Chapter V (1)

WOOD ENGRAVING IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

Chiaro-Scuro Engraving on Wood -- A Copper-Plate by Mair Mistaken
for the First Chiaro-Scuro -- Dotted Backgrounds in Old Wood-Cuts --
Albert Durer Probably Not a Wood-Engraver -- His Birth -- A Pupil of
Michael Wolgemuth -- His Travels -- Cuts of the Apocalypse Designed
by Him -- His Visit to Venice in 1506 -- The History of the Virgin
and Christ’s Passion Engraved on Wood from his Designs -- His
Triumphal Car and Triumphal Arch of the Emperor Maximilian -- His
Invention of Etching -- His Carving -- Visit to the Netherlands --
His Death -- Wood-Cuts Designed by L. Cranach, H. Burgmair, and
H. Schæfflein -- The Adventures of Sir Theurdank -- The Wise King --
The Triumphs of Maximilian -- Ugo Da Carpi -- Lucas Van Leyden --
William De Figuersnider -- Ursgraff -- Cuts Designed by Unknown
Artists Between 1500 and 1528.

Most authors who have written on the history of engraving have incidentally noticed the art of chiaro-scuro engraving on wood, which began to be practised early in the sixteenth century.[V-1] The honour of the invention has been claimed for Italy by Vasari and other Italian writers, who seem to think that no improvement in the arts of design and engraving can originate on this side of the Alps. According to their account, chiaro-scuro engraving on wood was first introduced by Ugo da Carpi, who executed several pieces in that manner from the designs of Raffaele. But, though confident in their assertions, they are weak in their proofs; for they can produce no chiaro-scuros by Ugo da Carpi, or by any other Italian engraver, of an earlier date than 1518. The engravings of Italian artists in this style are not numerous, previous to 1530, and we can scarcely suppose that the earliest of them was executed before 1515. That the art was known and practised in Germany several years before this period there can be no doubt; for a chiaro-scuro wood engraving, a Repose in Egypt, by Lucas Cranach, is dated 1509; two others by Hans Baldung Grün are dated 1509 and 1510; and a portrait, in the same style, by Hans Burgmair, is dated 1512.

[Footnote V-1: Chiaro-scuros are executed by means of two or more
blocks, in imitation of a drawing in sepia, India ink, or any
other colour of two or more shades. The older chiaro-scuros are
seldom executed with more than three blocks; on the first of which
the general outline of the subject and the stronger shades were
engraved and printed in the usual manner; from the second the
lighter shades were communicated; and from the third a general
tint was printed over the impressions of the other two.]

Some German writers, not satisfied with these proofs of the art being practised in Germany before it was known in Italy, refer to an engraving, dated 1499, by a German artist of the name of Mair, as one of the earliest executed in this manner. This engraving, which is from a copper-plate, cannot fairly be produced as evidence on the point in dispute; for though it bears the appearance of a chiaro-scuro engraving, yet it is not so in reality; for on a narrow inspection we may perceive that the light touches have neither been preserved, nor afterwards communicated by means of a block or a plate, but have been added with a fine pencil after the impression was taken. It is, in fact, nothing more than a copper-plate printed on dark-coloured paper, and afterwards heightened with a kind of white and yellow body-colour. It is very likely, however, that the subject was engraved and printed on a dark ground with the express intention of the lights being subsequently added by means of a pencil. The artist had questionless wished to produce an imitation of a chiaro-scuro drawing; but he certainly did not effect his purpose in the same manner as L. Cranach, H. Burgmair, or Ugo da Carpi, whose chiaro-scuro engravings had the lights preserved, and required no subsequent touching with the pencil to give to them that character.

The subject of this engraving is the Nativity, and there is an impression of it in the Print Room of the British Museum.[V-2] In the foreground, about the middle of the print, is the Virgin seated with the infant Jesus in her lap. At her feet is a cradle of wicker-work, and to the left is an angel kneeling in adoration. On the same side, but further distant, is Joseph leaning over a half door, holding a candle in one hand and shading it with the other. In the background is the stable, in which an ox and an ass are seen; and the directing star appears shining in the sky. The print is eight inches high, and five inches and three-eighths wide; at the top is the date 1499, and at the bottom the engraver’s name, MAIR. It is printed in black ink on paper which previous to receiving the impression had been tinted or stained a brownish-green colour. The lights have neither been preserved in the plate nor communicated by means of a second impression, but have been laid on by the hand with a fine pencil. The rays of the star, and the circles of light surrounding the head of the Virgin, and also that of the infant, are of a pale yellow, and the colour from its chalky appearance seems very like the touches of a crayon. The lights in the draperies and in the architectural parts of the subject have been laid on with a fine pencil guided by a steady hand. That the engraver intended his work to be finished in this manner there can be little doubt; and the impression referred to affords a proof of it; for Joseph’s candle, though he shades it with his left hand, in reality gives no light. The engraver had evidently intended that the light should be added in positive body colour; but the person--perhaps the engraver himself--whose business it was to add the finishing touches to the impression, has neglected to light Joseph’s candle.[V-3]

[Footnote V-2: This print is one of the valuable collection left
to the Museum by the Rev. C. M. Cracherode, and the following
remark in that gentleman’s writing is inserted on the opposite
page of the folio in which it is preserved: “The Presepe is a
plain proof that printing in chiaro-scuro was known before the
time of Ugo da Carpi, who is erroneously reputed the inventor of
this art at the beginning of the sixteenth century.” The print in
question is certainly not a proof of the art of engraving in
chiaro-scuro; and Mr. Ottley has added the following correction in
pencil: “But the white here is put on with a pencil, and not left
in printing, as it would have been if the tint had been added by a
wooden block after the copper-plate had been printed.”]

[Footnote V-3: Bartsch describes this print in his
Peintre-Graveur, tom. vi. p. 364, No. 4; but he takes no notice of
Joseph holding a candle, nor of its wanting a light.]

Towards the latter end of the fifteenth century,[V-4] a practice was introduced by the German wood engravers of dotting the dark parts of their subjects with white, more especially in cuts where the figures were intended to appear light upon a dark ground; and about the beginning of the sixteenth, this mode of “killing the black,” as it is technically termed, was very generally prevalent among the French wood engravers, who, as well as the Germans and Dutch, continued to practise it till about 1520, when it was almost wholly superseded by cross-hatching; a mode of producing shade which had been much practised by the German engravers who worked from the drawings of Durer, Cranach, and Burgmair, and which about that time seems to have been generally adopted in all countries where the art had made any progress. The two following cuts, which are from an edition of “Heures à l’Usaige de Chartres,” printed at Paris by Simon Vostre, about 1502, are examples of this mode of diminishing the effects of a ground which would otherwise be entirely black. Books printed in France between 1500 and 1520 afford the most numerous instances of dark backgrounds dotted with white. In many cuts executed about the latter period the dots are of larger size and more numerous in proportion to the black, and they evidently have been produced by means of a lozenge-pointed tool, in imitation of cross-hatching.

[Footnote V-4: Some single cuts executed in this manner are
supposed to be at least as old as the year 1450. The earliest that
I have noticed in a book occur in a Life of Christ printed at
Cologne about 1485.]

The greatest promoter of the art of wood engraving, towards the close of the fifteenth and in the early part of the sixteenth century, was unquestionably Albert Durer; not however, as is generally supposed, from having himself engraved the numerous wood-cuts which bear his mark, but from his having thought so well of the art as to have most of his greatest works engraved on wood from drawings made on the block by himself. Until within the last thirty years, most writers who have written on the subject of art, have spoken of Albert Durer as a wood engraver; and before proceeding to give any account of his life, or specimens of some of the principal wood engravings which bear his mark, it appears necessary to examine the grounds of this opinion.

There are about two hundred subjects engraved on wood which are marked with the initials of Albert Durer’s name; and the greater part of them, though evidently designed by the hand of a master, are engraved in a manner which certainly denotes no very great excellence. Of the remainder, which are better engraved, it would be difficult to point out one which displays execution so decidedly superior as to enable any person to say positively that it must have been cut by Albert Durer himself. The earliest engravings on wood with Durer’s mark are sixteen cuts illustrative of the Apocalypse, first published in 1498; and between that period and 1528, the year of his death, it is likely that nearly all the others were executed. The cuts of the Apocalypse generally are much superior to all wood engravings that had previously appeared, both in design and execution; but if they be carefully examined by any person conversant with the practice of the art, it will be perceived that their superiority is not owing to any delicacy in the lines which would render them difficult to engrave, but from the ability of the person by whom they were drawn, and from his knowledge of the capabilities of the art. Looking at the state of wood engraving at the period when those cuts were published, I cannot think that the artist who made the drawings would experience any difficulty in finding persons capable of engraving them. In most of the wood-cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert Durer we find cross-hatching freely introduced; the readiest mode of producing effect to an artist drawing on wood with a pen or a black-lead pencil, but which to the wood engraver is attended with considerable labour. Had Albert Durer engraved his own designs, I am inclined to think that he would not have introduced cross-hatching so frequently, but would have endeavoured to attain his object by means which were easier of execution. What is termed “cross-hatching” in wood engraving is nothing more than black lines crossing each other, for the most part diagonally; and in _drawing_ on wood it is easier to produce a shade by this means, than by thickening the lines; but in _engraving_ on wood it is precisely the reverse; for it is easier to leave a thick line than to cut out the interstices of lines crossing each other. Nothing is more common than for persons who know little of the history of wood engraving, and still less of the practice, to refer to the frequent cross-hatching in the cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert Durer as a proof of their excellence: as if the talent of the artist were chiefly displayed in such parts of the cuts as are in reality least worthy of him, and which a mere workman might execute as well. In opposition to this vulgar error I venture to assert, that there is not a wood engraver in London of the least repute who cannot produce _apprentices_ to cut fac-similes of any cross-hatching that is to be found, not only in the wood engravings supposed to have been executed by Albert Durer, but in those of any other master. The execution of cross-hatching requires time, but very little talent; and a moderately clever lad, with a steady hand and a lozenge-pointed tool, will cut in a year a _square yard_ of such cross-hatching as is generally found in the largest of the cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert Durer. In the works of Bewick, scarcely more than one trifling instance of cross-hatching is to be found; and in the productions of all other modern wood engravers who have made their own drawings, we find cross-hatching sparingly introduced; while in almost every one of the cuts designed by Durer, Cranach, Burgmair, and others who are known to have been painters of eminence in their day, it is of frequent occurrence. Had these masters engraved their own designs on wood, as has been very generally supposed, they probably would have introduced much less cross-hatching into their subjects; but as there is every reason to believe that they only made the drawing on the wood, the engravings which are ascribed to them abound in lines which are readily made with a pen or a pencil, but which require considerable time to cut with a graver.

At the period that Durer published his illustrations of the Apocalypse, few wood-cuts of much merit either in design or execution had appeared in printed books; and the wood engravers of that age seem generally to have been mere workmen, who only understood the mechanical branch of their art, but who were utterly devoid of all knowledge of composition or correct drawing; and there is also reason to believe that wood-cuts at that period, and even for some time after, were not unfrequently engraved by women.[V-5] As the names of those persons were probably not known beyond the town in which they resided, it cannot be a matter of surprise that neither their marks nor initials should be found on the cuts which they engraved from the drawings of such artists as Albert Durer.

[Footnote V-5: In a folio of Albert Durer’s drawings in the Print
Room at the British Museum there is a portrait of “_Fronica,
Formschneiderin_,” with the date 1525. In 1433 we find a woman at
Nuremberg described as a card-maker: “_Eli. Kartenmacherin_.” It
is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that the earliest
German wood engravers were card-makers.--See chapter II. p. 41.]

It perhaps may be objected, that as Albert Durer’s copper-plate engravings contain only his mark, in the same manner as the wood engravings, it might with equal reason be questioned if they were really executed by himself. Notwithstanding the identity of the marks, there is, however, a wide difference between the two cases. In the age of Albert Durer most of the artists who engraved on copper were also painters; and most of the copper-plate engravings which bear his mark are such as none but an artist of great talent could execute. It would require the abilities of a first-rate copper-plate engraver of the present day to produce a fac-simile of his best copper-plates; while a wood engraver of but moderate skill would be able to cut a fac-simile of one of his best wood engravings after the subject was drawn for him on the block. The best of Albert Durer’s copper-plates could only have been engraved by a master; while the best of his wood-cuts might be engraved by a working Formschneider who had acquired a practical knowledge of his art by engraving, under the superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth and William Pleydenwurff, the wood-cuts for the Nuremberg Chronicle.

Von Murr, who was of opinion that Albert Durer engraved his own designs on wood, gives a letter of Durer’s in the ninth volume of his Journal which he thinks is decisive of the fact. The letter, which relates to a wood engraving of a shield of arms, was written in 1511, and is to the following effect: “Dear Michael Beheim, I return you the arms, and beg that you will let it remain as it is. No one will make it better, as I have done it according to art and with great care, as those who see it and understand the matter will tell you. If the labels were thrown back above the helmet, the volet would be covered.”[V-6] This letter, however, is by no means decisive, for it is impossible to determine whether the “arms” which the artist returned were a finished engraving or merely a drawing on wood.[V-7] From one or two expressions it seems most likely to have been a drawing only; for in a finished cut alterations cannot very well be introduced; and it seems most probable that Michael Beheim’s objections would be made to the drawing of the arms before they were engraved, and not to the finished cut. But even supposing it to have been the engraved block which Durer returned, this is by no means a proof of his having engraved it himself, for he might have engravers employed in his house in order that the designs which he drew on the blocks might be executed under his own superintendence. The Baron Derschau indeed told Dr. Dibdin that he was once in possession of the _journal_ or day-book of Albert Durer, from which “it appeared that he was in the habit of drawing upon the blocks, and that his men performed the remaining operation of cutting away the wood.”[V-8] This information, had it been communicated by a person whose veracity might be depended on, would be decisive of the question; but the book unfortunately “perished in the flames of a house in the neighbourhood of one of the battles fought between Bonaparte and the Prussians;” and from a little anecdote recorded by Dr. Dibdin the Baron appears to have been a person whose word was not to be implicitly relied on.[V-9]

[Footnote V-6: The following is Bartsch’s French version of this
letter, which is given in the original German in Von Murr’s
Journal, 9^er. Theil, S. 53. “Cher Michel Beheim. Je vous envoie
les armoiries, en vous priant de les laisser comme elles sont.
Personne d’ailleurs ne les corrigeroit en mieux, car je les ai
faites exprès et avec art; c’est pourquoi ceux qui s’y connoissent
et qui les verront vous en rendront bonne raison. Si l’on haussoit
les lambrequins du heaume, ils couvriroient le volet.”--Bartsch,
Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. p. 27.]

[Footnote V-7: In Durer’s Journal of his visit to the Netherlands
in 1520 there is the following passage: “Item hab dem von
Rogendorff sein Wappen auf Holz gerissen, dafür hat er mir
geschenckt vii. Ein Sammet.”--“Also I have drawn for Von
Rogendorff his arms on wood, for which he has presented me with
seven yards of velvet.”--Von Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschichte,
7^er. Theil, S. 76.]

[Footnote V-8: Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. p. 442, second
edition.]

[Footnote V-9: The Baron was the collector of the wood-cuts
published with Becker’s explanations, referred to at page 226,
chapter IV. The anecdote alluded to will be found in Dr. Dibdin’s
Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. pp. 445, 446. The Baron sold a
rare specimen of copper-plate engraving with the date M. CCCC.
XXX. to the Doctor, and it seems that he also sold _another_
impression from the same plate to Mr. John Payne. There is no
doubt of their being gross forgeries; and it is not unlikely that
the plate was in the Baron’s possession.]

Neudörffer, who in 1546 collected some particulars relative to the history of the artists of Nuremberg, says that Jerome Resch, or Rösch, engraved most of the cuts designed by Albert Durer. He also says that Resch was one of the most skilful wood engravers of his day, and that he particularly excelled in engraving letters on wood. This artist also used to engrave dies for coining money, and had a printing establishment of his own. He dwelt in the Broad Way at Nuremberg, with a back entrance in Petticoat Lane;[V-10] and when he was employed in engraving the Triumphal Car drawn by Albert Durer for the Emperor Maximilian, the Emperor used to call almost every day to see the progress of the work; and as he entered at Petticoat Lane, it became a by-word with the common people: “The Emperor still often drives to Petticoat Lane.”[V-11]

[Footnote V-10: “Dieser Hieronymus hat allhier im breiten Gassen
gewohnt, dessen Wohnung hinten ins Frauengässlein ging.”]

[Footnote V-11: Neudörffer, quoted in Von Murr’s Journal, 2ter
Theil, S. 158, 159.]

Although it is by no means unlikely that Albert Durer might engrave two or three wood-cuts of his own designing, yet, after a careful examination of most of those that bear his mark, I cannot find one which is so decidedly superior to the rest as to induce an opinion of its being engraved by himself; and I cannot for a moment believe that an artist of his great talents, and who painted so many pictures, engraved so many copper-plates, and made so many designs, could find time to engrave even a small part of the many wood-cuts which have been supposed to be executed by him, and which a common wood engraver might execute as well. “If Durer himself had engraved on wood,” says Bartsch in the seventh volume of his Peintre-Graveur, “it is most likely that among the many particular accounts which we have of his different pursuits, and of the various kind of works which he has left, the fact of his having applied himself to wood engraving would certainly have been transmitted in a manner no less explicit; but, far from finding the least trace of it, everything that relates to this subject proves that he had never employed himself in this kind of work. He is always described as a painter, a designer, or an editor of works engraved on wood, but never as a wood engraver.”[V-12] I also further agree with Bartsch, who thinks that the wood-cuts which contain the marks of Lucas Cranach, Hans Burgmair, and others who are known to have been painters of considerable reputation in their day, were not engraved by those artists, but only designed or drawn by them on the block.

[Footnote V-12: At the end of the first edition of the cuts
illustrative of the Apocalypse, 1498, we find the words: “_Gedrukt
durch Albrecht Durer, Maler_,”--Printed by Albert Durer, painter;
and the same in Latin in the second edition, printed about 1510.
The passion of Christ and the History of the Virgin are
respectively said to have been “_effigiata_” and “_per figuras
digesta_”--“drawn” and “pictorially represented” by Albert Durer;
and the cuts of the Triumphal Car of the Emperor Maximilian are
described as being “_erfunden und geordnet_”--“invented and
arranged” by him.--Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. p. 28.]

Albert Durer was born at Nuremberg, on 20th May 1471. His father, whose name was also Albert, was a goldsmith, and a native of Cola in Hungary. His mother was a daughter of Jerome Haller, who was also a goldsmith, and the master under whom the elder Durer had acquired a knowledge of his art. Albert continued with his father till his sixteenth year, and had, as he himself says, learned to execute beautiful works in the goldsmith’s art, when he felt a great desire to become a painter. His father on hearing of his wish to change his profession was much displeased, as he considered that the time he had already spent in endeavouring to acquire a knowledge of the art of a goldsmith was entirely lost. He, however, assented to his son’s earnest request, and placed him, on St. Andrew’s day, 1486, as a pupil under Michael Wolgemuth for the term of three years, to learn the art of painting. On the expiration of his “lehr-jahre,” or apprenticeship, in 1490, he left his master, and, according to the custom of German artists of that period, proceeded to travel for the purpose of gaining a further knowledge of his profession. In what manner or in what places he was chiefly employed during his “wander-jahre”[V-13] is not very well known; but it is probable that his travels did not extend beyond Germany. In the course of his peregrinations he visited Colmar, in 1492, where he was kindly received by Caspar, Paul, and Louis, the brothers of Martin Schongauer; but he did not see, either then or at any other period, that celebrated engraver himself.[V-14] He returned to Nuremberg in the spring of 1494; and shortly afterwards married Agnes, the daughter of John Frey, a mechanist of considerable reputation of that city. This match, which is said to have been made for him by his parents, proved to be an unhappy one; for, though his wife possessed considerable personal charms, she was a woman of a most wretched temper; and her incessant urging him to continued exertion in order that she might obtain money, is said to have embittered the life of the artist and eventually to have hastened his death.[V-15]

[Footnote V-13: The time that a German artist spends in travel
from the expiration of his apprenticeship to the period of his
settling as a master is called his “wander-jahre,”--his travelling
years. It is customary with many trades in Germany for the young
men to travel for a certain time on the termination of their
apprenticeship before they are admitted to the full privileges of
the company or fellowship.]

[Footnote V-14: It has been stated, though erroneously, that
Albert Durer was a pupil of Martin Schongauer, or Schön, as the
surname was spelled by some writers, one of the most eminent
painters and copper-plate engravers of his day. It has been
generally supposed that he died in 1486; but, if an old memorandum
at the back of his portrait in the collection of Count de Fries
can be depended on, his death did not take place till the 2d of
February 1499. An account of this memorandum will be found in
Ottley’s Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving,
vol. ii. p. 640.]

[Footnote V-15: On a passage, in which Durer alludes to his wife,
in one of his letters from Venice, 1506, to his friend Bilibald
Pirkheimer, Von Murr makes the following remark: “This Xantippe
must even at that time have vexed him much; and he was obliged to
drag on his life with her for twenty-two years longer, till she
fairly plagued him to death.”--Journal, 10er Theil, S. 32.]

It has not been ascertained from whom Albert Durer learnt the art of engraving on copper; for there seems but little reason to believe that his master Michael Wolgemuth ever practised that branch of art, though several copper-plates, marked with a W, have been ascribed to him by some authors.[V-16] As most of the early copper-plate engravers were also goldsmiths, it is probable that Durer might acquire some knowledge of the former art during the time that he continued with his father; and, as he was endowed with a versatile genius, it is not unlikely that he owed his future improvement entirely to himself. The earliest date that is to be found on his copper-plates is 1494. The subject in which this date occurs represents a group of four naked women with a globe suspended above them, in the manner of a lamp, on which are inscribed the letters O. G. H. which have been supposed to signify the words “O Gott helf!”--Help, O Lord!--as if the spectator on beholding the naked beauties were exceedingly liable to fall into temptation.[V-17]

[Footnote V-16: Bartsch is decidedly of opinion that Michael
Wolgemuth was not an engraver; and he ascribes all the plates
marked with a W, which others have supposed to be Wolgemuth’s, to
Wenceslaus of Olmutz, an artist of whom nothing is positively
known.]

[Footnote V-17: This subject has also been engraved by Israel Von
Mecken, and by an artist supposed to be Wenceslaus of Olmutz. It
is probable that those artists have copied Durer’s engraving. On
the globe in Israel Von Mecken’s plate the letters are O. G. B.]

The earliest wood engravings that contain Albert Durer’s mark are sixteen subjects, of folio size, illustrative of the Apocalypse, which were printed at Nuremberg, 1498. On the first leaf is the title in German: “Die heimliche Offenbarung Johannes”--“The Revelation of John;”--and on the back of the last cut but one is the imprint: “Gedrücket zu Nurnbergk durch Albrecht Durer, maler, nach Christi geburt M. CCCC. und darnach im xcviij. iar”--“Printed at Nuremberg by Albert Durer, painter, in the year after the birth of Christ 1498.” The date of those cuts marks an important epoch in the history of wood engraving. From this time the boundaries of the art became enlarged; and wood engravers, instead of being almost wholly occupied in executing designs of the very lowest character, drawn without feeling, taste, or knowledge, were now to be engaged in engraving subjects of general interest, drawn, expressly for the purpose of being thus executed, by some of the most celebrated artists of the age. Though several cuts of the Apocalypse are faulty in drawing and extravagant in design, they are on the whole much superior to any series of wood engravings that preceded them; and their execution, though coarse, is free and bold. They are not equal, in point of well-contrasted light and shade, to some of Durer’s later designs on wood; but considering them as his first essays in drawing on wood, they are not unworthy of his reputation. They appear as if they had been drawn on the block with a pen and ink; and though cross-hatching is to be found in all of them, this mode of indicating a shade, or obtaining “colour,” is much less frequently employed than in some of his later productions. The following is a reduced copy of one of the cuts, No. 11, which is illustrative of the twelfth chapter of Revelations, verses 1-4: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.----And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman.”

In 1502 a pirated edition of those cuts was published at Strasburg by Jerome Greff, who describes himself as a painter of Frankfort. In 1511 Durer published a second edition of the originals; and on the back of the last cut but one is a caution addressed to the plagiary, informing him of the Emperor’s order, prohibiting any one to copy the cuts or to sell the spurious impressions within the limits of the German empire, under the penalty of the confiscation of goods, and at the peril of further punishment.[V-18]

[Footnote V-18: This caution is in the original expressed in the
following indignant terms: “Heus, tu insidiator, ac alieni laboris
et ingenii surreptor, ne manus temerarias his nostris operibus
inicias cave. Scias enim a gloriosissimo Romanorum imperatore
Maximiliano nobis concessum esse ne quis suppositiciis formis has
imagines imprimere seu impressas per imperii limites vendere
audeat: q’ per contemptum seu avariciæ crimen secus feceris, post
bonorum confiscationem tibi maximum periculum subeundum esse
certissime scias.”]

Though no other wood engravings with Durer’s mark are found with a date till 1504, yet it is highly probable that several subjects of his designing were engraved between 1498, the date of the Apocalypse, and the above year; and it is also likely that he engraved several copper-plates within this period; although, with the exception of that of the four naked women, there are only four known which contain a date earlier than 1505. About the commencement of 1506 Durer visited Venice, where he remained till October in the same year. Eight letters which he addressed to Bilibald Pirkheimer from Venice, are printed in the tenth volume of Von Murr’s Journal. In the first letter, which is dated on the day of the Three Kings of Cologne, 1506, he informs his friend that he was employed to paint a picture for the German church at Venice, for which he was to receive a hundred and ten Rhenish guilders,[V-19] and that he expects to have it ready to place above the altar a month after Easter. He expresses a hope that he will be enabled to repay out of this money what he had borrowed of Pirkheimer. From this letter it seems evident that Durer’s circumstances were not then in a very flourishing state, and that he had to depend on his exertions for the means of living. The comparatively trifling sums which he mentions as having sent to his mother and his wife sufficiently declare that he had not left a considerable sum at home. He also says, that should his wife want more money, her father must assist her, and that he will honourably repay him on his return.

[Footnote V-19: Von Murr says that the subject of this picture was
the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, the saint to whom the church was
dedicated; and that the painting afterwards came into the
possession of the Emperor Rudolf II. and was placed in his gallery
at Prague. It seems that Durer had taken some pictures with him to
Venice; for in his fifth letter he says that he has sold two for
twenty-four ducats, and exchanged three others for three rings,
valued also at twenty-four ducats.]

In the second letter, after telling Pirkheimer that he has no other friend but him on earth, he expresses a wish that he were in Venice to enjoy the pleasant company that he has met with there. The following passage, which occurs in this letter, is, perhaps, the most interesting in the collection: “I have many good friends among the Italians, who warn me not to eat or drink with their painters, of whom several are my enemies, and copy my picture in the church and others of mine, wherever they can find them; and yet they blame them, and say they are not according to ancient art, and therefore not good. Giovanni Bellini[V-20] however has praised me highly to several gentlemen, and wishes to have something of my doing. He called on me himself, and requested that I would paint a picture for him, for which he said he would pay me well. People are all surprised that I should be so much thought of by a person of his reputation. He is very old, but is still the best painter of them all. The things which pleased me eleven years ago, please me no longer. If I had not seen it myself I could not have believed it. You must also know that there are many better painters within this city than Master Jacob is without, although Anthony Kolb swears that there is not on earth a better painter than Jacob.[V-21] The others laugh, and say if he were good for anything he would live in Venice.”

[Footnote V-20: In the Venetian dialect of that period Giovanni
Bellini was called Zan Belin; and Durer spells the name
“Sambellinus.” He was the master of Titian, and died in 1514, at
the age of ninety.--Von Murr, Journal, 10er Theil, S. 8.]

[Footnote V-21: Von Murr says that he cannot discover what Jacob
is here meant. It would not be Jacob Walsch, as he died in 1500.
The person alluded to was certainly not an Italian.]

The greater part of the other six letters are chiefly occupied with accounts of his success in executing sundry little commissions with which he had been entrusted by his friends, such as the purchase of a finger-ring and two pieces of tapestry; to enquire after such Greek books as had been recently published; and to get him some crane feathers. The sixth and seventh letters are written in a vein of humour which at the present time would be called gross. Von Murr illustrates one passage by a quotation from Swift which is not remarkable for its delicacy; and he also says that Durer’s eighth letter is written in the humorous style of that writer. Those letters show that chastity was not one of Bilibald Pirkheimer’s virtues; and that the learned counsellor of the imperial city of Nuremberg was devoted “tam Veneri quam Mercurio.”[V-22]

[Footnote V-22: Bilibald Pirkheimer was a learned man, and a
person of great authority in the city of Nuremberg. He was also a
member of the Imperial Council, and was frequently employed in
negociations with neighbouring states. He published several works;
and among others a humorous essay entitled “Laus Podagræ”--The
Praise of the Gout. His memory is still held in great respect in
Germany as the friend of Albert Durer and Ulrich Hutten, two of
the most extraordinary men that Germany has produced. He died in
1530, aged 60.]

In the fourth letter Durer says that the painters were much opposed to him; that they had thrice compelled him to go before the magistracy; and that they had obliged him to give four florins to their society. In the seventh letter, he writes as follows about the picture which he had painted for the German church: “I have through it received great praise, but little profit. I might well have gained two hundred ducats in the same time, and all the while I laboured most diligently in order that I might get home again. I have given all the painters a rubbing down who said that I could engrave[V-23] well, but that in painting I knew not how to manage my colours. Everybody here says they never saw colours more beautiful.” In his last letter, which is dated, “at Venice, I know not what day of the month, but about the fourteenth day after Michaelmas, 1506,” he says that he will be ready to leave that city in about ten days; that he intends to proceed to Bologna, and after staying there about eight or ten days for the sake of learning some secrets in perspective, to return home by way of Venice. He visited Bologna as he intended; and was treated with great respect by the painters of that city. After a brief stay at Bologna, he returned to Nuremberg; and there is no evidence of his ever having visited Italy again.

[Footnote V-23: The kind of engraving meant was copper-plate
engraving. Durer’s words are: “Ich hab awch dy Moler all gesthrilt
dy do sagten, Im _Stechen_ wer ich gut, aber im molen west ich nit
mit farben um zu gen.” The word “_Stechen_” applies to engraving
on copper; “Schneiden” to engraving on wood.--Von Murr, Journal,
10er Theil, S. 28.]

In 1511, the second of Durer’s large works engraved on wood appeared at Nuremberg. It is generally entitled the History of the Virgin, and consists of nineteen large cuts, each about eleven inches and three quarters high, by eight inches and a quarter wide, with a vignette of smaller size which ornaments the title-page.[V-24] Impressions are to be found without any accompanying text, but the greater number have explanatory verses printed from type at the back. The cut here represented is a reduced copy of the vignette on the title-page. The Virgin is seen seated on a crescent, giving suck to the infant Christ; and her figure and that of the child are drawn with great feeling. Of all Durer’s Madonnas, whether engraved on wood or copper, this, perhaps, is one of the best. Her attitude is easy and natural, and happily expressive of the character in which she is represented--that of a nursing mother. The light and shade are well contrasted; and the folds of her ample drapery, which Durer was fond of introducing whenever he could, are arranged in a manner which materially contributes to the effect of the engraving.

[Footnote V-24: The title at length is as follows: “Epitome in
Divæ Parthenices Marie Historiam ab Alberto Durero Norico per
figuras digestam, cum versibus annexis Chelidonii.” Chelidonius,
who was a Benedictine monk of Nuremberg, also furnished the
descriptive text to the series of twelve cuts illustrative of
Christ’s Passion, of which specimens will be found between page
246 and page 250.]

The following cuts are reduced copies of two of the larger subjects of the same work. That which is here given represents the birth of the Virgin; and were it not for the angel who is seen swinging a censer at the top of the room, it might be taken for the accouchement of a German burgomaster’s wife in the year 1510. The interior is apparently that of a house in Nuremberg of Durer’s own time, and the figures introduced are doubtless faithful copies, both in costume and character, of such females as were generally to be found in the house of a German tradesman on such an occasion. From the number of cups and flagons that are seen, we may be certain that the gossips did not want liquor; and that in Durer’s age the female friends and attendants on a groaning woman were accustomed to enjoy themselves on the birth of a child over a cheerful cup. In the fore-ground an elderly female is perceived taking a draught, without measure, from a flagon; while another, more in the distance and farther to the right, appears to be drinking, from a cup, health to the infant which a woman like a nurse holds in her arms. An elderly female, sitting by the side of the bed, has dropped into a doze; but whether from the effects of the liquor or long watching it would not be easy to divine. On the opposite side of the bed a female figure presents a caudle, with a spoon in it, to St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin, while another is seen filling a goblet of wine. At the bottom of the cut is Durer’s mark on a tablet. The original cut is not remarkable for the excellence of its engraving, but it affords a striking example of the little attention which Durer, in common with most other German painters of that period, paid to propriety of costume in the treatment of such subjects. The piece is Hebrew, of the age of Herod the Great; but the scenery, dresses, and decorations are German, of the time of Maximilian I.

The second specimen of the large cuts of Durer’s Life of the Virgin, given on the next page, represents the Sojourn of the Holy Family in Egypt. In the fore-ground St. Joseph is seen working at his business as a carpenter; while a number of little figures, like so many Cupids, are busily employed in collecting the chips which he makes and in putting them into a basket. Two little winged figures, of the same family as the chip-collectors, are seen running hand-in-hand, a little more in the distance to the left, and one of them holds in his hand a plaything like those which are called “windmills” in England, and are cried about as “toys for girls and boys,” and sold for a halfpenny each, or exchanged for old pewter spoons, doctors’ bottles, or broken flint-glass. To the right the Virgin, a matronly-looking figure, is seen sitting spinning, and at the same time rocking with her foot the cradle in which the infant Christ is asleep. Near the Virgin are St. Elizabeth and her young son, the future Baptist. At the head of the cradle is an angel bending as if in the act of adoration; while another, immediately behind St. Elizabeth, holds a pot containing flowers. In the sky there is a representation of the Deity, with the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove. The artist has not thought it necessary to mark the locality of the scene by the introduction of pyramids and temples in the back-ground, for the architectural parts of his subject, as well as the human figures, have evidently been supplied by his own country, Durer’s mark is at the bottom of the cut on the right.

Christ’s Passion, consisting of a series of eleven large wood-cuts and a vignette, designed by Albert Durer, appeared about the same time as his History of the Virgin.[V-25] The descriptive matter was compiled by Chelidonius; and, in the same manner as in the History of the Virgin, a certain number of impressions were printed without any explanatory text.[V-26] The large subjects are about fifteen inches and a half high, by eleven inches and an eighth wide. The following cut is a reduced copy of the vignette on the title-page.

[Footnote V-25: The cuts of these two works appear to have been in
the hands of the engraver at the same time. Of those in the
History of the Virgin one is dated 1509; and two bear the date
1510; and in the Passion of Christ four are dated 1510.]

[Footnote V-26: The Latin title of the work is as follows: “Passio
Domini nostri Jesu, ex Hieronymo Paduano, Dominico Mancino,
Sedulio, et Baptista Mantuana, per fratrem Chelidonium collecta,
cum figuris Alberti Dureri Norici Pictoris.”]

The subject is Christ mocked; but the artist has at the same time wished to express in the figure of Christ the variety of his sufferings: the Saviour prays as if in his agony on the mount; near him lies the instrument of his flagellation; his hands and feet bear the marks of the nails, and he appears seated on the covering of his sepulchre. The soldier is kneeling and offering a reed as a sceptre to Christ, whom he hails in derision as King of the Jews.

The three following cuts are reduced copies of the same number in the Passion of Christ. In the cut of the Last Supper, in the next page, cross-hatching is freely introduced, though without contributing much to the improvement of the engraving; and the same effect in the wall to the right, in the groins of the roof, and in the floor under the table, might be produced by much simpler means. No artist, I am persuaded, would introduce such work in a design if he had to engrave it himself. The same “colour” might be produced by single lines which could be executed in a third of the time required to cut out the interstices of the cross-hatchings. Durer’s mark is at the bottom of the cut, and the date 1510 is perceived above it, on the frame of the table.

The cut on page 249, from the Passion, Christ bearing his Cross, is highly characteristic of Durer’s style; and the original is one of the best of all the wood engravings which bear his mark. The characters introduced are such as he was fondest of drawing; and most of the heads and figures may be recognised in several other engravings either executed by himself on copper or by others on wood from his designs.

The figure which is seen holding a kind of halbert in his right hand is a favourite with Durer, and is introduced, with trifling variations, in at least half a dozen of his subjects; and the horseman with a kind of turban on his head and a lance in his left hand occurs no less frequently. St. Veronica, who is seen holding the “sudarium,” or holy handkerchief, in the fore-ground to the left, is a type of his female figures; the head of the executioner, who is seen urging Christ forward, is nearly the same as that of the mocker in the preceding vignette; and Simon the Cyrenian, who assists to bear the cross, appears to be the twin-brother of St. Joseph in the Sojourn in Egypt. The figure of Christ, bowed down with the weight of the cross, is well drawn, and his face is strongly expressive of sorrow. Behind Simon the Cyrenian are the Virgin and St. John; and under the gateway a man with a haggard visage is perceived carrying a ladder with his head between the steps. The artist’s mark is at the bottom of the cut.

The subject of the cut on page 250, from Christ’s Passion, represents the descent into hell and the liberation of the ancestors. The massive gates of the abode of sin and death have been burst open, and the banner of the cross waves triumphant. Among those who have already been liberated from the pit of darkness are Eve, who has her back turned towards the spectator, and Adam, who in his right hand holds an apple, the symbol of his fall, and with his left supports a cross, the emblem of his redemption. In the front is Christ aiding others of the ancestors to ascend from the pit, to the great dismay of the demons whose realm is invaded. A horrid monster, with a head like that of a boar surmounted with a horn, aims a blow at the Redeemer with a kind of rude lance; while another, a hideous compound of things that swim, and walk, and fly, sounds a note of alarm to arouse his kindred fiends. On a stone, above the entrance to the pit, is the date 1510; and Durer’s mark is perceived on another stone immediately before the figure of Christ. This cut, with the exception of the frequent cross-hatching, is designed more in the style and spirit of the artist’s illustrations of the Apocalypse than in the manner of the rest of the series to which it belongs.

The preceding specimens of wood-cuts from Durer’s three great works, the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, and Christ’s Passion, afford not only an idea of the style of his drawing on wood, but also of the progress made by the art of wood engraving from the time of his first availing himself of its capabilities. In Durer’s designs on wood we perceive not only more correct drawing and a greater knowledge of composition, but also a much more effective combination of light and shade, than are to be found in any wood-cuts executed before the date of his earliest work, the Apocalypse, which appeared in 1498. One of the peculiar advantages of wood engraving is the effect with which strong shades can be represented; and of this Durer has generally availed himself with the greatest skill. On comparing his works engraved on wood with all those previously executed in the same manner, we shall find that his figures are not only much better drawn and more skilfully grouped, but that instead of sticking, in hard outline, against the back-ground, they stand out with the natural appearance of rotundity. The rules of perspective are more attentively observed; the back-grounds better filled; and a number of subordinate objects introduced--such as trees, herbage, flowers, animals, and children--which at once give a pleasing variety to the subject and impart to it the stamp of truth. Though the figures in many of his designs may not indeed be correct in point of costume,--for though he diligently studied Nature, it was only in her German dress,--yet their character and expression are generally appropriate and natural. Though incapable of imparting to sacred subjects the elevated character which is given to them by Raffaele, his representations are perhaps no less like the originals than those of the great Italian master. It is indeed highly probable that Albert Durer’s German representatives of saints and apostles are more like the originals than the more dignified ideal portraits of Raffaele. The latter, from his knowledge of the antique, has frequently given to his Jews a character and a costume borrowed from Grecian art of the age of Phidias; while Albert Durer has given to them the features and invested them in the costume of Germans of his own age.

Shortly after the appearance of the large cuts illustrative of Christ’s Passion, Durer published a series of thirty-seven of a smaller size, also engraved on wood, which Mr. Ottley calls “The Fall of Man and his Redemption through Christ,” but which Durer himself refers to under the title of “The Little Passion.”[V-27] All the cuts of the Little Passion, as well as seventeen of those of the Life of the Virgin and several other pieces of Durer’s, were imitated on copper by Marc Antonio Raimondi, the celebrated Italian engraver, who is said to have sold his copies as the originals. Vasari, in his Life of Marc Antonio, says that when Durer was informed of this imitation of his works, he was highly incensed and he set out directly for Venice, and that on his arrival there he complained of Marc Antonio’s proceedings to the government; but could obtain no further redress than that in future Marc Antonio should not put Durer’s mark to his engravings.