Rambles of an Archaeologist Among Old Books and in Old Places Part 12

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 228.--The Town Walls, Nurnberg.]

The "uncouth rhyme" was the familiar old proverb which told of the universal trade of the old city, couched in the few words--

_Nurnberg's hand, Geht durch alle land;_

and which may be rendered in our modern vernacular--

"Nurnberg's hand Goes through every land."

This proud boast was more truthful than boasts are in general; its artisans literally sent their handiwork far and wide, their connections were great, and their city was the centre of trade between the East and West; for, prior to the discovery of the circ.u.mnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope, it was the depot for eastern merchandise, which was princ.i.p.ally sent with their own productions from Venice and Genoa; its convenient central position in Europe enabling its traders to distribute such produce, and all others coming to it, by means of the Danube and the Rhine to the north and west of Europe. Its own manufacturers were also much esteemed, and their works in metal highly valued, whether consisting of armour for the knight or bijouterie for his lady. The city, in fact, held within its warehouses the combined results of the taste, luxury, and necessities of the age, and was busied in exchanging them with the great trading towns of the low countries,--Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp,--the trade of the latter rising on the decline of that of old Nurnberg, whose inland position kept it far away from the sea-traffic which resulted from the discovery already alluded to. The religious wars contributed ultimately to accelerate its downfall at the commencement of the seventeenth century, and when peace was again restored, prosperity had flown in the turmoil.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 229.--The Castle, Nurnberg.]

It was during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that Nurnberg attained its greatest prosperity. At this time it was a free city of the German empire, possessing an independent domain around it extending twenty-three German miles, and was enabled to furnish the Emperor with six thousand soldiers. Its castle had been the home of these rulers from the twelfth century: memories of such inhabitants may still be traced.

"In the court-yard of the castle, bound with many an iron band, Stands the mighty linden, planted by Queen Cunigunde's hand."

The old tree still overshadows the inner yard of the castle, and the "Heathen Tower" tells of still earlier times. The entire place is full of antique memories; it has no sympathy with modern life; and you stand in its quiet crumbling walls, and expect, if the silence be broken at all, it will be by the heavy tread and clanking echo of a mail-clad knight. Maximilian himself and his knights, so quaintly delineated by Hans Burgmair, might rise from their graves, and enter their old quarters as if they had but left them yesterday, so unchanged is the aspect of the picturesque old castle which crowns the rock, and was erst the proud home of Germany's proudest rulers.

But why dwell on the past glories of the warlike great? rather let us again quote the words of Longfellow, and exclaim

"Not thy councils, not thy Kaisers, win for thee the world's regard; But thy painter Albert Durer, and Hans Sachs the cobbler bard."

Of the latter worthy we shall discourse anon; but the place of honour and our primary attention must now be given to the artist.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 230.]

In the city of Nurnberg, on the 20th of May, in the year 1471, the house of the goldsmith, Albert Durer, rejoiced over the birth of a son. Albert was thrifty, industrious, and had achieved for himself a good position among the burghers of the old town. He was a native of Cola in Hungary, but had sought congenial employ early in life where patronage was more rife, and had entered the service of the goldsmith, Jerome Haller, who had perfected him in a knowledge of his art, and finding the young man worthy, he had ultimately given him his daughter in marriage, living to rejoice with him over his increasing prosperity, and to congratulate him on the birth of his son, who was destined to bear the same names as his father, and to give them an undying celebrity. The young Albert grew up a handsome, intellectual lad, and his tastes were such as an artistic life in early youth might lead him to. The old goldsmiths were indeed the best patrons of ancient art; but for them an important branch of it--ornamental design--would have wanted the constancy of inventive spur, and the art of engraving and printing from incised plates originated in their workshops. They were intimately connected with the artists of their day; and the greatest among them did not disdain to furnish designs for their artisans. Hence the great variety and flow of fancy exhibited in their works. This intercommunication benefited both parties, and should be a lesson to modern exclusiveness, as it is a sort of key to the reason why the artistic beauty of the past eclipses much of the artisan's work of the present age; and why also it displays an abundance of creative ingenuity, which can scarcely be compatible with the narrow studio a modern workshop has made itself. The early intercourse of young Durer with art and artists, spurred him on to desire to occupy himself in greater works than he could find himself employed upon in his father's house. He had learned nearly all he could learn there, and had diligently acquired the power to execute good works as a goldsmith by the time he had reached his sixteenth year; but he was wearied with the task of copying, and wished to join the ranks of the master spirits of whom he occasionally caught a glimpse in the hours of business. He also would be an artist, and communicated his higher aspirations to his father. The elder Durer had worked his way patiently on by a slow and steady course, and could not understand why his son, now a good workman, with a fair prospect of equally succeeding in trade, should not be content to do as he had done. He had also that unpoetic thrifty style of looking at the whole question, which led him to consider his son as making a total wreck of the many years' study which he had already gone through to fit him for the goldsmith's trade; and he was, consequently, much displeased. He considered the question in the light of a positive loss for an uncertain gain, and somewhat rudely dismissed it from his mind. Like the majority of men, he could not bear that his son should shape himself a new course by the aid of the strong will of his own genius, when he considered the old course the best. He had rested on the hope of his son's aid, which he saw he was well able to give him; and the prospect of his quietly succeeding him as a thrifty goldsmith of Nurnberg he thought enough to satisfy the most ardent hope.

It was long before he could patiently listen to his son's contrary mode of reasoning, and it was not until the young Albert, by reiterated attacks of earnest argument, closely but carefully enforced, had in some degree shaken him, that he would turn a willing ear to his wishes. Once having done this, and become fully aware of the strength of his son's hopes, and the eagerness of his aspirations, the elder Durer changed his whole conduct, and with laudable zeal sought the best artist by whom his son should be instructed. There were always many in Nurnberg, but none had better reputation than Michael Wohlgemuth; he also was an earnest, busy man, constantly employed in many branches of his profession, possessing in fact a great deal of the trading spirit, and therefore he was the man with whom Durer would most desire to see his son studying.

It was ultimately arranged that the young Albert should be bound to him for the term of three years to learn the art of painting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 231.--Michael Wohlgemuth.]

Wohlgemuth was at this period in the full vigour of his life, and was performing an abundance of labour; he painted pictures, he furnished designs for goldsmiths and artisans, he ill.u.s.trated books, and was a thriving and prosperous man. His works would not delight any eye now as they once charmed the Nurnbergers. They are essentially stiff and hard, exhibiting the exaggeration of form and att.i.tude which makes early art look grotesque: he was fond of stern drawing, and generally painted a firm black outline to his figures, which has a very harsh effect. His colouring is equally positive, and his saints are generally arrayed in prismatic tints, relieved by the gold backgrounds which prevailed so constantly in early art. His portrait painted by Durer at a later period of his life, is characteristic of the man. It is now in the Pinacothek at Munich, and has been well described by Dr. Kugler, as delineating "a strangely sharp, bony, and severe countenance." Wohlgemuth was born at Nurnberg in 1434, and died in 1519. His native city still contains some of his best works, particularly in the Moritzkapelle, that sacred resting-place of quaint old art, thus religiously preserved for an age which brings to it few wors.h.i.+ppers. It is but justice, however, to one who was great in his own day, to observe that he occasionally rises above the level of the bald style above indicated; and the eminent writer we have just now quoted, observes,--"whenever tranquil feeling is to be shown, he then exhibits many indications of a sense for grace in form, and tenderness in expression;" and at a later period of his life,--"the sharp cutting style, which strikes us so disagreeably in his early works, is much softened: the colouring is also warm and powerful."

He was certainly the best of the Nurnberg painters until his pupil eclipsed him. Dr. Waagen considers the picture in the south aisle of the Frauenkirche as one of the best works now possessed by his native city; it represents St. Gregory celebrating ma.s.s amid many other saints; but the men of Nurnberg seem most to value those in the Moritzkapelle, and which he painted in 1487 for the high altar of the Schusterkirche, at the expense of the family of Peringsdorfer. They represent various saints life-size, and are drawn with much vigour, and coloured with considerable power; the outlines are strongly marked in black, and they exhibit his full merits. We select the figure of St. Margaret as an example of his style; the somewhat constrained and angular att.i.tude of the right arm carries the mind back to the missal paintings of the previous century; the small, pinched, and confused folds of the drapery, belong to the German school almost entirely; and to it may be traced Durer's errors in this particular portion of art. In the figure we have selected from his works for comparison, we see the same peculiar, "crinkled," minute folds, completely destructive of dignity or breadth, and untrue to nature: but we see also a grandeur of general conception, and the bold leading lines of the composition unbroken by such minutiae, which are secondary to the main idea. It represents St. Anne (the mother of the Virgin) clasping her hands in anguish at the refusal of the high priest to accept the offering of herself and husband in the temple at Jerusalem, and occurs in the first of Durer's series of woodcuts ill.u.s.trating the life of the Virgin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 232.--St. Margaret, after Wohlgemuth.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 233.--St. Anne, after Durer.]

This striking peculiarity of treatment adopted by the early German artists in their draperies, was once explained to us by an old native artist, who a.s.sured us that it was entirely caused by the models for study which they universally employed. These were small lay figures, over which draperies were cast formed in _wet paper_, disposed according to the artist's fancy, and allowed to dry and set in the rigid form we see in their pictures. We have nowhere met with this key to the mode of study adopted by them; but it so completely accords with the character of their drawings, and would be so easy to attain in this material, and so difficult in any other, that it seems to bear the impress of accuracy.

The work of Wohlgemuth, by which he is now most familiarly known, are the ill.u.s.trations of the _Nurnberg Chronicle_, of Hartmann Schedel, published in 1493, which he executed in conjunction with William Pleydenwurff. This once famous history is a folio, full of historic learning, and ill.u.s.trated by more than a thousand woodcuts, many of which are very large. It would appear that Pleydenwurff executed the views of cities and minor ill.u.s.trations, and his greater fellow-labourer designed and drew upon the wood the historical scenes. In conformity with the custom of ancient chronicles, the history begins with the creation of the world, the various incidents connected therewith being all delineated. There is considerable invention, but great lack of grace, in all these designs; they bear, however, strong resemblances to the leading characteristics of Wohlgemuth's paintings, and they are superior to the woodcuts that preceded him, particularly as regards the amount of finish and chiaroscuro they exhibit. The earliest woodcuts by Durer bear some resemblance to these works, and are in the dry hard style of a master who evidently valued positive drawing at a higher rate than the blandishments of colour; this, indeed, has always been a characteristic of German art.

The three years of Durer's pupilage having expired, in conformity with the usual German custom, he travelled to see the world and improve himself. Of the early works of his genius we have no certain trace. That he was a good portrait painter we may be a.s.sured by the examination of his own picture in the gallery of the Uffizi at Florence, painted in 1498, and that of his father, in the Pinacotheck at Munich; but earlier chalk drawings exist, showing his proficiency in this branch of art at the age of fourteen. In the course of his peregrinations in Germany he visited his brother artists, returning to his native city in 1494. His earliest works on his return seem to have been designs on wood, for in 1498 appeared the series of woodcuts, ill.u.s.trating the Revelations of St. John. Dr. Kugler says "we should regard them as proofs of his activity in the years immediately preceding; such at least is the case in similar works. In these compositions the artist has already attained great and peculiar excellence, but in these, as might be expected from the subject, the fantastic element forms the groundwork of the whole.

These mystical subjects are conceived in a singularly poetical spirit; the wonderful and monstrous meet us in living bodily forms. Some of them exhibit a power of representation to the eye, and a grandeur of conception the more surprising, since the shapeless exuberance of the scriptural visions might easily have led the artist astray, as has indeed frequently happened in the case of others who have attempted these subjects." In artistic effects these cuts are inferior to his latter works, and the drawing is sometimes more defective; but in inventive power they are master-pieces, and no artist before or since has so successfully treated these mysteries. The reputation of Durer was well-established by these cuts, and gave him a good position in his native town, which he never left afterwards, except for a journey to Venice in 1506, and to the Netherlands in 1520.

All Durer's tastes were essentially national, if indeed they may not be said to be narrowed within the circle of the town of Nurnberg and its neighbourhood. He married soon after his return; and living entirely at home, prosecuted his art with unwearied a.s.siduity, the avarice of his wife urging still further his constant labours. His studies seem to have been made from the people around him, or from the scenes which constantly met his eye. Thus, in his scripture prints, the people of Nurnberg and the peasants of the neighbourhood, figure as representatives of the ancient Jews. St. Joseph is a Nurnberg carpenter, and the Virgin herself seems to have been modelled from some fair maiden of the city. The stout burghers, who witness the happy meeting of St.

Joachim and Anne at the golden gate of the temple, in his series of prints ill.u.s.trative of the Life of the Virgin, are such as Durer might have seen daily loitering by the tower gate opposite his own windows; and the modest-looking maiden with the extravagantly fas.h.i.+onable head-dress, whom he has introduced in his "Marriage of the Virgin," has been absolutely copied from nature; the original sketch, made by his own hand from a Nurnberg damsel, is preserved with many similar studies by him in the British Museum. He was untiring in his converse with nature as he saw it around him; and the minutely careful sketches which now enrich our national collection, testify to his industry and anxiety for truth as the basis of his labours.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 234.--View from Durer's House.]

The old town of Nurnberg was eminently picturesque, and was enriched with artistic works by the best men of the day. The wealth of its inhabitants was expended on their houses within and without, and the churches were lavishly adorned with paintings and sculpture, as well as with other riches of art connected with the service of religion. In its quaint old streets might be studied the fruits of the faith and feeling of its inhabitants. Numerous figures of the Holy Mother decorated the street corners, or were enshrined over the portals of the doors of the merchantmen, the light burning before each serving the double purpose of religion and utility, in a city of dark tortuous lanes. The ingenuity of the mason and sculptor was taxed in varied inventions for the further adornment of the homes of the wealthy; and the numerous specimens of artistic ironwork still remaining attest the taste and opulence of the merchant princes of the old city. Art was thus wedded to utility as well as to luxury, and at every step in Nurnberg the attention will still be arrested by its influence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 235.--The Residence of Albert Durer.]

Durer lived in a large mansion at one extremity of the town, close to the gate from whence he could in a few minutes escape from the pent-up city to the open fields. His house is one of those roomy buildings in which there is enough timber to build at least a dozen modern houses.

The lower portion is stone, the upper, with its open galleries, of wood.

The view from his doors embraced the town gate, and the picturesque tower, known as the Thiergartenthor, beside it. The house between that and the narrow lane which leads up the castle hill was the property at that time of one Martin Kotzel, who, having twice employed himself in pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and in measuring the number of paces the Saviour trod on the Via Dolorosa, had determined on his return to consider his house as the representative of Pilate's house, the Gate of Nurnberg as that of Jerusalem, the churchyard of St. John in the fields beyond, as Calvary, and the road between as the Via Dolorosa, and to cause representations of the events of the Saviour's journey in the line of this road at the various distances where they were traditionally supposed to occur; and the chief sculptor of Nurnberg, Adam Kraft, was employed to execute the sculptures, which still stand a monument of the piety of the old citizen, whose house (known by the figure of an armed knight at its angle) is still familiarly called "Pilate's House." Time has written strange alterations on these old works, and wanton injury has also been done to them, but there still remains enough to show the ability of their conception and execution.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 236.--The Himmelsthor, Nurnberg Castle.]

The castle comprises the somewhat rambling series of buildings of all ages, styles, and dates, which crown the rock above. The singular manner in which this isolated ma.s.s of stone suddenly rises from the sandy plain may have induced the first foundation of the city, by the secure locality it afforded the castle of a ruler in days of old. Its early history is shrouded in obscurity--one of its towers has been attributed to the Romans; it can still show undoubted works of the ninth century in the chapels of Sts. Ottmar and Margaret, from which time it received alterations and additions of all kinds, ending in leaving it the picturesque a.s.semblage of quaint old buildings which it at present remains. The Himmelsthor, or "tower of heaven," is the name given to the large round tower which is built within the castle precincts on the highest point of the rock, and which, as its t.i.tle implies, soars toward heaven, and forms a prominent feature in all views of Nurnberg. The panorama from its summit is singularly striking, comprising the entire country for an immense distance round. The _alt Feste_, where Wallenstein encamped, in his memorable defence of these lines and of the city when besieged by Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, and the blue hills known as the Franconian Switzerland, terminating with the Moritzberg, give relief to the otherwise flat vicinity. This tower has been introduced in the background of some of Durer's designs, as well as other portions of the castle. The old town-walls also figure in those scenes from Holy Writ he so frequently designed. The anachronisms which result from such a mode of realising scenes in past history were sufficiently familiar in his own day to save them from all adverse criticism; indeed, it had become the formula of early art, thus to verify sacred events by adapting them to the experiences of every-day life around, to which it never appealed in vain. To comprehend fully the art of any one period, and the talent of any artist of that period, we must go back mentally to the time in which he flourished, and measure him by such as had preceded him. In this way alone can we form a right judgment of his powers, and award him his due place in art.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 237.--Entrance Hall of Durer's House.]

In the days of Albert Durer the street in which he resided was known as "die Zisselga.s.se;" it is now appropriately named after the great artist himself. When he lived and worked in his roomy old mansion, Nurnberg was not quite so crowded within its own walls as it has since become by the pressure of modern exigencies; and Durer's house appears to have had out-buildings, and, most probably, a small garden, such as was awarded to better-cla.s.s houses in mediaeval times. Dr. Frederick Campe tells us that he bought, in 1826, from the proprietor of the house, a balcony in which Durer worked in summer time, and which originally must have commanded some sheltered s.p.a.ce wherein a few trees might grow. The house has since been purchased by a society of artists, who honour themselves by that act, and do honour to Durer by preserving it as much as possible in the state in which he left it, and exhibiting his works in the rooms.

The interior of the house has undergone some renovation, but it has been done cautiously, and in strict character with the original portions: it chiefly consists of new panelling and new doors, and they are quaintly carved in the style of the sixteenth century. The external door of the house still retains its old ironwork and lock fittings.[212-*] We pa.s.s through from the street, and enter a roomy hall, with a wide pa.s.sage on one side, and an equally wide staircase on the other, which leads to the upper floors. A ponderous beam supports the ceiling, and a ma.s.sive wooden pillar props the centre of this beam.

The profusion of timber, and abundance of s.p.a.ce accorded to pa.s.sages and staircase, are indicative of past times, when wood was of less value than it has since become. The floor on which this pillar rests is flagged with stones; a small parlour is to the right; we pa.s.s it, and midway in the pa.s.sage come to a low door leading into a small square room,--it was the studio of Durer.

"Here, when art was still religion, with a simple, reverent heart, Lived and laboured Albert Durer, the Evangelist of Art."[212-]

It is lighted from the street by a long narrow window about five feet from the ground inserted in the top of an arch in the wall, as seen from the inside, beneath which is a shelf of capacious breadth. A small richly-carved altar-piece is now placed within it, and a few chairs. It is a quiet secluded room, having no communication with any other. The top of the walls and turrets of the old town, and a small patch of sky, may be seen by an upward glance at the window; but there is no feature to distract the denizen of the apartment: it is a place for concentration of mind, and such must have been Durer's habits, as the enormous amount of his works show. Leaving this room and proceeding farther, we reach the quaintly constructed kitchen, with its enormous fire-place half filling the apartment. The one small window to the street lets in a gleam of light such as Rembrandt would have admired.

The arched door is fitted with a lock of that peculiar form and character which a.s.sure the spectator that it is the handwork of an ingenious smith of Durer's day; its broad plate is decorated with a simple ornament consisting of the favourite gnarled twigs and leaves, so constantly adopted in German decorations of all kinds, at the end of the fifteenth, and during the sixteenth century. We leave the ground floor and ascend the wide stairs. The front room on the first floor commands a pleasant view of the small _Platz_ opposite the house, as it fronts the Thiergartenthor, and the castled crag rises grandly over the houses beside it. The walls are panelled, and the beams across the wooden ceiling chamfered, and slightly carved. The aspect of the whole room is striking, and it is rendered more impressive by the many examples of Durer's genius placed within it, as well as of others by his master Wohlgemuth. The woodcuts are framed, and comprise the best examples of both masters; there is also an original drawing on vellum testifying to the minute accuracy of Durer's studies. It is the figure of a lion, bearing date 1512, drawn with all that patient care which characterises his transcripts from nature. In the British Museum is a large volume containing numerous studies for his princ.i.p.al works, and it is a wonderful record of truth-seeking patience, as the minute parts of his designs appear to have been drawn from nature as carefully as if such sketches had been parts of a finished picture; his unwearied a.s.siduity in his profession has never been exceeded.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 238.--Durer's Studio.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 239.--Kitchen in Durer's House.]

Nurnberg contains fewer of Durer's works than a stranger might be led to expect.[215-*] The print-room of our British Museum, with its great number of engravings and drawings, and its wonderful sculpture in hone-stone by him, is a far better place to study the works of this artist. There is, however, one work of singular interest preserved in the old city, which is worth a long journey to see. It is the portrait of the old Nurnberg patrician--Jerome Holzschuher, the friend and patron of the artist. It represents a cheerful, healthy man over whose head fifty-seven years have pa.s.sed without diminis.h.i.+ng his freshness and buoyancy of spirit; the clear complexion, searching eye, and general vigour which characterise the features, almost seem to contradict the white hair that falls in thick ma.s.ses over the forehead. For freshness, power, and truth, this portrait may challenge comparison with any of its age. Time has also dealt leniently with the picture, for it is as clear and bright as the day it was painted, and is carefully preserved in its original frame, into which a sliding wooden panel is made to fit and cover it: the outside being emblazoned with the _armes parlantes_ of the family of Holzschuher--a _wooden shoe_, raised from the ground in the manner of the Venetian _chopine_. The picture was painted in 1526, and "combines," says Kugler, "the most perfect modelling with the freest handling of the colours; and is certainly the most beautiful of all this master's portraits, since it plainly shows how well he could seize nature in her happiest moments, and represent her with irresistible power." It still remains in the possession of the Holzschuher family, and is located in their mansion at the back of the Egidienkirche, where it is politely shown to strangers on proper application; and should the visitor have the advantage accorded to the writer, of the attendance of the last representative of the family, he will see that the same clear eye and expressive features have also descended as a heir-loom in the house.

It is at Florence, Vienna, and Munich, that Durer's paintings are princ.i.p.ally located. The Castle at Nurnberg possesses his portraits of the Emperors Charlemagne and Sigismund. In the Moritzkapelle is the picture which he painted for the church of St. Sebald in Nurnberg, by the order of Holzschuher. It represents the dead Saviour just removed from the cross, and mourned over by his mother and friends. It is peculiarly brilliant in colour, and there is considerable force in the deep rich draperies with which the figures are clothed, but it has the defect visible in the works of Durer's master--a love of hard black outlines. In this picture the faces, hands, and feet are delineated by lines very slightly relieved by shadow, and reminding the spectator too much of his woodcuts. This love for expressing firm outline is better adapted to such works as his wall-paintings in the Rathhaus, or Town-hall. They are executed on the north wall of the grand saloon, and are divided by the princ.i.p.al door leading from the gallery; on one side of which is an allegory of the "Unjust Judge" (which formed one of the series of moral broadsheets published by Hans Sachs); and a group of musicians in a gallery, probably representing those that belonged to the town; on the other side of the door the entire length of the wall is occupied by the allegorical triumphal car of the Emperor Maximilian I., a work which Durer copied on wood in a series of large cuts, published in 1522. In a fanciful car, drawn by many horses, sits the emperor in regal state, attended by all the virtues and attributes which may be supposed to wait on moral royalty. The very nature of such a work is beset with difficulties, and it is seldom that any artist has entirely surmounted them. State allegories present small fascinations to any but the statesman glorified; but Dr. Kugler in his criticism of this work, while he acknowledges its defects, is prepared to say that some of the figures "display motives of extraordinary beauty, such as might have proceeded from the graceful simplicity of Raphael."[218-*] This painting has suffered from time, and "restoration;" the design may be best studied in the woodcut made from it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 240.--House of Melchior Pfintzing.]

The Emperor Maximilian was a great patron of the arts, but particularly of that branch which had newly arisen--the art of wood-engraving--which he fostered with continual care, and by the help of such men as Durer, Burgmeyer, Schaufflein, and Cranach, produced works which have never been excelled. During this period, extending over the first quarter of the sixteenth century, a series of elaborate woodcuts were executed under his own auspices, which were, however, princ.i.p.ally devoted to his own glorification. Two of these are the well-known "Adventures of Sir Thuerdank," and "The Wise King," written in ponderous folios after the fas.h.i.+on of the old romances, by Melchior Pfintzing, who resided in the old parsonage house of St. Sebald (he being a canon of that church), a picturesque building on the sloping ground beside it, which rises upward to the Schlossberg, and which still retains the aspect it bore in his days; its beautiful oriel and open balcony still testify to the taste of mediaeval architects. It is but a short distance from Durer's house, and he must have frequently visited here. Here also, came the emperor to examine the progress of these works: and the great interest he took in superintending them has been recorded; for it is said that during the time when Jerome Retzsch was engaged in engraving on wood the triumphal car from the drawing by Durer, the emperor was almost a daily visitant to his house. This anecdote may naturally lead here to the consideration of the question--did Durer _engrave_ the cuts which bear his name, or did he only _draw them_ upon the wood for the engraver? It is generally considered that all cuts bearing an artist's mark are engraved by that artist, but this is in reality an error resulting from modern practice.

It is now the custom for wood-engravers to place _their_ names or marks on their cuts, and very seldom those of the artists who draw the designs for them upon the wood. It was the reverse in the old time; then it was usual to place that of the designer alone, and as he drew upon wood every line to be engraved, after the manner of a pen-and-ink drawing, the engraver had little else to do than cut the wood from between the s.p.a.ces: hence his art was a very mechanical one, and his name was seldom recorded. That of Retzsch does not appear on the car just named, but the mark of Durer solely; and when we consider the vast amount of labour performed by Durer as an artist, it is not likely that he wasted time in the mechanical labour of cutting out his own drawings when he could employ it more profitably. The Baron Derschau, himself a collector of old cuts, a.s.sured Dr. Dibdin "that he once possessed a journal of Durer's, from which it appeared that he was in the habit of drawing upon the blocks, and that his men performed the remaining operation of cutting away the wood." Bartsch is decidedly of opinion "that he had never employed himself in this kind of work." Mr. W. A. Chatto, in his anonymous "History of Wood Engraving," has gone into this question with much research and learning, and comes to the same conclusion; which is strengthened by the fact, that the names of fourteen engravers, and the initials of several others, were found engraved on the backs of the cuts they executed for the "Triumph of Maximilian," now preserved in the imperial library at Vienna; the names of others are incidentally preserved; and among the drawings by Durer in the British Museum, is one of a young lady, whom he has designated "wood engraver," and who was most probably employed by him. There is also a sufficient difference in the style and manner of cutting his designs, which shows they must have been done by different hands. It is not possible to note here a t.i.the of the cuts done from his drawings.[221-*] His great serials are the "Apocalypse," published in 1498, the two series of the "Pa.s.sion of Christ," and the "Life of the Virgin" (from which we give a specimen, Fig. 241, "Christ bidding Farewell to his Mother"), all published in 1511. His largest woodcut was published in 1515, the "Triumphal Arch of the Emperor Maximilian," and this, like the car already alluded to, was engraved on a series of ninety-two wood blocks, and then the impressions pasted together, forming a large print ten feet high. It is a work of great labour, and displays considerable invention.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 241.--Christ bidding farewell to his Mother.]

Of Durer's powers as a painter we have already spoken; but he excelled also as an engraver on copper, and his prints of "Adam and Eve,"

"Melancholia," and the small "Life of Christ," have not been surpa.s.sed.

To him also we owe the invention of etching; he practised the art on iron and on copper, and it is impossible to overvalue its utility. In addition to his other labours he executed several pieces of sculpture, one of which, the "Naming of John the Baptist," we have already alluded to as preserved in the British Museum, and some few others in hone-stone, bearing his well-known mark, exist. He also wrote on Art, and a portion of the original ma.n.u.scripts of his book on the proportions of the human figure, is still preserved in the library of the old Dominican monastery at Nurnberg. He was a good mathematician, he also studied engineering, and is believed to have designed and superintended the additional fortifications in the town walls beside the castle, which are remarkable as the earliest examples of the more modern system of defence, which originated in the south of Europe, and with which Durer became acquainted during his sojourn in Venice, and the fruits of which he thus practically brought to the service of his native city.[223-*] He published too an essay on the fortification of towns. In fact, there were few subjects to which his mind was directed that he did not make himself complete master of.

Thus lived and laboured Durer in the city of his adoption, studying nature most diligently, and combining therewith high imaginings of his own. In 1506 he undertook a journey to Venice, and its influence improved him greatly. In the letters he wrote on this journey to his intimate friend Pirkheimer he acknowledges this; in one of them he declares "the things which pleased me eleven years ago please me no longer." He also notes the popularity which had preceded him, and says, "the Italian artists counterfeit my works in the churches and wherever else they can find them, and yet they blame them, and declare that as they are not in accordance with ancient art they are worthless."[223-] But though subjected to the slights of the unworthy, Durer gratefully records the n.o.bler acts of n.o.bler men, and notes that Giovanni Bellini publicly praised him before many gentlemen, "so that I am full of affection for him." This n.o.ble old man did not confine his acts to praise alone, but came to Durer's lodging and requested him to paint him a picture, as he was desirous to possess one of his works, and he would pay liberally for it. Durer at this time was far from rich, was merely paying his way by the practice of his art; and the small sums of money he notes as sending for the use of his wife and widowed mother in Nurnberg, sufficiently attest this, as well as his request to Pirkheimer to help them with loans which he would repay.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 242.--Gate of Pirkheimer's House.]