Portraits are always more satisfactory than subject pictures, a fact which is particularly noticeable to-day. There are scores of painters whose portrait-painting is considerably more impressive than their subject-painting — not because portrait-painting is less difficult, but because it is more difficult to detect the weaknesses of painting in a portrait.
From the early Goethe-praised self portrait of 1493 down to the wonderful portraits of 1526 there are but few that are not rare works of Art, and of the few quite a goodly proportion may not be genuine at all.
Dürer’s ego loomed large in his consciousness, and therefore, unlike Rembrandt (who also painted his own likeness time and again, though only for practice), Dürer was really proud of his person — as to be sure he had reason to be.
The portrait of 1493 shows us the young Dürer, who was in all probability betrothed to his “Agnes”; he is holding the emblem of Fidelity — Man’s Troth as it is called in German — which on Goethe’s authority I may explain is “Eryngo,” or anglice Sea-holly, in his hand.
Five years later this same Dürer, having probably returned from Venice, appears in splendid array, a true gentleman, gloved, and his naturally wavy hair crisply crimped, clad in a most fantastic costume.
As his greatest portrait the Munich one, dated 1500, has always been acclaimed. His features here bear a striking resemblance to the traditional face of Christ, and no doubt the resemblance was intentional. The nose, characterised in other pictures by the strongly raised bridge, loses this disfigurement in its frontal aspect. There is an almost uncanny expression of life in his eyes; dark ages of Byzantine belief and Art spring to the mind, and compel the spectator into an attitude of reverence not wholly due to the merits of the painting.
The comparison with Holbein’s work naturally obtrudes itself, when Dürer’s portraits are the subject of discussion.
In the Wallace collection is a most delightful little miniature portrait of Holbein, by his own hand. Compare the two heads. What a difference! Holbein the craftsman par excellence; the man to whom drawing came as easily as seeing comes to us. With shrewd, cold, weighing eyes he sizes himself up in the mirror. He, too, is a man of knowledge; he does his work faithfully and exceedingly well, but leaves it there. He never moralises, draws no conclusions, infers nothing, states merely facts — and if the truth must be said, is the greater craftsman.
Dürer’s mind was deeper; one might say the springs of his talent welling upwards had to break through strata of cross-lying thought, reaching his hand after much tribulation, and teaching it to set down all he knew.
So the Paumgaertner portraits, at one time supposed to represent Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen — the Reformation knights — show a marvellous grasp of character, wholly astonishing in the unconventional attitude, whilst the portrait of his aged master, Michael Wohlgemut, overstates in its anxiety not to understate.
His portrait of Kaiser Maximilian, quiet, dignified, is yet somewhat small in conception.
Two years later, however, he painted a portrait now in the Prado, representing presumably the Nuremberg patrician, Hans Imhof the Elder.
Purely technically considered this picture appears to be immeasurably above his own portrait of 1500, and above any other excepting the marvellous works of 1526. Whoever this Hans Imhof was, Dürer has laid bare his very soul. These later portraits show that Dürer stood on the threshold of the modern world.
PLATE VIII. — SS. PAUL AND MARK
(From an Oil-painting in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. Finished in 1526)
See Note preceding Plate VII.
Hieronymus Holzschuer is another of Dürer’s strikingly successful efforts to portray both form and mind, and although the colour of the man’s face is of a conventional pink, yet the pale blue background, the white hair, the pink flesh, and the glaring eyes stamp themselves indelibly on the mind of the beholder, much to the detriment of the other picture in the Berlin Gallery, Jacob Muffel. Jacob Muffel, contrary to Jerome Holzschuer, looks a miser, a hypocrite, and the more unpleasant, as he does not by any means look a fool. But Dürer’s craftsmanship here exceeds that of the Holzschuer portrait, whom we love for the sake of his display of white hair and flaming eyes. The enigma to me is how a man who had painted the three last portraits mentioned, could have fallen to the level of the “Madonna with the Apple” of the same year.
The finest portrait under his name is the “Portrait of a Woman” at Berlin. This indeed is a brilliant piece of portraiture, absolutely modern in feeling, exceeding Holbein; and unless my eyes, which have not rested upon its surface for over ten years, deceive me, it is quite unlike any portrait painted by him before — the nearest perhaps being the man’s portrait at Munich of 1507. The picture is supposed to show Venetian influence, and might therefore belong to this epoch; but, to my thinking, documentary evidence alone could make this picture in its not Dürer-like mode of seeing an undoubted work from his hand.
Space forbids further enumeration, further discussion of his work. As to details of his biography the reader will find in almost every library some reliable records of his life, and several inexpensive books have also appeared of recent years.
Dürer’s life was in reality uneventful. He died suddenly on April 6, 1528, in Nuremberg, having in all probability laid the foundations of his illness on his celebrated journey into Flanders in 1520-21, where he was fêted everywhere, and right royally received both by the civic authorities and his own brothers of the palette.
His stay at Venice as a young man, and this last-mentioned journey, were the greatest adventures of his body. His mind was ever adventurous, seeking new problems, overcoming new difficulties. It is so tempting to liken him to his own “Jerome in his Study,” yet St. Jerome’s life was the very antithesis of our Dürer. In Dürer there was nothing of the “Faust-Natur,” as the Germans are fond of expressing an ill-balanced, all-probing mind. Dürer’s moral equilibrium was upheld by his deep and sincere religious convictions. He is firmly convinced that God has no more to say to humanity than the Bible records. Dürer’s difficulties end where Faust’s began.
The last years of Dürer’s life were spent in composing books on the theory and practice of Art.
To write an adequate “Life of Dürer” then is impossible in so small a compass. And if anything I said were wise, it were surely the fact that I wanted you, reader, in the very beginning to expect no more than a dim light on the treasure store of Dürer’s Thought and Dürer’s Art.
But however dim the light, I hope it has been a true light.
And here my conscience smites me! All along I may have appeared querulous, seeking to divulge Dürer’s limitations rather than his excellences.
Perhaps! There are so many misconceptions about Dürer. He was a deep-thinking man; he was like the churches of the North — narrow, steep, dimly religious within, full of traceries, lacework, gargoyles, and grotesques without.
I have read that it used to be said in Italy: All the cities of Germany were blind, with the exception of Nuremberg, which was one-eyed. True! True also of Dürer and German Art.
In 1526, two years before his death, Dürer presented a panel to his native city, now cut in two, robbed of its Protestant inscription, and hanging in the Alte Pinakothek at Munich. Dürer’s last great work!
It is as though he felt that the divine service of his life was drawing to its close. His life and Art I have likened to a Gothic Cathedral; his last works were as the closed wings of a gigantic altar-piece, before which he leaves posterity gazing overawed.
The life-size figures of this great work represent the four Apostles: St. John in flaming red, with St. Peter, St. Mark in white, with St. Paul.
Dürer’s greatest work: here for once his mind and his hand were at one.
Menacing, colossal in conception these figures rise, simple with the simplicity Dürer aimed for, and at last attained; Byzantine in their awe-inspiring grandeur. But instead of the splendour of Byzantine gold he places his
figures upon a jet-black ground, as if he wished to instil the knowledge that there is no light except that which the four Apostles reflect. He had said as much indeed himself years ago. These four figures, “painted with greater care than any other,” are his artistic last will and testament. In the letter, by which he humbly begs acceptance of these pictures from the Council, he quotes the words of the four Apostles, which his pictures illustrate, viz: —
St. Peter, in his second epistle in the second chapter.
St. John, in the first epistle in the fourth chapter.
St. Paul, in the second epistle to Timothy in the third chapter.
St. Mark, in his Gospel in the twelfth chapter.
Read them and behold: The Book and the sword! The religion of love in Saracenic fierceness. The menacing guardians of the Word.
Dürer with finality excludes the faithless from all hope. It is this finality, this absolute faith in the Word, this firm conviction of the finiteness of all things, which characterise the whole of his Art. The spirit which brooks no uncertainty and suffers no metaphor, glues a veritable sword to the lips of the “Son of man.”
This finality is the cause of Dürer’s isolation. He has no followers in the world of creative Art. Close the doors of Dürer’s cathedral and the world rolls on, rolls by unheeding.
After Dürer and Luther had gone — Luther, on whose behalf Dürer uttered so touching a prayer — Germany, the holy empire, fell upon evil times. After the death of Maximilian the fields of the cloth of gold and the fields of golden harvest were turned into rude jousting places of ruder rabble. The hand of time was set back for centuries.
We have a shrewd suspicion that Carlyle’s German, with his cowhorn blasts, did not tell the universe “what o’clock it really is.” We have a shrewd suspicion that in the beginning of last century the clocks in Germany had only just begun ticking after centuries of rest.
I am straying, reader.
What was it that Dürer had inscribed on the Apostle Panels?
“All worldly rulers in these times of danger should beware that they receive not false Teaching for the Word of God. For God will have nothing added to His Word nor yet taken away. Hear, therefore, these four excellent men, Peter, John, Paul, and Mark, their warning.”
The narrow outlook of his time speaks here!
For words which bear addition or suffer subtraction, can never be the words of God.
God’s words are worlds. Our words are stammerings, scarcely articulate.
Reader! look you, my torch burns dimly; let us back unto the day.
DÜRER by M. F. Sweetser
CONTENTS
PREFACE.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
A LIST OF ALBERT DÜRER’S CHIEF PAINTINGS
A LIST OF DÜRER’S WOOD ENGRAVINGS.
PREFACE.
This little volume presents an account of the life of one of the noblest and most versatile artists of Germany, with a passing glance at the activities of Northern Europe at the era of the Reformation. The weird and wonderful paintings of Dürer are herein concisely described, as well as the most famous and characteristic of his engravings and carvings; and his quaint literary works are enumerated. It has also been thought advisable to devote considerable space to details about Nuremberg, the scene of the artist’s greatest labors; and to reproduce numerous extracts from his fascinating Venetian letters and Lowland journals.
The modern theory as to Dürer’s wife and his home has been accepted in this work, after a long and careful examination of the arguments on both sides. It is pleasant thus to be able to aid in the rehabilitation of the much-slandered Agnes, and to have an oppressive cloud of sorrow removed from the memory of the great painter.
The chief authorities used in the preparation of this new memoir are the recent works of Dr. Thausing and Mr. W. B. Scott, with the series of articles now current in “The Portfolio,” written by Professor Colvin. Mrs. Heaton’s biography has also been studied with care; and other details have been gathered from modern works of travel and art-criticism, as well as from “The Art Journal,” “La Gazette des Beaux Arts,” and other periodicals of a similar character.
M. F. Sweetser.
CHAPTER I.
The Activities of Nuremberg. — The Dürer Family. — Early Years of Albert. — His Studies with Wohlgemuth. — The Wander-Jahre.
The free imperial city of Nuremberg, in the heart of Franconia, was one of the chief centres of the active life of the Middle Ages, and shared with Augsburg the great trans-continental traffic between Venice and the Levant and Northern Europe. Its municipal liberties were jealously guarded by venerable guilds and by eminent magistrates drawn from the families of the merchant-princes, forming a government somewhat similar to the Venetian Council. The profits of a commercial prosperity second only to that of the Italian ports had greatly enriched the thrifty burghers, aided by the busy manufacturing establishments which made the city “the Birmingham of the Middle Ages.” Public and private munificence exerted itself in the erection and adornment of new and splendid buildings; and the preparation of works of art and utility was stimulated on all sides. It was the era of the discovery of America, the revival of classic learning, and the growth of free thought in matters pertaining to religion. So far had the inventions of the artisans contributed to the comfort of the people, that Pope Pius II. said that “A Nuremberg citizen is better lodged than the King of Scots;” and so widely were they exported to foreign realms, that the proud proverb arose that
“Nuremberg’s hand
Goes through every land.”
Nuremberg still stands, a vast mediæval relic, in the midst of the whirl and activity of modern Germany, rich and thriving, but almost unchanged in its antique beauty. The narrow streets in which Dürer walked are flanked, as then, by quaint gable-roofed houses, timber-fronted, with mullioned windows and arching portals. In the faded and venerable palaces of the fifteenth century live the descendants of the old patrician families, cherishing the memories and archives of the past; and the stately Gothic churches are still rich in religious architecture, and in angular old Byzantine pictures and delicate German carvings. On the hill the castle rears its ponderous ramparts, which have stood for immemorial ages; and the high towers along the city walls have not yet bowed their brave crests to the spirit of the century of boulevards and railroads.
With two essentials of civilization, paper and printing-presses, Nuremberg supplied herself at an early day. The first paper-mill in Germany was established here in 1390; and its workmen were obliged to take an oath never to make paper for themselves, nor to reveal the process of manufacture. They went out on a strike when the mill was enlarged, but the authorities imprisoned them until they became docile once more. Koberger’s printing-house contained twenty-four presses, and employed over a hundred men, printing not only Bibles and breviaries, but also chronicles, homilies, poems, and scientific works. As the Aldine Press attracted many authors and scholars to Venice, so Koberger’s teeming press led several German literati to settle at Nuremberg. For the four first years of Dürer’s life, the wonderful mathematician and astronomer Regiomontanus dwelt here, and had no less than twenty-one books printed by Koberger. His numerous inventions and instruments awakened the deepest interest in the Nuremberg craftsmen, and stimulated a fruitful spirit of inquiry for many years.
The clockmakers of Nuremberg were famous for their ingenious productions. Watches were invented here in the year 1500, and were long known as “Nuremberg eggs.” The modern composition of brass was formed by Erasmus Ebner; wire-drawing machinery also was a Nuremberg device; the air-gun was invented by Hobsinger; the clarionet, by Denner; and the church-organs made here were the best in Germany. There were also many expert metal-workers and braziers; and fifty master-goldsmiths dwelt in the town, making e
legant and highly artistic works, images, seals, and medals, which were famous throughout Europe. The most exquisite flowers and insects, and other delicate objects, were reproduced in filagree silver; and the first maiolica works in Northern Europe were also founded here.
Isolated, like the ducal cities of Italy, from the desolating wars of the great powers of Europe, and like them also growing rapidly in wealth and cultivation, Nuremberg afforded a secure refuge for Art and its children. In Dürer’s day the great churches of St. Sebald, St. Lawrence, and Our Lady were finished; Peter Vischer executed the exquisite and unrivalled bronze Shrine of St. Sebald; and Adam Kraft completed the fairy-like Sacrament-house, sixty feet high, and “delicate as a tree covered with hoar-frost.” Intimate with these two renowned artificers was Lindenast, “the red smith,” who worked skilfully in beaten copper; and their studies were conducted in company with Vischer’s five sons, who, with their wives and children, all dwelt happily at their father’s house. Vischer lived till a year after Dürer’s death, but there is no intimation that the two artists ever met. Another eminent craftsman was the unruly Veit Stoss, the marvellous wood-carver, many of whose works remain to this day; and there was also Hans Beheim, the sculptor, “an honorable, pious, and God-fearing man;” and Bullman, who “was very learned in astronomy, and was the first to set the Theoria Planetarum in motion by clockwork;” and he who made the great alarm-bell, which was inscribed, “I am called the mass and the fire bell: Hans Glockengeiser cast me: I sound to God’s service and honor.” What shall we say also of Hartmann, Dürer’s pupil, who invented the measuring-rod; Schoner, the maker of terrestrial globes; Donner, who improved screw machinery; and all the skilful gun-makers, joiners, carpet-workers, and silk-embroiderers? There was also the burgher Martin Behaim, the inventor of the terrestrial globe, who anticipated Columbus by sailing Eastward across the Pacific Ocean, passing through the Straits of Magellan and discovering Brazil, as early as 1485.
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