vnd alt 70 Jor.” It was in the collection of the Earl of Arundel when it was engraved by Hollar. Another replica of this picture occurs at Florence, where it is dated 1490, which, if correct,* would prove it to have been painted before Diirer’s Wander-jahre, perhaps as a reminiscence of home, to take with him on his journey. Strange to say, it appears probable that the Earl of Arundel, who possessed the portrait (probably the Syon House one) which Hollar engraved, had the Uffizi portrait likewise under his care for some time, for we know that the Rath of Niirnberg presented our Charles I. with two portraits by Diirer : one, the portrait of himself, mentioned at page 61 ; and the other, it is supposed, this painting of his father, and entrusted them to the Earl of Arundel to take to England. We might have imagined that by some means or other, the art-loving Earl had managed to keep the portrait in question in his own possession, and that this was the one that Hollar engraved, but that in the old inventory of the King’s pictures already quoted, we find men- tion, not only of Diirer’s portrait of himself, but also of one of his father. Thus from very early times there would seem to have been two copies of this work. The portrait at Florence is more yellow in the flesh tones than that in Syon House, and differs also in having a green background, but in other respects the two exactly resemble each other. Again we find this same portrait in the Pinakothek at Munich, but this example is decidedly inferior to either of the others, and is evidently a copy. It bears this inscription : 1497 - Das MALT ICH NACH MEINES VATTERS GESTALT Da Er war sibenzich Jar alt. ( This I painted from my father when he was seventy years old . ) * Some critics read the date 1498. 220 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. And, lastly, it turns up at the Stadel Museum at Frankfort, where again it claims to be the original from which all the others were copied, and also the one that Hollar engraved. Like the Syon House example, the words Albrecht Thvrer DER Elter VND ALT 70 JOR are written above the Frankfort portrait, but instead of 1490 or 1497, it is dated 1494. This seems to me to prove that it could not have been the one that Hollar engraved, for in his engraving the date is cer- tainly 1497 ; but Passavant, the learned editor of the Stadel Museum Catalogue, is of a different opinion, and thinks that Hollar probably mistook the date on the picture, and that it was really the Frankfort example, and not the Syon House one, that was the original of his fine engraving. This opinion he founds on the circumstance that in 1664 Hollar dedicated the plate to the Frankfort patrician, Maximilian zum Jungen, who was then the possessor of the Frankfort example of this oft-repeated painting. Of the three out of the four copies of this picture that I have myself seen, I certainly prefer the Syon House example, but then my judgment may be influenced by the same patriotic sentiment that probably lies at the bottom of M. Passavant’s decision in the matter. Besides the two controverted portraits in the gallery at Florence, there is also another picture there of Diirer’s early time that is very carefully and well painted. It is an Adora- tion of the Magi, dated 1 504, and was, it is supposed, originally painted for the Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, for whom, as we shall see, Diirer subsequently executed another work. It was afterwards presented by the Elector Christian II. to the Emperor Rudolph, and finally travelled to Florence. Several crude altar-pieces and one or two other paintings are referred, with those already quoted, to the period before Diirer’s visit to Venice ; but we find no really great painting by his hand until the year 1506, when, during his residence in Venice, he executed for the guild of German Merchants ( Tedeschi ) in that city the celebrated picture of the FEAST OF the Rose-garlands, which is now reckoned one of his finest works. I say ‘ now reckoned/ for it is only of late years that this picture has been known to be still in existence. It was FEAST OF THE ROSE-GARLANDS. 221 always supposed that the picture Diirer painted in Venice represented the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew ; indeed, many writers have distinctly stated that such was its subject, though without giving any shadow of proof for their assertion ; but a painting by Diirer, dated 1506, was discovered some years ago in the monastery of Strahow, near Prague, the beauty and importance of which leave but little doubt that this was really the picture that Diirer painted for the Tedeschi — a picture on which, as we have seen, he worked hard during seven months of his stay in Venice (an incredibly short period for the exe- cution of such a work), and which gave him and others who saw it the liveliest satisfaction when it was finished. He was evidently proud of this work himself. ‘ How well we think we have done,’ he writes to Pirkheimer, ‘ you with your wisdom, and I with my picture.’ We cannot tell much about Pirk- heimer’s wisdom nowadays, but we are still fortunately able to judge of Durer’s picture. It is indeed a noble work of art, and even now, in its decay and restoration, its beauty of colour is said to be still ap- parent. Unfortunately I have never seen the original, so cannot speak from personal observation of its execution ; but in respect to its conception, composition, and solemn beauty of expression — qualities of which one can judge from the engraving — no picture that I know of by Diirer is equal to it.* * Mrs. Beavington Atkinson, who made a pilgrimage some few years ago to the monastery at Strahow and after many difficulties attained sight of this picture, wrote of it in the Art Journal of January, 1873, as follows : — ‘The whole work strongly shows Italian influence ; the draperies are less crumpled than is usual with Diirer, and there is a certain graciousness in the treatment of attitude and flow of composing line which is not habitual to his manner. The playing angel is particularly Italian in feeling. The arrangement of the incident itself is not common with painters north of the Alps. Yet the work is thoroughly characteristic of Diirer. The Madonna’s head, fair and rounded, with long light hair falling in delicately painted tresses over one shoulder, is of the painter’s favourite type. The hands again are throughout the picture moulded and articulated with the minute care Diirer always bestowed on hands. The heads are of strongly marked individuality, many bear faces familiar in Diirer’s studies, and one is supposed to be a portrait of Christopher Fugger of Augsburg, who was chief of the German Guild at Venice in 1506 A.D. The kneeling Kaiser Max is very fine, carefully studied in face and pose, the strong profile with long hair falling straight over the forehead, pronounced with masterly intent. The colour, on the whole, is brilliant and eminently harmonious ; cheerful as though the painter set his palette in a happy mood. We are reminded of his own words : — ‘ How I shall freeze at home. 222 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. The Virgin sits in the midst, under a light canopy sup- ported by two child-angels ; two other delicious little cherubs hold up a spherical crown with stars on it over her head ; she holds the Child, who has almost the holy grace of one of Raphael's infant Christs, on her knee, supporting Him with one hand, whilst with the other she places a crown of roses on the head of the Emperor Maximilian, who kneels before her to receive it. A Pope on the other side receives the same honour from the Child, who stretches forth both His little hands to place the garland on his shaven head. St. Dominic, the founder of the Feast of the Rose-garlands, stands to the right of the Virgin with a lily-branch in his hand, and like- wise places a crown on the head of one of the monks of his order. All the other rose-crowns destined for the heads of the men and women who kneel on either side are brought by little boy- angels, who seem delighted with their coronation employment : some of the rose-garlands are being stuck on the top of the soft cloth caps worn at that period. It is sup- posed that most of the figures Diirer has introduced in this worshipping multitude are portraits ; that of Christopher Fugger, of the great Augsburg Fugger family, who was at that time at the head of the German guild in Venice, being amongst the number. The figure at the right-hand corner of the picture with the soft cap and curling hair is frequently introduced in Diirer’s works. It is most likely the portrait of one of his friends. But the portraits that have most interest for us are those of Diirer himself and Pirkheimer, who stand against the trunk of a tree, apart from the festal scene, and apparently uncon- after this sunshine !’ In execution I should be inclined to think the picture had always been unequal, though the amount of injury and retouching makes it difficult to judge. The more distant figures appeared to be as much left in imperfect finish originally as damaged. In colour they carry out the prevailing hues of red and blue, but are kept well back so as not to interfere with the principal groups. The Madonna’s robe has been meddled with, there is no doubt ; the draperies of the Emperor and the Pope, which are magnificently cast and painted, are, on the con- trary, comparatively uninjured. The background landscape is most carefully and tenderly painted, and seems to have suffered little. Altogether the picture is in a far better state than could have been anticipated, and by no means the wreck which Mrs. Heaton, not from personal observation, describes. That the execution should vary in finish is quite natural, if we remember that Diirer painted the picture in eight months, a short time for such an elaborate work. PANELS OF ADAM AND EVE. 223 scious of it. Diirer holds a tablet on which is inscribed ‘ Exegit quinque mestri spatio Albertus Durer Ger- MANUS M.D.VI.’ and his monogram. A tender landscape background, with water, hill, and castle, completes the charm of this delightful work. The Emperor Rudolph II. purchased the original painting from the church in Venice where it was first setup, for a large sum of money, and it is said that he esteemed it so highly that he would not trust it to the ordinary means of convey- ance, but had it carried on men’s shoulders all the way from Venice to Prague. At the sale of his pictures by the Emperor Joseph II. in 1782, it became the property of the monastery of Strahow, where it remained buried in oblivion until about twenty years ago, when it was discovered and reinstated in its former fame.* Almost immediately after his return from Venice, Diirer executed two large single figures of Adam and Eve, studies from the nude, which appears at this time to have had a peculiar attraction for him. These figures are painted on wood panels, and are life-size, like the great figures of the Apostles. They are well propor- tioned, and noble in outline. The head of Eve — who is represented at the moment of her fall in the act of receiving the apple from the serpent — has more beauty than Diirer usually expressed. Adam already holds a branch of the fatal tree with an apple upon it in his hand, but he turns his head anxiously towards Eve, as if still in doubt. The flesh tints of Eve are somewhat pale, white in the lights, and grey verging into brown in the shades. Adam is somewhat warmer in flesh- colouring. The background is a very dark brown. On the Eve panel is inscribed: ‘ALBERTUS Durer Al- MANUS FACIEBAT POST VlRGlNlS PARTUM, 1507,’ and mono- gram. Both Madrid and Florence claim to possess the originals of these panels, but Passavant is of opinion that the Madrid example is by far the finest. He was the first to bring this example under notice, t * There is an old copy of this painting in the Museum at Lyons. t Passavant, 4 Christliche kunst in Spanien also an article in the ‘ Kunstblatt ’ for 1853, page 231. 224 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. The Adam and Eve was formerly supposed to have been the painting that Diirer presented as a last memorial to his native town ; but it has been clearly shown that such was not the case, but that it was the figures of the Four Apostles that he gave to the Rath. The Rath, however, must likewise have been at one time in possession of the Adam and Eve, for we find that, with its usual obliging compliance to the wishes of powerful princes, it gave up this painting of Diirer’ s to the Emperor Rudolph II., who was a great admirer of Diirer’s works, and had already obtained the great painting of the Trinity in a similar manner. Rudolph, it is said, had the painting secretly carried away in the night to Prague (which looks as if there were something underhand in the transaction), and a copy set up in its stead in the Rathhaus at Niirnberg. The Ntirnbergers do not seem to have found out the deceit ; and when the French entered the town in 1796, they carried off the Adam and Eve of the Rathhaus to Paris as a valuable art-prize. Even this was not the end of its adventures ; for Napoleon, finding out possibly that his prize was no prize after all, generously presented it to the then French town of Mainz, where it is still shown as an original painting by Diirer, although it is a sad libel on his name. Meanwhile the true Diirer Adam and Eve travelled from Prague to Vienna, and from thence into Spain, where, as I have said, it has been recently founds and brought again into notice by Passavant. Diirer evidently bestowed great thought and care on these figures. There are no fewer than three sketches for the Eve in the British Museum, and several others exist in different col- lections. It would seem, indeed, in this work, painted immedi- ately after his return from Venice, as if he had desired to test his powers in those very departments of art in which the Italian masters were most triumphant, and to enter into rivalry with them, even in the representation of the nude human form ; but either, as Vasari suggests, from his German models having ‘ such ill-shaped figures/ or from some other cause, Diirer’ s drawings from the nude are generally disagree- THE MARTYRDOM OF THE TEN THOUSAND SAINTS. 225 ably anatomical, and entirely lack the grace and repose of the great Italian masters. His outlines are too hard and draughtsmanlike to give any true idea of the mobile human form. It is so with the Eve, judging at least from the copies, of which there are several besides the original at Mainz ; but the beauty of our first parents was greatly admired when Diirer first represented it, and Kaspar Velius, a poet of the day, wrote a Latin distich upon it, in which he says : ‘ Angelus hos cernens miratus dixit ; ah horto Non ita formosos vos ego depuleram. ’ The next picture that Diirer painted, after the Adam and Eve, had for its subject the ‘ Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Saints.’ It was a commission from Frederick of Saxony, for whom, as before mentioned, Diirer had already painted an Adoration. Frederick the Wise was the only one of the reigning princes of Germany who appears to have ever given Diirer a commission, and this was the greater compliment to the Niirnberg artist, in that the Elector had in his constant service no less a painter than Lucas Cranach, who was besides his faithful and attached friend. But Frederick had seen, and had liked, the terrible woodcut of the Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (Heller, 1 88 1 ), and he desired to have the subject repeated for him in a painting. This Diirer did with perhaps as much taste as it was possible to put into such a subject when treated in a realistic manner, but nothing could prevent the brutal torment and massacre of a host of Christian mar- tyrs from yielding a very painful, not to say unpleasant, pic- ture. Those, however, who have seen the fearful and disgusting representations of this and similar scenes common in early German art will know how to appreciate even the amount of reticence that Diirer has shown. One can look at his picture without turning sick, which is more than can be said of many of the revolting martyr pictures scattered through the collec- tions and museums of Germany. The composition deviates in some particulars from the wood- cut — for instance, the king in the woodcut is standing, in the picture he is on horseback — but the thought in each work is 15 226 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. the same, and the same impression is produced on the spec- tator. The colouring of the painting is brilliant and clear and the execution admirable, but there is a certain want of unity in it that destroys the harmony of the composition ; one group of sufferers appears unconscious of the other, and the parts seem to have been separately composed and then tacked together, rather than conceived as one great whole. Diirer and Pirkheimer stand together in the middle of the picture. Diirer holds a small flag in his hand, on which is written, ‘ISTE FACIEBAT ANNO DOMINI 1508 ALBERTUS DURER Alemanus.’ In a letter to Jacob Heller he mentions that the sum he received for this painting (280 gulden) ‘scarcely paid expenses, 5 for he had worked for a whole year constantly upon it, and had religiously refused to touch any other work until it was finished. The Emperor Rudolph, after Frederick's death, seems to have got possession of it. It was at one time, at all events, in his Gallery at Prague, but at the dispersal of that collection it travelled to Vienna, and is now preserved in the Gallery of the Belvedere. Before Diirer had finished the picture of the Martyrdom for the Elector of Saxony, he received a commission for another painting from a rich merchant of Frankfort named Jacob Heller. Business had probably brought Heller, some time before this, to Niirnberg, where he had met Diirer, and conceived the idea of having a large altar-piece executed by him, to set up in honour of his patron saints in the Dominican Church at Frankfort. A long correspondence ensued between him and Diirer on the subject, and Diirer’s letters, nine in number, are still preserved.* Space will not admit of my translating the whole of them here, but this is the less important, as they are simply business letters, referring entirely to the terms of the commission, and the progress and completion of the painting. In the first letter, dated on St. Augustine’s day (August 28, 1 507), Diirer tells Heller that he has been laid up with fever for several weeks, which has hindered his work on the * Printed in Campe’s ‘Reliquien von Albrecht Durer.’ CORRESPONDENCE WITH JACOB HELLER. 227 Elector’s painting (the one above described), but he prays him to have patience, and then, as soon as he has done the work he has then in hand, he will ‘ do something for him that few others could do.’ He has already obtained a panel from the joiner, and given it to another workman who has coloured it white, and prepared it for painting ; and he has paid the money that Heller has given him for the joiner, for he does not think the man has overcharged for his work. In the second letter, which occurs after an interval of six months, he informs his correspondent that he shall be ready in fourteen days with the Duke’s (i.e., Elector’s) picture, and that then he will begin his picture, and will paint the centre- piece ( mitler blat) 1 diligently with his own hand.’ He wishes Heller could see his gracious Lord’s picture (The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand), it would certainly please him ; he can- not hope to make any profit out of it, for it has taken him nearly a year, and he is only to be paid 280 gulden for it : ‘ but no one shall persuade me,’ he adds, ‘ to work according to what I am paid ’ (das ich etwas verdingts machte). A noble, but scarcely a prudent sentiment, as Diirer found to his cost when dealing with keen Frankfort merchants. This letter is dated the second Sunday in Lent, March 19, 1508 ; in it he sends Heller the measurement of the painting. Letter three is in answer to one of Heller’s, in which he has enjoined the artist to ‘ paint his picture well,’ an unnecessary exhortation, in that, as Diirer tells him, he ‘ has it in his own mind to do so ’ — for his own sake perhaps more than for Heller’s, for, as we have already seen, Diirer cannot be per- suaded to do contract work (■ verdingts ). Probably Heller’s idea of a good painting was its having plenty of paint on it, and Diirer, therefore, is wise in dwelling more on the expense of the colours and the number of coats of paint that he is lay- ing on the panel, than upon the thought and care that he is bestowing on the subject. But it is evident that this picture was from the first a favourite with Diirer, and, unmindful of the stipulated reward, he threw his whole energies into it ; the number of full-sized studies that he made for it is, indeed, something remark- 15—2 228 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. able* and shows that he attached the greatest importance to the work. The centre picture of the altar-piece, on which, as Diirer assures Heller, ‘no one shall paint a stroke but himself/ was to represent the Coronation of the Virgin, and the two wings the Martyrdom of St. James, the patron saint of the founder, and the Martyrdom of St. Catherine, the patron saint of his wife. Heller, we learn, had agreed to pay 130 florins for such a painting, and Diirer had unfortunately contracted to do it for this amount ; now, however, when it is too late, the foolish artist, who has taken a fancy to his painting, and is executing it not ‘ as by contract/ but as by love, finds out that the 130 florins Rhenish will certainly not pay him for his work, for he has to expend much upon it and to devote a great deal of time to it : but he ‘ will honourably fulfil what he has promised/ if Heller is not willing to pay him more than the money agreed upon, and will undertake that it shall be worth much more than the price paid for it ; and if Heller will give him 200 florins for it (about 1,000 florins of present German money, or ,£83 6 s. 8 d. of English), then he will execute it in a very superior manner. Even so he will not gain one penny profit by it, and he would not undertake another such a work for 400 florins. Heller was greatly annoyed at this proposal on the part of Diirer. He had made a bargain with his artist in the same way as he would have done with his shoemaker or his tailor, and he expected him to keep to his agreement. He wanted, it is true, to propitiate the favour of heaven, and likewise to reap a little glory on earth, by setting up a fine altar-piece in his native town, but he had no notion of paying the poor painter too liberally for the pious work ; that would not be taken into account, so he probably reckoned, either by heaven or by earth. He therefore wrote very angrily on the subject * M. Charles Ephrussi, a French writer, who has lately devoted much attention to the study of Diirer, especially to the study of his drawings, published in 1876 an interesting monograph on this celebrated lost altar-piece {Etude sur le Triptique d' Albert Diirer dit le Tableau cfAutel de Heller , par Charles Ephrussi. By dint of constant seeking in all collections he has brought up the number of known studies for this work to nineteen. Fifteen of these had, however, already been described by Professor Thausing. CORRESPONDENCE WITH JACOB HELLER. 229 to Hans Frey, Durer’s father-in-law, in whose house it would seem he had first met Diirer, and likewise sent Diirer a letter accusing him of not having kept his word. In answer to this Diirer writes (Letter IV.) somewhat stiffly. He will keep to his agreement if Heller wishes it, but Heller knows that he did not promise anything in his father-in-law’s house, but only undertook to paint some- thing such as few people could paint, and the great dili- gence he has bestowed on this picture caused him to send his former letter, for all artists were pleased with it, and estimated it as being not worth less than 300 florins. ‘ But,’ he says, ‘ I would not take even that money three times over to paint such another picture. I neglect my own interests and suffer loss and damage, and yet get only ingratitude from you. Know that I use the very finest colours that it is possible to obtain, and have spent twenty ducats for ultramarine only, without other costs ; but I know, when the picture is ready, you will say you have never seen such a pretty thing ( hipscher Ding) before, and I think to paint the middle picture from beginning to the end in about thirteen months, and will under- take no other work until it is finished.’ He then again refers to the great cost of the colours he employs, ultramarine alone costing ten or twelve ducats the ounce ; but notwithstanding all this, he will hold to what he promised, for, so far as it is in his power, he will prevent anyone from speaking ill of him. He hopes, however, when Herr Heller sees the painting, that all things will be set straight ; therefore he begs him to have patience, for the days are short, etc. There was nothing for Heller to do but to take Durer’s advice, and ‘ have patience,’ but after waiting another few months his stock of that article was again exhausted, and he writes at the beginning of 1 509 to ask what has become of his picture. Diirer replies, on the 22nd of March, that he does not think the picture will be finished before Whitsuntide, but that he is working constantly and diligently at it. He has not been sparing in colour, for he has already consumed 24 florins’ worth of paints on it, and has spent a long time over it and used his utmost diligence, so that it is evident he must lose by 230 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. it, and he is only speaking the truth when he says he would not do another such a picture under 400 florins. All this, of course, is meant as a hint to Heller as to the price, but he says nothing directly about it in this letter, only telling Heller that he has had several offers for the picture if he would sell it and paint another in its stead for him, but ‘ far be it from me to do this/ he says. ‘ I will honourably hold to what I have said, and I hold you also for an honest man, and I have no doubt that my great diligence will satisfy you.’ With respect to the worth and excellence of the paint-, ing, Diirer refers it to the judgment of a Frankfort painter named Martin Hess. But Whitsuntide came and went, and still our poor Frank- fort merchant did not receive his long-expected picture. He might die and leave the Virgin and his patron saints still un- propitiated, for it was not likely that they would take the ‘ will for the deed.’ It was not therefore to be wondered at that he was very anxious to see his altar-piece set up safe in its place, with all Frankfort admiring it, and felt very angry with Diirer for delaying so long about it. In this extremity he wrote to Hans Imhof, who had been entrusted with the payment part of the business, expressing his great dissatisfaction, and un- wisely saying that he repented ever having given Diirer the commission, and that if he had not done so he would not now have taken the painting. Diirer was, of course, greatly angered at this, and at once, as he tells Heller in Letter VI., took back the 100 florins that he had already received for the work to Hans Imhof, who had paid them to him on the part of Heller. But the Niirnberg merchant would not receive them back without the Frankfort merchant’s consent ; so Diirer writes to Heller that he shall have ‘ no repentance or damage’ on his account, but that he can have his 100 florins back and be free of his bargain whenever he likes, for he, Diirer, will willingly keep the picture ; for he can make at least 100 florins more out of it at any time. This was not by any means what Heller really intended, and he therefore got more polite, and told Diirer that he had never had any intention of refusing the picture, but was quite satisfied to receive it when it was ready. THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. 231 Diirer, however, who now has the advantage, will not let the matter drop in this way. The picture is at last ready, but he tells Heller he need not have it unless he likes. He will send it to Frankfort for him to see, and to judge whether it is not well worth the 200 florins that he now stipulates on receiving for it. If Heller thinks it is not worth that sum, he demands his picture back again, for he can sell it in Niirnberg for 300 florins, but Heller’s friendship is dearer to him than any such small sum of money {solch klein geldt ) ; and besides, he would rather his picture went to Frankfort than to any other place in all Germany. Heller agrees to this, and so the matter is settled, and the next letter (Letter VIII.) is written to say that he has delivered the painting, well packed, to Hans Imhof to be sent to Frankfort, and that Imhof has paid him the other hundred gulden for it, whereby it would seem that it did not, after all, go to Frankfort on approval or return. This letter is dated the 28th of August, 1509, exactly two years since Diirer first wrote to say that he had got a panel from the joiner ; not such a very long time, whatever Heller might think, for the execution of a work like the ‘ Coronation of the Virgin.’ f It will last,’ he tells Heller, ‘ fresh and clean for 500 years, for it is not done as ordinary paintings are done,’ but with the best colours, etc : ‘ therefore do not let holy water be thrown over it ’ (an ordinary usage in consecrating an altar- piece), and ‘ when I come to Frankfort, in one, two, or three years’ time, I will give it a coating of peculiar new varnish, such as no one but myself knows how to make, and which will make it stand 100 years longer, but let nobody else varnish it , for all other varnishes are yellow, and would ruin your picture.’ ‘ But no one,’ he writes, ‘ shall ever again persuade me to undertake a painting with so much work in it. Herr Jorg Tauss offered himself to pay me 400 florins for a Virgin in a Landscape, but I declined positively, for I should become a beggar by this means. Hencefonvard , I will stick to my en- graving ; and if I had done so bejore , I should be richer by 1,000 florins than I am at the present day l Poor Diirer ! He feels himself very hardly used ; but if an ambitious artist will paint 232 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. ‘ what is in his mind to paint,’ and give his patrons double as much ultramarine and beauty as their money will pay for, he must reap the consequences. It sounds strange to us, that at the end of this letter Diirer adds a request for a Trinkgeld for his wife, but this he says he leaves to Heller’s pleasure ; he does not wish to tax him any further. Letter IX., the last of the series, is the amicable close of the whole business. Everybody seems contented with everything ; and after so many misunderstandings, the merchant and artist still remain good friends. Heller has received the picture, and is quite delighted with it, finding the account also very moderate. Diirer writes to say how glad he is of this, and that his labour has not been all in vain ; also, he thanks Heller on the part of his wife for the present ( Verehrung) that he has sent her, and which she will wear in his remembrance ; like- wise for the two gulden that he has sent his young brother for a Trinkgeld , and generally for all the honour shown him ; and as Heller has asked his advice about a frame for his picture, he sends a design for one, which he can use or not as he likes. In conclusion, he wishes his correspondent ‘ much happy time ’ (viel selig Zeit), and dates the letter ‘ on the Friday before St. Gallo’ (12th October), ‘ 1509/ It is very sad after reading of all the labour that Diirer bestowed on this work, and the pride that he evidently took in it, to learn that this great painting, which would have lasted ‘clean and fresh for 500 years,’ perished in 1674m the burning of the old palace at Munich, and this is the more grievous, in that by rights it ought never to have gone to Munich at all. Heller, as he intended, set up his altar-piece in the Church of the Dominicans in Frankfort, where he and his wife soon after took up their last earthly abode, beneath the imposing shelter of a costly bronze monument. It is strange to think that even his grand tomb would scarcely have preserved the name of the Frankfort merchant for many generations from oblivion, whereas the picture for which he paid a poor Niirnberg artist 200 florins has handed it down to the present day. Diirer’s < Coronation of the Virgin ’ soon attracted attention, and THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. 233 brought crowds of people to the Dominican Church to see it, whereby, Van Mander tells us, ‘the monks reaped an immense advantage by means of the Trinkgeld that mer- chants and other travellers passing through the town used to give to see it.’ Both Karl van Mander and Sandrart praise this picture in the highest terms ; going into raptures especi- ally over the sole of the foot of one of the kneeling apostles, who are watching the Virgin’s ascent into heaven. This foot was esteemed a miracle of drawing and painting, and large sums of money were offered, it is said, to have it cut out of the painting ; but the monks, perhaps in consideration of their Trinkgeld , refused all such barbarous offers. For a long time they managed to keep their beautiful and profitable altar-piece safe from all royal art-thieves, although Rudolph II. and the Elector Maximilian of Bavaria were both at one time bidding against one another for it, the former having offered as much as 10,000 florins, a large sum then, for its possession. But at last, in 1613, it is not known by what means, Maximilian of Bavaria acquired possession of it, and carried it off to his palace at Munich, where, as I have said, it was destroyed by fire before the end of the century. A copy, as was usual in such cases, was left in its place at Frankfort, and this copy, painted by Paul Juvenal, an excellent Niirnberg painter, still hangs in the old Town Gallery.* The Virgin, in the centre picture, is represented seated on the clouds ; Christ and the Father, who are likewise seated, hold a crown above her head, and numerous cherubim worship and rejoice around. Below, on the earth, are seen the astonished disciples, divided into two groups of six ; one disciple looks down into the empty tomb, as if to convince himself that the body has really departed, but the rest gaze upwards at the glorious sight revealed to them. In the landscape which forms the background, we see Diirer himself supporting a tablet, on which is written : * Not in the Stadel Institut as stated by Dr. von Eye. 2 34 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Albertv Dvrer Faciebat Post VlRGINIS Partv 1509. The picture, on the whole, is in good condition, though some parts of the landscape have suffered from clumsy restor- ing. It bears the direct impress of Diirer’s mind, especially in the group above, and must be altogether a very faithful repro- duction of the original. On the inside of the left wing, St. James is seen kneeling, with a soldier behind him, who raises his sword, about to strike the saint. On the right wing, St. Catherine, seen in profile, likewise kneels before her executioner. Below St. James is the kneeling figure of the founder, Jacob Heller; below St. Catherine, the figure of his wife, both in an attitude of prayer. Their coats of arms are at the bottom of all. On the exterior of the wings are also seen figures of saints. These wings are supposed to have been painted by Diirer’s assistants. Probably Hans Diirer had a large share in them, as he re- ceived a special Trinkgeld from Heller when the picture was finished. There is a strong probability that the portraits of Heller and his wife are the original works by Diirer himself, for they are evidently by quite another hand to the rest of the painting, and they are so beautifully executed, that one can scarcely ascribe them to any ordinary copyist.* An outline engraving of Paul Juvenal’s copy of this altar- piece is given in M. Ephrussi’s work before mentioned, where admirable reproductions are also to be found of all Diirer’s studies for it.J* * Mr. Charles Ruland, after a very close examination of this picture, assured me that he felt almost certain of the authenticity of these two portraits. They were probably sawn off the original at the time when it was sold to Maximilian — the Heller family naturally wishing to retain the family portraits. t In his ‘ Denkmale Deutsche Bildnerei und Malererei ’ Ernst Forster gives a lithograph from a painting of the ‘ Coronation of the Virgin,’ which he believes to THE ADORATION OF THE TRINITY. 235 Diirer, happily, by no means kept to his resolution of at- tending only to his engraving and not painting another great picture. Although the year 1 5 1 1 was so rich in woodcuts that one can hardly imagine that he could have had time in it for any other work, we yet find one of his very greatest paintings with this same date. The Adoration of the Trinity was probably begun as soon as Heller’s picture was finished ; and if so, this paint- ing likewise was executed within the incredibly short space of two years. It was a commission to Diirer from a pious and benevolent coppersmith of Niirnberg named Matthaus Lan- dauer, who, with another good burgher Erasmus Schiltkrot had founded in 1501 a sort of alms-house — ‘The House of the Twelve Brothers ’ — for poor old men of Niirnberg. In the chapel of this foundation, which was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, Landauer set up the great and splendid altar-piece of the Trinity, where it must have seemed like a bright revelation of heaven to the dim eyes of the twelve poor brothers, who murmured their morning and evening prayers before it. God the Father in the midst, throned on the double rain- bow, holds forth, for the adoration and love of all Christen- dom, the image of His crucified Son ; whilst saints and martyrs already in heaven, and holy men who are following in their footsteps on earth, all join in the eternal chorus, ‘ Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.’ For Diirer intended more by this picture than a mere pictorial representation of the great Three in One. He meant it probably as an expression of the Holy Catholic Faith, which the Creed of St. Athanasius tells us is this, ‘ That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.’ Thus we have all classes and conditions of men expressing the same mystic incomprehensible faith : to the right stand emperor, king, knight, burgher, and peasant, the be by Diirer, and to resemble the Heller altar-piece closely. He cannot, however, have seen the Frankfort copy of that painting; for the lithograph in his book differs in many important respects from this copy ; indeed the two seem to have no relation to one another. The painting from which the lithograph was taken is in the possession of Fraulein Emilie Von Linder of Munich. 236 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. latter holding a flail for his emblem ; to the left pope, bishop, cardinal, and monk, with an old man in their clerical company, whose dress betokens that he belongs to a lay community, although his solemn and reverent mien indicates even more than the self-renunciatory piety of the cloister. This grand old father is a portrait of Matthaus Landauer, the founder of the ‘ Zwolf-Briiderhaus,’ and the giver of the altar-piece. A cardinal turns round towards him as if to encourage the old man to come forward.* Other faces in the earthly throng of worshippers are also evidently portraits ; I seem to recognise the features of Stephen Baumgartner in those of the knight in armour who kneels behind the king to the right. But the most lovely part of this picture is the adoring group of female saints to the right hand of the Vision of the Trinity ; St. Agnes in particular, who bends down with her lamb in her arms and gazes up lovingly at her Saviour, is a charming figure ; and the Virgin Mar} 7 , who leads the holy band, is full of sweet dignity. It is not perhaps without significance that she has not a more prominent position assigned to her in this picture. She merely comes with the rest of the saints to offer her homage to her Son, a circumstance which may be an in- dication of the tone that Niirnberg thought was already taking in the controversy that was to come. The corresponding group of prophets, apostles, and fathers is also very beautiful — powerful in conception, and admi- rable in design. Amongst the foremost figures are St. John the Baptist, corresponding, as was usual in such subjects, with the Virgin on the other side, Moses, and David with his harp. Unfortunately description can give no idea of the beauty of colour and glory of light that is shed over this splendid painting ; the circle of cherub heads, around the Dove of the Spirit, is of the most delicate beauty, and the angels below, who bear the instruments of the Passion, are truly beings ‘ clad in light.’ The execution is marvellously careful and delicate ; the composition well balanced ; but there is a cer- * There is a drawing in black pencil of this figure in the collection of Mr. William Mitchell, on which Diirer has written in his own hand, Landawer Styftei^ 15m THE ADORATION OF THE TRINITY. 237 tain amount of stiffness about it that prevents it from having the exquisite grace of the Feast of Rose-garlands. A land- scape below the figures, such as we see in some of the cuts of the Apocalypse, with water, hill, and tree, shows us that even the earthly worshippers are for the time transported above this sublunary sphere. Diirer only stands to the right on the firm ground holding a tablet inscribed. Albertvs Dvrer Norijcvs facie- BAT ANNO-A-VIR GJ N JS-PART V I5II- Niirnberg and the Twelve Brothers managed to keep pos- session of this treasure for nearly a hundred years, but in the end it fell a prey to the art-greed of Rudolph II., who, not content with the Adam and Eve, which, as we have seen, he had already acquired, obtained this picture likewise as a pre- sent from a subservient Rath, who, regardless of the pious founder’s bequest, robbed his chapel in which he lay buried of its greatest ornament, in order to curry favour with a king. Surely Landauer’s ghost ought to have risen to prevent the sacrilege ! But whatever the loss to Niirnberg, and whatever may be our sentimental regrets, it must be admitted that the Adoration of the Trinity is far better placed in the great Gal- lery of the Belvedere, where it now hangs, accessible to all lovers of art, than it would be in the dark old Landauer Briid- erhaus in Niirnberg. in which only its empty frame is now to be seen.* There may be mentioned here two Virgin pictures of un- usual softness and refinement for Diirer, that likewise hang in the Belvedere. In the one Mary wears a blue dress with a white veil upon her head. She holds the Child, who has a cut pear in his hand, upon her arm, and looks at him with * This frame itself is a magnificent work of art. It is elaborately carved in wood in the style of the Renaissance but with Gothic ornamentation intermixed. It is suppposed to have been designed by Diirer. He did sometimes, as we see by his last letter to Heller, design the frames for his pictures, and the ornamentation on this one is very much in his style. 238 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. tender maternal love. In the other she is dressed in a fur mantle and sits by a table, on which lies a cut lemon. The naked Child wears a string of amber beads round his neck. Kugler points out that this painting bears an evident resem- blance to the works of the Flemish masters of Diirer’s time, particularly to those of Quentin Massys, and that therefore it was probably executed during Dtirer’s stay in the Netherlands. It is undated, but the Virgin with the cut pear is dated 1512. There is likewise an earlier Virgin and Child here, dated 1503. Diirer’s Madonnas have not, it is true, the divine beauty and holy sentiment of Raphael’s. They are simply German mothers, with real earthly babies in their arms ; but there are worse things for art to depict than even Ger- man mothers and their ‘ new-born bantlings/ as Coleridge calls them. The Pinakothek at Munich contains a greater number of Diirer’s works than any other gallery on the Continent, for most of the treasures that were acquired by Rudolph II. and the Elector Maximilian, the two great collectors of Diirer’s paintings in the seventeenth century, eventually found their way here. The very first objects that strike the eye of the spectator, in entering this noble gallery, are the two magnificent panels of the Four Apostles, Diirer’s latest and greatest work. No words of mine would be sufficient to convey any just idea of the grandeur of thought, the depth of feeling, and the per- fection of execution of these noble paintings. They were the final expression of the Philosopher’s mind, the outward mani- festation of the Christian’s faith, and the last triumph of the Painter's hand. There they stand, the strong upholders of the purer Christian faith and morality against a corrupted pagan world ; the teachers of the simple Christian doctrine, before it had been overlaid with all the traditions, superstitions, and idle ceremonies of the Church of Rome. Kugler calls these pictures ‘ the first complete work of art produced by Protes- tantism,’ and very probably Diirer had his conversations with Melanchthon in his mind when he conceived them ; but it is not merely Catholicism or Protestantism, or any other ‘ ism/ that they express ; Diirer’s art was not here in the service of THE FOUR APOSTLES. 239 any Church whatever, but boldly declared his own individual thought in his own free language. It has been generally thought that he intended to imperso- nate the Four Temperaments, as they were called, in these pic- tures ; but I can find no foundation, except a vague tradition to that effect, for supposing that such was the case. Surely if he had been thinking of representing the choleric man, he would have chosen St. Peter, and not the learned St. Paul for that purpose ; but St. Peter, in order to carry out this idea, is here made to stand for the phlegmatic temperament, the one most opposed, it seems to me, to his historical cha- racter. St. John and St. Peter occupy one panel, St. Paul and St. Mark the other ; the enwrapping garment of St. Paul is white, that of St. John is red, both falling in simple majestic folds, with none of the harsh angularity of Diirer’s earlier drapery. The figures are life-size, and stand forth from their close- fitting frames with all the power and majesty of life. St. Paul is perhaps the most dignified and striking of the four ; he stands before St. Mark, whose face glows with excitement, as though he were delivering a fiery sermon to his African con- verts. St. John, on the other hand, is lost in mystic contem- plation ; he holds the open Scriptures in his hand, but he is not reading them : it is St. Peter rather, who bends forward to look down into the same book, who is ‘ searching the Scrip- tures ’ to find those promises of which St. John requires no confirmation. There is a distinct individuality of cha- racter in each of these four heads, and this most probably first gave rise to the notion of Diirer having meant to repre- sent by them the four opposed temperaments ; for Neudorfer’s statement to that effect requires to be received with caution, the old biographer having the habit, as we have seen, of stating his opinions as verified facts. With regard to execution these pictures are well-nigh perfect. In them Diirer put forth all his powers to their very uttermost, and succeeded in reaching the noblest goal of art. Here is no mannerism, no exaggeration, no Germanism, no Italianising ; they belong to no school, to no country, but are simply nature revealed to us by means of art. 240 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Melanchthon, in one of his letters to Camerarius, says that he remembered Diirer once expressing to him the great modi- fication that had taken place in his art during the latter years of his life. ‘ In his youth/ he said, ‘ he was fond of a florid style and great combination of colours, and that in looking at his own work he was always delighted to find this diversity of colouring in any of his pictures, but afterwards in his mature years he began to look more entirely to nature, and tried to see her in her simplest form. Then he found that this sim- plicity was the true perfection of art ; and not attaining this, he did not care for his own works as formerly, but often sighed when he looked at his pictures and thought of his incapacity.’* This change is most remarkably apparent in these his last paintings, and it is curious to compare their perfect harmony of colour and simple grandeur of expression with some of the crude productions of his early time, before he had worked himself free from the influence of the Wohlgemuth School. The visible outlining, hard lines, and angular drapery have entirely disappeared, and instead of the restless striving of youth we have the rich maturity of a mind conscious of its own strength, and relying on its own powers. Pirkheimer assures us*|* that if Diirer had lived longer he would have done ‘ many more wonderful, strange, and artistic things but probably it would have been less f wonderful and strange ’ things that he would have done than simple and true things, for in his later years his preference for truth over effect is strikingly manifest ; even his love of the fantastic is super- seded by this love of truth, and the charm of the grotesque gives way to the charm of natural beauty. It would almost seem as if Diirer must have had some knowledge that these figures of the Apostles would be his last important work as an artist on this earth, for when he had finished them, instead of selling them to any Frankfort mer- chant, or endeavouring in any way to make a profit out of them, he sent them with the following letter, written in * Epistolae Ph. Melanchthonis, etc. 1642. f In his Appendix to Durer’s ‘ Book of Human Proportions.’ HISTORY OF THE FOUR APOSTLES. 241 October, 1526, as a present to the Rath of Niirnberg, intending these, his best paintings, to remain in his native town as an everlasting memorial of his art. ‘ Provident, Honourable, Wise, Dear Lords, — I have been for some time past minded to present your Wisdoms with something of my unworthy (kleimuir digen) painting as a re- membrance ; but I have been obliged to give this up on ac- count of the defects of my poor work, for I knew that I should not have been well able to maintain the same before your Wisdoms. ‘ During this past time, however, I have painted a picture, and bestowed more diligence upon it than upon any other painting ; therefore I esteem no one worthier than your Wisdoms to keep it as a remembrance ; on which account I present the same to you herewith, begging you, with humble diligence, to accept my little present graciously and favourably, and to be and remain my favourable and dear Lords, as I have always hitherto found you. This, with the utmost humility, I will sedulously endeavour to merit from your Wisdoms. ‘ Your Wisdoms’ humble subject, ‘ Albrecht Durer.’ Their Wisdoms * graciously and favourably ’ accepted the little present, and hung the two panels of Paul and Mark, and Peter and John, in the upper room of the Rathhaus, giving the painter as an honorarium — ‘ pro ein E lining ’ — one hundred florins, likewise twelve florins to his wife, and two florins to his man ( Knecht ) ‘pro bibalibus! For a hundred years Diirer’s ‘ remembrance ’ was preserved in Niirnberg; but, alas for Niirnberg’s treasures ! at the begin- ning of the next century the Elector Maximilian visited the town, and spied out the last one remaining of the large Durer paintings. On his return to Bavaria, he at once sent his secretary and his court painter to treat for its possession, and they appear to have used both bribery and threats in order to gain their end. The Rath, to do it justice, was very reluctant this time to 16 242 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. part with Dtirer’s last gift, and tried all it could to get out of the matter politely, but Maximilian was too strong a neigh- bour to be downright refused, and at last the altern Herren had to give up the paintings, the Elector having it in his power to make the town suffer for any denial of his modest demands. In the August of 1627 the originals were delivered, with the copies that Georg Gartner had previously prepared of them, to the Elector ; the copies being sent, it would seem, in the last fond hope that he might prefer these, and send the originals, which were slightly damaged, back again; but Maxi- milian knew better than this, and poor Nurnberg only got back the copies (excellent ones in their way), which still hang in the upper room of the Rathhaus. The inscriptions, however, that Diirer affixed to the paintings — texts of scriptures containing warnings against false pro- phets, and exhortations not to depart from the Word of God — were cut off from the originals, probably on account of their anti-Catholic tendency, and are now placed under the copies. Besides the Four Apostles, there are several other paintings at Munich of great merit. His own portrait indeed (Cabinet VII.) is one of his most masterly works. I have already spoken of the wonderful sentiment of this touching likeness, so will confine myself here to its technical qualities, which, strange to say, although the picture belongs to his immature time, are of the highest excellence. The painting is unfortunately greatly over-varnished, but it has still a wonderful soft transparency, particularly in the warm flesh-tints of the face. The hair which falls in rich profusion on the shoulders is executed in his finest manner ; every delicate stroke of the brush produces an effect ; the fur collar also is very carefully painted. The inscription to the left is as follows : — ‘ ALBERTUS Durerus Noricus ipsum me propriis sic effingebam COLORIBUS JETATIS ANNO XXVIII.’ To the right is the monogram and the date 1500. This painting did not travel to Munich until 1805. Rudolph II. and Maximilian of Bavaria could scarcely, one would think, have been aware of its existence. Allusion has already been made several times to Diirer’s THE BAUMGARTNER ALTAR-PIECE. 243 friend Stephen Baumgartner. The Baumgartner family was one of considerable importance in Nurnberg; and the two brothers, Lucas and Stephan, were evidently men of influence and note in their day. Diirer has represented these two brothers in the characters of St. Eustace and St. George on the side wings of an altar-piece originally set up by the family in the Church of St. Catherine in Nurnberg, but now forming Nos. t, 2, and 3 of the first room of the Pinakothek. The middle compartment of this altar-piece represents the Nativity. Mary and Joseph kneel in adoration before the Child, who lies on the ground surrounded by five angel playmates ; the shepherds are seen in the distance with the angel appearing to them. Though preferable to some of the crude works of Diirer’s early time, this picture is very like these in style and execution, being extremely hard and cold. The little angels have none of the gleeful grace of those in the Repose in Egypt, and the Infant Christ is stiff and lifeless in the extreme. The two founders on the wings, however, although outlined in the most severe manner, are grand and noble figures. Stephan, in particular, a tall, lean knight of melancholy but resolute coun- tenance, is a very characteristic portrait. Some say he was the original of the knight in the print of the Knight, Death, and Devil, but the resemblance is not very strong ; there is more sadness and less hardness about the mouth, although he also looks a man who would not easily be daunted even by the devil. The other brother, Lucas, is a much more prosaic individual. He is not troubled with speculative doubts and sad yearnings, but is well content with his comfortable home- life in Nurnberg ; ready, if his emperor needs him, to put on his armour and go and fight for him in his Swiss compaign as well as Stephan, but glad enough to get back safely to Nurn- berg and set up an altar-piece in return for the protection of the saints. Both brothers are represented in armour of a slightly fan- tastic kind, with bright slashings of red appearing through their surcoats. They stand by their horses, which are some- what stiff in drawing and wooden in appearance ; but the brothers themselves, although harshly outlined, are thoroughly life-like and individual. It would be difficult indeed to find 16 — 2 244 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. two more excellent and characteristic portraits, whilst at the same time each figure represents admirably the saint for which it stands. Stephan is the very St. George of Spenser, tried, tempted, and sorrowful, but still doing battle with the dragon, for the sake of Una — a man ‘ Righte faithfulle true In worde and deede.’ Whilst St. Eustace is the jolly and easily converted huntsman, untroubled, one feels sure, by any faithless doubts as to how the crucifix came to be between the horns of his stag. The landscape in the wing on which Stephan Baumgartner is portrayed is very much like that of the Knight, Death, and Devil ; which, taken in conjunction with the resemblance of the figure, seems to indicate that Diirer certainly had the one subject in his mind when he composed the other. I believe, however, that the painting was executed long before the en- graving — that it belongs in fact to Durer’s early time, before his visit to Venice ; but Kugler and Von Eye think they are both of much the same date. There is neither date nor true monogram* on this altar-piece, but there is no doubt that it issued from Durer’s workshop , -f and was in part the work of his own hands. A life-size LUCRETIA, a very unpleasant naked woman, who looks as though she had a tumour in her side ;J CHRIST MOURNED BY THE Holy Women, an early performance, or perhaps, as stated in the catalogue, an Atelier-bild , i.e. a paint- * The monogram on the pillar in the centre was not, it is thought, set there by Diirer. + This painting likewise fell to the share of the Elector Maximilian. The letter is still preserved in which he demands rather than requests it from the Rath, al- though it did not properly belong to the Rath, it being, as I have said, a family foundation in the Church of St. Catherine. This, however, made little difference ; the Baumgartner family were persuaded to part with their altar-piece on considera- tion of a copy being put in its place, and the two brothers, who were then repre- sentatives of the family, received from Maximilian ‘ two gold chains with gracious- pennies ’ [gnaden-pfening) attached in token of his goodwill, ‘ and likewise a copy of their picture, so that they might suffer no damage /’ X There is a study for the head of Lucrelia in the British Museum. The figure is said by some authorities to resemble Agnes Frey, and is praised by Kugler for its masterly modelling, ‘ worthy of Leonardo da Vinci.’ PORTRAIT OF HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER. 245 ing executed chiefly by his scholars ; the admirable PORTRAIT of Michael Wohlgemuth before mentioned ; Portrait of Oswald Krell, with the date 1499 ; Portrait of his Father, one of the four repetitions of this picture ; PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG Man, formerly called Johann Diirer, 1500. Two Wings OF an Altar-piece, on which are represented SS. Joachim and Joseph, two grand old men, and St. Simeon and the Bishop Lazarus, with staff and book, painted on a gold ground with extreme care, and a SORROWING Mother OF Christ, of very doubtful authenticity, complete the number of Diirer’s paintings in the Pinakothek. Although, as we have seen, Nurnberg has parted with all the great paintings and altar-pieces by Diirer which formerly adorned her churches, yet one magnificent work by his hand still remains in his native town : this is the Portrait OF Hieronymus Holzschuher, which has been faithfully pre- served in the Holzschuher family from Diirer’ s time down to the present day, every successive generation having nobly refused the tempting offers made by connoisseurs and princely collectors for its possession. Well might they desire to obtain such a work ! It is the very finest of all Diirer’s portraits, not even excepting the Munich portrait of himself. The grand old man, who once held one of the most important positions in the Rath, flashes upon you as you enter his presence in all the vigour of life, and all the keenness of his intellect. His eyes search you through and through, and you feel that no subterfuge or evasion will avail anything with him. The whole life of the man, indeed, is epitomized in his face, and as it is with all truly great portraits, you learn not only how he looked as he sat to the artist for his likeness, but something of his past history, his manner of thought, and the moulding influ- ences of time on his character and opinions. It is only a great artist who can thus paint the true nature of his sitter unob- scured by the momentary agitations of present life ; who ‘ Poring on a face Divinely through all hindrance finds the man Behind it, and so paints him that his face, The shape and colour of a mind and life, Lives for his children ever at its best.’ 246 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. It is thus that Diirer painted in this instance ; the portrait is not a mere picture, it lives , ‘ ever at its best.’ In its technical execution, also, the portrait of Holzschuher, painted in 1526, is almost perfect ; the colours look as fresh as the first day they were laid on. When I saw it, it was stand- ing on an easel in a small upper room of the Holzschuher house in Niirnberg, and my first impression on seeing it was that it was a painting recently finished by some artist of the present day ; but I could think of no artist of the present day who could possibly have painted it* A larger but far inferior work that Diirer likewise executed for the Holzschuher family has lately been restored to Niirn- berg, and now hangs in the Moritz-kapelle with other paintings of the old German school. It represents the BODY OF CHRIST TAKEN DOWN FROM the Cross and mourned by the Holy Women and His Disciples. It was originally set up in St. Sebald’s Church at Niirnberg, but at the beginning of the seventeenth century the family made it a present to the well-known Martin Peller, who set up the copy in its place, which still hangs in the church. The original afterwards formed part of the Boisseree Collec- tion, from which it travelled back to Niirnberg. It is well conceived and powerfully drawn in parts, but as a whole it is scarcely worthy of Diirer, even in his early time ; and yet Kugler believes that it was not executed until between 1515 and 1518. If so, it must have been painted almost entirely by pupils, for Diirer at this date would never have painted in such a crude and stiff manner. There are several other pictures in Niirnberg signed with Diirer’s monogram, and pointed out as being his work, but the two mentioned are, probably the only genuine ones now re- maining in the town ; and of these, the latter is no better than the generality of German paintings of the same date. Few galleries out of Germany can boast of possessing works by Diirer ; indeed, there are scarcely any genuine paintings by him even in Germany, besides those I have mentioned. * Since the above was written this fine portrait has been generously lent by the Holzschuher family to the Germanisches Museum. PAINTINGS IN ENGLAND. 247 Neither the Louvre nor the Antwerp Museum* possesses a single example. The Royal Gallery at Madrid and the Uffizj at Florence contain, as we have seen, some excellent works ; but besides these, it is doubtful whether there are any to be met with in the South of Europe. In the North, St. Peters- burg claims to be the possessor of several paintings, but her claims have scarcely been verified. Copenhagen likewise has a portrait of Diirer, said to have been painted by himself, and which has been pronounced by some critics to be genuine. In England, in the National Gallery, we have a ‘ Bust Portrait of a Senator/ as the catalogue describes it ;-f* probably a portrait of one of the Rath, for the grand old man is dressed in a purple robe with a fur collar, and wears a gold chain round his neck with an order decoration, which doubtless implies that he held some office in the state ; but this portrait, although dated 1514, is painted in Diirer’s early hard manner, and gives one no idea of the vivid force with which he executed such portraits as that of Holzschuher and other of his later works. It is to be regretted that we have no better specimen of his art in the National Collection, for I must warn my readers against accepting this portrait (although it is very possibly genuine) as any measure of the artist’s powers. Besides this portrait of a senator in the National Gallery, and the portrait of the elder Diirer in Syon House, there was also a charming portrait of a young Niirnberg girl, Catherine Fiirleger, in the collection of Mr. Wynn Ellis in London. This young girl, who belonged to one of the noblest patrician families in Niirnberg, was twice painted by Diirer in the year 1497 (that is, soon after his settlement in Niirnberg), once as a Magdalen, with her beautiful hair flowing loose over her shoulders, and once in regular portrait style, with her hair bound up in orderly manner. The former of these portraits is now in the Stadel Institut at Frankfort, whilst the latter is the one in the possession of Mr. Wynn Ellis. It was exhibited some years ago at the Burlington Club.J Both portraits were * The portrait of Frederick of Saxony in the Antwerp Museum was probably copied from the woodcut. f No. 245. + There seems to be but little doubt concerning the genuineness of this picture. 248 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. derived from the same source, they having formerly belonged to the Bishop of Olmiitz. There may be mentioned also a Virgin crowned by two angels, dated 1506, which was acquired some years ago by the Marquis of Lothian. It would seem to have been painted during the Venice period, and is more gracious than many of his Madonnas, betraying a slight Italian influence. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition of Old Masters in 1871, where it was seen to have been much rubbed and retouched. These are the only known paintings in England that have any good claims to be considered genuine, although there are a great many others that pass with Diirer’s name. Dr. Waagen, mentions a Nativity at Burleigh House, seat of the Earl of Exeter, ‘ erroneously ascribed to Herri de Bles,’ which he believes to be by Diirer, and he likewise ascribes to him a portrait of Maximilian in the collection of Lord Northwick ; but Dr. Waagen, it is to be feared, was sometimes a little too lax and hasty in his judgments about pictures in England, and gave names to them without sufficient consideration. There is, however, on the other hand, one picture in England which he has cautiously assigned to Wohlgemuth that might with some reason have been permitted to retain the name of the younger master. This is a painting of the Crucifixion, in the possession of the Rev. Fuller Russell. This fine painting was formerly in the collection of Dr. Campe at Niirnberg, and when in his collection it was certainly considered to be an early work of Diirer’s. It is signed with his monogram, and several of the figures are strikingly like his peculiar types. The con- ception is powerful, and the composition well balanced, a group of women, especially, to the left of the cross being nobly con- ceived and expressed. On the other hand, the drawing is in Herr Otto Mundler writes to me thus about it : ‘ I know its history very well, for it was I who brought it to London. It is far from being in a good state of pre- servation ; it has been restored by a very clever artist, M. Deschler of Augsburg ; but it is still a very charming work, and it has the great advantage of being the original. The Speck Collection at Liitzschema has only a copy of the time.’ Professor Thausing, however, classes both this and the Magdalen at Frankfort among the non-authentic works. PAINTINGS IN ENGLAND. 249 some parts faulty, and the execution is very unequal, but not more so than in the Holzschuher and several other altar- pieces that there is little doubt proceeded from his workshop. I cannot conclude the subject ofDiirer’s paintings in England without mentioning one that German writers on the subject as- sume to be now in this country, but of which no information has ever been gained. The picture in question represents the Death OF THE VIRGIN, and was painted by Diirer in fulfilment of a commission given him by Georg von Zlatko, Bishop of Vienna. The features of the dying Virgin are those of Mary of Bur- gundy, the beloved wife of the Emperor Maximilian, and the scene depicted is that of her death-bed. Most of the figures are portraits. Maximilian himself is present, and Philip of Spain, Mary’s son, is introduced as St. John, who stands by the bedside and puts the taper into the dying woman’s hand. The Bishop, Georg von Zlatko, stands in the middle of the room with an open book in his hand, in which Diirer’s mono- gram and the date 1518 are inscribed. From the description given of it by Heller and other writers, this must be one of Diirer’s most important paintings : it was painted in the middle period of his life, and there is every reason to believe that it was a most carefully executed work. What makes it the more extraordinary that this picture should now be missing is that it was certainly in the celebrated col- lection of the Count of Fries at Vienna as recently as 1822. At the sale of the Count’s pictures it is supposed to have passed over into England. ‘ It unfortunately went across the Channel,’ are Dr. von Eye’s words respecting it ; and well may he say ‘ unfortunately,’ if such a treasure be really in this country without anyone being the wiser or the better for it. But I cannot believe that such is the case, for I myself have sought for it here in every direction, and it is improbable that if it were in this country no clue should exist to its possessor.* DRAWINGS. The limits of this work will not allow me to do more than * A writer in the Athenceum , Aug. 21, 1869, says that this picture hangs over the high altar in St. Wolfgang’s Church, on Lake Wolfgang, in Upper Austria. It is scarcely probable that this can be the original painting. 250 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. mention a few of the principal collections of Diirer’s draw- ings, for it would take volumes instead of pages were I to attempt to describe each separate sketch or study that he has left ; hundreds of which are now scattered in various public and private collections in Germany, England, and other countries. The most important, both as to size and merit, of all known collections is that of the Archduke Albert of Sachsen Teschen at Vienna,* formed originally by the Emperor Maximilian, and increased by other art-loving princes from his time to that of the Archduke Albert. Here are some of the greatest treasures of Durer’s art, for nowhere is the mind of the artist expressed more freely than in his sketched thoughts. In a rough and hasty drawing we may often catch the first glimmering of some great conception, afterwards executed perhaps in a totally different form to the crude study, or possibly never executed at all, but remaining in the limbo of things that might have been. The studies of almost all great artists are interesting, but Diirer’s are especially so, in that the chief power of his art lies in his firm and accurate drawing. His lines never wander, but even in his rudest sketch express all that they are meant to express, in a clear and masterly manner ; many even of his paintings, particularly his early ones, have more the character of coloured drawings than of creations clothed from the beginning in a glorious garb of colour, such as that in which Titian, and some of the other great colourists of the world, conceived their glowing forms. But Diirer’s strength lay not in colour, but in intellect and design, and these qualities are visible in his drawings even more clearly than in his finished works. Of his three printed Passions, not one exceeds in power and beauty of design the twelve drawings of the Passion in the Albertina Collection, executed in 1 504. They are drawn with extraordinary delicacy on a green prepared ground, the lights being heightened with white. Sandrart, who saw these drawings in the possession of the Emperor P"erdinand III. ‘ who showed them to me himself,’ he says, praises them * Now in the possession of the Archduke Charles. It is always called the Albertina Collection, and it is convenient to keep to this designation. DRAWINGS IN THE ALBERTINA COLLECTION. 25 I above all the other Passions ; and certainly they are so mar- vellously executed, and bear so directly the impress of the artist’s mind and hand, that one cannot feel astonished at his preference. Several of the subjects that are weak in the other Passions are powerful and full of character here ; in- deed, the knowledge and expression of individual character in these drawings excels almost everything of the kind in his printed works. It is strange that Durer never engraved this series of the Passion. Possibly it was executed for the Emperor Maxi- milian, or some other patron who wished to have a unique copy. We find now and then a repetition of some idea or arrangement of material from it occurring in his later works, but, as a whole, the Passion in drawing differs more from the other three in its composition than they differ from each other.* Besides this beautiful series of the Passion, there are a great many finished drawings in this magnificent collection of the very highest beauty ; likewise studies of all sorts finished and unfinished, first rough jottings of ideas, and elaborate designs, notes de voyage, studies of costumes, numerous portraits (amongst them his own portrait, already mentioned, taken when he was ‘ still a child ’) designs for his woodcuts and en- gravings, a design for the Car of Maximilian, views of Ntirn- berg and of Antwerp, Holy Families, Virgins, Adorations, drawings of Saints, powerful heads of old men, etc., etc. ; the whole forming a rich index to the varied studies and thoughts of the artist mind. Next in importance to the collection at Vienna comes that of the British Museum, which is not far behind the German one in richness and size. The drawings in the British Museum, with a few exceptions, are contained in a large folio volume, bound in black leather, with the word ‘Teckening,’ and the date 1637, as well as Diirer’s monogram stamped in gold on the cover. The greater number of these drawings appear to have been originally derived from the collection of the Imhof family in * The Passion in drawing has been lithographed by Pilizotti, and lately the whole series of Diirer’s drawings in the Albertina Collection have been admirably reproduced in autotype by M. Adolphe Braun. 252 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Niirnberg — the largest known collection of Diirer’s works in the sixteenth century ;* but in the seventeenth century they passed into the possession of the celebrated Earl of Arundel, who, it is supposed, acquired the volume in which they are contained in the year 1637 (the date on the cover), either at Niirnberg or in the Netherlands. In the following century the volume in question fell into the hands of Sir Hans Sloane, who bequeathed it, with the rest of his collection, to the British Museum in 1753. Many of the drawings are mere hasty studies, without any particular merit or interest ; others are so greatly injured by * It ma3* perhaps be interesting to the reader to learn something of the history of this celebrated family collection. Hans Imhof II., the founder of it, so often mentioned by Diirer, married Felicitas, the daughter of Pirkheimer, and at his father-in-law's death he inherited a great many of his art treasures, and amongst them most probably a number of Diirer’s drawings. But before this he had already begun to make a collection himself ; he was a friend of Diirer’s, and no doubt ob- tained many * art things ’ from him, either as presents, or for a small price, and when he died his collection was already a considerable one. It descended to his third son Willibald Imhof, named after his maternal grandfather (the same who gives such a prosaic account of his courtship, see page 59), who was a great con- noisseur and lover of art, and who added to the family collection to a great extent, buying drawings, etc , from Andreas and the ‘ Diirerin ’ (not Agnes, but the wife of Andreas) whenever he had an opportunity. He likewise inherited the art trea- sures of his aunt Barbara, Pirkheimer’s second daughter, so that at his death in 15S0 the Imhof Collection was, as far as regards Diirer’s drawings, the largest and richest in existence. He has left a quaint catalogue of his treasures, entitled £ Memorial Book for me Willibald Imhof of Niirnberg, 5 in which he gives a descrip- tion of many of Diirer’s works, thus enabling us to recognise in many instances those which have descended from his collection. He had the true spirit of a col- lector, and gave express instructions in his will and to his children that his collec- tion was never to be broken up, but was to descend from father to son of the race of Imhof, remaining to their house as an everlasting honour, never to be turned into money. But scarcely was this good collector dead than his wife and children prepared to disregard his last instructions, and treated with the Emperor Rudolph for the sale of Diirer’s works. The purchase of the whole collection was not made by the Emperor, but still it is probable that some of the drawings went to Prague at this time. After this the collection was by degrees entirely broken up. Only one of Willibald Imhofs sons appears to have inherited to any extent the taste of his father, and even he could not avoid selling ‘ Diirer things ’ whenever a good offer was made for them, and it is to be feared also that he was tempted into having a good many of them copied and passing off the copies as originals ; it is difficult else to account for the replicas that exist of several of Diirer’s smaller paintings and many of his drawings. By this time they began to have great value, and foreign princes and connoisseurs vied with one another in obtaining possession of them. The Earl of Arundel seems to have been particularly fortunate, for besides the volume of drawings above-mentioned he obtained for himself and his king a vast number of valuable works, which are now dispersed, and many, alas ! lost or de- stroyed. Constantly, however, even now, in various galleries and collections we come across something ‘ formerly in the Arundel Collection DRAWINGS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 253 time and damp as to be nearly effaced, whilst others are cer- tainly not by Diirer ; but enough remain (for there are upwards of two hundred in this volume) to reveal to us Diirer’s wonderful skill as a draughtsman, and perfect mastery over whatever vehicle he chose to use for the expression of his ideas. Some of these drawings are in water-colour, some in body-colour, some in tempera, some are drawn with the brush on prepared grounds, some are in pen and ink, some in pencil, some in chalk, in coloured crayon, in silver point, or in char- coal ; some are finished paintings, whilst others are mere out- lined studies ; but they all have interest as being the work of a true artist, and the English nation, although it cannot boast possession of many of Diirer’s pictures, has, at all events, a most important memorial of his art in the big old book in the print-room of the Museum, where all lovers of Diirer’s art may study it if they please. I have already in the course of this work alluded to many of these drawings and sketches : it is therefore unnecessary to repeat the description of them in this place. A few, however, still remain, which deserve especial notice. Of these may be mentioned : — No. 9. — Small study for head of Lucretia, in the picture in the Munich Gallery. No. 17. — Female head in chalk. No. 19. — A characteristic head of an old man, who looks like a weather-beaten fisherman. Painted in water-colour, on thick paper. No. 24. — A man’s head and bust, finely painted. The chief peculiarity of this study is the fine green-tinted beard of the man. No. 25. — A magnificent painting of an old Jew’s head, with white cap and long white beard. The head is painted in body colour, on a gold background, which in many places shows through the varied flesh tints. No. 28. — A noble head drawn in charcoal. This head often occurs in Diirer’s works. No. 29. — A terribly painful study of the head of the dead Christ. Inscribed, ‘ I drew this in my sickness .’ No. 35. — A child’s head in black and white chalk, on red paper. 254 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. No. 36. — An old woman on red paper. No. 47. — A large man’s head in chalk. No. 49. — Drawing of an old woman ; on pale green ground, much effaced. Thought to be a portrait of Diirer’s mother. No. 50. — Portrait of a young woman, above which is written, ‘ Fronica Formschneiderin, 1525.’ Boldly drawn, and interest- ing in that it proves that women sometimes practised wood- engraving in the sixteenth century. No. 56. — Christ crowned with thorns sitting on a tomb. Black heightened with white on prepared red ground. No. 68. — Pencil drawing for his own coat of arms. No. 72. — A very careful study of the inside of a bird’s wing. Nos. 87, 88, 89. — Three coloured sketches for the wood- cut of the Great Column, one having the figure of the satyr at the top. Very ugly and unmeaning, like the woodcut, and of very doubtful authenticity. Nos. 93, 94. — Studies for the Presentation in the Temple, already mentioned. No. 1 12. — St. John and the Virgin, pen-sketch. No. 123. — Beautiful study for an Adoration. Drawn with the brush on prepared green ground ; black heightened with white. Resembles in treatment the drawings of the Passion in the Albert Collection. Nos. 141, 142. — Beautiful little pen-drawings, probably de- signs for handles of swords or other jewellers’ work. No. 14 1, a knight kneeling, with his’helmet and feathers on the ground before him. No. 142, Virgin and Child and adoring Saint. Most delicately executed. No. 143. — Fine pen-drawing of a bird. Most carefully executed. Nos. 149, 150. — Several slips of very fine pen-drawings, resembling in character the borders of the Maximilian Prayer- Book. No. 157- — Charming drawing of rabbits. No. 158. — Fine bold pen-drawing of a Cupid with powerful wings and quiver. No. 161. — Drawing of the Rhinoceros for the woodcut. No. 166. Study of red sandstone rocks carefully painted in water-colour. DRAWINGS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 255 No. 171. — Water-coloured drawing of a young man sitting under a tree singing to an instrument — possibly Orpheus. No. 173. — Pen-drawing for the Prodigal Son. The figure of the prodigal is only sketched out in this drawing, but the hogs are executed with minute care. The little pigs in the foreground have not been added. No. 178. — Noble study for a St. Christopher. Drawn with the brush on dark-grey paper and heightened with white. Nos. 1 8 1, 182. — Studies for the subject of Adam and Eve. No. 183. — Study for Apollo and Diana, pen and ink. Apollo, a naked figure, bearing a strong resemblance to the Adam in the print of Adam and Eve, holds the sun in his hand. Its rays fall upon Diana, a naked sitting figure, whose back only is seen. She puts up her hand as if to shield herself. Nos. 187, 1 88, 189. — Three studies before mentioned for the Coronation of the Virgin. No. — . — A large coloured study for the centre picture of the Baumgartner Altar-piece in the Pinakothek at Munich. Although this drawing is greatly injured by damp, it is less archaic than the finished painting at Munich. Besides the drawings in the Sloane book, there are a few others kept loose in a portfolio that have been acquired by the Museum at different times. Several of these were in the Cracherode Collection, bequeathed in 1799; others were left by Payne Knight ; and some have been purchased. Amongst these there is a most beautiful and poetic landscape, painted in water-colours, which reveals Diirer’s deep feeling of the harmony of nature. A large expanse of water, an island with a curious tall house upon it, and the banks of the river or lake, are all bathed in soft evening sunlight, which tinges with its magic everything that it touches. Every reflection in the clear water, every blade of grass on the bank, is carefully and lovingly painted, and the whole scene, though only a sketch, produces an effect on the spectator beyond that of many elaborately finished paintings. The house on the island, upon which the word ‘ Weinhctus ’ is here written in Diirer’s hand, is the same as he has represented in his engraving of the 256 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Virgin and the Monkey. It was probably some place near Niirnberg. Another splendidly executed work is a dead kingfisher, every single feather of which is painted in the most minute manner in brilliant body colour. The bird’s breast is a perfect blaze of colour. It is dated 1521, and was therefore probably one of the studies that Diirer mentions having made in the Netherlands. A head of Christ drawn in black and white, on a pale blue ground, dated 1508 ; a Virgin and Child of peculiar conception for Diirer, drawn in black and white on a brown ground ; an old man’s head and a Virgin and Child, with pro- portion lines drawn in red ink over the faces, are the only other drawings in the British Museum that claim any especial notice here.* In addition to these drawings in the National Collection, there are likewise some rare treasures of Diirer’s art in the possession of private gentlemen in this country. The exhi- bitions of the Burlington Club and Grosvenor Gallery have brought many of these to light. Besides the fine collection of engravings and woodcuts displayed at the former exhibition,' f there were to be seen a number of interesting drawings in a room upstairs, belonging chiefly to Mr. Malcolm, Mr. C. S. Bale, Mr. R. S. Holford, Mr. Mitchell, and Mr. Alfred Morri- son. Several coloured drawings of flowers in the possession of Mr. C. S. Bale, are executed with the minuteness and delicacy of a first-rate illuminator ; and the Back of a King- fisher, from the Esdaile Collection, now belonging to Mr. Morrison, is a marvel in its way for brilliancy of colour, although a well-known critic has declared that it cannot be by Diirer, because of its deficiency in foreshortening. Most beautiful are also a Virgin and Child drawn in Indian ink ; another study for the head of the Virgin in silver point, heightened with white on a red-tinted ground ; and a Holy Family drawn with the pen : all three belonging to Mr. * I regret extremely that the limits of this work will not allow me to give a com- plete descriptive catalogue of the drawings by Diirer in the British Museum. It is to be hoped that such a catalogue will soon be published. t It is strange that there was not one impression of the Arch of Maximilian amongst these. DRAWINGS IN OTHER COLLECTIONS. 25 7 Malcolm. Two old men’s heads, dated 1520, are very charac- teristic. They are executed in silver point, and probably formed a leaf of Dtirer’s Netherland ‘ Bilderbuch! They are now in the possession of Mr. R. S. Holford, who contributed several other drawings to the Burlington Club collection. There may be mentioned also a remarkable study of an ancient weary-looking angel playing on a lute, in the possession of Mr. W. Mitchell. Professor Thausing imagines this winged figure to be a portrait of Hans Frey, but this scarcely seems probable. In the Royal collection at Windsor are two drawings by Diirer, one of which is very remarkable. It is one of those strange symbolic inventions that seem to defy interpreta- tion. Meanings without number can generally be found for these curious designs, but no one can be quite sure that the meaning found, however ingenious, was really Diirer’s meaning. The Windsor drawing is one of the most puzzling of these riddles. On the bank of a stream sits a naked female with outstretched hand, and an eager expression of countenance. Towards her are borne on the back of a dol- phin three figures (goddesses, maybe), holding a peculiar sort of covering above their heads. The middle one is naked, the other two lightly draped. More in the foreground recline on the ground two other females, one naked and the other dressed. The latter traces with her finger some character or pattern, apparently, in a plate of sand, or, perhaps, of oil floating on water, probably used as a means of divination. Behind her is a large basket, or basket-boat, containing two little doves, and bearing the inscription, ‘ Augusta Pupilla .’ A view of Niirnberg, with its dominating Burg, the same as in the print of ‘ St. Anthony and the Bell/ fills the background. Professor Thausing has framed an elaborate theory about this drawing on the strength of the word Augusta , by which he explains Diirer meant Niirnberg ; but in spite of his ingenious reasoning it is to be feared that the Windsor drawing still remains as one of the unsolved mysteries of Dtirer’s art. Among the drawings at Oxford may be mentioned two naked women, probably also an allegory ; St. John the Baptist’s head on a dish, and a monstrosity with two heads. 1 7 258 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Next to the British Museum collection, and almost rivalling it in interest and number of works, comes that of the Berlin Museum. This collection is not of old date, like those of Vienna and England, but it has grown rapidly of late years, especially by the purchase of the magnificent Hulot Collection (formerly the Posonyi) which was made in 1878. Among the most noteworthy drawings at Berlin may be mentioned : 1. A large but very minutely executed water-colour drawing of a landscape view, probably taken from some place near Niirnberg. Every minutia in this study is so carefully finished that it really needs a magnifying glass to appreciate its excellence. A river divides the landscape, as it were, into two sections. On the one side we have a farm, with all its outbuildings and belongings, and on the other, fields and little villages surrounded by trees, through which the church towers rise above the surrounding houses, while in the distance is a chain of mountains. 2 ; A remarkable and very powerful drawing of Samson striking down the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. This splendidly executed monochrome drawing formerly formed part of a diptych, the other side of which, representing the Resurrection of Christ, is now in the Albertina. It is painted in grisaille, with minute finish, and was probably intended for a domestic altar-piece. 3. Portrait of Agnes Frey. 4. Supposed portrait of Barbara Holperin, Diirer’s mother. 5. Portrait of Dlirer himself. A study for his figure in the picture of the Coronation of the Virgin. 6. A Valley in Franconia. At Bremen, also, there is a good collection of drawings and studies, including several of those highly-finished landscape studies which seem at one time to have had peculiar interest for Diirer. Instead of making rough, hasty sketches of the places he came across, for the sake of remembrance, he seems to have lingered, finishing his work to the utmost. Thus we find drawings of rocks with every stratification carefully noted, and the peculiar vegetation of each fissure recorded ; also trees drawn with thorough knowledge of their leafless form, plants of all kinds, flowers most delicately and exquisitely finished, DRAWINGS IN OTHER COLLECTIONS. 259 and grasses, in which every blade is drawn with most perfect skill, as in the beautiful drawing of flowering grasses at the Albertina. The Royal collection at Dresden contains several beautiful works ; amongst them a Virgin and Child with angels, two rabbits in front, and Joseph sleeping in the background, of the most exquisite finish and delicacy. It is a fine pen-drawing on brown paper, the shadows darkened with Indian ink, and the lights heightened with gold. Munich — besides the borders of the Maximilian Prayer- book preserved in the Town Library — has a few drawings exhibited in the print-room of the Pinakothek. The Stadel Museum at Frankfort has a good collection, and in many other smaller museums, libraries, and institutes of Germany there are scattered drawings and studies by Diirer of more or less value. Out of Germany the principal collections, after that of the British Museum, are those of the Uffizi at Florence, which numbers several interesting examples ; the Ambrosiana at Milan : and the Louvre and Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.* PLASTIC WORKS. The most important of these is the hone-stone carving of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, preserved in the British Museum. This marvellous work is cut in very high relief on a block of cream-coloured hone-stone (the stone usually used in lithography), measuring seven inches and a half in height, and five and a half in breadth. In this small space Diirer has managed to express the scene he represents with a richness of detail that is most sur- prising. We see the mother raising herself in bed to partake of some refreshment brought her by her attendants ; the old father, Zacharias, writing on a tablet the name of his new-born son John, whom the people assembled would have called * For a careful and detailed study of all Diirer ’s drawings, sketches, and studies, I would refer the reader to a series of articles entitled ‘ Les Dessins d ’Albert Diirer, by M. Charles Ephrussi, that appeared in the Gazelle dcs Bemtx Arts in 1877. 26o LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Zacharias, and the infant Baptist himself in the arms of an old woman kneeling near the father, who looks up from the tablet with a curious pathetic expression on his face, for his tongue has not yet been loosed. Every accessory of the apartment, every slightest detail of the dress of the spectators, is faithfully depicted. On a shelf to the right stand the jars, bottles, and ordinary utensils of a German household ; through a window, also to the right, we catch a glimpse of a street outside, and the little Diirer dog gambles in front. A young man in the foreground, who is apparently entering at the door of the room, is supposed to be a portrait of Diirer himself. It bears more resemblance to the later woodcut, however, than to his earlier portraits. His monogram and the date 1 5 10 is cut on a tablet at the foot of the bed. There seems to be no doubt that this work is perfectly genuine, and it exhibits Durer’s powers as a sculptor to a remarkable extent. The expression in the faces of the actors in the scene is full of individual character, and the whole sub- ject has a rich pictorial effect such as we seldom see in works of this kind. It was acquired by Payne Knight in the Nether- lands about the end of the last century for the sum of ,£500, and was bequeathed by him to the British Museum with the rest of his art collection. It is in a wonderfully perfect state of preservation, only the fingers of Elizabeth being slightly broken, and it is now shielded carefully from future accidents by being kept in a glass case, locked up in the print-room. No one who was not previously aware of its existence would be likely to find it out. Surely such a treasure as this might be safely made a little more accessible to the general public. A companion carving to the Birth of St. John is now pre- served in the Museum at Brunswick. It represents the Preaching of St. John the Baptist in the Wilder- ness, and is likewise carved in hone-stone, in veiy high relief. It is not in such a good state of preservation as the Birth, but it has the same pictorial effect and striking individuality of character. There is likewise an Ecce Homo said to be by Diirer in the same collection. CARVINGS. 261 Dr. von Eye mentions a wood-relief representing a fountain with a winged Love at the top of it (a so-called Liebes-brunnen ), with six persons of different ranks surrounding it and drinking the water. This curious work is in the possession of a private gentleman at Dresden. Differ’ s monogram is carved at the foot of the fountain. One constantly meets with ivory carvings in different col- lections that are ascribed to Differ, and it is supposed also that several admirable carvings in boxwood are by him. Nagler, indeed, gives a long list of such works, including an altar-piece in agate in which the martyrdom of the 30,000 saints is en- graved ; but it is impossible to say how far this list is correct. In the catalogue of the Posonyi collection, sold in Paris in 1867, there is mentioned a portrait of Differ himself, in wood, and likewise a marionette figure beautifully modelled, and bearing some resemblance to Agnes Frey, both of them described as works by Differ. Besides these carved and sculptured works, Durer would seem to have furnished the designs for several medals, of which casts are still frequently met with in the cabinets of coin-collectors. They are generally distinguished by their excellence of design and very low relief. One medal, however, ascribed to him is in very powerful relief. It represents the head and bust of a man of middle age, with a soft cap on his head and long curling hair, and has the monogram at the left- hand side of the medal in front of the man^s faceA Another medal, executed in a most masterly style, repre- sents the head and bust of a woman of much the same style of beauty as the Lucretia of the Munich Gallery. It is dated 1508, and is supposed to be a portrait of Agnes Frey. Most of the works of this class, however, that pass with Diirer’s name are not genuine, some being, indeed, medals struck in his honour and bearing his portrait and the date of his death on the obverse side ; but enough still remain to prove that the knowledge he acquired of this kind of work whilst in his father’s workshop never deserted him. * See Galichon, ‘Albert Durer, sa Vie et ses CEuvres,’ who has given an en- graving of this medal. 262 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. We know nothing for certain of his acquirements as an archi- tect beyond the statement he has made in his journal, that he drew the plan of a house for the physician of the Archduchess Margaret, but no doubt the German verses on his tomb, which celebrate him not only as an artist and a sculptor, but likewise as an architect, are not incorrect. He followed art indeed in all its various modes of expression, knowing that, as a poet of the present day remarks, ‘ Each art is so to speak a separate tone ; The perfect chord results from all in one.’ CHAPTER V. LITERARY WORKS. ‘A ne voir en lui que l’ecrivain il porterait encore un nom illustre.’ Charles Blanc. Like Leonardo da Vinci, who, as we know, wrote treatises on mathematics, chemistry, hydraulics, anatomy, and other scien- tific subjects, Diirer composed a great number of works upon subjects that one would imagine would be far beyond the range of an artist’s knowledge. Camerarius indeed assures us that he wrote no fewer than 150 books ; and from the titles of such of these as have been handed down to us we perceive, that if he had not an universal genius, such as that of the won- derful Leonardo, he yet dabbled in a great number of sciences, and acquired a considerable proficiency in some. Thus we know that he wrote a treatise on Civil Architecture ; another, so Camerarius affirms, on Music ; another on the Fortification of Towns, Castles, and Villages ; and another on the Proportions, of the Horse. This latter treatise was, however, stolen from him before he could publish it by some unscrupulous friend. It was thought probable that this friend was his pupil, Hans Sebald Beham ; for shortly after Diirer’s death Beham, sus- piciously enough, put forth a work on the Horse, in which the drawings are excellent, whilst the text is evidently written by some one who has no acquaintance whatever with the subject. A work by Diirer, also, has lately been discovered,* on the * See * Kunstblatt ’ for 1824, in which there is an interesting account of this long- lost book and its discovery by Busching. 264 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Art of Fencing, in which he gives accurate drawings of the various attitudes and positions in fencing and wrestling, with twelve rhyming rules for those who study these noble arts. Pirkheimer tells us that he likewise wrote on Landscape-paint- ing, on Colours, and on Painting, and that he was meditating an important work on Perspective at the time of his death. Nothing now remains to us of these manuscript works men- tioned by Pirkheimer except a short preface, apparently des- tined for the treatise on Painting ; and we are ignorant even of the titles of the remainder of the 150 books, or, as we should probably call them, pamphlets, spoken of by Camerarius. But fortunately all Diirer’s written compositions did not remain in manuscript. In 1525 he himself gave to the world his first work, ‘ Instruction in the Art of Mensuration with the Rule and Compass,’ etc. The work is divided into four books treating of the construction and division of lines, the measure- ment of plain surfaces and solid bodies, with practical hints in Optics and Perspective. It is founded chiefly on Euclid ; and those who have thoroughly mastered Euclid have no need, as Diirer tells them in his Preface, of his ‘Thing’ ( cier darff diser hernach geschriben ding nit ) :* but for the students of that time the book was no doubt a useful one ; for Diirer remarks, in his dedication to his ‘ especial dear Lord and Friend Herr Willibald Pirkheimer,’ that many young painters were allowed to grow up in ignorance of the art of measuring, ‘ without which no one can be a good workman,’ because their masters them- selves were ignorant of it, ‘ although it is the true foundation of all painting.’ In answer to the Puritan feeling against paintings and sculptures that was already awaking in his time he likewise remarks in this place, that it is as reasonable to suppose ‘ that a Christian man will be drawn into superstition and idolatry by means of a painting or a statue, as that a pious man will be led to commit a murder because he has the arms for it in his hand.’ Luther also, we know, strongly disapproved of the * A Latin copy of Euclid belonging to Diirer is still preserved in the Wolfen- biittel Library. He has written in it — ‘ Dz Puck hab ich zu Venedich vm ein JDugaten Kocft Ini 1507 Jor. Albrecht Diirer. 5 (‘ This book I bought for a ducat at Venice in 1507.’) WORK ON FORTIFICATION. 265 furious Iconoclasm which destroyed so many noble works of art at the time of the Reformation. He speaks most decisively in favour of art representations, and says he wishes he ‘ could persuade lords and gentlemen to have the whole of the Bible painted outside and inside their houses. This would be a Christian work ! ( Das ware ein christlich Werk ! j The Art of Mensuration is enriched with numerous wood- cuts,* and in it Diirer has described an instrument of his own invention for taking a portrait according to the rules of per- spective, ‘ which will be found particularly useful to persons who are not sure of drawing correctly.’ A woodcut showing a man using this instrument is reckoned amongst Diirer’s works (Heller, 1917). Camerarius prepared a Latin transla- tion of this book in 1532, and two other German editions ap- peared in 1538 and 1603. Diirer’s second work, ‘ Some Instruction in the Fortification of Cities, Castles, and Towns,’ was published in 1527. One of Leonardo’s many acquirements was, as we know, an accurate knowledge of engineering and fortification ; and in this, as well as in anatomy, Diirer appears to have followed in the path of the great Italian. Tradition assigns to Diirer the erection of some of the fortifications and bastions round Niirnberg ; but tradition in this case is wrong, for they were not erected until ten years after Diirer’s death, by an Italian en- gineer : however, their plan is said to have been much the same as that which he designed for similar positions. The work on Fortification is dedicated to Ferdinand I., the dedication being composed by Pirkheimer. The arms of the king, the crown and golden fleece, executed in woodcut, adorn the title-page, and other slight sketches and designs, explanatory of the in- structions given, illustrate the text. About the same time that Diirer published this work (1527) he executed a large woodcut, which, although it did not appear with his book, yet seems as if it must have borne some rela- tion to it. It represents in bird’s-eye view a beleaguered city, with all the means of defence clearly mapped out. The forti- * The drawing for one of these — A Cow and a Sheep lying down — is in the British Museum. 266 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. fications end on one side in an immense round bastion, from which cannon play on the enemy ; intrenchments are thrown up in another place, and, not trusting to its strong towers, the garrison of the city issue forth from the gates to fight with the besiegers. This woodcut is called in old catalogues ‘ Diirer’s Vienna / but the siege of Vienna by the Turks, to which it was sup- posed to refer, took place after Diirer’s death. It is much more probable that Diirer, when writing on the fortification of towns, executed this cut in illustration of his theories. These are the only two of his 150 books that Diirer lived to see printed ; his most important work, the Book of Human Proportions, not having been given to the world until after his death. It appeared in October, 1528 (the author having died in the preceding April), with the title : ‘ HjERINN SIND BEGRIFFEN YIER BUCHER VON MENSCIi- licher Proportion durch Albrechten Durer von NURENBERG ERFUNDEN VND BESCHRIBEN ZU NUTZ ALLEN DENEN, SO ZU DISER KUNST LIEB TRAGEN/ (‘ Herein are contained four books of Human Proportions, invented and described by Albrecht Diirer, of Nurnberg, for the use of all those who love this art/) The work, after Diirer’s death, was prepared for the press by Pirkheimer, to whom Diirer had previously dedicated it ; so that even after the death of the one the connexion of these two life-long friends did not cease. Pirkheimer, indeed, seems to have inspired Diirer with the notion of writing such a work, for he begins the dedication to ‘ his dear master and friend 5 by saying that in their frequent conversations on the arts it had happened that he had asked Pirkheimer whether any books were in existence on the proportions of the human body, and learning from his master that some had been writ- ten but were no longer extant, he began to reflect whether such a work could not be written. ‘ All that I discovered about such things/ he says, ‘ I showed to you, and you were of opinion that I ought to make my ideas known ; but I was afraid that my work was not good enough/ etc. His modest estimation of his own work is moreover shown in a preface that he wrote BOOK OF HUMAN PROPORTIONS. 267 for this book, in which he says : ‘ Let no one think that I am presumptuous enough to imagine that I have written a won- derful work ( wunder puck ), or seek to raise myself above others. This be far from me ! for I know well that but small and mediocre understanding and art can be found in the following work but he hopes nevertheless that it will be found useful ‘ not only to painters, but to goldsmiths, sculp- tors in wood and stone, metal founders, potters, embroiderers, and many others who have to form figures.’ The work itself is divided, as its German title indicates, into four books. The first two books treat of the proper propor- tion of the human form and its separate members, according to a constructed scale. He first divides the body into seven parts, each having the same measurement as the head, and next he considers the same divided into eight parts, giving also a separate consideration to the proportions of children. The woman he considers ought to be an eighteenth part shorter than the man ; — in his proportions of the female figure indeed he follows, perhaps unwittingly, the celebrated standard of the Venus de Medicis. In his third book he changes these proportions according to mathematical rule, and gives examples of ludicrously fat and thin figures, in which some one proportion is frightfully exag- gerated. In the fourth book he shows the human form in movement, and treats especially of foreshortening. Diirer evidently bestowed great pains in the elaboration of his ideas on this subject ; and his opinions, even now, I am told are worthy of consideration, but unfortunately they are expressed in such an involved and tedious style that few students are found bold enough to attempt to master their meaning. It is to this book that Hogarth alludes in his Analysis of Beauty, when he speaks of Diirer, Lamozzo, and others having ‘ puzzled mankind with a heap of minute un- necessary divisions ’ in their instructions for drawing the human form. The first book of the Human Proportions Diirer saw through the press himself, and this book, at all events, must have been composed as early as 1523, for the manuscript of 263 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. it, still preserved in the Dresden Library, bears the inscrip- tion : I523- At N URN BERG, This is Albrecht Durer’s first book, WHICH HE HIMSELF HAS MADE : whereby it would seem that this book was written before his other works, although not published until after some of them. Indeed the idea of such a work must have been conceived at a very early date, for we find numerous sketches and written descriptions for it, some of them dating back as early as the fifteenth century. There is, for instance, a drawing of a female figure, with a circle divided into equal parts passing over her shoulders and behind her head, amongst the drawings in the British Museum, which is dated 1 500, and was probably a study for this work.* The Dresden manuscipt differs considerably from the printed text : it consists of 283 sheets, which, besides the MS. of the first book, contain two letters addressed to Pirkheimer con- cerning a preface that he was to have written for the work, and the dedication and preface already quoted. Neither of these appear in the printed book, but in their stead another dedication to Pirkheimer, probably composed by Diirer at a later date. There is no preface by Pirkheimer, such as it ap- pears he was to have written ; but he added a short note at the end of the volume, in which he tells the public, ‘ That although the pious and artistic Albrecht Diirer had written these four books, yet that he had only been able to revise and correct one of them ; for before the other three could be ready, death snatched him away. Doubtless, if he had had time, he would have altered, augmented, or diminished many things ; bnt his friends consider it better to give forth these * This alone would disprove the unjustifiable assertion that Diirer when he was in Venice saw the manuscript of a work on this subject by Leon Baptista Alberti, and borrowed the idea and much of the information of the Human Proportions from this source. Alberti’s book, which is entitled ‘Della Statua,’ did not appear until after Durer’s. The two treatises were probably quite independent of one an- other. BOOK OF HUMAN PROPORTIONS. 269 three books without his corrections, than to suppress them.’ He then goes on to say that if God had been pleased to grant his friend a longer life ‘ he would have done many more won- derful, strange, and artistic things ; but God has not so willed it. His name be praised for ever and ever !’ Besides this short note Pirkheimer likewise added an elaborate Latin elegy on Diirer to his edition of the Human Proportions, which, as before said, appeared in 1528. In 1532-34 Joachim Camerarius prepared a Latin trans- lation of the work, which was published in Niirnberg with the title : 'Alberti Dureri clarissimi pictoris et geometry de SYMETRIA PARTIUM IN RECTIS FORMIS HUMANORUM COR- PORUM. Libri in Latinum ConuersiA Another edition appeared in Paris in 1537. The short biographical sketch that Camerarius has given us in his preface to this edition is now perhaps of greater interest than all the rest of the book, but the number of editions and translations of this work that appeared in rapid succession during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries showed that it must have supplied a want in its day, and must have been highly esteemed, not only by Germans, but by students of other countries. Another Latin edition came forth in Paris in 1557, an d in the same year a French translation by Loys Meigret. After this came two Italian editions, a Portuguese translation, another German and another French edition, a Dutch translation, and finally a quaint English translation, or rather adaptation, in 1666.* But although England does not seem to have appreciated this work so well as other countries — perhaps because of her smaller artistic capabilities — yet, strange to say/she has become possessed of by far the greater part of the manuscript of it. * This curious old book, which is called ‘ A. Diirer Revived ; or, a Book of Drawing, Washing, or Colouring of Mapps or Prints,’ was published in London. It contains all sorts of hints and instructions in illuminating, colouring drawings, etc. ; and gives a number of receipts for the preparation of pigments and washes. There is, in truth, very little of ‘ A. Diirer ’ in the book, but there are a certain number of the plates from the Human Proportions, and a translation of some parts of the text. 2/0 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. This is now safely stowed away in the Manuscript-room of the British Museum.* Besides these learned scientific works, Diirer we find wan- dered sometimes into lighter literature, and expressed himself — I cannot say in poetry — but at all events in verse. He did not, it is true, write love-sonnets like Raphael, nor pour out the bitterness of his soul in dark melancholy poems like M ichael Angelo. Xo one, I think, would dream of calling him a poet except in reference to his art-poems ; but he wrote a number of moral rhymes which seem to have afforded him considerable self-satisfaction, although, as he tells us, his friend Pirkheimer laughed at them, and I am afraid the critical reader will be inclined to do the same. Such as they are, however, I give them for the reader’s benefit, or amusement, in such English dress as I have been able to find for them. I do not profess that the translation is perfectly literal, but I have endeavoured to render the meaning in the same sort of style as the original, and the English rhymes are at least as smooth as the German. ‘ The first rhymes that I ever made/ says Diirer, ‘ were two, and they had each the same number of syllables, and I thought I had done them very well ; they were as follows : — Thou mirror of all Angels and Redeemer of mankind, A ransom for my sin let me in Thy martyrdom find.t But when Willibald Pirkheimer read this, he laughed at me and said that no rhymes ought to have more than eight syl- lables : so I set to work again, and made the following eighteen rhymes with eight syllables : — * There are four folio volumes filled with Diirer’s writings here. Besides the first rough manuscript for this book, they contain notes on all sorts of sub- jects connected with his scientific studies ; and there are sketches apparently for other works besides the Human Proportions. There are, for instance, several drawings of men fighting with the broadsword in different attitudes, that appear to have been intended for his ‘Art of Fencing.’ In the volume of drawings in the Print-rocm there are also several drawings representing besieged or bombarded towns, probably having some reference to his work on Fortification. It is a great pity that these folio books should not be well searched by some competent German critic. The old German writing is so difficult that it is almost impossible for Eng- lish students to decipher it. f ‘ Du aller Engel Spiegel und Erloser der Welt, Dein grosse Harter sey fur mein siind ein widergelt.’ POETICAL EFFORTS. 271 Strive earnestly with all thy might, That God should give thee Wisdom’s light ; He doth his wisdom truly prove, Whom neither dearth nor riches move ; And he shall also be called wise, Who joy and sorrow both defies ; He who bears both honour and shame, He well deserves the wise man’s name ; Who knows himself, and evil shuns, In Wisdom’s path he surely runs ; Who ’gainst his foe doth vengeance cherish, In hell-flame doth his wisdom perish ; Who strives against the devil’s might, The Lord will help him in the fight ; Who keeps his heart for ever pure, He of Wisdom’s crown is sure ; And who loves God with all his heart, Chooses the wise and better part. ‘ But neither did the above please the Herr Willibald Pirk- heimer : so I begged Lazarus Spengler to put my sense into words, and he wrote what follows.’ Diirer then gives us some verses by Spengler to the same effect, written in a somewhat smoother style, but not on the whole remarkably superior to his own. Spengler, however, as well as Pirkheimer, could not, it seems, refrain from laughing at the idea of Diirer turning poet, and the witty and learned secretary sent him back, with the verses in praise of Wisdom, a satirical poem, in which he applies to him the moral of the old fable of the shoemaker who criticised Apelles’ picture. Diirer took the satire in very good part, and answered it in the following verses, in which it seems to me he has rather the best of the argument. It is true that the story he tells only proves that a shoemaker ought to have more than one last, and not that he ought also to know something of tailoring, joining, and painting ; still the moral in the application he makes of it to himself is excellent, and his resolve not to be laughed out of verse-making by a jeering writer shows a perseverance worthy of a better cause. In Niirnberg it is known full well A man of letters now doth dwell, My Lord , and worthy among men, He is so clever with his pen, And others knows so well to hit, And make ridiculous with wit ; LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. ■y And he has made a jest of me Because I made some poetry, And of True Wisdom something wrote. But as he likes my verses not, He makes a laughing-stock of me, And says I’m like the cobbler, he Who criticised Apelles’ art. With this he tries to make me smart, Because he thinks it is for me To paint, and not write poetry ; But I have undertaken this (And will not stop for him or his), To learn whatever thing I can, For which will blame me no wise man. For he who only learns one thing, And to nought else his mind doth bring, To him, as to the notary, It haps, who lived here as do we, In this our town. To him was known To write one form, and one alone. Two men came to him with a need That he should draw them up a deed ; And he proceeded very well, Until their names he came to spell : Gotz was the first name that perplexed, And Rosenstammen was the next. The Notary was much astonished, And thus his clients he admonished, — ‘ Dear friends,’ he said, ‘ you must be wrong. These names don’t to my form belong ; Franz and Fritz* I know full well, But of no others have heard tell And so he drove away his clients, And people mocked his little science. To me that it may hap not so, Something of all things I will know. Not only writing will I do, But learn to practise physic too ; Till men surprised will say, ‘ Beshrew me, What good this painter’s medicines do me !’ Therefore hear, and I will tell Some wise receipts to keep you well. A little drop of Alkali, Is good to put into the eye ; He who finds it hard to hear, Should mandel-oil put in his ear ; And he who would from gout be free, Not wine but water drink should he ; He who would live to be a hundred. Will see my counsel has not blundered. Therefore I will still make rhymes, Though my friend may laugh at times : So the Painter with hairy beard Says to the Writer who mocked and jeered. * Equivalent to our ‘John Doe and Richard Roe.’ POETICAL EFFORTS. 273 ‘ And this I have written/ says Diirer, ‘ on Good and Bad Friends.’ The verses on Good and Bad Friends are much in the same style as those on True Wisdom ; that is, they consist of a number of moral platitudes expressed in homely rhymes. They begin : Who turns away from his friend in need, He is not a true friend in deed ; Who always will be in the right, With him it is no use to fight ; He who is truly thy good friend, Will use no cunning for his end ; He’ll turn thee back from evil ways, And guide thee rightly all thy days, etc. Then follows a very profound bit of proverbial philosophy : Who seeks for dirt will want no more, If first he sweep before his door. And again : Who of his tongue is not the master, Never speaks without disaster ; Each thinks he knows all men below, Though himself he does not know. ‘ After that/ Diirer concludes, ‘ I made two more verses on a friend who troubled me very much, and to whom I was true.’ The friend who always makes you grieve, That friend with honour you may leave. After having thus relieved his feelings on the subject of a troublesome friend, Diirer appears to have given up verse- making. The lines here translated seem to have been all composed in the years 1509-10. After this date he stuck so closely to ‘ his last’ that, as Camerarius records of him, ‘ If he had a fault, it was this, — that he worked with too untiring in- dustry, and practised a degree of severity towards himself that he often carried beyond bounds.’ 18 PART III. JOURNAL AND LAST YEARS. CHAPTER I. JOURNEY TO THE NETHERLANDS IN 1520. Two years after his journey to Augsburg in 1518, Diirer un- dertook another and a far more important journey to the Netherlands. The object that he had in view in this journey has been very differently stated by his various biographers, most of whom frame elaborate hypotheses to account for that which after all does not need much explanation. Thus most of the early writers on Diirer tell us that he went to the Netherlands to escape from the bitter tongue of his wife, some of them even going so far as to add that he did not let her know wdiere he had gone, and that consequently she wrote moving epistles to Pirkheimer, begging him to in- tercede with her husband, and promising to behave better in the future if he would only return to her. But considering that Diirer himself states, in the very first line of his journal, that he took his wife with him, and that she is repeatedly mentioned throughout it, this imputed reason for his journey does not need to be considered, although, strange to say, it met with very general acceptation, and has been repeated by one writer after another since Arend, the author of one of the earliest accounts we have of Diirer, first started the scandal. After it was discovered that Arend was unworthy of credit, critics seem to have been puzzled to find a motive for the visit ; some affirming that it was undertaken with a view of selling his works to greater advantage, and others that he had no other object than pleasure. But I think, if we consider atten- tively the perplexity into which Diirer was thrown at the death of Maximilian by the determined refusal of a ‘ Provident Rath’ 278 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. to pay the money that the deceased Emperor owed him until the new Emperor had confirmed the debt (see p. 161 et seqb), it appears tolerably plain that Durer undertook this long journey, chiefly with the view of gaining his ‘ Confirmatia,’ as he calls it, from Charles V., that is to say, the ratification or acknowledg- ment by that Emperor of the debt of his grandfather to Diirer, and the continuance of his pension. Diirer himself, unfortunately, is wholly silent concerning the reasons that moved him towards this important undertaking. His journal is purely a record of facts. He never troubles himself to set down in it his motives or his opinions. The ‘ Ego’ of the autobiographer is indeed strangely absent in all Diirer’s writings. His letters to Pirkheimer, it will doubtless have been observed, are mostly occupied with his friend's business rather than with his own, and the little autobiogra- phical record so often quoted at the commencement of this volume is almost entirely taken up with accounts of his ances- tors and relations, and tells us very little about himself. And so with the journal we are now about to consider ; it tells us nothing of his inner life, his feelings or his thoughts, but is simply a record of the towns he passed through, the people he became acquainted with, and above all of the money he spent. It seems, indeed, to have been kept principally for the latter object, for he sets down faithfully, at every fresh place that he visits, the exact sum that he expends there ; — in fact, no journal of personal history was ever, perhaps, less subjective than this of Diirer’s. Like Goethe, who says, ‘ Ich habe nie ans Denken gedacht Diirer seems never to have ‘ thought about thinking.’ If we want to learn anything of his mind, we must search for it in his pictures ; in these he has expressed his deepest thoughts : but it is only by accident, as it were, that we gain any insight into the real heart of the man from any of his writings. Now and then, indeed, as in that touching description of the death-bed of his mother, his great but simple nature reveals itself ; but for the most part he chronicles events, and describes the sights he sees with laconic precision, without ever troubling himself to record the effect that these things produced on his mind, as is the wont of most autobiographers. PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY. 279 But although the journal Dtirer kept during his tour in the Netherlands, in spite of its personal details, is almost purely objective in its tone, it must not be supposed that we cannot gain from it many indications of its writer’s manner of life and mode of viewing the world around him. On the contrary, it is particularly luminous on these points, and enables us to form a more vivid idea of Diirer than we can arrive at by any other means. It is, moreover, so interesting and important as a con- temporary record of manners and customs in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century, that, at the risk of some readers find- ing it tedious in its repetitions, I have judged it better to print it in full, trusting that the insight it gives into the life of those busy mediaeval Flemish towns, with their trade corporations, art-guilds, quaint customs, and pleasant hospitalities to strangers, will more than repay for any exhaustion of patience that may be experienced after reading the first few pages. All I can say is it gets more interesting as it goes on, and there- fore I strongly advise readers not to be disheartened at the beginning, but to persevere bravely to the end. Such explana- tions and annotations as have seemed to me necessary for the proper understanding of the text, I have given, not as notes, but as interpolations into the journal itself. They are printed in smaller type, and are enclosed in square brackets. Many allusions in the journal are now of course hopelessly unin- telligible ; but whenever it has proved possible to me by diligent endeavour to discover the meaning of an obscure passage, I have set it down, with such light as I have been able to gain upon it, for the reader’s benefit. Besides his wife, Diirer took with him on his tour his wife’s maid Susanna, who appears to have been regarded more in the light of a humble friend of the Diirer family than as a maid-servant in the present acceptation of the term. She was sometimes, as we shall see, invited out to dinner with her master and mistress, and was evidently treated by Diirer with much kind consideration. Soon after their return from the Nether- lands this maid Susanna married one of Diirer’s scholars, named Georg — possibly Georg Penz. On the Thursday after Whitsunday, that is to say, on the 12th of July in the year 1520, the travellers set out from Niirn- 280 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. berg. This is all that Diirer tells us ; but can we not picture to ourselves something of the bustle and commotion of that bright summer’s morning of the sixteenth century when the old lumbering, rumbling German coach, or more correctly waggon, that was to convey the artist and his womenfolk a certain distance on the long journey they had before them, drew up to the door of the Durer-haus in the Zissel-strasse, and the whole amount of baggage that they were going to take with them had to be stowed away in it ? Packages, boxes, baskets, and bundles, belonging to the Diirerin ; paintings carefully packed in boards, engravings both on wood and copper, large packets of prints and woodcuts that Diirer hoped to dispose of profitably during his journey ; portfolios, colours, chemicals, and other implements of an artist’s trade, not forgetting ‘ my own Bilderbuch and lastly, a good store of provisions for use on the way, for travellers in those days had not even the poor comfort of refreshment bars, and might journey the whole day without being able to get so much as a glass of water. Agnes no doubt took care to lay in a good store before starting, not only to save the party from hunger, but also to save the expense of buying it, even where it was possible to do so, on the way. Think of all these things being stuffed into the rumble of the jolting, springless old coach, less easy than a farmer’s waggon in these days ; of Frau Agnes, hoisted in on the top of them with her bags and shawls and the other requisites for her comfort during the journey ; of the maid Susanna fitted in between the boxes at the side of her mistress ; of Diirer himself, with his noble mien and handsome face, essaying to squeeze down somewhere amongst the packages and the women ; of all the final directions that Frau Agnes would have to give about her household affairs during her absence ; of the farewells between Diirer and his pupils and apprentices ; of all the commotion, the cheering of the youths, the barking of the little Diirer dog, whom I strongly suspect accompanied the travellers, and was snarling and barking in Frau Diirer’s arms during all these prepara- tions ; the cracking of the whip of the coachman ; the bold appearance of the armed horseman, who was to ride beside the carriage to protect its occupants if any robbers should JOURNAL. 281 attack them on the way, but who would probably ride off on the first appearance of danger — think, I say, of all these agrements de voyage , and you will be able to form some con- ception of what a land journey from Niirnberg to Antwerp meant in the sixteenth century. One can only hope that the Diirerin was in a good temper, or else it is to be feared poor Diirer must have had a great deal to put up with, and must have looked back regretfully to his former journey to Venice, when he rode forth alone on horseback, with all his necessaries for the journey strapped behind him, and with no womenfolk to retard his progress. But now, at last, the coach and its occupants, in good or bad temper, have passed the gates of Niirnberg, and begun their journey in real earnest. The journal will inform us of their further proceedings. JOURNAL OF ALBRECHT DURER’S TOUR IN THE NETHERLANDS IN 1520 AND 1521. On the Thursday after Whitsuntide, I, Albrecht Diirer, at my own cost and responsibility, set out with my wife from Niirnberg for the Netherlands, and having travelled the same day through Erlang, lodged at night at Baiersdorf, and ex- pended for this 3 pfenning less 6 heller. After that we came on the next day [Friday] to Forchheim, and gave there for escort 22 heller \i.e., for the horseman who rode at the side of the coach]. Thence I went to Bamberg, and presented the bishop with a painting of the Virgin, a Life of our Lady, an Apocalypse, and copper-plates to the amount of a gulden. [Diirer means the series of woodcuts of the Life of the Virgin and the Apocalypse. He always speaks of them in this way.] He invited me to dinner, and gave me an exemption from customs and three letters of recommendation, and he paid my bill at the inn, where I had spent a gulden. Item : I am to pay the driver 6 florins in gold who drives me from Bamberg to Frankfort. Item : Meister Laux Bene- dict and Hans the Painter presented me with wine. 202 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. [Hans the Painter was probably Hans Wolfgang Katzheimer, who was living in Bamberg at the time of Diirer’s visit] 4 pfenning for bread, and 13 more for gratuities. [Diirer here makes use of an old provincial word (Letz) signify- ing a final treat before starting.] Then I went from Bamberg to Eltman, and showed my customs-letter ( Zollbrief ) and they let me pass free. And from thence we went to Zeil ; and I spent in the meantime 21 pfenning. After that we came to Hasfurth, and I showed my customs-letter, and they let me pass free. I gave 1 florin to the Bishop of Bamberg’s chancery. Then we came to Theres in the Cloister, and I showed my customs-letter, and they let me pass free. From thence we travelled to Rein ; there we stayed the night and spent one pfenning. From thence we travelled to Maynberg, and I showed my customs-letter and they let me pass free. After this we came to Sweinfurth, where Dr. Jorg Rebart invited me, and he gave us wine in the coach (ins Schiff ). They let us here also pass toll-free. 10 pfenning for a roast fowl, 18 pfenning in the kitchen and to the child. After this we came to Volkach, and I showed my customs- letter and they let me pass ; and we travelled on to Scharzach, where we stayed the night and spent 22 pfenning. And on Monday we were up early, and set out for Tettel- bach, and came to Kitzing, and showed my customs-letter and they let me go on ; and I spent 37 pfenning. And from thence by Salzfeldt to Prait ; and I showed my customs- letter, so they let us go on. And we went by Frickenhausen to Ochsenfurth ; there I showed my customs-letter and they also allowed me to pass ; and we came to Euffelstorff, from thence to Heidenfeldt, and from thence to Wurzburg ; there I produced my customsdetter, so they let me travel on. After- wards we went to Erla Prunn ; there we slept the night and spent 22 pfenning. From thence we travelled by Netzbach and Zellingen, and came to Carrstatt [Karlstadt], where I showed my customs-letter and they let me pass free. From thence I travelled to Myna [Gemiind] ; there we eat our breakfast and spent 22 pfenning ; also I showed my customs- letter and they let me go on. Afterwards we travelled to Hochstatt [Hofstetsen] ; showed my customs-letter and they JOURNAL. 283 let me pass free. And came from thence to Lohr, and showed my customs-letter and they let me pass free. After that came to Neuenstadt, and showed our letter and they let us pass. Also I have expended 10 pfenning for wine and a crab. After that we came to Rotenfels ; there I showed my customs-letter and they let me pass free ; and we slept there that night and spent 20 pfenning. And on Wednesday morning early we set off and came by Sandt Ecarig (?) and came to Heudenfelt, from thence to Triffenstain, after that to Homburg, where I showed my customs-letter and they let us go on. After that we came to Werthheim, and I showed my customs-letter and there they let me pass ; and I spent 57 pfenning. After that we went to Portzel ; there I showed my customs-letter and they let me goon. After that we travelled to Freudenwerg; there I showed my customs-letter and they let me go on. After that we came to Miltenberg ; there we remained over night ; also I showed my customs-letter and they let me go on ; and I spent 61 pfen- ning. After that we came to Klingenberg, and showed my customs-letter and they let me go on. And we came to Verdt [Worth], from thence to Obernburg, and from thence toOschen- burg [Aschaffenburg] ; there I showed my customs-letter and they let me go on ; and I spent there 52 pfenning. From thence we went to Selgenstadt ; from thence to Steinheim ; there I showed my customs-letter and they let me go on. And we slept that night at Johansen, and all the townsfolk came out wide-mouthed to stare at us, and they were very friendly to us ; and I spent there 16 pfenning. Then on Friday early we travelled to Kesselstadt ; there I showed my customs-letter and they let me go on. [One gets somewhat weary of Diirer’s c customs-letter ’ by this time, and cannot help wishing that the old Bishop of Bamberg, George III., had remunerated his artist-friend in some other way for his presents of woodcuts and the painting of the Virgin than by giving him this exemption from custom-house duties ; but still, we see plainly what an important thing it was to Diirer to be allowed to pass free on the production of this letter, for if he had had to pay a toll at every one of these little roadside custom-houses, it would have cost him a con- siderable amount. Afterwards on the Rhine, when he had got past the Bishop of Bamberg’s jurisdiction, he had to pay as much as two 284 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. gold gulden at each station. It is difficult to conceive a more irritating custom to travellers than the arbitrary exaction of these tolls. They were levied at will by the lords of the territory, who often obtained a large income by this means. The castles on the Rhine were indeed so many toll-bars in the Middle Ages, where the unlucky merchant, or even pleasure-seeking traveller, had to pay a heavy toll before he was allowed to pass.] After that we came to Frankfort, but I showed my cus- toms-letter and they let me go on ; and I spent 6 white pfenning and a heller and a half, and to the boy 2 white pfenning, and at night I spent 6 white pfenning. Also Jacob Heller [for whom he painted the Assumption of the Virgin] presented me with wine in the inn, and I have bargained to be taken from Frankfort to Mentz (Mainz) with my goods for 1 florin and 2 white pfenning. Moreover I have given the boy 5 Frankfort heller, so at night we had spent viii white pfen- ning. Then I travelled on Sunday by the early boat from Frankfort to Mainz. [The expression ‘ early boat 5 ( Fruheschiff ) seems to indicate that there was even at that time a regular communication by water between these two towns. It is most probable that Diirer saw the picture he had painted for Jacob Heller in 1509 whilst he was in Frankfort, but whether he gave it 4 the coat of peculiar varish that no one else knew how to make 5 does not appear. It is strange he does not mention it ; however he seems to have been on quite good terms again with Jacob Heller. One can scarcely help thinking though that the Frankfort merchant might have displayed a little nobler liberality to the painter of his splendid votive picture, than merely by • ‘ standing’ wine at the inn.] -And midway on our journey we came to Host (Hdchst) ; there I showed my customs-letter and they let me go on ; also I spent there eight Frankfort pfenning. From thence we travelled to Mentz. But I paid 1 white pfenning for unloading, moreover 18 pfenning for the girth (?). [Probably this word ‘girth ’ ( Giirthel ) has been wrongly rendered. Dr. Campe surmises it may be Giiter , ‘ goods,’ which is not unlikely, for the word occurs several times ; and Diirer, if he did it once, could not have been constantly buying girths for a horse, particularly useless when travelling by water.] Moreover I have agreed to go in the Cologne boat with my things for iii florins. Also I have expended at Mentz xvii white pfenning. Item : Peter Goldschmidt, the mintwarden, JOURNAL. 285 has presented me with two bottles of wine. Also Veith Farn- ptihler [Varnbuhler] invited me, but his landlord would take no reckoning from him but would be my host himself, and they showed me much honour. Then I departed from Mainz, where the Main flows into the Rhine, and it was on the Monday after St. Magdalen. Also I gave for meat on board (ins Schiff ) 10 heller, and for eggs and pears 9 heller. Also Leonhardt Goldschmidt gave me wine, and poultry in the boat to cook on the way to Cologne. Also Meister Jobsten’s brother gave me a bottle of wine ; also the painters gave me two bottles of wine in the boat. After that we came to Erfelt ; there I showed my customs-letter and they took no duty. After that we came to Rudisheim, and I have given two white pfenning for loading. After that we came to Ernfels [Ehrenfels] ; there I showed my customs-letter, but there I was obliged to give 2 florins in gold ; only if I can get an exemption-letter (. Ledig Pj'ieff} within the space of two months, the custom-house officer will give me back my two gold florins. After that we came to Bacharach ; there I was obliged to bind myself in writing that I would either pay the duty in two months or else bring an exemption-letter. After that we came to Kaw [Caub] ; there I showed my customs- letter, but they would not let me pass without my binding myself in writing verschreiben ) as I had done before. After that I paid xi heller. After that we came to Sanct Gewer [St. Goar] ; there I showed my customs-letter, and the officer asked me what I would do, and I said I would not give any money. I gave two white pfenning to the messenger. After that we came to Popart [Boppart], and I showed my customs-letter at the Treves custom-house ; there they let me pass, only I was obliged to testify in writing under my signet that I had no common merchants’ goods with me, and he let me willingly go on. After that we came to Lonstein, and I showed my customs- letter, and there the officer let me pass free, but he asked me if I would speak favourably of him to my most gracious Lord of Mentz ; he also presented me with a tankard of wine, for he knew my wife well and rejoiced to see me. After that we came to Engers, and I showed my customs-letter ; and that place also belongs to Treves, and they let me pass free. I said 236 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. also that I would mention their politeness to my Lord of Bamberg. After that we came to Andernach, and I showed my customs-letter and they let me pass free ; and I spent there 7 heller and 4 heller. Then I set out on St. James’s day early from Andernach. From thence we travelled to Pun [Bonn] to the custom-house ; there they let me pass free. After that we came to Coin, and in the boat I expended 9 and 1 white pfenning and four pfenning for fruit ; at Coin I have paid 7 white pfenning for unloading, and to the cabin boy 14 heller. [Diirer is most irregular in his mode of expressing figures. He sometimes writes them in full, sometimes gives Roman and sometimes Arabic numerals.] And to Niclas my cousin I have made a present of my black-lined coat bordred with velvet, and to his wife I have given a gulden. [This Niclas Diirer, our Diirer’s cousin, was the son of a younger brother of Albrecht Diirer der altere. His father was a bridle-maker, but Niclas learnt the goldsmith’s trade under his uncle in Niirnberg, and had now, it appears, set up for himself as a goldsmith at Cologne.] Item : At Coin, Hieronymus Focker [Fugger] presented me with wine ; also Jan Chroserpeck presented me with wine; also my cousin Niclas presented me with wine. [This hospitable custom of presenting wine to distinguished visitors as a welcome must, one would think, have become somewhat danger- ous, when the visitor, like Diirer, was very popular. However, it may be safely supposed that the wine was not of a very intoxicating nature. It was doubtless ‘ the good Rhine wine ’ which Diirer, it will be re- membered, had once bought for himself, together with a crab or craw- fish, for 10 pfenning.] Also a collation was given to us in the convent of the Bare- footed Friars, and one of the monks presented me with a small handkerchief. Moreover Herr Johann Grosserpecke presented me with 12 measures of the best wine ; also I have expended ii white pfenning, and 8 heller to the youth (das Piirschlein , Bitrscldein .) Moreover, I have spent at Coin 2 florins and 41 white pfenning and 3 white pfenning for fruit. Moreover, I have given 1 white pfenning for Trinkgeld (zu Lets), and 1 white pfenning to the messenger. After that we travelled on St. Pantaleonis day [July 28] from Coin to a village called Postorff ; there we passed the night, and spent 3 white pfen- ning, and travelled on Sunday early to Ruding. There we eat JOURNAL. 287 our breakfast, and spent 2 white pfenning, and 3 pfenning, and again 3 pfenning. After that we came to Trezenaltenhofen ; there we passed the night and spent 3 white pfenning. After that we travelled early on the next morning to Frelndorff, and came on to Gangolff, and eat our breakfast in a village that was called Systerhyln, and spent two white pfenning and 2 heller. Moreover 1 white pfenning ; moreover 2 white pfenning. After that we travelled to Zita, a pretty little town ; from thence to Stocken, which is in Liege ; there we had a beautiful inn, and remained there over night, and spent 4 white pfenning. And when we had crossed over the Maas, we got up early on Tuesday, and came on to Merten Lewbehrn (?) ; there we eat our breakfast, and spent 2 stiver, and gave 1 white pfen- ning for a young dog. After that we travelled farther over the Heyden, and came to Stosser ; there I spent 2 stiver, and slept there the night. After that we travelled early on Wed- nesday to Therpeck ; there I bought 3 stivers’ worth of bread and wine, and travelled on to Brantenmtihl, where we eat our breakfast and spent 1 stiver. After that we travelled to Eulen- berg, and passed the night there, and spent 3 stiver, 2 pfen- ning. After that we travelled early on Thursday to Creutz ; there we ate our breakfast, and spent 3 stiver 2 pfenning. [There do not seem to have been any small custom-house stations in the Netherlands, like those at which Diirer ‘ showed his customs- letter 5 in Germany. Surely he would have mentioned it had he been permitted to ‘ pass free,’ and still more if he had had to pay duty. Those ‘ fat, rebellious ’ Flemish burghers and manufacturers had, in fact, learnt somewhat of the policy of free-trade as early as the six- teenth century. The money, it will be noticed, alters when Diirer enters the Netherlands. A Dutch guilder, the coin then in circula- tion in the Netherlands, was equal to about one and eightpence of English money. A stiiber or stiver was the twentieth part of that, equivalent to a penny English ; but we must remember that money in the sixteenth century had a very different value to money in the nine- teenth, as well in Germany and Holland as in England. A German or Dutch gulden or florin in Diirer’s time was equivalent to five florins, or 8 j\ 4 d. in modern German money.] And then we travelled to Antorff [Antwerp] ; there I went, 288 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. to the inn of Jobst Planckfelt, and the same evening the Fuggers’ factor, who was named Bernhart Stecher, invited me and gave us a costly meal. But my wife ate in the inn. [Probably his host Jobst Planckfelt went with him to the Fuggers’ factor, for Jobst was evidently a man of some importance in Antwerp, and was truly Diirer’s host in the good old English sense of the word, which must not be confounded with a modern proprietor of an hotel. He took Diirer, as we shall see, to most of the sights of the town, and introduced him to several of the best Flemish artists. A portrait of Jobst Planckfelt in pen and ink, is preserved in the Stadel Institute at Frankfort. It is written on in Diirer’s hand, c Das ist mem wirt zu Anforff Jobst Planckfelt, 1520. It represents a middle-aged man wear- ing a small cap. The Fuggers were the Rothschilds of their time in Germany, and were almost equal to the Medici of Florence in their wealth and importance. Like the Medici, they owed their enormous fortune entirely to commerce; they had ‘ships on every sea, and waggons on every highway,’ and furnished kings and emperors with money for their wars. The founder of this great family was only a simple weaver in a village near Augsburg, in the fourteenth century ; but in 1619, according to the Spiegel der Ehren (Mirror of Honour), ‘ the noble stem had so branched out that there were forty-seven counts and countesses belonging to it, and of young descendants as many as there are days in the year.’ Anton Fugger, the head of the Fugger house in Augsburg in Diirer’s time, lived in a style of lavish magnificence that the monarchs of his age could scarcely equal. It is related of this Anton Fugger that he once entertained the Emperor Charles V. at a magnificent banquet at his house, and after dinner, by way of producing a cheerful blaze with his cinnamon-wood fire, he threw upon it all the bonds that the Em- peror had given him for the large sums that the Fuggers had lent him in his need. It was in allusion to one of the Fuggers that Charles V. exclaimed on seeing the Royal Treasury at Paris, ‘ I have a weaver in Augsburg able to buy it all with his own gold.’ But this family was not only famous for its wealth. Several of its members were men distinguished for their sendees to literature and science, and aided greatly, by their publication of Greek and Latin authors, in the revival of ancient learning that was going on at this time ; indeed the library of one of the savants of the family is cele- brated by Wolfius, who appears to have had charge of it, as containing ‘ as many books as there are stars in heaven ;’ and several other con- temporary authors speak not only of the enormous riches of the Fuggers but also of the wise and liberal way in which they employed them ; indeed the Fugger ei at Augsburg, which was built by three brothers of the house in the sixteenth century, and let to poor citizens of Augsburg at a very low rent, testifies even unto the present day JOURNAL. 289 that they were not only the Rothschilds but likewise the Peabodys of their age. Several of the largest charities and schools in Germany owe their origin to them. The Fuggers’ agent (factor) in Antwerp who so kindly invited Diirer to a ‘ costly meal ’ on the very first evening of his arrival, continued during the whole of his stay in Antwerp to show him much attention, and Diirer, as we shall learn, took the portraits of himself and his family several times. One only wonders that he did not get Diirer a commission to paint some large picture for the house he represented, but strange to say Diirer does not seem ever to have done anything for the Fuggers except a few portrait drawings of some members of the family in Niirnberg. I suspect they were too much taken up with Italian art at this period to appreciate that of their own country, which they probably esteemed as barbarous.] And to the driver who brought us 3 persons here I have given 3 florins in gold. Item : On the Saturday after St. Peter’s Kettenfeuer [Lammas-day, 1st of August] my host took me to the Biirgomeister’s house in Antwerp. It is above measure big and very well arranged, with exceedingly large and beau- tiful rooms. It has a costly ornamented tower and an exces- sively large garden ; in short, such a splendid house I have never seen in all Germany. Also there is an entirely new street (Gasse) leading to it, along which one goes up to the house at both sides. This was built according to his own fancy and with his own funds. [The owner of this beautiful house was Arnoldus van Liere, ten years burgomaster in Antwerp. He died in 1529 — F. V.] Item : I have paid 3 stiver to the messenger, 2 pfenning for bread and 2 pfenning for ink. On the Sunday, which was St. Oswald’s day, the painters invited me to their chamber ( Stube ) [i.e. the hall where the Antwerp Guild of Painters held its meetings], with my wife and maid, and everything there was of silver and other costly ornamentation, and extremely costly viands ( iiber costlich esseri). There were also all their wives there, and when I was conducted to the table all the people stood up on each side as if I had been a great lord. There were amongst them also many persons of distinction, who all bowed low, and in the most humble manner testified their pleasure at seeing me, and they said they would do all in their power to give me 19 290 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. pleasure ; and as I sat at table there came in the messenger of the Rath of Antwerp, with two servants, who presented me with 4 tankards of wine in the name of the Raths-herrn, and he said that they desired to honour me with this, and that I should have their good-will. Then I said that I gave them my humble thanks, and offered them my humble service. After that came Meister Peter, the town carpenter, and pre- sented me with 2 tankards of wine, with the expression of his willing service. And for a long time we were very merry together until quite late in the night ; then they accompanied us home with torches in the most honourable manner, and they begged me to accept their good-will, and said they would do whatever I desired that might be of assistance to me. Then I thanked them and went to bed. Also I have been to Meister Quintine’s house [Quentin Matsys. One wishes Diirer had said something more about this famous Flemish painter. He must have been very old at the time of Diirer's visit], and I have been to the three great shooting places. I have eaten a costly meal with the Staber, and another time with the Factor of Portugal [Consul, or trade agent, of the Portuguese Government], whose portrait I have drawn in charcoal. Also I have taken my host’s portrait. Item : Jobst Planckfelt has made me a present of a branch of white coral. Two stiver for butter, 2 stiver given to the joiners in the painters’ shops in the arsenal. Item : My host has taken me to the painters’ workshops in the arsenal at Antwerp, where they are preparing the Triumph with which King Charles [Charles V.] is to be received. This work is jjjj hundred arches long, and each one 40 feet long, and it is to be erected on both sides of the street, beautifully ar- ranged with two stages, on which plays will be acted ; and the cost, including joiners and painters, will be 4,000 florins, and this thing is throughout exceedingly costly. Item : I have again dined ( t gessen ) with the Portugal also I have dined with Alexander Imhof. Item : Sebaldt Fischer has bought of me in Antwerp 16 Little Passions pro 4 florins. Moreover 32 large books pro 8 florins ; moreover 6 engraved Passions pro 3 florins ; moreover 20 half-sheets of all kinds, one with another, pro 1 florin : these he has taken for 3 florins. JOURNAL. 29I Moreover quarter-sheets, throughout 45, pro 1 florin ; the large sheets of all sorts being paid for at the rate of 8 sheets pro 1 florin. Item : I sold my host a small painting of the Virgin (ein gemahlt Marien-Bild') on linen for 2 florins Rhenish. Item : Another time I have taken the portrait ( Conterfeyt ) of Felix the Lute-player [Felix Hungersberg, a distinguished musician]. I stiver for pears and bread, 2 stiver to the barber. Moreover I have given 14 stiver for 3 panels, and 4 stiver for preparing them. Moreover I have dined once with Alexander the goldsmith, and once with Felix. Meister Joachim has dined with me once, also his apprentice once. [Meister Joachim is Joachim Patenir, the Flemish landscape painter. He belongs to the school of Flemish masters called by Lord Lindsay ‘the Italianizers of Antwerp,’ but is distinguished by his having made landscapes for the first time of primary importance.] I have made a sketch in half-colours for the painters [pro- bably a design for some part of Charles V.’s Triumph. By half- colours Diirer means a pen drawing lightly washed in water-colour], and I have spent one florin for living expenses ( Zehrung ). I have given the four new pieces ( Stiicklein ) [woodcuts or engravings] to Peter Wolffgang. I have given Meister Joachim about 1 florin’s worth of art \i.e. woodcuts, etc.] because he has lent me his apprentice and his colours, and to his apprentice I have given 3 pfennings’ worth of art. Item : I have sent Alexander the goldsmith the four new pieces. I have drawn in charcoal the Genoese named Tomasin Florianus Romanus born at Lucca, and Tomasin’s two brothers, named Vincent and Gerhartus, all three Bombelli. And so many times have I dined with Tomasin, jjjjjjjjjjjj. [This is quaintly expressed. The Italian Tomasin would not have appeared nearly so hospitable had Diirer simply recorded that he had dined with him twelve times. This Tomasin and his brothers were evidently much liked by Diirer ; he mentions them very often, as we shall see in the course of his journal]. Moreover I have given the Treasurer [possibly the Treasurer of the Painters’ Guild in Antwerp] a little Child’s Head on linen ( ein Leinen KindskopffeV). Also Tomasin has given me a plaited hat of elder-pith. Also I have dined once with the Portuguese. Also I have given Tomasin’s bro- 19 — 2 292 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. ther 3 guldens’ worth of engraved art. Moreover Herr Erasmus has given me a Spanish Mantilla and 3 portraits of men. [This c Herr Erasmus ’ was the great Erasmus of Rotterdam. Diirer appears to have first made his acquaintance at this time in Antwerp, but he afterwards renewed it at Brussels, where he painted his por- trait. We shall gain further on in the journal some insight into Diirer’s opinion of the clever but unsatisfactory satirist-reformer.] Moreover Tomasin’s brother has given me a pair of gloves. And again I have drawn Vincentio, Tomasino’s brother; also I have given Meister Augustin Lumbarth [Lombard (?) Perhaps a brother of Lambert Lombard the painter] the 2 parts imagines (coeli). [Imagines coeli! Septentrionalis et Imagines coeli Meridionalis, two maps of the heavens engraved by Diirer.] Also I have drawn the Italian with the crooked nose, whose name is Opitius. Item : My wife and my maid-servant dined one day at Herr Tomasin’s house. That is 4 times. Item : Our Lady’s Church at Antwerp [Cathedral] is so immensely big that many masses may be sung in it at one time without one interfering with the other, and it has altars and rich foundations and the best musicians that it is possible to have. The church has many devout services and stonework, and particularly a beautiful tower. And I have also been to the rich Abbey of St. Michael, which has the costly stone seat in its choir. And at Antwerp they spare no cost about such things, for there is money enough there. [The Cathedral at Antwerp that Diirer so much admired was burnt down in 1533. Only the choir and beautiful tower were saved. It was however rebuilt in the sixteenth century, and now contains a ‘ costly ’ memorial in the shape of Rubens’ celebrated Descent from the Cross.] I have taken the portrait of Herr Nicolaus an astronomer, who dwells with the King of England, and who has been obliging and useful to me in many things. He is a German, born at Munich. » [Nicolaus Kratzer is here meant, the celebrated astronomer and JOURNAL. 293 mathematician who taught at Oxford in the reign of Henry VIII. He was also painted by Holbein.] Moreover I have drawn Tomasin’s daughter, named Jung- frau Suten. Item : Hans Plaffroth has given me a Philipp’s gulden [worth about 5 florins 14 kreutzers of modern German money] for taking his portrait in charcoal. And again I have dined with Tomasin, and my host’s father-in-law has invited me and also my wife. Moreover I have changed two bad gulden and 24 stiver [Diirer, we will hope, does not mean that he passed bad money, but only that he changed two light gulden that were not worth so much as usual] for living expenses. Moreover I have given 1 stiver for Trinkgeld for having been allowed to see a painting. Item : I have seen on the Sunday after the Assumption of our Blessed Lady [August 19] the great procession from our Lady’s Church at Antwerp, when the whole town was as- sembled, artisans and people of rank, every one dressed in the most costly manner according to his station. Every class and every guild had its badge by which it might be recognised ; large and costly tapers were also borne by some of them. There were alsolong silver trumpets of the old Frankish fashion. There were also many German pipers and drummers, who piped and drummed their loudest. Also I saw in the street, marching in a line in regular order, with certain distances between, the goldsmiths, painters, stonemasons, embroiderers, sculptors, joiners, carpenters, sailors, fishmongers, butchers, curriers, weavers, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, and all kinds of artisans and tradesmen who are useful in producing the neces- saries of life (zn der nahrung dinstlich ). In the same way there were the shopkeepers and the merchants and their assistants. After these there came the marksmen with firelocks,, bows, and cross-bows, some on horseback and some on foot. After that came the City Guard. After that came a whole troop of very brave folk, all dressed in the most splendid and costly manner ; but before these there walked ail the orders [religious orders] and each distinguished from the other, very piously. There were also in this procession a great number of widows who support themselves by the labour of their hands and keep 294 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. a particular rule. They all had white linen cloths covering their heads and reaching down to their feet, very seemly to behold. Behind them I saw many brave persons [Diirer uses the word brave ( tapfer ) in the old English sense of richly-dressed. ‘ In brave attire.’ It is curious to note such affinities of meaning in the two sister languages, even when the words that express them are as unlike as brave and tapfer. ‘Tapfer’ now in German as in English has lost its old signification in regard to appearance, and only expresses valour, bravery.] and the canons of our Lady’s Church with all the priesthood and scholars followed behind, where 20 persons bore our Lady with the Lord Jesus ornamented in the most costly manner to the honour of the Lord God. And in this procession there were many very pleasant things ( Freudenreichs Dings), and it was very richly arranged. Then there were brought along many waggons with representations of ships, and other things. Then followed the Prophets all in order ; next the New Testa- ment [Representations of characters and scenes from the New Testament in the manner of miracle plays], as, for instance, the Salutation of the Virgin, the Three Holy Kings on their camels, and other rare wonders, very beautifully arranged ; also how our Lady fled into Egypt, very piously set forth ; and many other things which for shortness I will leave out. At the last came a great dragon led by St. Margaret and her maidens by a girdle, which was particularly pretty ; then fol- lowed St. George with his squire, a very handsome Courlander. Also a great many boys and girls, dressed in the most costly and ornamental manner, according to the fashion of different countries, rode in this troop and represented so many saints. This procession from beginning to end was more than two hours passing by our house, and there were so many things that I could never write them all down even in a book, and so I let it alone ( lass es also frei bleibeii). [Diirer’s childish delight at this gorgeous religious show seems strange when we remember his Protestant tendencies ; but the Virgin and Child, richly clothed and borne by forty persons ‘ to the honour of the Lord God,’ evidently did not shock his religious feelings ; and JOURNAL. 295 the representation of the Flight into Egypt he characterises as ‘ very pious ’ (fast andachtig). This procession forms the subject of one of Ley’s most celebrated paintings.] Item : I have been to the Fugger’s house in Antwerp that he has lately built in a most costly manner, with a peculiar tower big and broad, and it has a beautiful garden ; and I have seen his handsome stallion. Item : Tomasin has given my wife 14 ells of good thick damask, and three ells and a half of satin for a lining. I have made a sketch for the goldsmiths of a woman’s head. Item : The Factor of Portugal has presented me with wine in the inn, both Portuguese and French. Item : The Signor Ruderico of Portugal has presented me a small cask of preserved sugar of all kinds Sort [sic]. Moreover a box of sugar-candy, two great dishes full of sugar-penet, marchpain, and all kinds of other sweets, and some sugar-cane just as it grows. For this I have given his servant 1 florin for Trinkgeld. Moreover I have changed a bad gulden and 12 stiver for living expenses. Item : The columns in the cloister of St. Michael in Antwerp are all cut from one piece of beautiful black touchstone. I have sent out from Antwerp by Herr Gillgen, King Charles’s door-keeper, a St. Jerome in the Cell, the Melancholy, the three new Marys, the Antony and the Veronica, all of which I have presented to the good sculptor whose name is , Maister Conrad, whose like I have never seen, and who serves N - ' the Emperor Maximilian’s daughter Frau Margaret. [The Archduchess Margaret, Regent of the Netherlands. We shall hear more of her hereafter. The politic Diirer evidently seeks to pave the way to her court by presents to her attendants.] And I have pre- sented Maister Gillgen himself with a St. Eustachius and a Nemesis. Item : I owed my host 7 florins 20 stiver I heller on the Sunday before Bartholomew. Item : For sitting- room, bedrooms, and bedding, 1 1 florins for one month. I have now made a new arrangement with my host from the °27th day of August. It is settled that from the Monday after Bartholomew I am to eat with him, and to give for each meal 2 stiver and the drink extra, but my wife and maid must hereafter cook and eat upstairs ( mogen heroben 296 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. kochen tend essen). I have given the Factor of Portugal a small carved figure of a child {geschniedenes Kindleiii). More- over, I have given him an Adam and Eve, the St. Jerome in Cell, the Hercules, the Eustachius, the Melancholy, and the Nemesis. Besides these, three new Virgin Marys, the Veronica, the Antony, the Christmas picture [Nativity] and the Cruci- fixion. Besides these, the best of the quarter sheets [Little Passion], which are eight pieces. Besides these, the three books of the Life of our Lady, Apocalypse, and Great Passion, besides the Little Passion and the Passion in Copper, worth in all 5 florins. And just as many I have given to the Signor Ruderigo, the other Portuguese. Ruderigo has given my wife a little green parrot. Item : On the Sunday after Bartholomew [Sept. 2], I travelled with Herr Thomasin from Antwerp to Mechel [Mechlin] ; there we spent the night, and I invited Maister Conrad and a painter with him to supper ; and this Maister Conrad is the good carver in wood ( Schnizer ) that the Frau Margaret has. [Probably this is Meister Konrad Meyt, a Swiss sculptor, in the service of the Lady Margaret.] From Mechel we travelled through the little town of Wilszwort [Vilvorde], and came to Brussels on the Monday at mid-day (Sept 3). I have given three stivers to the carrier. I have dined with my Lord of Brussels, also once with Herr Bonysius. [Bannissius, a member of the Imperial Council, and an important person, who would be likely to be of use to Diirer at the Netherlandish Court.] I presented him with a Passion in copper. Item : I have given the Margrave Hansen [The Margrave Johannes of Ansbach and Bayreuth] the letter of introduction ( Furderbrief ) that the Bishop of Bamberg wrote for me, and I have given him a Passion in copper to remember me ; and I have dined once with my Lords of Niirnberg. [These were probably the three Raths-herrn, viz., Hans Ebner, Niklas Haller, and Leo Groland, who had been sent to Antwerp with the Imperial Crown, for the coronation of Charles V. This was preserved with the other crown jewels at Niirnberg.] I have seen in the golden chamber of the Rathhaus [Hotel JOURNAL. 297 de Ville] at Brussels, the 4 painted matters ( materien ) which the great Meister Rudier has done. [‘ The great Meister Rudier’ is Roger van der Weyden the elder. The paintings that Diirer saw were the celebrated ones setting forth the virtue of Justice by means of the Legend of Herkenbald, an over- just judge in Brussels in the nth century. These remarkable paint- ings were, it is supposed, destroyed when the city was bombarded by the French in 1695.] And I have seen King Charles’s house at Brussels, with its fountains, labyrinth, and park. It gave me the greatest pleasure, and a more delightful thing ( lustiger Ding) and more like a Paradise I have never before seen. Item : Eras- mus is the name of the little man (M ’djinlein) that has placed my supplication in the hands of Herr Bonysius. [Not the well-known Erasmus, whom Diirer always describes as Erasmus of Rotterdam.] Item : At Brussels there is a very big and costly Rathhaus built of hewn stone, with a splendid trans- parent tower. Item : I have taken the portrait of Maister Conrad, who has been my host at Brussels, by candle-light at night. Also I have taken the portrait of Dr. Lamparter’s son with charcoal, and at the same time that of the hostess. Also I have seen the thing which has been brought to the King from the new Golden Land [Mexico], a sun entirely of gold, a whole fathom broad. Likewise a silver moon, just as big ; likewise two rooms full of armour ; likewise all kinds of arms, harness, and wonderful missiles, very strange clothing, bed-gear, and all kinds of the most wonder- ful things for man’s use, that are as beautiful to behold as they are wonderful. [Everything is ‘ wonderful 5 with Diirer now ; a little while ago it was £ costly he falls back on costly, however, in the next sentence.] These things are all so costly that they have been valued at a hundred thousand gulden. And I have never in all the days of my life seen anything that has so much rejoiced my heart as these things. For I have seen amongst them wonderfully artistic things, and I have wondered at the subtle Ingenia of men in foreign lands, and 298 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. I do not know how to express the thing that I think about them. v [Here and elsewhere it is evident that Diirer is immensely struck with the wealth and splendour of the Netherlands ; and well he might be, for in the time of Charles V. it was perhaps the richest country in Europe. The new Golden Land of America was pouring her trea- sures of golden suns and silver moons into the pockets of the brave adventurers who first sought her shores, and — more than mere material wealth — the discovery of America was fostering a spirit of inquiry and enterprise as well in the Netherlands as in Spain and England that was hereafter to lead to noteworthy results. Before the end of the century the rich Low Lands achieved independence and then fell to ruin, but at the time of Diirer’s visit, 1520, they were enjoying the most peaceful prosperity. Murray’s 4 Hand-book to Belgium,’ quoting an 4 old author,’ whose name unfortunately is not mentioned, de- scribes the flourishing condition of Antwerp at this period by saying that 4 2,500 vessels were sometimes seen at one tune lying in the river, laden with the productions of all quarters of the globe : 500 loaded waggons on an average entered its gates daily from the country. The money put in circulation annually exceeded 500,000,000 guilders, and 5,000 merchants met twice every day on the exchange.’ This number, if true, would be considerable even in these days, and when we consider that this was as early as the beginning of the six- teenth century it becomes truly amazing : but even if we allow some- thing for the exaggeration of the ‘ old author,’ who is an authority not always to be trusted, there is no doubt that the commercial activity and manufacturing industry of the Flemish towns during the reigns of Maximilian and Charles Y. were greater than at any other time in their history, and the rich Low Countries have always awakened the envious desire of all neighbouring states. It is not much to be wondered at then that Diirer, who had come from the comparatively poor though equally industrious Nurnberg, should be filled with astonishment at the riches and ‘ costly ’ magnifi- cence that he saw around him. c And at Antwerp,’ he writes, 4 they spare no cost for such things, for there is money enough there.’ Not so in Nurnberg, where Peter Yischer and his sons had to do their great work 4 to the honour of God and glory’ of St. Sebald,’ and where Diirer himself could scarcely obtain what was really his due from the Rath. Yet Diirer’s love of his native town would not allow him to desert it even for the riches of the Netherlands. As in Yenice he was offered a certain sum yearly from the Signory if he would stay in that city, so in Antwerp the Government made him the munificent offer of 300 Philipp’s gulden, with a well-built house rent-free and an exemption from taxation, if he would leave Germany and settle JOURNAL. 299 amongst the Antwerp painters. Bat although he must have known that he would gain far more money and far more honour in the rich and art-loving Flemish city than he could hope to do in Niirnberg (whose Rath do not seem to have ever properly appreciated, at least in the way of payment, the native art genius of the town), he never- theless preferred returning there to opening a German School of Art in the Netherlands. It is somewhat strange that he did, and it proves certainly that he could not have been of a mercenary nature ; for besides the advantages that a settlement in Antwerp would have afforded him in the shape of private commissions, etc., the Rath offered to pay him liberally for all the works he might execute for the town, over and above the yearly grant it allowed him ; from all which _it is evident that the artist might have been ‘ a gentleman ’ in Antwerp as well as in Venice had he so chosen.] I have besides seen many beautiful things in Brussels, and particularly I have seen a great fish-bone which, had the bits been put together, would have been a fathom long and very thick. It weighs 1 5 centner, and it has just such a fin ( Furm ) as I have here painted standing at the back of the fish’s head. I have also been into the Nassau-house, which is built in such a costly style and so beautifully ornamented. Again I have dined jj with my Lords. Item : Madonna Margaretha [the Regent of the Netherlands] has sent for me, and has promised me she will promote my interests with King Charles V., and she has behaved with especial kindness towards me. I have pre- sented her with my engraved Passion, and I have likewise given the same to her treasurer, who is named Jan Marini, and I have also drawn him in charcoal. I have given 2 stivers for a buffalo-horn ring. Moreover I have given 2 stiver for the opening of the picture by St. Luke. [Probably a closed altar- piece, supposed to be the work of the Evangelist, the doors of which were only opened on feast-days, except on payment.] Item: When I was in the Nassau-house, I saw the good painting in the chapel that Meister Hugo has done. [Hugo van der Goes, called by Vasari ‘ Hugo d’Anversa.’ He was a follower of the Van Eycks. Very few authentic pictures by him are now known to exist. What ‘ good painting ’ it was that Differ saw cannot now be ascertained.] 300 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. And I saw the two beautiful large rooms and all the costly things in the house everywhere, and also the great bed in which 50 men might lie, and I have also seen the big stone which fell in a thunder-storm in the field close to the Count of Nassau. This house is very high, and there is a fine view from it, and it is much to be admired, and I do not think in all Germany there is anything like it. Item : Maister Bernhart the painter has invited me, and has given me such a costly meal that I do not believe it could be paid for with 10 florins. [Meister Bernhart is Bernard van Orley, court painter to the Arch- duchess Margaret. He studied in Italy, and was a friend and follower of Raphael, and was one of the leaders of the movement which intro- duced the imitation of Italian art into the Netherlands.] He also invited, in order that I might have good society, the Frau Margareth’s treasurer, whom I have drawn ; the King’s court-master, named Meteni ; and the town treasurer, named Pusfladis, to whom I presented a Passion in Copper, and he has presented me in return with a black Spanish pouch worth 3 florins. To Erasmus of Rotterdam I have also pre- sented a Passion engraved on copper. Item : To one Erasmus, who is the secretary to Banissius I have given a copper- engraved Passion. The man at Antwerp who gave me the small child’s head is called Lorenz Starck. Item : I have taken the portrait of Maister Bernhart, Frau Margareth’s painter, in charcoal. I have again drawn ( conterfet ) Erasmus of Rotterdam. I have given Lorenz Stercken a Sitting St. Jerome, and the Melancholy; and I have drawn my hostess’s godmother. Item : 6 persons whose portraits I have taken at Brussels have given me nothing. I have paid 3 stiver for 2 buffalo horns, and 1 stiver for two Eulenspiegel. [Dr. Campe surmises that the Eulenspiegel here mentioned could not have been the celebrated print of that name by Lucas van Leyden, because of the extremely small price (id. for two copies) that Diirer gave for it. But when we remember that Diirer sold his own en- gravings for very little more proportionally — the large copper-plate of Adam and Eve, for instance, for four stiver — we shall not find it so JOURNAL. 30 r extraordinary that he should have bought Van Leyden’s print for what seems a ridiculously small sum compared with the enormous price that is now given for even an inferior copy. It is the great rarity of the print that now makes it so extravagantly dear, and not any higher intrinsic merit than others of Leyden’s prints. It may however have been the old Volksbuch itself, ‘Von dil Eulenspiegel,’ then in great favour, that Diirer bought.] Then I travelled on the Sunday after St. Gilgen’s day [Sept. 2] with Herr Tomasin to Mecheln, and I took leave of Herr Hans Ebner, and he would take nothing at all for my board during the 7 days that I was with him. I have expended j stiver on Hans Geuder’s account. I have given one stiver to the host’s man ( Knecht ) for Trinkgeld. And I had supper at Mechel with my Lady of Neukirchen ; and I set out from Mecheln early on the Monday, and travelled to Antwerp, and I ate my breakfast with the Portuguese, who gave me three porcelains [Majolica dishes or bowls], and Ruderigo has given me some feather things from Calicut. I have expended 1 florin, and 2 stiver I have given to the messenger, and I have bought for Susanna a mantle ( Hocken ), costing 2 florins 10 stiver. My wife has given 4 florins Rhenish for a sponge, for a pair of bellows, for a deep dish, for slippers, and for wood for cooking, and also for knee-breeches and a parrot- cage, and also for two jugs and for Trinkgeld. Moreover my wife has paid 21 stiver for eatables, drinkables, and all kinds of necessaries. Now on the Monday after JEgydy [St. TEgidius, Sept. 3], I have begun again with Jobst Planckfelt, and I have eaten with him jjjj j jj j jj jjj jjj j times. Item: To Niclas, Tomasin’s man, I gave I stiver. I have given 5 stiver for the small work ( Leistlein ), moreover 1 stiver. My host has presented me with an Indian mat, and an old Turkish whip. And again this time I have dined withTomasin jjj jjjjjj jjjj times. Item : The two Herren von Rogendorff have invited me, and I have once dined with them, and I have sketched their coat-of-arms large upon wood so that it may be cut ( das mans schneiden mag). I have given away a stiver. My wife has changed a gulden and 24 stiver for living expenses. I 302 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. have given 2 stiver for Trinkgeld. I have dined once at the Fuggers’ house with young Jacob Rehlinger, and once I have dined with him alone. Item : My wife has changed a gulden and 24 stiver for living expenses. I have presented Wilhelm Hauenhut, the Duke Friederick’s servant, with an engraved St. Jerome, and the two new half-sheets, the Maria and the St. Anthony. Item : Moreover I have presented Herr Jacob Ponisio [Banissius] with a good painted Veronica, an Eus- tachius, Melancholy, a Sitting St. Jerome, St. Anthony, the two new Virgin-pictures, and the new Peasants ; so also I have sent Erasmus idem Erasmo ), who presented my supplication, a Sitting St. Jerome, the Melancholy, the St. Anthony and the new Virgin-pictures ; and the whole that I have given him is worth vii florins. [The two engraved Virgins, dated 1520, are The Virgin crowned by one Angel (Heller, 537) j and The Virgin with the Child in Swaddling Clothes (Heller, 585). These are probably the two new Virgin- pictures (. Marien-bilde r) to which he alludes.] I have given Maister MarxGoldschmied a Passion in Copper, and he has given me j j j florins in compensation ; moreover I have received 3 guilder 20 stiver for art. To Honing the glazier I have given 4 little copper prints. I have dined with Herr Bonisius j j j times. I have given 4 stiver for charcoal and black chalk. I have given 1 florin 8 stiver for wood, moreover 3 stiver. Ten times I have dined with my Lords of Niirnberg. Item : Maister Dietrich the glass painter has sent me the red colour that is found in Antwerp in the new bricks. Item : I have drawn Maister Jacob von Liibeck with charcoal, who has presented my wife with a Philipp’s gulden, but I have changed a Philipp’s gulden for living expenses. I have pre- sented the Frau Margaret [Archduchess] with a Sitting St. Jerome engraved on copper. I have sold a wood Passion for 12 stiver, and an Adam and Eve for 4 stiver. Item : Felix the captain and lute-player has bought of me a whole set of copper engravings, a Passion engraved in wood, a Copper Passion, 2 half-sheets, and 2 quarter-sheets, for 8 gold gulden, so I have presented him with a whole copper set. JOURNAL. 303 [Felix Hungersberg was the principal musician of the Imperial band, and held the rank of captain in the Imperial army. Diirer was evidently fond of music, as may be seen in his letters from Venice, in which he speaks with great delight of having got into the society of ‘ good lute-players.’ He took this Hungersberg’s portrait more than once. Upon the drawing in the Albertina Collection Diirer has written, ‘ Der Kostlich und Vebiegrad Lautenschlacher .’] I have drawn Herr Ponisius [Banissius] in charcoal. Item : Ruderigo has again given me a parrot, and I have given his boy 2 stiver for Trinkgeld. I have given Johann von Winckel, trumpeter, a little wood-engraved Passion, a St. Jerome in the Cell, and a Melancholy. I have given 6 stiver for a pair of shoes. I have given 5 stiver for a meerruten (?), and George Schlautersbach has given me just such another, costing 6 stiver. I have dined once with Wolff Haller, the Fuggers’ agent, who had invited my Lord of Niirnberg. Item : I have made 2 Philipp’s florins and 6 stiver by art. I have dined once with my wife. I gave 1 stiver to Hans Dener’s servant for Trinkgeld. Item : I have made 100 stiver by art. Item : Maister Jacob, the Rogendorff’s painter, I have drawn in char- coal. Item : I have sketched the Rogendorff arms on wood, for which he has given me vii ells of velvet. And I have dined again with the Portugal agent. I have drawn Maister Jararott Priick in charcoal, who gave me I florin for it. Item : I have given 23 stivers for some furs. I have sent 2 florins in gold, in a letter to Augsberg through the Fuggers’ house at Ant- werp, to Hans Schwarzen for my own portrait {Angesicht ). Item : I have paid 3 1 stiver for a red shirt. I have paid 2 stiver for the colour found in the bricks. Item : I have given 9 stiver for an ox-horn. I have drawn a Spaniard in charcoal. I have dined with my wife. I have given j j stiver for a dozen small pipes. I have given 3 stiver for two small cups, like those that Felix gave my wife ; and Maister Jacob, the Liibeck painter, has also given my wife such an one. I have dined again with Rogendorff. Item : I have given a stiver for the printed Entry into Antwerp ; how the King was received with a costly triumph ; how the gates were ornamented in the most costly manner ; how there was music and great rejoicing 304 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. and beautiful young maidens, whose like I have seldom seen. [Dr. Campe in a note to this passage states that it was the custom at these sort of triumphal progresses to exhibit the most beautiful maidens of the town all but naked to the public gaze, and that this was not considered a disgrace, but rather an honour to the fair ones, who fought fpr the distinction of being chosen for the purpose. Diirer himself alluded more particularly to the maidens of Antwerp in a subsequent conversation with Melanchthon, whom he told that he had observed these naked young women ‘ very attentively and closely, and without shame, because he was a painter.’ (See ‘ Manlii Collectanea locor. Communium,’ page 345. Quoted by Campe.) Charles V., not having Diirer’s excuse, cast down his eyes as he passed the fair ones ; which, it is said, offended them mightily. The entry into Antwerp took place Sept. 23, 1520.] I have given 2 florins for provisions. I have seen at Antwerp the bones of the great giant ; the bone above the knee is five and a half ordinary feet in length, and excessively heavy and very thick ; the same with the shoulder-blade ; it is as broad as a strong man would be across the back, and there were other bones of the giant, and the man was 18 feet high, and reigned in Antwerp, and did great wonders, and the Lords of the towns have had a great deal written about him in an old book. [This book is still preserved in the town archives of Antwerp. — F. V. # ] Item : Raphael von LTbin’s things were all scattered after his death, but Thomas Polonier, one of his pupils, a good painter, who was desirous of seeing me, came to me and gave me a gold antique ring ( antiga ), with a very good cut stone in it, worth 5 florins, but I have been offered double that money for it. In return for this I have given him all my best printed things, worth 6 florins. Item : 3 stiver for a piece of calico. I have paid j stiver to the messenger, and 3 stiver I have dissipated with comrades. Item : I have presented Frau Mar- garet, the Emperor’s sister, with an entire set of all my things, and I have sketched for her two matters on parchment with * The above initials indicate F. Verachter, the keeper of the town archives of Antwerp, who published in 1840 a Dutch translation of this Journal, from which I have gleaned many useful notes, all of which I have marked as above. JOURNAL. 305 great diligence and trouble. I estimate them as worth 30 \ florins, and I have been obliged to sketch out the plan of a house for her doctor, according to which he is going to have one built, and I would not willingly have undertaken this work for 10 florins. Item : I have given the servant j stiver and 1 stiver for brick-colour. Item : I have given Herr Niclaus Ziegler a Dead Christ worth 3 florins. To the Portugal factor a painted Child’s Head worth j florin. I have given 10 stiver for a small buffalo-horn. I have given a gold gulden for an elk’s foot. [Perhaps these things were presents or purchases for Pirkheimer, who was a great collector of horns of animals.] Item : 1 have drawn Master Adrian in charcoal. I have given 2 stiver for the Condemnatzen (?) and the dialosos (?), and 3 stiver to the messenger. I have given Maister Adrian art to the value of 2 florins j stiver for red chalk. I have drawn Herr Wolff von Rogendorf with pencil. I have given away 3 stiver. I have drawn a noblewoman in Thomassins’ house. I have given Nicolaus a St. Jerome in the Cell, and the two new Virgin- pictures. 1 have given Thomas Polonius on the Monday after Michael- mas a whole set of the engravings ( ein ganzen Truck), and he has sent them to Rome for me by another painter, who is to send me some of Raphael’s things. [Probably some of Marc Antonio’s engravings after Raphael.] [The verb here is geben to give, not schenken to give, in the sense of making a present, as it is in all other cases. The number of presents of his works that Diirer made during this tour is quite surprising. Every page contains a record of something or other that he has given away, either to his friends or as propitiatory offerings to persons in authority, through whom he hoped to gain access to Charles V. In this case, however, the giving was a question of exchange. Thomas Polonius, as Diirer calls him, but whose proper name was Tomaso Vincidor of Bologna, was an insignificant scholar of Raphael’s. Diirer, however, considered him a good painter. Raphael had died in the April of this year, on Good Friday.] I have dined with my wife. I have given 3 stiver for the little tract. Polonius has taken my portrait, which he will take with 20 30 6 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. him to Rome. [Afterwards engraved by Andreas Stock.] I have given 20 stiver for an elk’s foot. Moreover I have given 2 gold guilders and 4 stiver for Herr Hans Ebner s painting {Taf ekin'). [Does this mean that he had been buying a painting for Hans Ebner, who, it will be remembered, was one of the Nurnberg Com- mission charged with the care of the Imperial crown ? He was a member of the Rath, and would seem to have been very friendly to Diirer.] I have changed a crown for living expenses. I have taken eleven guilders to spend in living expenses at Ach [Aachen or Aix-la-Chapelle], and have received from Ebner 2 florins 4 stiver. Paid 9 stiver for wood. I have given 20 stiver to the coachman to take me to Weyding. I have drawn a lady of Bruges, who has given me a Philipp’s guilder. I have given 3 stiver for Trinkgeld, jj stiver for varnish, j stiver for stone colour, 13 stiver to the coachman, and j stiver for leather. I have given 2 stiver for two shells. I have drawn an Italian gentleman ( Welsc/ien ) in Johann Gabriel’s house, who has pre- sented me with two gold guilders. Have given 2 florins 4 stiver for a knapsack. I travelled from Antwerp to Ach (Aachen) on the Thursday after Michaelmas, October 4 [one is glad to come across such a well-known feast and ascertainable date as this. The movable feasts and saints’ days that Diirer so often dates by are most difficult to fix exactly], and I have taken another guilder and a noble with me. And when I 'had travelled through Maestrich we came to Giilpen, and from thence to Ach on the Sunday. Up to this time, with travelling expenses and all, I have spent 3 florins. At Aachen I have seen the Propor- tionirten columns, with their beautiful capitals of porphyr, green and red and gassenstain (?) which Charlemagne brought from Rome and set up there. They were done according to the writing of Vitruvius. Item : I have given a gold guilder at Aachen for a bullock’s horn. I have drawn Hans Ebner and George Schlauderspach with charcoal, and Hans Ebner again. I have given 2 stiver JOURNAL. 307 for a soft hone-stone [probably to execute some carving upon]. Item : 5 stiver for bathing, and for drinking with my guide. I have changed j guilder for living expenses. I have given 2 white pfenning to the townsman who took me over the Hall. I have spent in drinking with comrades and in bathing 5 white pfenning. I have lost 7 stiver with Herr Hans Ebner at play ( verspielt ). I have drawn young Christopher Groland in chalk ; also my host Peter von Enden. I have spent 3 stiver with comrades, and have given 1 stiver to the messenger. I have drawn Paulus Topler and Merten Pfinzing in my little book. I have seen the Emperor Henry’s arm, our Lady’s chemise, girdle, and other relics. I have sketched our Lady’s church. I have drawn Sturm. [Gasper Sturm was the herald-at-arms who assisted at the taking of the castle of Sickengen, and who was charged with conducting Luther to the Diet of Worms.] I have drawn Peter von Enden’s father-in-law in charcoal. I have given 10 white pfenning for a great bull’s horn. I have given 2 white pfenning for Trinkgeld, and I have changed a guilder for living expenses. I have lost at play 3 white pfen- ning, moreover 2 stiver lost at play, jj white pfenning given to the messenger. I have given Tomasin’s daughter the painted Trinity, worth 4 florins. I have paid j stiver for wash- ing. I have drawn the Kopffingrin’s sister in charcoal, and again in pencil. I have spent 3 white pfenning in bathing. I have given 8 white pfenning for a buffalo-horn. Item : 2 white pfenning for a girdle. Item : I have given 1 Philipp’s guilder for a scarlet breast handkerchief, and 6 pfenning for paper. I have changed I florin for living expenses. I have given 2 white pfenning for washing. Item : On the 23rd day of October King Charles [Charles V.] was crowned at Aachen. There [at the coronation] I have seen all kinds of costly splen- dour, and no one living in our part of the country has ever seen such costly things ; how then can one describe them ? Item: I have given Mathes 11 florins’ worth of art; also I have given Stefan, chamberlain to Frau Margareth, 3 pieces of art [engravings.] I have given I florin 10 white pfenning for a cedar-wood Paternoster. I have given 1 stiver to the little Hans in the stable, and I stiver to the child in the house. Three stiver and a half I have lost at play, 2 stiver I have 20—2 30S LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. squandered away, and 2 stiver I have paid the barber. More- over I have changed a guilder. I have given 7 white pfenning for Trinkgeld in the house, and I set out from Aachen to Gulch, and from thence to ... . 1 have paid 4 stiver for 2 eye-glasses, have lost 2 stiver at play in a silver stamped king (2 stiibei * in ein Silbern gestempften Konig verspilt). I have paid 8 white pfenning for two bulls’ horns. Then, on the Friday before St. Simon and St. Jude [Oct. 26] I departed from Aachen, and travelled to Lowen, and went into the church, where there is the head of St. Anna. [A writer in the Kunstblatt , No. 62, 1830, points out that Hauer, the transcriber of the journal, probably mis-wrote Lowen for Diiren here. The latter town lies half-way between Aachen and Coin, and has a church In which the head of St. Anna is still preserved ; whereas Lowen lies some distance out of the way, and is not for- tunate enough to possess any relics of that saint.] From thence we travelled, and arrived at Coin on the Sun- day the day of St. Simon and St. Jude. I had lodging and eating and drinking at Brussels with my Lords of Niirnberg, and they would take nothing for it. And I had the same at Aachen. During 3 weeks I had my meals with them, and they had me driven on to Coin, and would take nothing for that also. I have bought a tract of Luther’s for 5 white pfenning, moreover 1 white pfenning for the Condemnation of Luther, the pious man [probably a copy of the Bull of excommunication issued by Leo X. against Luther in 1520], and one white pfen- ning for a Paternoster, and 2 white pfenning for a girdle. Moreover 1 white pfenning for one pound of lights. I have changed a florin for living expenses. I have been obliged to let Herr Leonhart Groland have my large bull’s horn. Also I was obliged to let Hans Ebner have my large cedar-wood Pater- noster. 6 white pfenning for a pair of shoes. I have given 2 white pfenning for a skull. 1 white pfenning for beer and bread. Moreover 2 white pfenning for ensspertele. (?) I have given 2 messengers 4 white pfenning. I have given 2 white pfenning to Nicholas’s daughter for lace ( Werck - spit zle ini) JOURNAL. 309 Item : 1 white pfenning to the messenger. I have given 2 florins’ worth of art to Herr Ziegler Linhart. I have paid 2 white pfenning to the barber. Item : I have given 2 white pfenning for the picture to be opened which Maister Steffan of Coin has done. [This sentence of Durer’s first threw a doubt on the name of the early master of the Cologne School who painted the lovely c Dombild ’ that is now preserved in the Cathedral. It had always been at- tributed to Meister Wilhelm, the earliest and best known master of the school, until this record in Durer’s journal was observed, which at once raised a suspicion that possibly critics might be wrong in supposing it to be the work of Meister Wilhelm ; for, as Diirer lived so much nearer the time when the picture was painted, it was only natural to suppose that he must have been better acquainted with the name of the painter than writers writing after a lapse of centuries, and who had very little beyond tradition to guide them. Recent re- searches have indeed proved that such was the case, and the great Cologne altar-piece is now almost universally attributed to Meister Stephan, or Stephan Loethener, who was probably a pupil, or at all events a follower, of the earlier master, whose glory has been greatly shaded by this discovery of a later and greater master of the school. See Merlo, ‘ Die Meister der Altcolnischen Sehule .’] I have paid the messenger 2 white pfenning, and 2 white pfenning I have spent in drinking with comrades. I have drawn Gott Schalken’s sister. I have given 1 white pfenning for a little tract [or treatise]. I have seen the princely dance and banquet which King Charles gave in the banqueting-house at Coin on the Sunday night after All Saints’ day_, in the year 1520. It was very costly. I have sketched for Stabius his coat-of-arms on wood. I have given a young Count in Coin a Melancholy, and the Duke Frederick the new Virgin-picture. I have drawn Niclaus Haller in charcoal. Item : 2 white pfenning to the boy at the gate. I have given 3 white pfen- ning for 2 small tracts. I have given 10 white pfenning for a cow’s horn. I have been into the Church of St. Ursula at Coin, and have seen her grave, and her holy maidens, and all the great relics. I have drawn Forherwerger in charcoal. I have changed 1 florin for living expenses. I have given 3io LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Niclaus’s wife [this is his cousin Niclaus, whom, it will be re- membered, he visited before at Coin] 8 white pfenning when she invited me to dinner. I have given a stiver for 2 bits of art. Item : Herr Hans Ebner and Herr Leonhard Groland have maintained me without taking anything from me in pay- ment for 8 days at Brussels, 3 weeks at Aachen, and 14 days at Coin. [These, it will be remembered, were the Raths-herrn who, with Niclaus Haller, were charged with the Imperial Crown. Charles V. having now been crowned, their business must have been well-nigh over.] On the Monday after Martinmas [Nov. 4] in the year 1520, I obtained my CONFIRMATIA from the Emperor, through my Lords of Niirnberg, with great trouble and labour. [This is the document by which Charles V. ratified the payment of the pension of 100 florins yearly, granted to Diirer by Maximilian for his faithful service to him and the Empire (see p. 15 1). The docu- ment is still preserved amongst the archives of Niirnberg, and is dated at Coin, Nov. 4, 1520.] I have given Niclas’s daughter 7 white pfenning as Trink- geld, and 1 florin to Niclas’s wife, and moreover 1 orth to the daughter as a parting present, and then I set out from Coin. Dorfer once, Stabius once, my cousin Niclas once, and the old Wolffgang once, have invited me to dinner, and once more also I have been out to dinner. I have given Niclas’s man ( Knecht ) an Eustachius for a Trinkgeld, also an orth to his little daughter, for they have had much trouble with me. I have given 1 florin for an ivory Death’s head. Moreover 1 white pfenning for a twisted box. Moreover, 7 white pfenning for a pair of shoes, and I have given Niclas’s apprentice a Nemesis for Trinkgeld. And I departed early by the boat from Coin on the Wednesday after Martinmas I have given 6 white pfenning for a pair of shoes, 4 white pfenning to the messenger. From Coin I travelled down the Rhine to Suns [Zons]. [The journal is now again for a little while a mere record of the JOURNAL. 31 1 names of the towns that Diirer passed through on his journey from Coin to Antwerp.] From Suns we went to Nans, from thence to Stain ; there we laid all day. I expended 6 white pfenning. After that we came to Diisseldorf, a town, and expended 2 white pfen- ning. From thence to Kaiserswerth, from thence to Duisberg, also a town, also two castles, Angrur and another called Ruhrort ; from thence to Arschor [Orsoy], a town ; from thence to Rheinberg, also a town ; there we spent the night, and expended 6 white pfenning. From thence I went to Rees, from thence to Emmerich, from thence we came to Thomas, and from thence to Nymwegen ; there we remained over night, and I spent 4 white pfenning. From Nymwegen we went to Thiil [Thiel], from thence to Busch, etc. At Emme- rich we laid to, and I spent there for a costly meal three white pfenning, and I drew there a goldsmith’s workman, Peter Federmacher of Antwerp, and a portrait of a lady, and the cause of our lying still was that a great storm-wind overtook us. Moreover I spent another 5 white pfenning, and I changed a florin for living expenses. Also I drew my host, and arrived only on the Sunday at Nymwegen. I have given 20 white pfen- ning to the skipper. Nymwegen is a fine town, and has a fine church, and a well-situated castle. From thence we went to Till ; there we left the Rhine [the Waal, the left branch of the Rhine], and travelled up the Maas to Terveeren, where the two towers are ; there we lay over night, and this day I spent 7 stiver. After that we travelled on Tuesday early to Bommel on the Maas ; there a great storm came on so that we were obliged to get peasants’ horses, and to ride without saddles to Herzog-Pusch, and we spent 1 florin in riding. Pusch [Bois- le-Duc. German, Herzogen-busch] is a pretty town, and has an extraordinary beautiful church, and is very strong. [The Church of St. John, built in 1312, is still a fine specimen of mediaeval architecture]. There I spent 10 stiver, although Meister Arnold paid my reckoning. [Possibly Arnold de Ber, a painter of Antwerp.] And the goldsmiths came to me, and they showed me very much honour. After that, on the day of our Lady, we got up early and went through the very beau- 312 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. tiful village of Oosterwyck. But we ate our breakfast at Tilborg, and spent there 4 white pfenning. After that we came to Bareli [Baer], passed the night there, and spent 5 stiver, and the comrades ( Gesellen ) at the inn were all quarrelling with the landlord ; and we went on at night to Hogstraaten ; there we rested two hours, and set off again through Harsht for St. Leonartkirchen ; there we ate our breakfast, and spent 4 stiver. After that we came to Antwerp, and gave the driver 1 5 stiver, and it was on the Thursday after the Assumption of the Virgin. [It has been pointed out that it could not have been the Feast of the Assumption that Diirer here meant, for that feast is held in the Roman Church on the 15 th of August, but most probably it was the Presentation of the Virgin, which is celebrated on the 21st of November, and would therefore agree perfectly in time with the date of Diirer’s return to Antwerp.] And I have given a copper Passion to Jannen, the servant of Jobst’s father-in-law. And on the Thursday after our Lady’s day, As stunt ionis 1520 [or the Presentation, November 22], I entered again into Jobst Planckfelt’s house, and I have eaten jjjj times with him this time, and jj with my wife. I have changed 1 florin for living expenses, moreover one crown; and during the 7 weeks that I have been away my wife and the maid have spent 7 crowns in living, and of other things have bought 4 florins’ worth. I have spent 4 stiver with comrades. 6 times I have dined with Tomasin. On St. Merten’s day at Antwerp in the Cathedral my wife had her purse cut ; there were two florins in it. And the purse itself, and what more was in it, was also worth another florin, and there were some keys in it. Item : On the eve of St. Catharine I gave my host ten gold crowns of my reckoning. [Probably the gold ducat of Holland, worth 9 s. 5 d. of our present money.] This time I have dined jj with the Portugal. Ruderigo has given me 6 Indian nuts, and I have given his boy 2 stiver for Trinkgeld. Item : I have paid 19 stiver for parchment. Item : I have changed two crowns for living expenses. I have received 8 florins altogether for two JOURNAL. 313 Adam and Eves, one Sea Monster [. Mehr-wunder , supposed to be the print now called the Amymone], j St. Jerome, j Knight on Horseback, j Nemesis, j Eustachius, j whole piece, moreover 17 etched pieces, 8 quarter sheets, 19 pieces of woodcut, 7 bad woodcuts, 2 books [probably Great Passions], and 10 Little Passion cuts. Item : I have given the 3 great books [Apoca- lypse, Life of the Virgin, and Great Passion], for j ounce of fine solder. I have changed a Philipper for living expenses, and my wife has changed a florin. Item : There has been a whale thrown up on the coast of Zealand by a great storm and a high tide. It is more than a hundred fathoms long, and no one living in Zealand has ever seen one before that was a third part the size of this one ; and the fish cannot be moved off the land, and the people wish it away, for they fear the great smell it will make, for it is so big that it would take more than six months to cut it up and boil it down for oil. Item : The Chaplain Steffan has given me a cedar-wood Paternoster, and I have drawn his portrait in return. Item : I have given 4 stiver for furnace-brown and a small pair of snuffers. I have given 3 stiver for paper. I have drawn Felix kneeling, done with the pen in his own book. Felix has given me 100 oysters. \ I have given Herr Lasarus, the great man, an engraved St. Jerome, and the three large books. Ruderigo has given me some strong wine and some oysters. I have paid 7 white pfenning for black chalk. I have had Tomasin, Gerharde, Tomasin’s daughter, her husband, Honing the glazier, Jobst and his wife, and Felix, to dinner with me; it has cost 2 florins. Item: Tomasin has given me 4 ells of grey damask for a waist- coat. Moreover I have changed one Philipp’s florin for living expenses. On the eve of St. Barbara [December 3], I rode out of Antwerp and went on to Pergn [Bergen-op-Zoom]. I have given 12 stiver for the hire of the horse, and have spent 1 florin 6 stiver. Item : I have bought at Bergen for my wife a Blemish head-gear of thin cloth, costing 1 florin 7 stiver. Moreover 6 stiver for 3 pair of shoes. One stiver for eye-glasses ; moreover 6 stiver for an ivory button. I have given 2 stiver for Trinkgeld. I have drawn Jean de Has, his wife and his two daughters with charcoal, and the 3*4 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. maid and the old woman with pencil, in my little book (see p. ioi). [Jan de Haes was a sculptor born at Metz. — F. V.] The houses at Bergen are very large and well-built. Bergen is an agreeable place in summer, and there are two great markets held there during the year. And on the eve of Lady- day I went with my comrades into Zealand, and Bastian Imhof lent me 5 florins, and we lay the first night at anchor at sea, and it was very cold, and we had neither food nor drink. On the Saturday we came to Goes, and there I sketched a girl in the costume of the place. From thence we went to Erma, and I laid out 15 stiver for provisions. We sailed before sunset by a village, and saw only the points of the roofs pro- jecting out of the water, and we sailed for the island of Wohlfartig [Walcheren], and for the little town of Sunge in another adjacent island. There were 7 islands, and Ernig, where I passed the night, is the largest. From thence we went to Middleburg, where I saw in the abbey the great picture that Johann de Abus [Mabuse] had done. The drawing is not so good as the painting. [This £ great picture,’ the Descent from the Cross, is said to have been one of Mabuse’s finest works. It was unfortunately destroyed in the burning of the Abbey of Middleburg in 1568.] After that we came to Fahr, where ships from all lands un- load ; it is a fine town. But at Armuyden [a small town on the island of Walcheren] a great danger befell me ; for just as we were going to land, and our ropes were thrown out, there came a large ship, alongside of us and I was about to land, but there was such a press that I let every one land before me, so that nobody but I, Georg Kotzler, two old women, and the skipper with one small boy were left in the ship. And when only I and the above-named persons were on board and could not get on shore, then the strong cable broke, and a strong wind came on, which drove our ship powerfully before it. Then we all cried loudly for help, but no one ventured to give it, and the wind beat us out again to sea. The skipper was in the greatest distress, and shouted JOURNAL. 315 loudly, for all his sailors had left the ship, and it was un- loaded. Then there was great anxiety and fear, for the wind was very great, and not more than 6 persons on board. But I spoke to the skipper and told him to take heart and put his trust in God, and consider what there was to be done. Then he said he thought if we could manage to hoist the little sail he would try whether we could not get on. So, with great difficulty, and working altogether, we got it half-way up and sailed on again ; and when those on the land saw this, and how we were able to help ourselves, they came and gave us assistance, so that we got safely to land. Middleburg is a good town, and has a very beautiful Town- house with a costly tower. There are also many things there of old art. There is an exceedingly costly and beautiful seat in the abbey, and a costly stone aisle, and a pretty parish church. And in other respects also the town is very rich in subjects for sketches ( und sonst war die statt kostlich zu Konterfeyen .) Seeland is pretty and marvellous to see, on account of the water, which is higher than the land. I have drawn my host at Ernii. Meister Hugo and Alexander Imhof and the Hirshvogel’s servant Friedrich have each given me an Indian nut that they have won at play, and my host has given me some growing onions. And on Monday we set out early in the ship again and made for Fahr, and from thence to Zurckse, where we thought to see the great fish, but we found the tide had taken it away again. And I have spent 2 florins for travelling expenses, and I have given two florins for a Kotzer , (?) 4 stiver for a fig cheese, and 3 stiver for carriage of goods ; 6 stiver lost at play. And we came back again to Bergen. I have paid 10 stiver for an ivory comb. I have drawn Schnabhannen. I have drawn my host’s son-in-law Clausen. I have given 2 florins less 5 stiver for a bit of pewter ; moreover 2 florins for a bad bit of pewter. Item : I have drawn the little Bernhart of Breszlen, George Kotzler, and the Frenchman ; and each of them has paid me at Bergen 1 florin. Jan de Has’s son-in-law has paid me a horn guilder for his portrait, and likewise the crayons and 1 florin. Moreover I have given 4 florins less 10 stiver for 2 coverlets. I have drawn Niclas Soilir. And this is the 3 1 6 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. number of times that I have eaten in Bergen since I came back from Zealand, jjjjjjjjj. And again jjjj stiver. I have given the driver 3 stiver, and have spent vjjj stiver on living. On the Friday after St. Lucia [Dec. 14], 1520, I returned to Antwerp to the house of Jobst Planckfclt. At this time what 1 eat in his house is paid for, and my wife is paid for, Item : Herr Lazarus von Rafensburg has given me in return for the three books that I presented to him a scale of a large fish, 5 snail shells, 4 silver medals, 5 copper ones, two dried fish, a piece of white coral, 4 arrows, and a piece of white coral. I have changed 1 florin for living. Item : Moreover one crown. This time I have dined by myself jjjjjjjjj times. Item : The Portuguese Factor has given me a brown velvet doublet and a box of good electuary. I have given his boy 3 stiver by way of recompense. I have given 1 horn florin for 2 panels ( Taffelein ), but I have had 6 stiver given me back again. I have given 4 gold guilders for a monkey, and 14 stiver for 5 fish. I have given 2 stiver for 2 treatises. I have given 2 stiver to the messenger. I have presented Lazarus Rafespurg with a likeness ( Conterfet angesicht) [pro- bably a Head of Christ] ; this with the panel cost 6 stiver. And above this I have given him 8 large copper engravings, 8 half sheets, a Copper Passion, and other engravings and woodcuts, worth in all 4 florins. Moreover I have changed a Philipp’s guilder for living expenses. I have paid 6 stiver for panels, and I have drawn the servant of the Portuguese in charcoal. And all this I have given away in the New Year. [He has forgotten to give us any intimation when the New Year began. The last date was the Friday after St. Lucia, and St. Lucia was celebrated on the 14th of December in 1520. It is now, we must bear in mind, 1521 in the journal, but no ascertainable date occurs for a long time.] I have changed 1 florin for living expenses, moreover 2 stiver for Trinkgeld ; and I have given Bernhart Stecher a whole impression [of engravings]. Item : I have bought 31 stivers’ worth of wood. I have drawn Bernhard Pombelly and the daughter of Sebastian the Procurator. I have changed 1 florin JOURNAL. 317 for living. I have squandered 3 stiver. I have presented Herr Wolff von Rogendorff with a Copper and a Wood Passion. Gerhard Pombellin has given me a printed Turkish cloth, and Herr von Rogendorff has given me vii ells of Brabant velvet, so I have given his man a Philipp’s guilder for Trinkgeld, and I have spent 3 stiver at different times. I have given 4 stiver for Trinkgeld. I have drawn the new Factor in charcoal. I have given 6 stiver for a panel. I have dined with the Portu- guese jjjjj jjj, with the Treasurer j, with Tomasin jjjjjjjjjj. I have given 4 stiver for Trinkgeld. With Lazarus Rafens- purger [Ravensburg] j, Wolff von Rogendorff j, Bernhard Stecher j, Hanolt Meyting j, Caspar Lewenter j. [Diirer’s circle of acquaintance in Antwerp is evidently enlarging. Several of these are new names. But judging from the number of times that he dines with him, the Italian Tomasin still remains his favourite friend.] I have given 3 stiver to the man whom I have drawn. [A model, probably, who sat to him.] Moreover I have given the boy 2 stiver. I have given 4 florins for flax. I have made 4 florins by art. I have changed a crown for living expenses. Item : I have given 4 stiver to the furrier ; moreover two stiver. I have lost 4 stiver at play, and have expended 6 stiver. I have paid 18 stiver for rosin and for three pair of knives. I have paid 2 florins for meals with Jobst. I have lost 4 stiver at play, and have paid 6 stiver to the furrier. 1 have given Maister Jacob 2 engraved St. Jeromes. Lost 2 more stiver at play. I have changed a crown for living expenses. I have lost j stiver at play. I have given Tomasin’s 3 maids 3 pair of knives costing 5 stiver. I have made 29 stiver by art. Ruderigo^has given me a musk ball just as* it is cut off from the civet-cat, also a boxful of electuary, a quarter of a pound of Persio. [Probably a dye stuff — red indigo\ and a large box of sugar. So I have given his boy 5 stiver for Trinkgeld. Item : Lost 2 stiver at play. I have drawn Jobst’s wife in charcoal. I have made 4 florins 5 stiver by three Tuchlein [water-colour drawings on linen]. Again I have changed another 2 florins for living. 3i8 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. I have lost 2 stiver at play. My wife has given i florin to the child that has just been born, moreover 4 stiver in the lying-in chamber. [It was, it seems, the custom in Antwerp at that time to give a new-born child a present of money as well as a fee of 4 stiver to the nurse. — F. V.] Item : I have changed 1 crown for living expenses, squandered 4 stiver, lost 2 stiver at play, and given 4 stiver to the messenger. I have given Maister Dietrich, the glass-painter, an Apocalypse and the 6 Knotn. [The ‘ 6 Knotn ’ mentioned here are thought by Hausmann to mean the six woodcuts apparently intended for patterns for em- broidery or fine tracery-work that Diirer executed. They were com- posed of elaborate interlaced and concentric lines, one of them being exactly the same in pattern as the design supposed to be by Leonardo da Vinci, which bears the inscription in the middle ‘ Academia Leonardi Vinci .' 1 They are now very rare.] I have paid 40 stiver for flax. I have lost 8 stiver at play. I have given the little Factor of Portugal, Signor Franzisco, my water-colour drawing ( Tiichlein ) of a child. It is worth 10 florins. I have given Dr. Loffen of Antwerp the 4 books and St. Jerome in copper. Item : I have done the arms ofStabius, Jobst Planckfelt, and another man. I have drawn Tomasin’s son and daughter in pencil. I have painted a portrait of N a duke on a panel in oil-colour. I have made 4 stiver by art. [The sums that he makes seem ridiculously small compared with the worth of what he gives away.] Ruderigo Scribande of Portugal has given me 2 Calecut cloths, one of them silk, and he has given me an ornamental cap, and a bough of the cedar-tree, and a green jug with Mirabulon (?), in all worth 10 florins ; and I gave the boy 5 stiver for Trinkgeld, and 2 stiver for a pencil. I have done a sketch for some mummeries for the Fugger’s Factor, who has given me an angel. [The old English gold coin, with an angel impressed on it, in memory of Pope Gregory’s celebrated compliment. It was worth in England about ten shillings, and would seem to have been also cur- rent in the Netherlands]. JOURNAL. 319 I have changed 1 florin for living expenses. I have given 8 stiver for 2 small powder horns, I have lost 3 stiver at play. I have changed the angel for living expenses. Item : I have done Tomasin two whole sheets full of mummeries. I have done a good Veronica likeness in oil-colour; it is worth 12 florins, and this I have presented to Francisco, Factor of Por- tugal. After that I painted it again in oil-colours, and this was better than the first, and I gave it to the Factor Brandan von Portugal. The first gave the maid [Susanna, who took the picture] 1 Philipp’s florin for Trinkgeld, and after that for the Veronica 1 florin. And the Factor Branden gave her 1 florin. I have given 8 stiver for two coverings. I have changed an angel for living expenses. Item : On Shrove Tuesday early the goldsmiths invited me and my wife to dinner. There were many distinguished people assembled, and we had an extremely costly meal, and they did me exceeding much honour; and in the evening the senior magistrate ( Der alt Amtmann) of the town invited me, and gave me a costly meal, and showed me much honour. And there came in many strange masks. [It was of course Carnival time.] I have drawn Flores, Frau Margaret’s organist, in charcoal. On the Monday in Shrovetide Herr Lupes invited me to the great banquet, which lasted until 2 o’clock, and was very costly. [Herr Lopez was the ambassador of the King of Portugal. — F. V.] Item : Herr Lorenz Stark has given me a Spanish fur coat. And at the above-mentioned feast there were many very costly masks, particularly Tomasin and Branbell. I have won 2 florins at play. 0 [This is the first record of his winning anything, and this time he wins enough to pay for all his previous losses ; but his gains evidently troubled his conscience, for we find in the next line or so that he seeks to recompense the loser by taking his portrait.] I have given 14 stiver for a basket of raisins. I have drawn Bernhart von Castell, from whom I won the money, in charcoal. Item : Tomasin’s brother Gerhard has given me 4 Brabant ells of the best black satin, and he has given 320 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. me a large box of candied citron, and I have given the maid 3 stiver for Trinkgeld. I have given 13 stiver for wood, 2 stiver for varnish. I have drawn the Procurator’s daughter in pencil. I have changed an angel for living expenses. I have drawn in black chalk the good marble-cutter Maister Jan, who, like Christoph Kohler has studied in Italy. [Maister Jan is probably Jean Mone, a well-known sculptor of Lothringen. He afterwards entered the service of Charles V., for whom he executed the high altar in the Church of St. Martin at Hal. See Pinchart.] I have changed a guilder for living. I have paid 3 florins to Jan Turcken for Italian art. I have given 12 ducats worth of art for one ounce of good ultramarine. [In his letters to Heller, Diirer, it will be remembered, frequently alludes to the expense of this colour.] I have made 3 florins by the Little Passion. I have sold two sketches and 4 books of Scheufelein’s for 3 florins. [Hans Schauffelein, a pupil of Diirer’s. He executed one of the great series of wood engravings commissioned by the Emperor Maximilian— the ‘ Sir Theurdank.’ Diirer, it would seem, must have taken some of his engravings as well as his own to sell in the Netherlands.] I have given 2 florins for 2 Calecut salt-cellars made of ivory. I have made 2 florins by art. I have changed 1 florin for living expenses. Item : Roger of Gelern has presented me with a snail-shell, and a silver and gold coin worth an orth ; and I have presented him in return with the 3 large books and the engraved horseman. I have made eleven stiver by art. I have given 2 Philipp’s florins for St. Peter and St. Paul which I shall present to the Kolerin. Item : Ruderigo has given me two boxes with monk’s electuary and all kinds of sugars, and I have given 5 stiver for Trinkgeld. I have given 16 stiver for a box. Lazarus Rafensburg has given me a sugar-loaf, so I have given his boy a stiver. I paid 6 stiver for wood. Item : I have dined once with the Frenchman, twice with Hirschvogel, and once with Meister Peter the Secretary [this Meister Peter is the learned Petrus SEgidius, the friend of Erasmus], where Erasmus of JOURNAL. 321 Rotterdam also dined. I have given 1 stiver to be allowed to go up the tower at Antwerp, which is said to be higher than that of Strasburg. I saw over the whole town from it, which was very agreeable. I have given 1 stiver for eating. I have changed an angel. Item : The Portuguese Factor Branden has given me two large white sugar-loaves, a dish full of sugar-candy, and two green pots of preserved sugar, and 4 ells of black satin ; so I have given his man 10 stiver for Trinkgeld. [One may judge from the frequent presents of sugar-loaves and sweet-meats that Diirer receives from his Portuguese friends that the new Portuguese and Spanish sugar plantations in America and the West Indies were in a flourishing condition. No doubt cane-sugar (if known at all) was a rare luxury in Niirnberg at this period, but it appears to have been pretty common in Spain and the Netherlands. It was not introduced into England until much later.] I have twice taken the portrait in pencil of the beautiful maiden for Gerhardt. Moreover I have changed an angel for living expenses. I have made 4 florins by art. I have given 10 stiver for a box for Roderigo. I have dined with the Treasurer, Lorenz Starck, who has given me an ivory pipe and a very pretty piece of porcelain ; and I have given him a whole impression [ein ganzen Truck). Moreover I have given a whole impression to the Herr Adrian of the town of Antwerp, orator. I have changed a Philipp’s gulden for living expenses. I have presented ( Verehrt ) to the great rich guild of merchants in Antwerp a Sitting St. Nicholas, for which they have given me three Philipp’s gulden. [Pro- bably destroyed during the revolutionary wars in the Netherlands. I cannot find mention of it in any catalogue.] I have given to Peter the old frame of St. Jerome, and 4 florins over and above, for a frame for the Treasurer’s por- trait. Item : I have given eleven stiver for wood. Moreover I have changed a Philipp’s guilder for living expenses, and have given 4 stiver for a gimlet. I have given 3 stiver for 3 tubes. I have given up my baggage to be taken to Niirnberg by Jacob and Endres Hessler, and they are to have 2 florins 21 322 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. the Ntirnberg hundred-weight, and they are to deliver it to Hans Imhoff the Elder, and I have given 2 florins upon it, and this took place on the Sunday of St. Jude [March 17] in the year 1521. Ruderigo has given me 6 large Indian nuts, a very pretty piece of coral, and two large Portuguese guilders, one of them weighing as much as ten ducats [perhaps Brazilian dollars, worth about 5 shillings each], and I have given his boy for Trinkgeld 15 stiver. I have bought a loadstone for 16 stiver. Moreover I have changed an angel for living expenses. I have given 5 stiver for packing. I have sent Maister Hugo of Brussels an engraved Passion and some other pieces for his little porphyr grinding-stone. I have done a sketch for Tomasin in half colours, according to which he is going to have his house painted. I have carefully painted (mit jleiss) in oil-colours a St. Jerome, and have given it to Ruderigo of Portugal, who has given Susanna a ducat for Trinkgeld. I have changed a Philipp’s guilder for living expenses, and have given my father confessor 10 stiver. I have given 4 stiver for a turtle. I have dined with Herr Gilbert, who has presented me with a small shield made out of the skin of a fish, and a pair of boxing-gloves. I have given Peter 2 stiver. I have given 10 stiver for the fins of a fish, and have given 3 stiver for Trinkgeld. I have drawn Cornelius, the Antwerp Secretary, very excellently in chalk. I have given 3 florins 16 stiver for 5 silk girdles that I mean to make presents of. Moreover 20 stiver for some lace bordering. The six pieces of lace bordering I will give to Caspar Niitzel’s wife, to Hans Imhofs wife, to Strauber’s wife two, to Spengler’s wife, and to Loffelholz’s wife ; and to each of these ladies I give besides a good pair of gloves. [The names that Diirer mentions here are those of distinguished citizens of Niirnberg; with some of them the reader is already ac- quainted. His presents to the ladies prove that he must have been on intimate social terms with these families. He either means that he has bought these things to take back with him to Niirnberg as presents, or that he has sent them home by the carrier.] To Pirkheimer I give a large cap \Barett , or as he spells it, JOURNAL. 323 Paret\ a costly buffalo inkstand, a silver Emperor [probably a medal or statue of Maximilian in silver], 1 pound of Pen- saniett [?], and three sugar-canes. To Casper Ntitzel I give a large elk’s foot and 10 large fir-cones. To Jacob Mufifel I give a scarlet neckerchief. To Hans Imhoff’s child a scarlet ornamental cap and a fir-cone. To Kramer’s wife 4 ells of taffety , 4 florins. To Lochinger’s wife I ell of taffety, I florin. To each of the Spenglers a waistcoat and 3 beautiful horns. To Herr Hieronymus Holzschuher an exceedingly large horn. [These probably are the horns that Diirer records having bought some pages back. One wondered then what he could want with so many ; they may possibly have been not literally horns of animals, but horn vessels, drinking cups, etc., for domestic use ; for although glass had come into use, the horner’s was still a very important trade in the sixteenth century.] I have dined twice with the Factor. I have dined with Maister Arion the Antwerp secretary [Adrian Herbout, Pen- sionaris of Antwerp in 1506. — F. V.], who has given me the little painting that Maister Joachim [Joachim Patenir] has done. It is Lot and his daughters. [A painting by Diirer of this subject is mentioned in most of the catalogues of his works. Heller quotes it as being in his time in the castle of Gera, and it seems probable that it formerly formed part of the Imhof Collection. It appears to me, however, not at all unlikely that this little painting of Patenir’s, found, after Diirer’s death per- haps, amongst his own works, might have got classed with these, and Diirer’s monogram and the date (it is dated 15 n) afterwards added by some clever possessor who desired to prove it Diirer’s work. It seems a very unlikely subject for him to have chosen, and in the in- ventory of the Imhof Collection it is described as the Burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, which looks as if the landscape and not the figures formed the chief motive of the piece, which would most likely be the case if Patenir painted it.] Moreover I have made 12 florins by art. Moreover I have .OH boughr, 1 florin’s worth of the works of Hans Grun. [This TsT the early German painter Hans Baldung Grim.] Roger of 21 — 2 324 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Gelern has given me a bit of sandal wood, and I have given his boy a stiver. Item : I have taken Bernhart von Reszen’s portrait in oil-colours, who has given me 8 florins for it, and to my wife he has given a crown, and to Susanna a guilder. [This portrait is supposed to be the one in the Dresden Gallery, which was formerly thought to be that of Lucas van Leyden. It represents a small man without a beard. On a letter held in his hand can be deciphered the words ‘ Den — Pern — zu — .’] I have given 3 stiver for a Swiss mug and 2 stiver for the saucer. Moreover 3 stiver for a covering. Moreover 4 stiver to the Father Confessor. I have changed an angel for living expenses. I have made 4 florins 10 stiver by art. I have given 3 stiver for unguents. I have given 12 half-stiver for wood. I have spent 1 florin for living expenses. I have given 1 florin for 14 pieces of French wood. I have given Ambrose Hochstetten [a rich Augsburg mer- chant. — F. V.] a Life of the Virgin, and he has given me his design for a ship. Item : Ruderigo has given my wife a little ring. It is worth more than 5 florins. I have changed a florin for living expenses. I have taken the portrait of the Factor Brand’s clerk (, Scriban ) in charcoal. I have likewise drawn in pencil his negro woman. I have drawn Roderigo on a large sheet of paper black and white. I have given 16 florins for a piece of camlet, it contains 24 ells and will cost a stiver to carry it home. I have given 2 stiver for gloves. I have drawn Lucas of Danzig in charcoal. He has given me a florin for it and a piece of sandal wood. Item : On the Sunday after Easter [April 6] I set out from Antwerp to go to Bruges with Hans Liiber and with Maister Jan Ploos, a good painter of Bruges, and we crossed the Scheldt and came to Bevern, a large village : from thence to Prasten, also a large village ; from thence we travelled through several villages and came to the fine large village where there are so many rich agriculturists. [This part of the country is still cele- brated for its good farming.] There we ate our breakfast, and from thence we travelled to the rich Abbey of Pol, and from thence through Kaltbrunnen, a pretty village. From thence JOURNAL. 325 through the great long village of Kahlb ; from thence to Erd- velde, where we passed the night. We were up early on Sunday and travelled to Herfehlt, a small town ; from thence we went to Knolo [Eckloo], that is a very large and important ( machtig ) village ; it is paved, and has a Public Place ; there we ate our breakfast. From thence we went on to Valdegen, and after that through other villages until we came to Bruges, which is a splendid and beautiful town. And I have spent in travelling and in other ways 20 stiver and 1. And when we arrived at Bruges Jan Plos took me home with him, and that same night he arranged a costly meal for me and invited several people to give me pleasure. Another day Marx the goldsmith invited me and gave me a costly meal, and had a number of people to meet me. After that they took me into the Emperor’s house, which is large and costly. There I saw Rudiger’s painted chapel and a painting of a great old Master, for the opening of which I gave 1 stiver. [Rudiger was, as we have seen,' Roger Van der Weyden the Elder, and possibly the ‘ great old Master ’ was none other than Hubert Van Eyck himself, who might have been reckoned old as well as great even in the sixteenth century. His works then, perhaps, were not quite so rare as they are now ; the upper portion of the Mystic Lamb of St. Bavon being the only really authentic painting by his hand of which Art can now boast.] After that I bought 3 ivory combs for 30 stiver. Afterwards we went to St. Jacob’s Church, and saw the costly paintings of Rudiger and Hugo. They were both great masters. [‘ Hugo’ is Hugo van der Goes, called by Vasari, Hugo d’Anversa. He died in 1478. Only two or three authentic pictures by him are now known.] After that I saw the alabaster figure of the Virgin and Child that Michael Angelo of Rome has done. [Considerable doubt has been cast by critics on the genuineness of this work, which is still preserved in the Church of Notre Dame at Bruges. Albrecht Diirer, however, a contemporary of Michel Angelo, believed it to be by him, and recent researches have almost conclusively proved its authenticity.] 326 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. After that we went into a number of churches, and they showed me all the good paintings, of which there are a great number ( ein ilberschwahl ) ; and when I had seen Johann’s [Jan van Eyck’s] and all the other things we came at last into the Painters’ Chapel, where there are many good things. After that they prepared a banquet for me. And from thence I went with them to their guild, where many honourable folk, goldsmiths, painters, and merchants, were assembled, and they made me sup with them, and gave me presents, and did me great honour. And the two brothers Jacob and Peter were there, and the Rath gave me 12 mea- sures of wine, and the whole assembly, more than 60 persons, accompanied me home with torches. Also I have seen in their Archery-Court the large vat upon which they dine ; it is 19 feet in length, 7 feet high, and 7 broad. Then on Tuesday early we left Bruges, but before this I drew Jan Ploos in pencil, and gave his wife 10 stiver as a parting Trinkgeld. [It has not been satisfactorily ascertained who this Jan Ploos was. No painter of that name is known as belonging to Bruges, but M. Pinchart surmises that perhaps a certain Jan Proost of Bergen may be meant, who, in 1525, painted a Last Judgment, which still hangs in the Bruges Academy.] Then we travelled on to Orscheln, where we ate our break- fast, and on the way we passed through 3 villages, and then we went on to Ghent, and on the way there also we passed through 3 villages ; and I gave the driver 4 stiver, and also spent 4 stiver on the way. And when I arrived at Ghent, the chief ( Dechant ) of the painters met me, and he brought with him all the principal painters of the town, and they showed me great honour, and received me in very splendid style, and they assured me of their good-will and service, and I supped that evening with them. On Wednesday early they took" 1 me to St. John’s Tower [the Beffroi], from which I saw over all the great and wonderful town. After that I saw Johann’s picture. It is a very rich and grandly conceived ( hochverstdndig ) paint- ing, and particularly Eve, the Virgin Mary, and God the Father are excellent. JOURNAL. 327 [The painting which thus called forth Diirer’s admiration was the great Van Eyck altar-piece of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, of which the central and upper portions still remain in the Church of St. Bavon at Ghent. It is noteworthy that Diirer praises especially the figures of Eve, God the Father, and the Virgin Mary, which were the work of Hubert Van Eyck, the elder brother, who died before the noble work he had designed was completed.] After that I saw the Lions, and drew one of them in pencil. [Hollar has engraved this lion. Diirer’s drawing of it is now in the Albertina Collection.] And I saw also the bridge where people are beheaded, and the two statues set up in memory of the son who beheaded his father. [The legend to which this refers is the following : — Two men, father and son, were sentenced to be beheaded, but the king agreed to pardon the one who would act as executioner to the other. 'The father refused, the unnatural son consented ; but as he was brandishing the axe to strike his father’s neck it fell upon his own, and killed him instead of his father. These statues, which formerly stood on the Bruggen van be Leye at Ghent, disappeared about 1 793 -] Ghent is a beautiful and wonderful town, and 4 great waters flow through it. I have given the sacristan and the man who showed the lions 3 stiver for Trinkgeld. And I have besides seen many other very strange things at Ghent, and the painters with their Dechant have never left me ; and I have eaten morning and night with them, and they have paid for everything, and have been very friendly with me. But I gave 5 stiver on leaving the inn as Trinkgeld. I set out early on Thursday from Ghent, and came through several villages to an inn called the Swan, where we ate our breakfast. After that we travelled on through a pretty village, and came to Antwerp ; and I had spent in travelling ( verfahren ) 8 stiver. I have made 4 florins by art. I have changed 1 florin for living expenses. I have drawn Hans Lieber of Ulm in char- coal. He wanted to pay me a florin for it, but I would not take it. I have given vii stiver for wood, and 1 stiver for bringing it. I have changed a florin for living expenses. 328 LIFE OF ALBRECHT PURER. Item : In the third week after Easter a hot fever attacked me with great faintness, discomfort, and headache. And when I was in Zealand some time back, a wonderful illness came upon me, which I had never heard of any one having before, and this illness I have still. I have given 6 stiver for a box. Item : The monk has bound two books for me for the art things that I have given him. I have given io florin 8 stiver for a piece of damask for my mother-in-law, and two mantles for my wife. I have given the doctor 8 stiver, and the apothe- cary 3. And I have changed a florin for living expenses ; I have spent 3 stiver with comrades ; I have given 10 stiver to the doctor. Item : Ruderigo has sent me a great deal of pre- served sugar in my illness. I have given the boy 4 stiver for Trinkgeld. I have taken Maister Joachim’s portrait in pencil [Joachim Patenir], and I have done a head of Christ for him besides. I have changed a crown for living expenses, and I have likewise changed a florin for living expenses. Item : 6 stiver to the doctor. Item : 7 stiver to the apothecary. Item : I have given a waggoner named Hans Rabner 13 stiver for packing up the three packages that I am sending off from Antwerp to Niirnberg, and I have paid the waggoner who takes them 1 florin down. And I have made an agreement that they shall be taken from Antwerp to Niirnberg for 1 florin 1 orth the hundredweight, and the packages shall be delivered to Herr Hans Imhof the Elder. I have paid the doctor, the apothecary, and the barber, 14 stiver. [He never quite recovered from this ‘ wonderful illness,’ probably a low fever caught in the marshy lands of Zealand, and attacking an already weak frame. His illness does not seem to have obliged him to keep in bed, however ; for he still continues to make purchases, and very soon after this we find him at Joachim Patenir’s wedding.] I have given Maister Jacob the physician [he says £ Artzt ’ here and ‘ doctor ’ always before, so probably he had two medical attendants] 4 florins’ worth of art. I have drawn Thomas Polonius of Rome in charcoal. Item : My camlet coat takes 2 1 Brabant ells, which are three little fingers longer than the Niirn- berg ells. So I have bought some black Spanish Fahl (?) for JOURNAL. 329 it, costing 3 stiver, and these come to 34, making 10 florin 2 stiver. And I have given the furrier for making it 1 florin, and 2 ells of velvet for bordering comes to 5 florins. Item : For silk, cords, and fastenings, 34 stiver. Item : For the tailor’s wages, 30 stiver. Item : The camlet of which the coat is made cost 14 florins, and the boy 5 stiver for Trinkgeld. From this time I add up my accounts afresh. But I have paid the doctor 6 stiver. Item : I have made 53 stiver by art, and have taken them for living expenses. Item : On the Sunday before Cross week [May 5] Maister Joachim invited me to his wedding, and they all showed me much respect ; and I saw two very pretty plays there, par- ticularly the first, which was very pious and clerical. More- over I have given the doctor 6 stiver. I have changed 1 florin for living expenses. On the Sunday after our Lord’s Ascen- sion Maister Dietrich the glass-painter at Antwerp invited me and several people to meet me, and amongst them Alexander the goldsmith, a very rich man ; and we had a costly meal, and they did me much honour. I have drawn Master Marx the goldsmith in charcoal, who lives at Bruges. I have given 36 stiver for a wide cap ( Piret ). I have given Paul Jager [Diirer spells this name Pall Geger] I florin for taking my box to Niirnberg, and 4 stiver for the letter. I have drawn Ambrose Hochstetter [a rich Augsburg merchant. — F. V.] in charcoal, and have dined with him. I have dined at least 6 times with Tomasin. I have given 3 stiver for a wooden dish and plate. I have given the apothecary 12 stiver. I have given away two Lives of the Virgin — one to the foreign physician, the other to Marx’s man-servant. And I have given the doctor 8 stiver. 4 stiver I have given for trimming an old cap, 4 stiver lost at play. I have given 2 florin for a new cap. I have changed the first cap, for it was clumsy-looking, and I have given in addition 6 stiver for another. I have taken a Duke’s portrait in oils. I have also taken the Trea- surer Lorenz Stark’s portrait in oils, very correctly and well ; it is worth 25 florins. I made him a present of it, but he gave against it 20 florin, and 1 florin to Susanna for Trinkgeld. [M. Otto Miindler considers this portrait to be identical with one 330 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. now in the Royal Gallery at Madrid. He says it is one of Diirer’s most admirable works. ‘ The acme of perfection.’] Item : I have taken my host’s portrait very correctly and diligently in oils. And his wife I have likewise painted again in oils. [Strangely into the midst of these little personal details of pay- ments, presents, and purchases, there now flashes a ray of world- history which still has interest for us even at this distance of time. Every one now knows how Luther, on his way back from the Diet of Worms, travelling under the safe-conduct of the Emperor, was way- laid by his friends, prompted by Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, and carried off to the safe obscurity of the Castle of Wart- burg, where he remained in peace for a time, out of reach of the violence of his enemies — of his human enemies, that is to say, Duke Georges and others — for his greatest enemy, the devil, did not leave him alone even there, as witness the blot on the wall in the room where Luther threw the ink-stand at his head. It is curious to note how the news of Luther’s friendly capture, or base betrayal, as it was then generally thought to be, struck his friends and contemporaries. Diirer, who, as we know, had decided Protestant sympathies, although he appears always to have remained a member of the Catholic Church, writes about it as follows.] Item : On the Friday before Whitsuntide, in the year 1521, the report reached me at Antwerp that Martin Luther had been treacherously taken prisoner, for the herald of the Em- peror Charles, to whose care he was committed under the Imperial safe-conduct, on arriving at an unfriendly place near Eisenach, rode off, saying that he dared stay no longer with him. Immediately 10 horsemen appeared, who treacherously carried off the pious man sold into their hands. He was a man enlightened by the Holy Ghost, and a follower of the true Christian faith. Whether he lives still, or whether his enemies have murdered him, I know not, but he has suffered much for Christ’s truth, and because he has rebuked the unchristian Papacy which strives against the freedom of Christ with its heavy burdens of human laws, and for this we are robbed of the price of our blood and sweat, that it may be expended JOURNAL. 331 shamefully by idle, lascivious people, whilst thirsty and sick men perish of hunger ; and, above all, this is most grievous to me, that God will perhaps suffer us to remain under their false blind teaching which the men, whom they call the Fathers, have invented and set down, whereby the precious Word is in many places falsely explained or not set forth at all. O God of heaven, have mercy on us ! O Lord Jesus Christ, pray for thy people, redeem us in thy right time, keep us in the true Christian faith, collect thy far-separated sheep by thy voice, heard in thy Holy Word ! help us to recognise thy voice so that we may not follow any device {ScJavigehi) of man’s in- vention. And in order that we may not turn away from thee, Lord Jesus Christ, call together again the sheep of thy fold of whom part are still to be found in the Romish Church, with others amongst the Indians, Muscovites, Russians, and Greeks, who through the burdens and avarice of the Papacy have been separated from us. O God, redeem thy poor people who are constrained by means of great torments to follow men’s ordi- nances, none of which they would willingly observe, and thus constantly sin against their consciences by embracing them ! Never were any people so horribly burdened with ordinances as us poor people by the Romish See ; we who, redeemed by thy blood, ought to be free Christians. O almighty, heavenly Father, pour into our hearts, through thy Son Jesus Christ, such light that we may recognise that messenger whom we ought to obey, so that we may put aside the burdens of the others with a safe conscience, and serve thee, the Eternal Father, with happy, joyful hearts ; and in place of this man, who has written clearer than any other has done for 140 years, and to whom thou hast given such a large amount of thy Holy Spirit, we pray Thee, O heavenly Father, that Thou wilt again give thy Holy Spirit to one who will again assemble thy Christian Church from all parts of the world, so that we may live again in a Christian manner, and that Turks, heathens, and Hindoos, and all unbelievers, seeing our good works, may be converted and accept the Christian faith. But, Lord, remember ere Thou judgest how thy Son Jesus Christ was made to suffer death of the priests and rose again from the dead, and afterwards ascended into heaven ; 332 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. and this fate has also in like manner overtaken thy follower Martin Luther, whom the Pope treacherously betrayed and took away his life, whom Thou wilt quicken. And as after my Lord was crucified Jerusalem was destroyed, so wilt Thou now, after this one has been taken, destroy the power of the Papal chair. O Lord, give unto us that New Jerusalem that shall come down from heaven, whereof the Apocalypse writes ; the holy clear Gospel that is not darkened by human doctrine. This may every one see who reads Martin Luther’s books, how his teaching sets forth clearly and transparently the holy Gospels ; therefore his books are to be held in much honour, and not to be burnt. It would be better indeed to cast his adversaries into the fire, with all their opinions, who would make gods of men, and always oppose the truth. [Diirer seems to have greatly appreciated the clearness of Luther’s writings, for Melanchthon tells us that he used to say that ‘ there was this difference between Luther’s writings and those of other theolo- gians ; that in reading three or four sentences of the first page of Luther’s writings he could always tell what to look for in the entire work, whereas in other writers, after reading the whole book, he had to think and ask himself minutely what the author meant to ex- press.’] O God, is Luther dead ? Who will henceforth explain to us so clearly the holy Gospel ? Alas ! what might he not still have written for us during the next io or 20 years ? Oh, all pious Christian men, bewail with me this God-inspired man, and pray to God to send us another enlightened teacher ! O Erasmus of Rotterdam, where dost thou remain ? Behold how the unjust tyranny of this world’s might and the powers of darkness prevail ! Hear, thou knight of Christ ; ride forth in the name of the Lord, defend the truth, attain the martyr’s crown ; thou art already an old mannikin and I have heard thee say that thou givest thyself only two years longer in which thou wilt still be fit for work. Employ these well, then, in the cause of the Gospel and the true Christian faith. Lift up thy voice, and so shall not the gates of hell, as Christ saith, prevail against thee. And although, like thy JOURNAL. 333 master Christ, thou hast to suffer shame on earth, and even die a short time sooner than thou otherwise might, yet wilt thou pass the sooner from death unto life, and be glorified through Christ. For if thou drinkest of the cup of which He drank, so wilt thou reign with Him, and judge justly those who have not acted righteously. O Erasmus, hold to this, and put thy boast in the Lord, as it stands written in David, for thou canst do this, and, in truth, thou mayst prevail to fell this Goliath ; for God will uphold His holy Christian Church according to His divine will. May He give us eternal bliss, who is God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one eternal God. Amen, [But Erasmus, as is well known, far from riding forth as a knight of Christ in the cause of Protestantism, or slaying the Goliath of Rome, as Diirer imagined him capable of doing, chose to remain in safety beneath the shadow of the Romish Church. He had no taste for the martyr’s crown that Diirer would have fain set on his head, but maintained a philosophical mean between both parties. He wrote, it is true, bitterly enough against the abuses of the Papacy, but he likewise saw and exposed the weaknesses of the Protestant party ; indeed, he seems to have seen too deeply and clearly into the questions at dispute in his day to adopt any particular side, and he was therefore reckoned an enemy by Catholics and Protestants alike. Luther once, in his violent manner, called him £ an enemy of all religions ;’ and one can well understand how a man of Luther’s tem- perament would misinterpret a nature like that of Erasmus ; yet these two men both worked towards the same end, and perhaps the sar- casms of Erasmus contributed as much to the cause of Reform as the fierce denunciations of Luther. Diirer, it is evident, had no great love for the philosopher of Rotterdam ; and the inducement he holds forth for him, to lay claim to the honour of martyrdom, is certainly not a very complimentary one — being already ‘ an old mannikin,’ and not of much more use in the world, he might as well suffer death for the truth’s sake, as die of old age : so Diirer thought, but not so Erasmus, who, instead of two, lived fifteen years longer, and wrote an epitaph in ‘ his little book ’ on Diirer, an honour that he probably thought might have consoled the artist for dying.] Oh, all ye Christian men, pray to God for help, for His 334 LIFE 0F ALBRECHT DURER. judgment draws nigh, and His righteousness shall be made plain. Then we shall see the blood of the innocent, which popes, bishops, and monks have spilt, rise up in judgment and condemn them. (Apocal.) And these are the souls of the slain that lie under the altar of God and cry for vengeance, to which the voice of God replies, Fill up the measure of the innocent who are slain, then will I judge. [After having thus given vent to his excited feelings, Diirer con- tinues his journal in the ordinary manner.] And I have changed I florin for living expenses ; I have given the doctor 8 stiver. Item : I have dined twice with Ruderigo ; I have dined with the rich Canon ; I have changed a florin for living expenses ; I have entertained Maister Conrad the sculptor of Mecheln during the Whitsun- tide holidays. I have given 18 stiver for some Italian art, and 6 stiver to the doctor. I have heightened [with white] 4 St. Christophers on grey paper for Maister Joachim. On the last day of Whitsuntide I went to the annual horse-fair at Ant- werp, and I saw a great number of splendid horses there, and particularly two horses which were sold for 700 florins. I have made 1 florin 3 orth by art, and have taken the money for living expenses, and given 4 stiver to the doctor. I have given 3 stiver for 2 little books. I have dined 3 times with Tomasin. I have sketched 3 sword-handles for him, and he has given me a small hare in alabaster. I have taken the por- trait of an English nobleman in charcoal ; he has given me 1 florin for it, which I have changed for living expenses. Item : Maister Gerhard, illuminist, has a daughter 18 years old, called Susanna, and she has illuminated a plate, a Saviour, for which I gave 1 florin. It is a great wonder that a woman should do so well. [This Susanna and her father, Gerhard Horembout were after- wards celebrated illuminists at the court of our Henry VIII. The brother of Susanna also gave up painting for illumination, and settled in England, where he did well.] I have lost 6 stiver at play. I saw the great procession JOURNAL. 335 round Antwerp on Holy Trinity Sunday. Maister Conrad has given me some beautiful metal knives, so I have given his old man in return a Life of our Lady. I have taken the por- trait of Jan, goldsmith of Brussels, in charcoal ; also his wife. I have made 2 florins by art. Item : Master Jan, goldsmith of Brussels, has given me for what I have done for him — the sketch for the signet, and the two portraits — 3 Philipp’s gulden. I have given the Veronica that I painted in oils, and the Adam and Eve that Franz has done, to Jan, the goldsmith, in exchange for a sapphire and an agate with a Lucretia cut in it, and he on his part has refused 14 florins for them ; and moreover I have given a whole set of engraved things for a ring and 6 stones, for which he has refused 7 florins. I have given 14 stiver for two pair of shoes. I have given two stiver for two boxes. I have changed 2 Philipp’s florin for living expenses. I have sketched 3 Resurrections and 2 Mount of Olives on 5 half-sheets, and I have drawn 3 heads ( Angesicht ) in black and white on grey paper. I have sketched some Flemish costumes on grey paper, white and black. I have done the Englishman’s Coat of Arms for him in colours, for which he has paid me 1 florin. I have besides again and again done sketches and many other things in the service of different persons, and for the most part of my work I have received nothing at all. [A very significant entry.] Entres of Cracow has given me a Philipp’s gulden for a Shield and a Child’s Head that I did for him. I have changed a florin for living expenses. I have given 2 stiver for a brush. I saw the great procession that took place at Antwerp on Corpus Christi Day. It was very costly. I have given 4 stiver for Trinkgeld, 6 stiver to the doctor, and 1 stiver for a box. I have dined 5 times with Tomasin. I have given 10 stiver to the apothecary, and also 14 stiver to the apothecary’s wife for a clyster ; and to the apothecary 1 5 stiver for a receipt. And I have changed 2 Philipp’s gulden for living expenses. Moreover I have given the doctor 6 stiver. To the monk who confesses my wife I have given 8 stiver. I have given 8 florins for a whole piece of damask, and I have given 8 florins for 14 ells of damask. I have given the apothe- cary for medicines 32 stiver. Item : I have given the messenger LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 336 3 stiver, and the tailor 4 stiver. I have dined once with Hans Fehle, and 3 times with Tomasin. I have given 10 stiver for packing. In 1521 I have given up my great bales at Antwerp, on the Wednesday after Corpus Christi, to a waggoner named Cunz Mez of Schlauderdorff, to be taken to Niirnberg, and I am to pay him a florin and a half the hundredweight to take the things to Niirnberg, and he shall be responsible for them to Herr Hans Imhof. I have taken young Jacob Redinger’s portrait in charcoal, and have dined 3 times with Tomasin. Item : Eight days after Corpus Christi I went to Mecheln with the intention of seeing the Lady Margaret. Item : took 5 stiver with me for living expenses. My wife changed 1 florin. I lodged at Mecheln, at the sign of the Golden Head, with Maister Heinrich the painter [possibly Heinrich van Bles — Herri de Bles] ; and the painters and sculptors entertained me in my inn, and showed me great honour, and I went to Popenreuther’s house, the cannon founder, and found many wonderful things there. I have also seen the Lady Margaret, and have shown her my Emperor, and would have given it to her [portrait of the Emperor Maximilian], but she took such a dislike to it that I brought it away with me again. And on the Lriday she showed me all her beautiful things, and amongst them I saw 40 small oil- paintings whose like I have never seen for purity and beauty, and then I saw other. good things of Johann’s [Jan van Eyck’s] and Jacob Walch’s. I begged my Lady to give me Maister Jacob’s little book, but she said she had promised it to her painter. {Maister Jacob is that Protean Master Jacob Walch, or Jacopo de Barbarj, called also the Master of the Caduceus, whose identity so long puzzled critics. He was a Venetian by birth, but appears to have lived some time in Niirnberg before 1500. After that he re- turned to Venice, but before 1506 was again away, for Diirer mentions in his letters that he was not in Venice at the time of his visit (see page 76). It was about that time probably that he travelled to the Netherlands, and entered the service, first of the Count Philip of Burgundy, and then of the Regent Margaret, in whose books his name occurs. He must have been already dead in 1516, JOURNAL. 337 as he is mentioned in that year as c our late Master Jacob. — Ephrussi, ‘Notes sur Jacopo de Barbarj.’ For some reason the Archduchess is not nearly so gracious to Diirer this time as on the occasion of his former visit ; indeed, although she showed him her fine things, she seems in the end to have treated him very badly.] Also I saw many other costly things, and a costly library. Maister Hans Popenreuter gave me an entertainment. I have twice had Maister Conrad for my guest, and once I had his wife. 27 stiver and 2 stiver spent in travelling. Also I have taken the. portrait of Steffan the chamberlain, and Maister Conrad the carver. And on Saturday I left Mecheln again, and returned to Ant- werp. Item : My trunks only went away on the Saturday after Corpus Christi. I have changed a florin for living ex- penses. Item : I have given three stiver to the messenger. I have twice dined with the Augustine monks. Item : I have drawn Maister Jacob in charcoal [Campe surmises that this Maister Jacob may have been Jacob Cornelisz. It could not cer- tainly have been Jacob Walch who died some years before], and have had a picture made of it costing 6 stiver, and have presented it to him. I have taken the portraits of Bernhart Steelier and his wife, and given him a whole set of engravings ; and I have again taken the portrait of his wife, and I have paid 6 stiver to have a picture of it ; and I gave everything to him, so he gave me against it 10 florins. Maister Lucas [Lucas van Leyden], who engraves in copper, has invited me ; he is a little man (. Mdnnlein ), and was born at Leyden in Holland, but now in Antwerp. I have dined with Maister Bernhart Stecher. ^ I have given a stiver and a half to the messenger. I have made 4 florins 1 orth by art. I have drawn Maister Lucas van Leyden in pencil. I have lost 1 florin. Item : I have given the doctor 6 stiver. Item : 6 stiver I have given the steward in the Augustine cloister at Antwerp, a Life of our Lady, and 4 stiver to his man. I have given Maister Jacob a copper Passion, a wood Passion, and 5 other pieces, and given 4 stiver to his man. I have changed 4 florins for living expenses. And I have given 2 Philipp’s florins for 14 fish skins. I have taken the portraits of the physician Braun and his wife in black chalk. I have given the goldsmith who valued the ring for 22 33 $ LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. me, I florin’s worth of art. Of the three rings that I have en- graved with art, the two of smallest value were valued at 15 crowns, but the sapphire is valued at 25 crowns: this makes 54 florins 8 stiver ; and amongst other things that the French- man has taken are 36 large books, making 9 florins. I have given 2 stiver for a screw-knife. Item : He with the 3 rings valued them at too much by half. I did not understand it. I have given 18 stiver for a red cap for my godchild. Item : I have lost 12 stiver at play, and spent two stiver in drink. Item : I have bought the three beautiful little rubies for eleven gold gulden and 12 stiver. I have changed I florin for living expenses. I have dined with the Augustines. I have dined twice with Tomasin. I have given 6 stiver for 13 paint-brushes of wild boar’s hair ; and I have given 3 stiver for 6 paint- brushes. Item : I have taken the portrait of the great Anthony Haunolt on royal-sized paper with black chalk. I have taken the portraits of the physician Braun and his wife very carefully on two royal sheets of paper with black chalk ; and I have drawn him in pencil, and he has given me an angel. Item : I have changed 1 florin for living expenses, and given 1 florin for a pair of boots. I have given 6 stiver for a Calamar [a kind of inkstand]. I have given 12 stiver for a chest to pack up our things in. Item : I have given 21 stiver for a dozen of ladies’ gloves, and 6 stiver for a pocket. I have given 3 stiver for 3 paint-brushes. I have changed a florin for living ex- penses. 1 stiver for an extinguisher. Item : Anthony Haunolt, whose portrait I took, has given me 3 Philipp’s gulden ; and Bernhart Stecher has given a piece of tortoise-shell. I have taken the portrait of his wife’s sister’s daughter ; and have dined once with her husband, and he has given me 2 Philipp’s gulden. Item : Have given 1 stiver as Trinkgeld. I have given Anthony Haunolt 2 books, and have made 13 stiver by art. I have given Maister Joachim. Griinhausen’s thing [probably a painting by Hans Baldung Grim]. Item : Have changed 3 Philipp’s florin for living expenses. Item : Have dined twice with Bernhart ; moreover twice with Tomasin. I have given Jobst’s wife [Jobst Planckfelt his host] 4 pieces of wood-work [4 woodcuts]. Have given Friedrich, Jobst’s man, 2 books, JOURNAL. 339 large. I have given Henickin, the glazier’s son, 2 books [Whenever Diirer makes presents of ‘ books I * * * 5 he means sets of his woodcuts — the Passions, or Life of the Virgin]. Item : Ruderigo has given me a parrot that he has had brought him from Malaga ; and I have given his man 5 stiver for Trinkgeld. I have dined twice with Tomasin. I have given 2 stiver for a small peasant Benerlein (?). 3 stiver for a pair of shoes at- tached to breeches, and 4 stiver for 8 small boards. I have given Peter 2 whole sheets of copper-work and 1 sheet of wood-work. Item : Have dined twice with Tomasin. I have changed 1 florin for living expenses. I have presented Maister Art, glass-painter, with a Life of our Lady ; and Maister Jahn, the French sculptor, with a whole set ; and he has given my wife 6 little glasses with rose-water, made in the most costly manner. Item : Have given 7 stiver for a measure. I have changed a florin for living expenses. And I have given vii stiver for a bag. Cornelius the Secretary has given me 4 Luther’s Imprisonment in Babylon/ and I have given him in return 3 large books. [Cornells Graphoeus, commonly called Scribonius. He was Town Secretary of Antwerp. — F. V.] Item : Have given Peter Puz, the monk, 1 florin’s worth of art. Item : Have given the glass-painter 2 large books. Have given 4 stiver for a piece of fine glazed calico. Item : I have changed 1 Philipp’s florin for living expenses. Item : Gave 8 florins’ worth of my art for the whole of Lucas’s en- graved works. [Van Mander tells us that Diirer and Lucas van Leyden were very much astonished at each other when they first met, for Diirer was peculiarly finely-formed and stately, whilst Lucas van Leyden was a very little, mean-looking man — ‘ ein Mannlein/ as Diirer calls him. But notwithstanding this contrast in their personal appearance, they had the greatest respect for each other. They took each ether’s portraits, and in every way testified their mutual liking and esteem. ] I have changed a Philipp’s florin for living expenses. Have given 9 stiver for a pouch. Item : I have given seven stiver for half a dozen Flemish cards, and 3 stiver for a small yellow post-horn. Item : Have given 24 stiver for meat, 22 — 2 340 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 12 stiver for some coarse cloth, moreover 5 stiver for some coarse cloth. I have eaten twice with Tomasin, and given 1 stiver to Peter. I have paid seven stiver for packing, and 3 stiver for help. Item : Ruderigo has given me 6 ells of black cloth for a cloak, costing a crown an ell. I have changed two florins for living expenses. I have given the tailor’s man two stiver for Trinkgeld. I have had a reckoning with Jobst, and I am indebted to him 31 florins, which I have paid him, deducting for the two portraits that I have done for him in oil-colours ; for these he has given me 5 pounds of borax, Flemish weight. In all my transactions in the Netherlands with people both of high and low degree , and in all my doings , expenses , sales , and other trafficking , I have always had the disadvantage ; and particidarly the Lady Margaret , for all that I have given her and done for her , has given me nothing in return. [‘ Put not thy faith in princes.’ Diirer evidently considers himself to have been very hardly used in the Netherlands. His custom seems to have been to leave it to his sitters to pay what they liked for his portraits, a very unsatisfactory mode of proceeding — one in which Diirer’s noble nature was very likely to get imposed upon. Often, it will have been noticed, he receives payment in kind, as in the case of the * 5 pounds of borax’ of Jobst Planckfelt. He is now about to return home, but has, as we shall see, to borrow the money for his journey from one of the Imhofs, so little has he saved during his stay in the Netherlands ; but one cannot help remembering the bales of luggage that he has sent home to Niirnberg and the numbers of stivers that he has paid for horns, porcelain cups, and curiosities of all sorts, besides the sums lavished in Trinkgeld.] And this settlement with Jobst took place on St. Peter and St. Paul’s day [June 29, 1521]. I have given Ruderigo’s man 7 stiver for Trinkgeld. I have given Maister Heinrich my engraved Passion, and he has given me some cakes of cherries. I have been obliged to give the tailor 45 stiver for making my mantle. I have engaged with a coachman, who is to take us from Antwerp to Coin, and I am to pay him 13 light gulden, each one making 24 light stiver, and over and above this I am to pay a man and a boy. Item : Jacob Relinger JOURNAL. 341 has paid me a ducat for the portrait I did of him in charcoal. Gerhard has given me two jars of capers and olives, for which I have given 4 stiver as Trinkgeld. I have given Ruderigo’s man 1 stiver. I have exchanged my portrait of the Emperor [the one he intended for the Archduchess] for some white English cloth that Jacob, Tomasin’s son-in-law, gave me. Item : Alexander Imhof has lent me a hundred gold florins on the Eve of the Visitation of the Virgin 1521, and I have given him a written aud sealed acknowledgement that I will be answerable to him at Niimberg , and will pay him again with thanks. I have given 6 stiver for a pair of shoes, 3 stiver for cord. I have given a Philipp’s florin as a parting Trinkgeld in Tomasin's kitchen, and have given his daughter’s maid a gold florin for a last gift. I have dined with him 3 times. I have given Jobst’s wife 1 florin, and also 1 florin for the last Trinkgeld in his kitchen. Item : 2 stiver to the porter. Tomasin has given me a small box full of the best theriac. Item : I have changed 3 florins for living expenses, and have given the house-boy 10 stiver, and Peter I stiver. I have given 2 stiver for Trinkgeld, moreover 3 stiver to Maister Jacob’s man. I have given 4 stiver for help. I have given Peter 1 stiver. Item : I have given the messenger 3 stiver. On the day of the Visitation of our Lady [July 2], just as I was going to set off from Antwerp, the King of Denmark sent for me in haste to come and take his portrait, which I did in charcoal ; and I likewise took the portrait of his servant Anthony ; and I was invited to dine with the King, and he showed himself very gracious to me. [The King of Denmark was Christian II., who had come to the Netherlands to pay a visit to his brother-in-law Charles V.] I have left my luggage to the care of Leonhart Tucher, and I have given up to him my white cloth. Item : The before-mentioned waggoner has not taken me, for I fell out with him. Gerhart has given me some Italian seeds. And I have given to the man whom I engaged in his place ( Vicarius) the large piece of tortoise- shell, the shield of fish-scales, the long pipe, the weapons, the fish-fins, and the two jars of lemons and capers, to take home for me on the day of the Visitation of the Virgin, 1521. And on the next day we travelled to Brussels on the King 342 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. of Denmark’s business, and I engaged a coachman, to whom I gave 2 florins. Item : I presented the King of Denmark with the best pieces out of my entire set, worth 5 florins. I have changed 2 florins for living expenses. 1 stiver for dishes and baskets. Item : I saw how astonished the people of Antwerp were when they saw the King of Denmark, to find that he was such a handsome and manly man, and had come by himself through his enemies’ lands. I also saw the Em- peror ride forth to meet him at Brussels, and receive him honourably with great pomp. After that I saw the honour- able and costly banquet that the Emperor and Lady Margaret held on the next day. I have given 2 stiver for a pair of gloves. Item : Herr Antoni has given me 12 horn florins. Of these I have given 2 horn florins [Florins bearing the portrait or arms of the Count von Horn] to the painter for small panels for pictures and for rubbing colours for me ; the other 8 florins I have taken for living money. Item : On the Sunday before St. Margaret [7th July] the King of Denmark gave a great banquet to the Emperor, Frau Margaret, and the Queen of Spain, and invited me, and I also ate thereof. I have given 12 stiver for the King’s case [probably to put his portrait in], and I have taken the King’s portrait in oil-colours ; and he has given me 30 florins for it. Item : I have given 2 stiver to the young man called Bartholomew who has rubbed colours for me. I have given 1 1 stiver for a small glass and a small box belonging to the King. I have given 2 stiver for Trinkgeld. Item : I have given 2 stiver for the engraved beaker. Item: Have given Maister Jan’s boy 4 half-sheets ; moreover I have given the master painter’s boy an Apocalypse and 4 half-sheets. Polonius has given me an Italian piece of art. [This is Tommaso Vincidore of Bologna before-mentioned, who took Diirer’s portrait and gave him ‘Raphael things.’] Item : I have given a stiver for a bit of art. Maister Jobst, tailor, invited me, and I had supper with him. I have given for eight days’ lodging at Brussels 32 stiver. I have presented the wife of Maister Jan the goldsmith with an engraved Passion. I have dined with them 3 times. I have given the apprentice of Bartholomew the painter a Life of the Virgin. I have dined with Herr Niclaus Zigler, and I have given JOURNAL. 343 Jan’s boy I stiver. I have been obliged to remain two days longer than I desired at Brussels, because I could not get any- body to undertake our conveyance. I have given a stiver for a pair of socks. Item : Early on Friday morning we set off from Brussels, and I was obliged to give the coachman io florins. Also I had to give my hostess 5 stiver for a single night’s lodging. After that we travelled through two villages, and came to Lowen [or perhaps Diiren ] ; ate our breakfast, and expended 13 stiver. After that we travelled through 3 villages, and came to Tina [Tirlemont], which is a small town, and we lay there over night ; and I spent there vjjjj stiver. After that, on St. Margaret’s day early (July 13th), we set out and travelled through 2 villages, and came to a town which is called S. Getrauen [St. Tron], where they were building a very remarkable and big new church-tower. From thence we travelled past some poor dwellings, and came to a little town named Hungern ; there we ate our breakfast, and spent 6 stiver. From thence we went through a village and some poor houses, and came to Triche [Maastricht]; there we lay the night, and spent there 12 stiver ; moreover 2 plancken for a watchman’s fee ( Wachgeld ). From thence we travelled on Sunday [July 14th], early to Ach [Aix-la-Chapelle], where we ate our breakfast, and spent 14 stiver. From thence we went to Altenberg [Altenhoven], a 6 hours’ drive, for the coachman did not know his way, and went wrong, and so we stayed the night there, and spent 6 stiver. On Monday [July 15th], we travelled through Gulch [Jiilich], a town, and came to Perck- kan [Bergheim] ; there we ate our breakfast, and spent 3 stiver. From thence we travelled to Cohln [Cologne]. Here the journal abruptly ends, not perhaps altogether to the dissatisfaction of the plodding reader. Durer does not tell us how he travelled from Cologne to Niirnberg, butwe can easily imagine how he f travelled through 2 villages and came to Bruhl, where we lay the night, and spent 6 stiver ; and after we set out early and travelled through 3 villages and came to Bonn, a little town,’ and so on to Frankfort, and from Frankfort to Niirnberg. It is strange to think that the journey from Brussels 344 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. to Koln, which took Diirer 4 entire days, is now performed in six hours and a half ! It' seems tolerably certain that Diirer did not delay long on his homeward journey, but returned to Nurnberg in the autumn of 1521, although it has been stated by several of his biographers that he stayed another year or two in the Nether- lands. CHAPTER II. LAST YEARS IN NURNBERG, AND DEATH. “ Emigravit is the inscription on the tombstone where he lies ; Dead he is not, — but departed,— for the artist never dies.” Longfellow. So Durer returned once more to Niirnberg, and again took up his quiet, monotonous, work-a-day life in the dull house in the Zisselstrasse. He must often have looked back on the bril- liant days he had spent in the Netherlands — days when the painters or the goldsmiths invited him to dinner ‘ as if he had been some great lord/ or the Portuguese Factor gave him a ‘costly meal. 5 Here in Niirnberg he was only a prophet in his own country ; but even here there were not wanting many noble and intellectual spirits who quite well knew how to appreciate their native artist. Amongst the friends to whom Durer brought back presents from the Netherlands were names distinguished in the annals of Niirnberg ; names of men who had already declared themselves on the side of Luther and freedom of thought. Whilst Durer had been away on his travels, the Re- formation had been making giant strides in his native town ; and as, alas ! too frequently happens in times of revolution of men’s thoughts, great disorders and social evils prevailed. Unstable men were tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and lascivious monks and nuns threw off even the slight restraint that the Church of Rome had put upon their passions, and made the new religion a cloak for the grossest immorality. False preachers were everywhere abroad, who would deceive if it were possible even the very elect, 346 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. and the poor weakling lambs of Christ’s fold stood in fearful danger of being swallowed alive by the wolves. Alto- gether, it was not a very peaceful or a very happy town to which Diirer returned, and any other artist but he would probably have regretted not having accepted the tempting offers that were made him on condition of his staying in Antwerp. But we cannot suppose that he would have cared to have been long absent whilst the storm-wind of the Reformation was sweeping over his native town ; sweeping it clean, certainly, of many foul heaps of corruption, and clearing away many piles of tawdry rubbish that had hidden the true beauty of holiness, but throw- ing down likewise in its violence many venerable structures in which were stored much of the wisdom and learning of the past. It was owing principally to such men as Willibald Pirk- heimer and Lazarus Spengler, and others of the same class, that the Reformed faith took such a firm hold of Niirnberg, and that it was, on the whole, established with so much moderation and so little injustice. No work of art has suffered from the fanatical fury of iconoclasts and puritans in Niirnberg, and to the present day carved Madonnas and saints stand at the corners of the streets, although Niirnberg was the first free Imperial city of Germany that declared for Luther and the Reformation. Diirer could scarcely help being moved by the rapid course of events around him — events in which his friends, if not himself, bore such an active part ; Pirkheimer and Spengler in particular being at length excommunicated by the Pope for the help they had given to the Reformers. Strange to say, we find among those who had adopted rationalistic, and probably socialistic opinions, three of the best pupils of Albrecht Diirer, viz., Hans Sebald Beham, Barthel Beham, and Georg Penz. These three young men were cited before a tribunal in 1524 to answer for their danger- ous and subversive opinions. When interrogated, they con- fessed to not believing in transubstantiation, to doubting the authority of the Bible, and to many other rationalistic views ; but it was probably more on account of their political and communistic opinions than for their religious heresies that they were banished from the town, for the Reformation was LAST YEARS IN NURNBURG. 347 at that time well-nigh accomplished in Niirnberg, all the principal offices in the schools, etc., being held by men of the new faith, so that it is not likely that anyone would have been banished simply for disbelieving in transubstantiation and other doctrines of the Church of Rome. Their banish- ment, however, was not of long duration, for after a few years we find Georg Penz, who had married a maid-servant of Diirer’s (probably the Susanna who accompanied him and his wife to the Netherlands), returned and settled in Niirnberg. Sebald Beham also returned, but he seems always to have been an ‘ ungodly/ unruly citizen, and after a time he betook himself to Frankfort, where he executed some of his finest works. Barthel Beham never returned. He entered the service of the Catholic Prince the Elector of Bavaria, and died in 1540. Diirer must have grieved greatly at these erratic tendencies in his pupils. Sebald Beham seems indeed always to have given him trouble, though he was by far the cleverest of all his pupils and the greatest of the Little Masters. Barthel Beham has, it is true, left us some very charming plates, but his work as a whole cannot compare with Sebald’s, and none of the other ‘ Little Masters/ as seven of Diirer’s followers are called, approach these two brothers. Diirer himself, though sympathising strongly with the Reformers, does not appear to have been moved to any open rebellion against the Church of Rome. He still, as we saw in his journal, paid a father confessor, and probably attended the services of the Church, though he denounced much of her doc- trine as iniquitous. It is probable, however, that had he lived he would have come forward more boldly in favour of reform, for the eloquent, persuasive Melanchthon, who held Diirer in very high estimation, had great influence over him in his later years, and would doubtless have moved him more and more towards the adoption of the new faith. Diirer’s regard for Luther, also, and belief in the efficacy of his teaching, we have seen called forth in his journal by the news of that ‘ godly man’s ’ captivity. The same feelings of reverential regard are expressed also in a letter written to Georg Burckhardt, better known as Spalatinus, the learned secretary of that brave Pro- testant, Prince Frederick of Saxony, who had given Diirer some 34 § LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. of his earliest commissions for painting, and with whom it may be supposed he had kept up friendly relations ever since. The letter, which was written in the same year as the journey to the Netherlands, runs as follows : % Durer to Georg Spalatin. [Niirnberg : beginning of the year 1520.] To the reverend, very learned Herr Georg Spalatin, chaplain to my gracious Lord Duke Frederick the Elector. ‘Most honoured dear Sir, ‘ I had already conveyed my thanks in the little letter to you, when I had read no more than your little note.. It was only afterwards, when I turned out the bag in which the little book was done up, that I found the actual letter inside, from which I learnt that my gracious lord himself had sent me Luther’s little book. Therefore, I pray your honour to present my most humble thanks to his Electoral Grace, and to beg his Electoral Grace to let himself be governed by the praiseworthy Doctor Martinus Luther, for the sake of the Christian truth, which is of more consequence to us than all the riches and power of this world ; for all that perishes with time, but the truth remains for eternity. And if God helps me that I come to Doctor Martinus Luther, I will take his portrait with diligence, and engrave it on copper, to be a lasting memorial of that Christian man who has helped me out of great anguish. And I beg your honour, if Doctor Martinus writes anything new that is in German, that you will send it me for my money. And as you likewise write to me about the little book in defence of Martin ( Schutsbiichlein ), know that there are no more to be had. They are printing them, how- ever, at Augsburg. As soon as they are ready, I will send it to you ; but know that this book, although it has been written here, is spoken against in the pulpit as an heretical book that ought to be burnt, and he who has published it without signa- ture is abused and shamefully spoken against. Doctor Ech, indeed, they say will publicly burn it at Ingoldstadt, as hap- pened once to the little book of Doctor Reuchlin. And at the same time with this I send my gracious lord three im- LAST YEARS IN NURNBURG. 349 pressions of a copperplate that I have engraved according to the desire of my gracious Lord of Mainz. I have presented his Electorship with the copper-plate and 200 impressions, on which account his Electorship has shown himself very gracious towards me, for his Electorship has sent me 200 gulden in gold, and 20 ells of damask for a coat ; the which I have received with joy and thankfulness, especially as I had great need of them at that time. For his Imperial Majesty [Maximilian] of praiseworthy memory, who departed from me too soon, had in his grace provided for me on account of the great trouble, care, and work that I had had. But the hundred gulden that I was to have received every year all my life long from the town rates, and that I received yearly during his Majesty’s lifetime my lords [the Rath of Niirnberg] will now no longer pay, so I am obliged to deprive myself in my old age, and have lost a long time and all the trouble and work that I undertook for his Imperial Majesty, And if my sight and freedom of hand fail me, things will not go well with me. I have not been silent about this to you, because you are my trusted kind friend. I beg your reverence, that if my gracious lord will remember his promise of stag’s antlers, that you will remind him of this, so that I may get a fine pair of horns, for I want to make two candlesticks out of them. Also I send with this two engraved Crucifixions. They are engraved in gold, and one is for your reverence. Present my service to Hirschfeld and to Albrecht Waldner. ‘ Herewith, your reverence, commend me truly to my gracious Lord the Elector. ‘Yours willing, ‘ Albrecht Durer, ‘ Zu Niirnberg.’ The influence of the times is seen to some extent in the subjects Durer chose for his art at this period, for we find very few traditional representations of the legends of the Catholic Church, and only one Holy Family — a Holy Family, be it remarked, and not a Virgin picture — during the last few years of his life ; but, on the other hand, we have several representa- tions from the life of Christ, and a number of noble portraits of 350 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. the men of the time, both painted and engraved on wood and copper. These portraits are amongst the greatest of his later works. I have already spoken of his magnificent portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher, a painting in which the soul of those stirring times flashes forth on us even at the present day from out the fiery eyes of the powerful old man. Another painted portrait of this period is that of Johann Kleeberger, now in the Belvedere at Vienna — a man who, although he deserted his wife, a daughter of Pirkheimer, was so much esteemed for the generous use .he made of his riches, that he was known in foreign countries as ‘ the good German.’ Durer’s portrait of him, although not so forcibly painted as that of Holzschuher, is a fine and characteristic work. Jacob Miiffel, Burgomaster and member of the Rath, for whom it will be remembered Diirer brought home a scarlet handkerchief for the neck, was likewise painted by him in oils in this same year 1526 — the year in which Jacob Miiffel died. This portrait, of which there is a repetition in the possession of a merchant named Merkel in Niirnberg, is now in the gallery of Pommersfelden. It is, according to Kugler, ‘ truthfully conceived, and of masterly modelling, but somewhat heavy and grey in colour.’ His engraved portraits of this time are more widely known, and excite a larger interest than the three paintings above mentioned ; for these are not merely portraits of Niirnberg worthies — who, although men celebrated in their time and their town, have very little interest for posterity — but of men who set a mark upon the age in which they lived, and whose names are still familiar to us at the present day. Foremost amongst these portraits stands the well-known engraving of Erasmus of Rotterdam, representing the philosopher in half-figure, seated at a writing-desk with a pen in his right hand, and the ink- bottle, into which he has apparently just dipped it, in his left. He wears a soft cap on his head, and looks decidedly ‘ already an old mannikin.’ To the left hangs a tablet with the follow- ing inscription : PORTRAIT OF MELANCHTHON. 351 IMAGO. ERASMI. ROTERODAMI. AB. ALBERTO. DVRERO. AD. VIVAM. EFFIGIEM. DELINIATA. THN KPEITTQ. TA. STITPAMMATA. AEI&EI. MDXXVI. This portrait was engraved by Durer from the sketch of Erasmus that he mentions in his journal as having taken at Brussels. It was intended that he should have done a finished oil-painting, as we learn from a letter of Erasmus to Pirk- heimer, in which he says : ‘ He (Durer) began to paint me at Brussels, and it is to be wished that he had accomplished a painting, but from trivial causes we were not at that time very well agreed.* Their difference of opinion on the religious questions of the day was no doubt the primary cause of their disagreement. Erasmus, however, was very anxious that Durer, as well as Holbein, should take his portrait, and wrote to Pirkheimer several times about it, but when at last he received the engraving of 1526, he was not quite satisfied with it ; for, as it was done from a sketch taken in Brussels six years previously, it of course made him look younger than he was at the time it was published ; and in sending Holbein’s portrait to Sir Thomas More in England, he takes occasion to tell him that ‘ it is much more like him than the one by the famous Albrecht Durer.’ But this portrait, although it did not happen to please the ever-dissatisfied philosopher, has been highly esteemed by posterity ; and indeed its forcible character, evident likeness, and admirable execution cannot be too highly praised. Another engraved portrait of this same year is that of Philip Melanchthon, a totally different type of man to Erasmus, and one whom we can well imagine would be far more congenial to Durer s sensitive artist nature than the clever, sarcastic philosopher ; indeed the thoughtful artist and tender, dreamy Reformer appear to have suited one another exactly, and when * Dumesnil, ‘ Histoire des plus celebres Amateurs etrangers.’ 352 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. the latter came to Niirnberg in 1526 to establish the first Pro- testant Gymnasium or Latin School in the town, they lived in almost constant intercourse, and shared one another’s most intimate thoughts. Such a mind as Melanchthon’s could scarcely fail to have had a considerable influence over Diirer’s ; and if his Protestant sympathies were before somewhat wavering — holding, like so many others of the time, to Catholic forms whilst accepting Protestant doctrines — his faith must have been strengthened and his doubting soul comforted by this com- munion with one of the noblest and largest-minded reformers of that age. It is pleasant to think of Dtirer’s last years being cheered and upheld by such a friendship as this ; and to Melanchthon also it appears to have afforded true pleasure, for he ever speaks of Diirer in the warmest terms of praise, saying of him once, as I have already recorded, that ‘ his least merit was his art.’ His sorrow on hearing the news of Diirer’s death, which he could not at first believe, was real and deep. ‘ I grieve,’ he says, ‘ for Germany, deprived of such a man and such an artist.’ Very different to Erasmus, who expresses his thoughts on the subject- — one cannot say his feelings — in a somewhat harsh and grating manner. ‘ What is the use,’ he says, ‘ of mourning over Diirer’s death ? Are we not all mor- tal ? I have prepared an epitaph for him in my little book ’ ( libello meo ).* The characters of these two men indeed, and their modes of viewing the great events that were being enacted in their time, were as different as the features that Diirer has represented in their portraits. They have each, it is true, eyes, nose, and mouth in common, but here the resemblance ceases. Erasmus is the hard student, wrinkled with learning and thought, even more than with age ; a man whose whole heart is immersed in the folios that lie around him. Melanchthon is the lofty-browed transcendentalist, whose intellectual nature is clearly seen in the finely-cut face and beautiful eyes, although the forehead is as yet unwrinkled by study. It is said that Diirer in his Four Apostles depicted the features of Melanch- thon in those of St. John ; and indeed his is a face that might * Dumesnil, ‘ Histoire des plus celebres Amateurs etrangers.’ LATEST WORKS. 353 well be taken by artists for that of the beloved dis- ciple. The portrait of Willibald Pirkheimer was taken two years before those of Erasmus and Melanchthon. Few, judging from his portrait, would give him credit for having burnt much midnight oil, at least for purposes of study. Yet we know that he was a man well versed in all the learning of his age, somewhat of a pedant, perhaps, but one quite worthy by his intellectual acquirements of being the friend of such men as Ulrich von Hutten, Erasmus, and Melanchthon. Very little of the ‘ great wisdom ’ that Diirer extols both in earnest and in jest in his letters is apparent in this portrait, but rather one seems to understand by it how it was that the original, with grim humour, came to write a work in praise of the gout ! It is indeed certain that Pirkheimer loved other pleasures besides those of knowledge, and, as it is evident from Diirer’s letters, courted other female society than that of the Muses. Two other portraits, namely, that of the Elector Albrecht of Mainz (1523), and that of Friedrich the Wise of Saxony, Luther’s supporter (1524), complete the number engraved on copper at this period ; but equalling, or even surpassing these in design and execution, is the magnificent woodcut of Ulrich Varnbtihler, whom Diirer styles in the Latin dedication that he has stuck above the portrait, his ‘ single friend.’ His own portrait likewise, engraved on wood in his fifty- sixth year, must not be passed without notice, for it is the last of the numerous likenesses he has left us of himself, begin- ning with that early sketch done from the looking-glass ‘ when I was still a child.’ This last portrait, executed in his fifty- sixth year, is totally unlike all the others we have of him. He has shorn off his beautiful long hair and soft flowing beard — perhaps on account of his illness, or possibly as no longer caring for the vanities of his youth ; and he seems, with his hair, to have lost much of his comeliness, if not of his strength. This last portrait affects one somewhat sadly, for the face looks worn and weary in it, although the melancholy expres- sion of so many of his earlier portraits has disappeared. I have said that Diirer executed but few distinctly Catholic subjects at this period, but it is not altogether without sig- 23 354 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. nificance, that in the same year that he returned to Niirnberg he twice engraved the noble giant St. Christopher, bearing the Christ-child through the water (Heller, 708 and 715), one of the most beautiful and expressive legends of the Catholic Church. With the storm-floods swelling and raging around, it was well to direct men’s thoughts to Him whom even the winds and the seas obey ; to Him who was once a Child on the earth, and yet was the mightiest monarch that St. Christopher ever found to serve. Once again this subject was executed by Diirer, as a woodcut in 1525, making in all five times that he has represented St. Christopher. Three New Testament saints in copper-engraving, and several repre- sentations from the life of Christ in woodcut, together with one Holy Family (Heller, 1804), complete the number of sacred subjects engraved during the last years of Durer’s life ; and of other subjects none have much interest except his own coat of arms, and the arms of the town of Niirnberg, both woodcuts. The whole strength of his intellect and the whole power of his hand in these latter years of life were put forth in his great pictures of the Apostles ; and with the exception of the portraits of his contemporaries, he executed little else of much importance after his return from the Netherlands. His time at this period was greatly taken up with the preparation of his literary treatises, and probably his failing health prevented that close application to work which had characterised his more vigorous years. For the ‘ wonderful illness ’ that he had taken in Zealand never entirely left him, and he appears continually to have had attacks either of some kind of low nervous fever, or else of lung disease, which gradually wasted his once powerful frame until it brought with it the release that Camerarius tells us ‘ was desired by himself, and only painful to his friends.’ Probably it was in anticipation of his approaching death that he wrote, in 1524, the following long and earnest letter to the Rath of Nurnberg : — Provident, Honourable, Wise, and Most Favourable LORDS, — I have during long years of work and remarkable Helioo 1 c et imp. A. Durand- P aris O L -r - ) I i - LETTER TO THE RATH. 355 pains, through God’s providence, earned a sum of a thousand gulden Rhenish, and I would now willingly lay them by for my support. Although I know that it is not now the custom with your Wisdoms to give much interest, since I am aware that other persons in similar cases have been refused ; yet I am moved by my necessity, by the particularly favourable regard which your Honourable Wisdoms have ever shown towards me, and also by the other following causes, to beg this thing of your Honours. Your Wisdoms know that I have always been obedient, willing, and diligent in all things done for your Wisdoms, and for the common State, and for other persons of the Rath, and that the State has always had my help, art, and work, whenever they were needed, and that without payment rather than for money ; for I can write with truth that, during the thirty years that I have had a house in this town, I have not had 500 gulden’s worth of work from it, and what I have had has been poor and mean, and I have not gained the fifth part for it that it was worth ; but all that I have earned, which God knows has only been by hard toil, has been from princes, lords, and other foreign persons. Also I have expended all my earnings from foreigners in this town. Also your Honours doubtless know that, on account of the many works I had done for him, the late Emperor Maxi- milian, of praiseworthy memory, out of his own Imperial liberality granted me an exemption from the rates and taxes of this town (in diser Stat frey setzen wolln ), which however I voluntarily gave up, when I was spoken to about it by some of the Elders of the Rath, in order to show honour to my Lords, and to maintain their favour and uphold their customs and justice. Item : The Government of Venice nineteen years ago would have given me a pension of 200 ducats a year, and the Rath of Antwerp offered to pay me every year three hundred Philipp’s gulden, to set me free of rates and taxes, and to give me a well-built house ; and in both places all that I did for the Government would have been paid over and above the pension ; all of which, out of my particular love for my honourable and wise Lords, for this town, and for my Fatherland, I refused, and chose rather to live in a moderate 23—2 356 . LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. manner near your Wisdoms than to be rich and great in any other place. It is therefore my dutiful request to your Lordships that you will take all these things into your favourable consideration, and that you will be so good as to take these thousand gulden (which I could easily lay out with other worthy people both here and elsewhere, but which I would rather know were in the' hands of your Wisdoms), and grant me a yearly interest upon them of fifty gulden ; so that I and my wife, who are becoming every day old, weak, and incapable, may have a moderate provision against want. And I will ever do my very utmost to deserve your noble Wisdoms’ favour and approbation as heretofore. Your Wisdoms’ willing and obedient Burger, Albrecht Durer. The Rath acceded to the request of its ‘obedient Burger’ and granted him the fifty gulden of interest that he desired, during the remainder of his life, After his death, however, their ‘provident Wisdoms’ refused to pay his widow more than 4 per cent, interest on the money. Truly it seems to have paid better to havebeen an unquiet and faithless.Burger like Veit Stoss, than a meek, obedient one like Durer. Veit Stoss, it is thought, died possessed of a considerable amount of property for a man in his position, whilst Durer, after long years of ‘remarkable pains’ and hard work, had only been able to save a thousand gulden. This touching letter to the Rath — touching in that his reproaches against the governing powers of his native town are those of a loving child, who conceives with reason that he has been somewhat neglected by his father, to whom he has always shown duty and affection — was followed by that other letter already quoted, in which he makes the Rath a present of his paintings of the Apostles, the last and greatest work of his life. After this he seems to have felt that his work on this earth had come to an end, for of the year 1527 we find scarcely anything, not even drawings of any importance, by his hand. Silently and gradually the once bright-burning flame of his life died away, until on the 6th of April, 1528, men told one another that Albrecht Durer had ‘ departed.’ GRAVES OF DURER AND PIRKHEIMER. 357 An attack of his long-continued complaint, more violent than usual, carried him off after but a few days’ illness.* Ca- merarius tells us that he wished for death, and that it came to him gently, before even his friends were aware that it was so near. Even Pirkheimer, who happened to be away from Niirn- berg at the time, seems to have been unaware of his friend’s approaching death ; for he regrets bitterly that he had not the sad pleasure of a last farewell. Diirer was buried in St. John’s Churchyard, outside the walls of Niirnberg,-|- in the family grave of his father-m-law, Hans Frey.J Pirkheimer placed the following simple, but sufficient, inscription on his grave : — ME . AL . DV QVICQVID ALBERTI DVRERI MORTALE FVIT, SVB HOC CONDITVR TVMVLO EMIGRAVIT . VIII . IDVS APRILIS. M.D. XXVIII. H * It has been supposed by some writers that Diirer died of the plague, but the few facts that we know concerning his last illness are distinctly contradictory to such a supposition. The only piece of evidence that can be brought forward to support it is a remarkable drawing of a plague-stricken man, said to have been ex- ecuted by Diirer in his last illness, and to be a portrait of himself. This drawing, now in the Bremen Museum, represents a naked man pointing to a discoloured spot on his side, and beneath it is written in handwriting that resembles Diirer’s, ‘ Where my fingers point, there I suffer.’ An old manuscript note at the bottom of the sheet states that this drawing was made by Diirer a few days before his death, when he was so ill that his physician had not the courage to attend him any longer, he therefore had recourse to this method for letting the doctor know ‘ where he suffered.’ In spite of this circumstantial story however, and the accidental likeness that the figure of the plague-stricken man bears to Diirer, it is extremely unlikely that the drawing represents him, or was even made by him. The note was probably written by some ingenious possessor, who observed or fancied a likeness, and then proceeded to frame an hypothesis to account for it. After a time, no doubt, he was so well satisfied with his explanation of the matter that he felt no hesitation in writ- ing it down as if it were a verified fact. Professor Thausing, it must be stated, accepts this drawing as authentic, and considers it was made by Diirer for the pur- pose of consulting some distant physician. t Niirnberg was the first Imperial town of Germany that recognised the sanitary wisdom of having its cemetery outside the walls of the town. + Hans Frey must have died in 1523, for in that year Diirer drew him as a corpse in water-colours on linen. This drawing was formerly in the Imhof Collection, but on account of its horrible appearance no one would buy it. 358 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. Joachim Sandrart, however, the biographer of the German artist, considered that this plain inscription did not sufficiently express Diirer’s merits ; he therefore in 1674 added a florid Latin epitaph in the style of the seventeenth century, and some German verses of small merit. These are inscribed on a metal plate let into the stone slab below the arms of the Frey family, which are likewise engraved on a small metal plate with the modest inscription : — M . CCCCC . XXI DER . FREIEN . BEGREBTNUS ( The grave of the Frey family) : the inscription that Pirkheimer composed occupying the im- portant position at the head of the plain stone tomb. But a few steps from Dtirer’s grave, in the quiet cemetery of St. John, where generation after generation of Niirnbergers have found their rest, is the grave of Willibald Pirkheimer, likewise marked by a plain slab of stone resting on the ground. Pirkheimer only survived Diirer two years ; so even in death these life-long friends were not long divided.* Pirkheimer appears to have been at first almost inconsolable for the loss he had sustained, and in a letter written in Latin to some friend named Ulrich, probably Ulrich Varnbiihleiyj- he gives free vent to his feelings of sorrow : ‘ Although,’ he says, ‘ I have been often tried by the death of those who were dear to me, I think I have never until now experienced such sorrow as the sudden loss of our dearest and best Diirer has caused me. And truly not without cause ; for of all men who were not bound to me by ties of blood, I loved and es- teemed him the most, on account of his countless merits and * A solemn festival was held in Niimberg on the 6th of April, 1828, the third centenary of Diirer’s death, and the whole body of artists and other visitors, as- sembled on the occasion, went in procession early on the Easter Sunday morning (for the 6th of April fell that year on Easter Sunday) to the cemetery of St. John, and sang hymns at Diirer’s grave. Some verses composed, I believe, by Dr. Campe, were likewise sung at Pirkheimer's grave. The festival lasted several days, and Niimberg hospitably entertained artists and lovers of art from all parts of Ger- many, who flocked there to do honour to the greatest of her art children. f It is clear that it was not to Ulrich von Hutten, as has been frequently stated, for Hutten died some years before Diirer. LETTER FROM PIRKHEIMER. 359 rare integrity. As I know, my dear Ulrich, that you share my sorrow, I do not hesitate to allow it free course in your presence, so that we may consecrate together a just tribute of tears to our dear friend. He has gone from us, our Albrecht ! Let us weep, my dear Ulrich, over the inexorable fate, the miserable lot of man and the unfeeling cruelty of death ! A noble man is snatched away, whilst so many others, worthless and incapable men, enjoy unclouded happiness, and have their years prolonged beyond the ordinary term of man’s life.’ But it is in a letter to Joh. Tscherte, court architect at Vienna, that he expresses his thoughts and his feelings on this subject in the fullest manner. This much-controverted letter has been so often mentioned in this volume that it may be desirable to quote the part of it that refers to Diirer’s death in full, leaving it for readers to judge whether the sad picture he draws of Diirer’s home-life — a picture that must touch every heart with sorrow and resentment — was merely the result of the writer’s feelings of spite and rage because Agnes had sold some stag-antlers belonging to Durer that he desired to possess, as Professor Thausing affirms, or whether his accusations were the result of intimate knowledge of Diirer’s domestic life. Surely a nagging tongue is not such an uncommon attribute in a woman that we need go out of the way to frame hypotheses to disprove it, especially when it is certified by what in any other case would be accepted as credible testimony. The letter was not written until nearly two years after Diirer’s death, so that his statements were not made in the first unreasoning violence of grief, but were de- liberately recorded after abundant time for due consideration. Letter of Willibald Pirkheimer to Joh. Tscherte in Vienna. My friendly willing service to you, my dear Herr Tscherte Our good friend, Herr Georg Hartman, has shown me a letter of yours to him, in which you not only speak of me with kindness, but accord me a larger measure of praise and honour than I feel myself worthy of receiving. I will there- fore ascribe your good-will to our dear friend Albrecht Durer, LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. 360 now dead in the Lord. For as you loved him on account of his art and his many virtues, so also those who likewise loved him must doubtless be dear to you. To this sentiment I must ascribe your good-will, and by no means to my own merits. Truly I lost in Albrecht the best friend I ever had in the world, and nothing grieves me so much as to think that he died such an unhappy death, for after the providence of God I can ascribe it to no one but his wife, who so gnawed at his heart (sein Herz eyngenageti ] ), and worried him to such a degree, that he departed from this world sooner than he would otherwise have done. He was dried up like a bundle of straw, and never dared to be in good spirits, or to go out into society 7 . For this bad woman was always anxious, although really she had no cause to be, and she urged him on day and night, and forced him to hard work only for this — that he might earn money and leave it to her when he died. For she always feared ruin, as she does still, notwithstanding that Albrecht has left her property worth about six thousand gulden. But nothing ever satisfied her, and in short (in sumrna ) she alone was the cause of his death. I have often myself expostulated with her about her suspicious, blameworthy conduct, and have warned her, and told her beforehand what the end of it would be, but I have never met with anything but ingratitude. For whoever was a friend of her husband’s, and wished him well, to him she was an enemy ; which truly troubled Albrecht to the highest degree, and brought him at last to his grave. I have not seen her since his death ; she will have nothing to do with me, although I have been helpful to her in many things, but one cannot trust her. She is always suspicious of any- body who contradicts her, or does not take her part in all things, and is immediately an enemy. Therefore I would much rather she should keep away from me. She and her sister are not loose characters, but, as I do not doubt, honour- able, pious and very God-fearing women, but one would rather have to do with a light woman, who behaved in a friendly manner, than with such a nagging, suspicious, scolding, pious woman, with whom a man can have no peace night or day. We must, however, leave the matter to God, who will be THE LAST OF THE DURER FAMILV. 361 gracious and merciful to our good Albrecht, for he lived a pious and upright man, and died in a very Christian and blessed manner ; therefore we need not fear his salvation. God grant us grace that we may happily follow him when our time comes. This is all that the letter contains concerning Diirer, the greater part of it being taken up with Pirkheimer’s views on the great religious and political problems of that day, concerning which he takes the most gloomy and wrathful views. His anger against Agnes breaks out, however, in another place, for he tells his correspondent anent the subject of stag-antlers, of which he was an enthusiastic collector, that Diirer possessed several antlers, and amongst them a pair of very fine ones which he should have liked much to have had, ‘ but that she (i.e., Agnes Frey) sold them for a mere nominal price, with many other fine things, without letting me know,’ evidently, as he hints, in order to annoy him.* Agnes survived Diirer eleven years, and carried on a profit- able trade with his woodcuts and engravings, for she inherited everything of which he died possessed — his ‘ art things/ as well as his other property.-]- The publication of his writings, also, must have brought her in somewhat, and she seems to have known how to look after her interests, for in 1533 she appealed * It is strange that Prof. Thausing, while denying the truth of the accusations in this letter, should never once have given it in full, not even the part relating to Diirer. One would have thought that it might appropriately have found -a place in the appendix to his modern translation of the letters, etc., for in this a number of letters and other documents are printed, either addressed to, or relating to Diirer. Pirkheimer’s letter to Tscherte, the most important of all, is unaccount- ably omitted. It has lately, however, been printed in full, from the original in the town library of Nlirnberg, in the ‘Repertorium fur Kunstwissenschaft,’ Band 2, Heft 1, 1877. t According to an inventory made by Diirer at some period of his life, his other property could not have been large. He says in this inventory, that has ac- cidentally been preserved amongst some other papers, that he has never had the chance of making any large amount of money, but that all that he possesses has been earned by his own hand ; also that he has had to suffer great losses, especially on account of some one who died at Rome. He then proceeds to enumerate his goods. ‘Item: Some tolerably good household furniture ( Hawrotl Hausrath), some pewter ware, some good utensils, parchment, trunks, and more than ioo florins’ worth of good colour.’ This inventory was probably taken some years pre- vious to his death, for, according to Pirkheimer, he left property amounting to 6,000 florins to his widow. 362 LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER. to the Rath to suppress a pirated edition of the Book of Human Proportions that had been published in France. In consequence of this the Rath sent a letter in her name to the King of France, begging him to see justice done in the matter; but, as might be imagined, the letter did not produce much effect ; indeed, as before said, Dtirer’s works were pirated in every country, and in every form, and, what was still worse for his fame, his monogram was fraudulently placed on works by his pupils and other far inferior masters. One good deed must be remembered of Agnes Frey. She devoted the sum placed out at interest by her husband to founding a scholarship for poor theological students at the University of Wittenberg. After her death, Andreas Differ, who, as the reader will remember, was a goldsmith in Niirn- berg, inherited the copper-plates and blocks of his brother, and he had them printed to such an extent that even in his time many of them were quite worn out. Andreas Differ, like Albrecht, died childless, and he was the last of the eighteen children who were born to Albrecht Differ der dltere by the beautiful Barbara Holperin ; for Hans Differ, court painter to the King of Poland, and the Benjamin of the family, appears to have died before this time, and also to have left no children. With Andreas, therefore, the name of Differ became extinct in Niirnberg. But so long as the German tongue endures, the name of Albrecht Differ will be a household word in every home of the Fatherland, and will awaken feelings of love, reverence, and admiration in every heart ; and to Englishmen likewise, who belong to the same great Teutonic race, there will come with greater knowledge greater love, for Albrecht Differ belongs not to Niirnberg, or to Germany only, but to all the world, and his works are the inheritance of mankind. GENERAL INDEX. A. Aachen (Aix), visited by Diirer, 306 ; coronation of Charles V. at, 308. Albertina collection, Vienna, 250. Albrecht, Elector of Mainz, his portrait, 353 - Ant werp, Diirer’s arrival in, 287 ; guild of painters in, 289 ; cathedral at, 292 ; grand procession in, 293 ; re- turn to, 301, 312, 316, 327; gold- smiths, 319. Apocalypse, woodcuts of, 116; blocks for, ib.\ early impressions of, 117; editions of, 128. Architecture, Diirer’s Book on, 263. Arend, his inaccuracies in regard to Diirer, 277. Artists who copied Diirer, 1 5 1, 200. Arundel, Earl of, 173; his collection, 252. Augsburg, Diirer’s visit to, in 1518, 106. B. Bale, Mr. C. S., his collection of Diirer’s drawings, 256. Bamberg, Bishop of, visited by Diirer, 281. Barbarj, Jacopo de (Jacob Walch), 78, 336 . Bartsch, his ‘ Peintre Graveur,’ 114. Baumgartner, Stephan, 81 ; supposed to be drawn in the Knight, Death and Devil, 183 ; altar-piece painted for him, 243. Behaim, Martin, 26. Beham, Barthel, banished, 346. Beham, Hans Sebald, steals one of Diirer’s books, 263 ; banished, 346. Beheim, Hanns, 24. Bellini, Giovanni, visits Diirer, 76 ; anecdote of, 78. Belvedere, Gallery of, at Vienna, 237. Berlin, Diirer’s drawings in, 108, 258. British Museum, Arch of Maximilian in, 166 ; Diirer’s drawings in, 251 ; hone- stone carving in, 259; Diirer’s manu- script in, 269. Bruges, visited by Diirer, 325. Brunswick, carving by Diirer at, 260. Brussels, visited by Diirer, 296, 341. Bullman, Hanns, his astronomical clock, 7. Burlington Club, exhibition of Diirer’s works at, 247, 256. C. Camerarius, Joachim, nobility of Diirer’s character, 55 ; his anecdote of Diirer and Bellini, 77 ; his Latin translation of Diirer’s Mensuration, 265 ; do. of Book of Human Propor- tions, 269 ; his sketch of Diirer’s life, 55, 269. Campe, Dr. Friedrich, his ‘ Reliquien von Albrecht Diirer,’ 31. Celtes, Conrad, 25. Charles V., his entry into Antwerp, 290, 304 ; his coronation at Aachen, 308. Chelidonius supplies the text for the Passions, 142. Cole, H., republishes the Little Passion, 146. Confirmatia given by Charles V. to Diirer, 310. Cornill d’Orville, Herr, his collection at Frankfort, 117. Courtship in Germany in the Middle Ages, 58. Custom-houses on the Rhine, 283. D. Denmark, King of, his portrait, 341 ; banquet with Charles V., 342. 364 GENERAL INDEX. Derschau, Baron von, former possessor of Dtirer’s sketch-books, 107. Dibdin, notice about Diirer’s Journal, 107. Drawings, character of Dlirer’s, 250. Dresden, Diirer’s drawings in, 259 ; Dtirer’s MS. in Library at, 268. Dtirer, Albrecht, ancestry of, 29 ; birth of, 32 ; sorrows of his early life, 33 ; mother of, 34 ; education of, 35 ; earliest portrait of, 36 ; works under his father, 40 ; not a pupil of Schon- gauer’s, 41 ; apprenticed to Wohlge- muth, 42 ; years of travel, 50 ; visits Colmar, 1492, 52 ; portrait painted in 1493, 53 ; settles in Niirnberg, 1494, 55 ; personal appearance de- scribed by Camerarius, 55 ; Melanch- thon’s tribute to his mental and moral qualities, 56 ; marriage of, 57 ; domes- tic unhappiness, 60 ; house in Ntirn- berg, 63 ; received into guild of painters, ib. ; portrait in Uffizi Gal- lery, at Florence, 65 ; ditto in Pina- kothek at Munich, 66 ; describes his father’s death, 67 ; journey to Venice, 70; learns dancing, 96; journey to Bologna, 98 ; quiet work in Niirn- berg, 101 ; mother dies, 103 ; ex- change of presents with Raphael, 105 ; journey to Augsburg, 106 ; his- tory of his sketch-books, 107; friends in Niirnberg, 67, 108 ; controversy as to whether he cut his own blocks, 1 14; his coat of arms, 158; his verses, 270 ; laughed at by Pirk- heimer and Spengler, ib. ; visit to the Netherlands 1520, 277 ; his jour- nal a simple record of facts, 278 ; receives letters of introduction from the Bishop of Bamberg, 281 ; arrives at Antwerp, 287 ; sees the great pro- cession, 293 ; visits Brussels, 296 ; his wonder at its wealth, 298 ; re- turns to Antwerp, 301 ; his generosity in presents, 306 ; visits Aachen, 306 ; visits Koln, 308 ; obtains his Con- firmatia , 310 ; returns to Antwerp, 312; visits Zealand, 314; narrow escape from drowning, ib. ; returns to Antwerp, 316 ; presents to Niirn- berg friends, 322 ; visits Bruges, 324 ; Ghent, 326 ; returns to Ant- werp, 327 ; illness in Antwerp and Zealand, 328 ; present at Joachim Patenir’s W'edding, 329 ; indignation at Luther’s imprisonment, 330 ; his bad bargains in the Netherlands, 340 ; goes to Brussels, 341 ; from Brussels to Koln, 343 ; returns to Niirnberg, ib. ; his last letter to the Rath, 354 ; his death, 356 ; his burial and epi- taph, 357 ; his inventory of his effects, 361. Dtirer, Albrecht, the Elder, his arrival in Niirnberg, 29 ; his marriage, 31 ; his children, 32 ; his house in the Winkler-strasse, 34 ; arranges his son’s wedding, 57 ; death of, 67 ; portraits of, 218. Dtirer, Andreas, 33, 69, 104, 362. Dtirer, Hans, 33, 69, 104, 362. Dtirer, Niclas, 286, 310. E. Engravings on copper, character of Dtirer’s, 174 ; value of them, 215. Ephrussi, M. Ch., 228. Erasmus, his first meeting with Dtirer, 292 ; Diirer’s exhortation to him, 332; portrait of, 350. Eye, Dr. A. von, his ‘ Leben und Wir- ken Albrecht Dtirer’s,’ 32. F. Fencing, Diirer’s book on, 264. Formschneider, or wood-engravers, 113. Fortification, Dtirer’s book on, 263, 265, Frankfort, Dtirer’s drawings in, 259 ; visited by Diirer, 284. Frey, Agnes, marries Diirer, 57 ; her suspicious and fretful temper, 60 ; Pirkheimer’s accusation against her, ib ., 360 ; story of the spy-hole, 102 ; goes wdth Dtirer to the Netherlands, 277 ; founds a scholarship, 362 ; her last years and death, ib. Frey, Hans, father of Agnes, 57 ; draw- ing of, 357. Friedrich, Elector of Saxony, 220; gives commission for pictures, 235 ; his portrait, 353. Fugger family, one of them introduced in the feast of Rose Garlands, 222 ; their importance in Germany, 288 ; their house in Antwerp, 295. G. Ghent, visited by Diirer, 326 ; legend of the bridge of, 327. Glockengiesser, Hanns, 24. Goldsmiths of Antwerp, entertain Diirer, 319. Goosen, J. van, copies from Diirer, 155. Greff, Hieronymus, pirates the Apoca- lypse, 128. GENERAL INDEX. 365 H. Hele, Peter, inventor of watches, 7. Heller, Jacob, gives commission for picture, 226 ; Diirer’s letters to, ib. ; interview with Diirer at Frankfort, 284. Heller, Joseph, his collection, 108 ; his ‘Leben und Werke Albrecht Diirer’s,’ 151 - Hen sz, Georg, 24. Hess, Martin, painter in Frankfort, 230. Hirschvogel, family of, 8. Hogarth, W., refers to Diirer’s Book of Human Proportions, 245. Holford, Mr. R. S., his collection of Diirer’ s drawings, 256. Holper, Hieronymus, Diirer’s grand- father, 31. Holperin, Barbara, Diirer’s mother, 31 ; death of, 103. Holzschuher, Hieronymus, his portrait, 245 - Hopfer, H. and L., copy from Diirer, 155 - Horembout, Gerhard and Susanna, 334. Horse, Diirer’s Book on the Propor- tions of the, 263. Human Proportions, Diirer’s Book on, 266 ; MS. of, 269 ; editions of, 266, 269. Hungersberg, Felix, the lute-player, 29 B 303 - I. Imhof, Alexander, lends Diirer money, 34 i- Imhof, Hans, 230, 252. Imhof, Hieronymus, 80. Imhof family, 251. Imhof, Willibald, his account of his courtship, 59. . J- Jackson, his opinions on woodcutting, 1 14. Jamintzer, Wenzel, goldsmith in Niirn- berg, 9. Journal of Diirer in the Netherlands, 281. K. Katzheimer, Hans Wolfgang, 282. Kleeberger, Johann, his portrait, 350. Koburger, his printing-press, 5. Koln (Cologne), visited by Diirer, 286, 308, 343 - Kraft, Adam, sculptor, 16. Kraus, Ulrich, copies from Diirer, 155. Kratzer, Nicolaus, astronomer, 293. Krell, Oswald, portrait of, 245. Krug, Hanns, die-sinker, 9. L. Landauer, Matthaus, gives commis- sion for painting of the Trinity, 235. Letters from Venice, 73 ; history of, 72. Letters to Rath, 161, 241, 354. Lindenast, Sebastian and Sebald, workers in copper, 9, 18. Loethener, Stephan (Meister Stephan), 309 - Louvre, Diirer’s drawings in the, 259. Luther, his disapproval of iconoclasm, 264; his imprisonment, 330; indig- nation of Diirer at it, ib. M. Mabuse, Jan de, 314. Malcolm, Mr., his collection of Diirer’s drawings, 256. Mantegna, Andrea, his death, 99. Marc Antonio, pirates Diirer’s engrav- ings, 1 5 1. Margaret, Regent of the Netherlands, 295, 299 ; her ungracious treatment of Diirer, 336, 340. Margraff, Dr. R., his 4 Kaiser Maxi- milian und Albrecht Diirer in Ntirn- berg,’ 159. Matsys, Quentin, 290. Maximilian, Elector of Bavaria, obtains possession of Coronation of the Virgin, 233 ; of the Four Apostles, 241. Maximilian, Emperor of Germany, alluded to in letter, 90, 92 ; his character, 156; portraits, 106, 172; grants coat-of-arms to painters’ guild, 158 ; Triumphal Arch of, 159 ; pay- ment for ditto, ib. ; Triumphal Car, 168 ; Prayer-book, 169 ; Apotheosis, 172; introduced by Diirer in the Feast of Rose Garlands, 222. Melanchthon, his tribute to Dtirer’s character, 56 ; his story of Diirer and Maximilian, 157 ; his remarks on Diirer’s later style, 240 ; his sympathy with Diirer, 352 ; portrait of, ib. Mensuration, Dlirer’s Book on, 264. Mexico, treasures from, 297. Michael Angelo, his alabaster figure in Bruges, 325. Middleburg, visited by Diirer, 314. Mitchell, Mr., his collection of Diirer’s drawings, 256. Money, value of, in Netherlands, 287. Morrison, Mr. A., his collection of Diirer’s drawings, 256. Miiffel, Jacob, portrait of, 350. Muller, Johann (Regiomontanus), 5 - Miindler, Herr Otto, on Mr. Wynn 366 GENERAL INDEX. Ellis’s picture, 248 ; on portrait of Stark, 330. Munich, Dtirer’s drawings in, 259. Murr, G. von, his ‘Journal zur Kunst- geschichte,’ 5. Music, Diirer’s Book on, 263. N. Nagler, his collection, 108. National Gallery, painting by Diirer in, 247. Netherlands, journey to, 277 ; pros- perity of, 298 ; value of money in, 287. Neudorffer, Johann, his ‘ Nachrichten,’ 7 , 24. Nurnberg at the present day, 1 ; in the fifteenth century, 2 ; artistic mind of, 3 ; mechanical activity of, 4 ; paper- mill in, ib ; printing-press, 5 ; workers in metal of, 7 ; glass-painters of, 8 ; goldsmiths of, ib. ; wire-drawing in, ib. ; die-sinkers of, 9 ; workmen’s „ strikes in, 10 ; government of, ib. ; prosperity of middle classes in, II ; policy of the Rath of, ib. ; burghers of, 13; Gothic architecture of, 14; sculpture of, ib. ; artist-workmen in, 3, 15 ; unsettled state of, 48 ; Diirer’s house in, 63 ; house of the Twelve Brothers in, 235 ; fortifications of, 265 ; progress of the Reformation in, t 345- Nurnberg Chronicle, 46. O. Observatory, constructed by Regio- montanus and Walther, 6. Ottley, his testimony about Marc An- tonio, 154- P. Painting, Diirer’s Book on, 264. Paintings, stiffness of Diirer’s early, 217. Paper-mill, first, in Germany, 4. Passion in copper, series of the, 194. Passion, Great, woodcuts of the, 136 ; Latin text of the, 142. Passion, Little, woodcuts of the, 142 ; title-page, 137. Passion, twelve drawings of the (Vienna), 250. Patenir, Joachim, 291 ; his wedding, 3 2 9- Penz, Georg, his paintings in the Rath- haus, 169 ; banished, 346. Peurbach, Georg, the astronomer, 6. Pinakothek, Diirer’s works in, Gallery of the, Munich, 238. Piracies of Diirer’s works, 128, 151. Pirkheimer, Willibald, birth and educa- tion of, 34 ; his charges against Agnes F rey, 60, 360 ; his brilliant assemblages, 67 ; Diirer’s letters from Venice to, 73 — 100; his address to the Margrave, 91 ; his plan for Triumphal Car, 168 ; suggests Book of Human Proportions, 266 ; Latin elergy on Diirer, 269 ; laughs at Diirer’s verses, 270 ; his part in the Reformation, 346 ; portrait of, 353 ; death of, 358; tribute to Diirer’s memory, 357 : his letter to Tscliertte, 359- Planckfelt, Jobst, Diirer’s host in Ant- werp, 288. Posonyi collection, 261. Printing-press, first, in Niirnberg, 5. R. Raphael Santi, interchange of pre- sents between Diirer and, 105. Rath, or Town Council, of Nurnberg, 10, 11 ; tries to stop piracy of Diirer’s prints, 155; Diirer’s letter to, pre- senting his painting of Apostles, 241; Diirer’s letter to, about investments, 354 ; mean conduct of, to Diirer’s widow, 356. Reformation, its progress in Nurnberg, 345- Regiomontanus (see Muller), 5. Reid, Mr. G. W., 167. Resch, Hieronymus, 1 1 5 ; engraves blocks for Arch of Maximilian, 165 visited by Maximilian, ib. Rogendorff family, 302, 305. Rudolph, the Emperor, 21 1, 223, 224, 2 37- Ruland, Mr. C., his remark on the Coronation of the Virgin, 234. Russell, Rev. J. Fuller, his painting of the Crucifixion, 248. S. Sachs, Hans, 25. Sacraments- Hauslein, 16. Sandrart, his ‘Teutsche Akademie,’ 17. Schauffelein, Hans, 390. Schiltkrot, Erasmus, 235. Schlegel, F. von, remarks on Diirer’s engravings, 175 ; on paintings, 217. Schon, Erhard, copies from Diirer, 155. Schon, Martin (see Schongauer), 41. Schongauer, Martin, 41 ; influence of GENERAL INDEX. 3<57 his art on Diirer, 45 ; his brothers re- ceive Diirer, 52. Schonhofer, Sebald, sculptor in Niirn- berg, 15. School life in Niirnberg, 35. Sebald, St., shrine of, 18. Siclcengen, F. von, 182. Sintram, suggested by Diirer’s print of the Knight, Death, and Devil, 184. Sloane, Sir Hans, collection of Diirer’s drawings, 252. Solis, Virgil, Niirnberg engraver, 155. Spengler, Lazarus, 109 ; laughs at Diirer’s verses, 271 ; his part in the Reformation, 346. Stabius, crown poet to Maximilian, 159, 164. Stadel Institut, Frankfort, 203, 220. Stark, Lorenz, the treasurer, his portrait, 33 °- Stoss, Veit, 21. Stromer, Ulman, erects first paper-mill in Germany, 4. Sturm, Gaspar, 307. Sugar, alluded toby Diirer, 321. T. Tedeschi, or guild of German mer- chants in Venice, give commission to Diirer for picture, 74. Thompson, his opinion on the blocks of the Little Passion, 146. Titian, borrowed from Diirer, 200. Tomasin of Lucca, first mentioned, 291. Tschertte, Joh., Pirkheimer’s letter to him, 359. U. Uffizj Gallery at Florence, 53, 65, 219, 220. V. Van der Goes, Hugo, 300, 325. Van der Weyden, Roger, 297, 325. Van Eyck, Hubert, 325, 327. Van Eyck, Jan, 326, 336. Van Leyden, Lucas, 337, 339. Van Mander, Karel, 34. Van Orley, Bernard, 300. Vasari, his testimony concerning Marc Antonio, 15 1 ; his account of Diirer’ s engravings, 174. Velius, Kaspar, his verses on Durer’s Adam and Eve, 225. Venice, journey to, 70 ; fire in, 95 ; painters of, their jealousy of Diirer, 76, 217. Verachter, F., his Dutch translation of Diirer’s journal, 305. Vierling, Jorg., punished for libelling Diirer, 106. Vischer, J. C., copies from Diirer, 155. Vischer, Peter, 16 ; his five sons, 18. W. Walther, Bernard, with Regiomon- tanus, erects first Observatory in Europe, 6. Watches, their invention in Niirnberg, 7 . Water-marks on Diirer’s prints, 215. Whale on coast of Zealand, 313. Wierx, Hieronymus, his copy of the Knight, Death, and Devil, 155. Windsor, Diirer’s drawings in, 257. Wine presented to visitors, 286. Wohlgemuth, Michael, 42 ; engravings signed C W.,’ 43 ; Diirer’s portrait of, 49 , 245 - Wright, Dr., his translation of Letter viii. , 93. Z. Zealand, visited by Diirer, 314 ; whale on the coast of, 313. Zlatko, Georg, gives commission to Diirer for Death of the Virgin, 249. INDEX TO WORKS REFERRED TO IN THIS VOLUME. WOODCUTS. PAGE Adoration of the Kings, the, 15 n 149 Apocalypse, the. Series of Six- teen large Cuts, including Vig- nette, 1498 (first edition) - - 116 Bath, the ----- 149 Christ, large Head of - - 150 Christopher, St.,1511 - - 147 Christopher, St. 1 5 2 5 * - 147 Column, the Great, 1517 * - 17 1 Death and the Soldier, 1517 - 148 Diirer, Portrait of, aet. 56 - - 353 Diirer’s Coat of Arms, 1 5 2 3 ■ 159 Fortifications of Town, (about) 1527 - - _ - - - 265 Francis, St., receiving the Stig- mata ----- 148 Gregory, St., Mass of, 1511 - 147 Holy F amily with the Guitar, 1 5 1 1 149 Holy Family with three Hares - 149 Jerome, St., in his Chamber, 15 11 148 John the Baptist, his Head de- livered to Herodias, 15 11 - 149 Knights, Three Armed, attacked by Skeletons, 1 491 - - - 49 Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Saints, the - 225 PAGE Maximilian, Apotheosis of - - 172 Maximilian, Portrait of - - -172 Maximilian, Triumphal Arch of - 1 59 Maximilian, Triumphal Car of - 168 Mensuration, Woodcuts for Dtirer’s Book of 265 Passion, the Great. Series of Twelve large Cuts, including Vignette, 1 5 1 1 (first edition) - 136 Passion, the Little. Series of Thirty-seven small Cuts, in- cluding Vignette, 15 11 (first edition) 142 Patron Saints of Austria - 172 Plague Picture (. Pestbild ) 1496 - 65 Rhinoceros, the, 1515 - - 150 Samson killing the Lion - - 149 Trinity, the, 1 5 1 1 - - - 147 Varnbiihler, Ulrich, Portrait of, 1522 353 Virgin, the, crowned by two Angels, 1518 - - - - 149 Virgin, Life of the. Series of Twenty large Cuts, including Vignette, 15 11 (first edition) - 128 ENGRAVINGS AND ETCHINGS. Adam and Eve, 1504 * - - 187 Albrecht, Elector of Mainz, Portrait of, 1523 - - - 3153 Amymone, Rape of - - - 186 Angel bearing the Sudarium (etching) - 202 Anthony, St., 1519 - - - 213 Apostles, five small Prints of - 209 Bagpipe Player, the, 1514 - - 209 Cannon, the Great (etching) - 202 Christ with Bound Hands, 1512 - 200 Christ on the Mount of Olives, 1515 (etching) ... 202 Christ Seated, and Crowned with Thorns, 1515 (etching) - 202 Christopher, St., two Prints of, 1521 354 Chrysostom, St., Penance of - 190 Coat of Arms with the Cock, the 213 Crucifixion, the Little, 1513 * 202 Dancing Boor and his Wife, the, 1514 ... - 209 INDEX TO WORKS. 369 PAGE Death’s Coat of Arms, 1593 178, 192 Dream, the • - - - 186 Erasmus, Portrait of, 1526 - - 350 Eustachius, St. (St. Hubert) - 209 Family of the .Satyr, 1505 - - 191 Fortune, the Great - - - 217 Fortune, the Little - - - 193 Friedrich the Wise, Portrait of, 1524 353 Hercules, the Great - - - 187 Hog, a Prodigious - - - 192 Holy Family, with Joseph, the - 201 Horse, the Great, 1505 - - 193 Horse, the Little, 1505 - - 193 Jerome, St., 1512 - - - 200 Jerome, St., in his Chamber, 1514 203 Jerome, St., Penance of - - 191 Jerome, St., the small round, 1513 202 Justice (the Nemesis) - - - 193 Knight, Death, and the Devil, the (the Christian Knight), 1513 179 Man, Woman, and Unicorn (etching) - 201 Melanchthon, Portrait of, 1526 - 351 Melencolia I. 1514 - - 178, 205 Naked Figures, Study of (etching) 202 Naked Women, or Witches, Four, 1497 184 Nativity, the, 1504 - - - 188 PAGE Nemesis the (the Great Fortune) 211 Offer of Love, the - - - 191 Paris, Judgment of, 1513 - - 202 Passion in Copper, the. Series of Sixteen Plates, including Vignette .... 19 4 Pirkheimer, Portrait of, 1524 - 353 Prodigal Son, the - - - 189 Promenade, the (the Knight and Lady) 186 Veronica, St., 1 5 10 - - - 201 Virgin and Child, with the Monkey, 1503 - - - 187 Virgin, as Earthly Mother, 1514 208 Virgin, as Queen of Heaven, 1514 208, 213 Virgin by the Wall, with the Purse, 1514 - - - 208, 213 Virgin crowned by One Angel, 1520 213 Virgin crowned by Two Angels, 1518 213 Virgin on the Half Moon, with Crown and Sceptre, 1516 - 213 Virgin suckling the Child, 1519 - 213 Virgin with the Child in Swad- dling Clothes, 1520 - - - 213 Woman defending herself against an attempted Rape - 192 PAINTINGS. Adam and Eve (Florence) - - 223 Adam and Eve, 1507 (Madrid) - 223 Adoration of the Kings, 1491 (Basel) - - - 53 Adoration of the Magi, 1504 (Florence) .... 220 Altar-piece, two Wings of (Mu- nich) .... - 245 Apostles Peter and John, Paul and Mark, 1526 (Munich) - 238 Baumgartner Altar-piece (Munich) 243 Child Jesus, the (tempera) Al- bertina Collection, 1493 " ’54 Christ mourned by Holy Women (Munich) .... 244 Christ taken down from the Cross (Nurnberg) - - - 246 Crucifixion, the (Rev. J. Fuller Russell) 248 Death of Pirkheimer’s Wife, Crescendia Rieterin (water- colour) 80 Diirer, Portraits of : — Described by Goethe, 1493 - 53 In the Royal Gallery, Madrid 65 In the Pinakothek, Munich 1500 - - - 66, 242 In the Uffizj, Florence - 65 Diirer’s Father, Portraits of : — At Florence, 1490 - - 219 At Frankfort, 1494 - - 220 At Munich, 1497 - 219, 245 At Syon House, 1497 - 218 Diirer’s ‘ Meister and Meisterin ’ at Strasburg, Portraits of - - 53 Feast of the Rose Garlands, 1506 - - - 75 , 93 , 220 Furleger, Catherine, Portrait of, in Mr. Wynn Ellis’s collection, 1497 - - - --247 Furleger, Catherine, Portrait of, at Frankfort, 1497 - - - 247 Holzschuher, Hieronymus, Por- trait of (Nurnberg) - - - 245 Kleeberger, Johann, Portrait of, 1526 (Vienna)- ... 350 Krell, Oswald, Portrait of, 1499 (Munich) .... 245 24 370 INDEX TO WORKS. PAGE Lot and his Two Daughters (probably by Patenir) - - 323 Lucretia (Munich) ... 244 Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Saints, 1508 .... 225 Maximilian, Portraits of, as- cribed to Diirer - - - 173 Miiffel, Jacob, Portrait of, 1526 Pommersfelden ... 350 Painting in the Rathhaus of Nlirnberg, ascribed to Diirer - 169 Painting on wall of a house in Stein - - - - 71 Senator, Bust Portrait of a, 1514 (National Gallery) ... 247 Sorrowing Mother of Christ (Munich) .... 245 PAGE Stark, Lorenz, Portrait of (Madrid) 330 Trinity, Adoration of the, 1511 (Vienna) .... 235 Virgin and Child, 1503 (Vienna) 238 Virgin, Coronation of the - - 228 Virgin crowned by Two Angels 1506 (Marquis of Lothian) - 248 Virgin, Death of the, 1518, sold at the Fries Sale - - - 249 Virgin with Cut Lemon (Vienna) 238 Virgin with Cut Pear, 1512 (Vienna) .... 237 Wohlgemuth, Michael, Portrait of, 1516 (Munich) - - 49, 245 Young Man, Portrait of a, 1500 (Munich) - - - 245 PAINTINGS, &c. REFERRED TO IN THE JOURNAL. Child’s Head .... 305 Denmark, Portrait of the King of 342 Duke, Portrait of a - - 318, 330 Jerome, St. - - - - 322 Maximilian, Portrait of the Em- peror .... 336, 341 Planckfelt, Jobst, Portrait of the Wife of 330 Planckfelt, Jobst, Portraits of - 330 Reszen, Bernhart, Portrait of - 324 Stark, Lorenz, Portrait of - - 330 Veronica, St. - - - 302 Veronica, St. - - - - 319 Veronica, St. ( Replica ) - - 319 Veronica, St. - - - 335 Virgin, the - * - 281 Small carved figure of a Child - 296 DRAWINGS. Collections of Drawings. Bale, Mr. C. S. - 256 Christ’s Head crowned with Thorns, 1503 (British Museum) 7 1 Bamberg Library - 108 Company of Horsemen, 1484 Berlin, Royal Museum 00 0 1— 1 258 (Bremen Museum) - 49 British Museum - . 25 1 Diirer, Albrecht, Portrait of, in Burlington Club - - 256 his thirteenth year, 1484 (Albert Dresden Royal Collection - - 259 Collection) - 36 Frankfort, Stiidel Institut - - 259 Diirer, Albrecht, Portrait of, sent Holford, Mr. R. S. - - 256 to Raphael in 1514 - Diirer’s Mother, Portrait of 105 Malcolm, Mr. ... . 256 Mitchell, Mr. - 256 (British Museum) - 34 Morrison, Mr. A. - 256 Fight between Tritons, 1494 Munich, Pinakothek - * 259 (Albert Collection) - 64 Paris, Louvre - - 259 Human Proportions, Drawings Vienna, Albertina Collection 250 for Book of, 1500 (British Windsor .... - 257 Museum) .... 268 Drawings referred to elsewhere. Landauer, Matthaus, chalk draw- ing of (collection of Mr. Mitchell) 236 Bacchanal of ten figures (Albert Lucretia, study for the head of (British Museum) ... 244 Collection) - 64 Maximilian, Portrait of, taken at INDEX TO WORKS. 371 PAGE Augsburg, 1518 (Albert Collec- tion .... 106, 172 Maximilian, Prayer-Book of (Mu- nich and Vienna) - - - 169 Mensuration, Drawing for Book of (British Museum) - - - 265 Orpheus abused by the Bacchants 64 Passion, Twelve Drawings of the, 1504 (Albert Collection) - - 250 Plague-stricken Man, the (Bremen Museum) .... 357 Planckfelt, Jobst, 1520 (Stadel Institut) .... 288 PAGE Rhinoceros, the, 1515 (British Museum) - - - 150 Sketch-Books, Diirer’s (Berlin and Bamberg) - - - 107 Swiss Patriots, the Three, 1489 (Berlin) ----- 49 Virgin and Child, 1485 (formerly in the Posonvi Collection, now Berlin) 37 Virgin with the Animals, the - 176 Woman with a Bird (British Mu- seum) 38 Wohlgemuth, Portrait of (Alber- tina Collection) 50 DRAWINGS REFERRED Adrian (charcoal) - - - 305 Anthony, Servant of the King of Denmark - - - - 341 Antwerp, Sketch in half-colours for the Painters of - - - 291 Banissius (charcoal) - - - 303 Bernhart of Breszlen - - - 316 Bernhart, Painter to Archduchess Margaret (charcoal) - - 300 Brand the factor, clerk of (char- coal) 324 Braun the physician and his wife (black chalk) .... 337 Braun and his wife, 2 large sheets (black chalk) - 338 Braun (pencil) .... 338 Brussels, Godmother of Diirer’s hostess in 300 Castell, Bernhart von (charcoal - 319 Child (water-colour drawing) - 318 Child’s Head .... 333 Child’s Head on linen - - 292 Christ Dead .... 305 Christ, Head of - - - - 328 Clausen 316 Conrad, the Sculptor’s wife (char- coal) ..... 29 7 Conrad, the Sculptor ... 337 Cornelius, the Antwerp Secretary (chalk) ..... 322 Denmark, King of (charcoal) - 341 Drawings on linen, three (water- colour) 318 Ebner, Hans (charcoal) - - 307 Ebner, Hans .... 307 Emmerich, Diirer’s host at - - 31 1 Enden, Peter von, Durer’s host at Aachen - 307 TO IN THE JOURNAL. Enden, Peter von, Father-in-law of (charcoal) - 307 Erasmus 300 Emu, Durer’s host at - - - 3 1 5 Factor of Portugal (charcoal) - 290 Factor, the new (charcoal) - - 317 Federmacher, Peter - - - 31 1 Flores, Organist to the Arch- duchess Margaret (charcoal) - 319 Forherwerger (charcoal) - - 310 Costumes (white and black on grey paper) .... 335 Frenchman - - - - 316 Girl, Sketch of, at Goes, in the costume of the place - - 314 Groland, Christopher (chalk) - 307 Haller, Niclas (charcoal) - - 310 Has, Jean de, his wife and two daughters (charcoal), the maid and the old woman (pencil), in sketch-book - - - - 314 Has, Jean de, son-in-law - - 316 Haunolt, Anthony (large paper, chalk) - - - - 33 s Heads, three (black and white on grey paper) - - - - 335 Hochstetter, Ambrose (charcoal) 329 House, plan for a - - - 305 Hungersberg, Felix, the lute player - - - - - 291 Hungersberg, Felix, kneeling (‘ done with the pen in his own book’) 313 Italian Gentleman - - - 306 Jacob (Jacob Cornells?) (char- coal) - - - - - 337 Jacob, the Rogendorff’s Painter (charcoal) .... 303 24 — 2 372 INDEX TO WORKS. PAGE Jan, Goldsmith of Brussels (char- coal) - > - - - - 335 Jan, Goldsmith of Brussels Wife of 335 Jan the Marble Cutter (black chalk) 320 Kopfingrin’s Sister (charcoal) - 307 Ivopfingrin’s Sister (pencil) - 307 Kotzler, George - - - 316 Ivratzer, Nicolaus, the Astrono- mer 293 Lady of Bruges - 306 Lady of Emmerich - - 3 1 1 Lamparter’s, Dr., son (charcoal) - 297 Lieber, Hans, of Ulm (charcoal) - 328 Lion at Ghent (pencil) - - 327 Liibeck, Jacob von (charcoal) - 303 Lucas of Danzig (charcoal) - 324 Maiden, a Beautiful (two drawings in pencil) - - - - 321 Man, Arms of a - 318 Margaret, Regent of the Nether- lands, two drawings for, on parchment .... 305 Marini, Jan, treasurer to Margaret (charcoal) .... 292 Marx, Goldsmith of Bruges (char- coal) 329 Mount of Olives (two sketches on half-sheets) - - - - 335 Mummeries, sketch for, for the Fugger’s factor - - - 319 Mummeries, two sheets of, for Thomasin - - - - 319 Negro-woman (pencil) - - 324 Noblewoman, a - - - - 305 Nobleman, an English (charcoal) 334 Nobleman, an English, Coat-of- Arms for, in colours - - 325 Opitius, ‘ the Italian with the crooked nose ’ - - - 292 Patenir, Joachim (pencil) - - 328 Pfinzing, Mertin (in sketch-book) 307 Plaffroth, Hans (charcoal) - - 293 Planckfelt, Jobst, Dtirer’s host in Antwerp .... 290 Planckfelt, Jobst, Arms of - - 318 Planckfelt, Jobst, Wife of (char- 318 coal) 318 PAGE Ploos, Jan (pencil) - - - 326 Polonius, Thomas, of Rome (char- coal) 329 Pombelly, Bernard - - - 317 Portuguese, Servant of the (char- coal) 316 Prtick, Jaracott (charcoal) - - 303 Relinger, Jacob (charcoal) - - 336 Resurrection, the (three sketches in half-sheets) ... 335 Rodrigo (large sheet, black and white) 324 Rogendorff Arms (on wood) 302, 303 Rogendorff, Wolff von (pencil) - 305 Schalken, Gott, the Sister of - 309 Schlauderspach, George (charcoal) 307 Schnabhannen - - - - 316 Sebastian the Procurator, the Daughter of - - - - 317 Sebastian, the Daughterof (pencil) 320 Shield _ 335 Soiler, Niclas - - - - 316 Spaniard, a (charcoal) - - 304 Stabius, Arms of (on wood) - 310 Stabius, Arms of - - - 318 Stecher, Bernhart, and his Wife - 337 Stecher, Wife of 337 Stecher’s Wife’s Sister’s Daughter 338 Steffan the Chamberlain - - 337 Steffan the Chaplain - - - 313 Sturm ..... 307 Sword-Handle ... - 334 Tomasin, the Genoese (charcoal)- 291 Tomasin, Jungfrau Suten, Daugh- ter of 293 Tomasin, Son and Daughter of (charcoal) - - - - 318 Tomasin, Vincent and Gerhartus, brothers of (charcoal) - - 291 Tomasin, Vincentio, brother of - 292 Tomasin’s House, sketch for (half- colours) ----- 322 Topler, Paulus (in sketch-book) - 307 Van Leyden, Lucas (pencil) - 337 Van Orley, Bernard (charcoal) - 300 Virgin, the (small painting on linen) - - - - - 291 Woman’s Head, sketch for the Goldsmiths ... - 295 INDEX TO WORKS. 373 PLASTIC PAGE Birth of St. John the Baptist, in Hone-stone (British Museum) - 259 Carvings described by Nagler - 261 Child, small carved figure of a, alluded to in journal - - 296 Ecce Homo (Brunswick) • • 260 Fountain and Winged Love (Dresden) .... 261 WORKS. 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