Albert Durer Part 20

[Footnote 82: See Frontispiece.]

[Footnote 83: See page 19.]

CHAPTER V

DuRER'S WOODCUTS

It is now generally accepted that Durer did not himself engrave on wood.

In his earliest blocks he shows a greater respect for the limitations of this means of expression than later on. The earliest wood blocks, though no doubt they aimed at being facsimiles, were not such in fact; but the engraver took certain liberties for his own convenience, and probably did not attempt to render what Durer calls "the hand" of the designer.

"The hand" was equivalent to what modern artists call "the touch," and meant the peculiar character recognisable in the vast majority of the strokes or marks which each artist uses in drawing or painting. Durer affected extremely curved and rapid strokes, Mantegna the deliberate straight line, Rembrandt the straight stroke used so as to seem a continual improvisation; though indeed he varies the character of his touch more continually and more vastly than any other master, yet in his drawings and etchings the majority of the strokes are straight. Already in the woodcuts provided by Michael Wolgemut, Durer's master, to ill.u.s.trate books, there is a general attempt to render cross hatching: and the eyes and hair, though still those of an engraver, are frequently modified to some extent in deference to the character given by the draughtsman. Still, no one with practical experience would consider these woodcuts as adequate facsimiles: which makes the question of their attribution to Wolgemut, or his partner and step-son, Pleydenwurff, of still less interest and importance than it is on all other grounds. So conscious an exception as the soul of the accurate Albert Durer was, could not be expected to endure a partner in his creations, especially one whose character was revealed chiefly by the clumsy compromises convenient to lack of skill. Doubtless the demand for "his hand" was a new factor in the education of the engraver, as constant and as imperturbable as the action of a copious stream, which, having its source in lonely heights, wears a channel through the hardest rock, the most sullen soils. It may have been the pitiless tyranny of the master's will for perfection which drove Hieronymus Andreae, "the most famous of Durer's wood engravers," into religious and even civil rebellion, joining hands with levelling fanatics and taking active part in the Peasant War. Durer probably would have commanded too much reverence and affection for these rebellions to be directed against him; but an insupportably heavy yoke is not rendered lighter because it is imposed by a loved hand,--though every other burden and restraint may in such a case be shaken off and resented before that which is the real cause of oppression. Durer's wood cutters had no doubt to resign any indolence, any impatience, or whatever else it might be that had otherwise stamped a personal character on their work; and all remonstrance must have been shamed by the evident fact that the young master spared himself not a whit more. The perseverance and docility which made such engraving possible was perhaps the greatest aid that Durer drew from German character; it was not only an aid, but an example to and restraint upon that haughty spirit of his that restively ever again vows never to take so much pains over another picture to be so poorly paid (see page 103); that complains of failure and discouragement after years of repeatedly more world-wide successes (see page 187).

These are not German traits, but it may have been the German blood he inherited from his mother and the example of his friends, fellow-workers, and helpers, which enabled him to get the better of such petulant and gloomy outbursts, and return to the day of small things with the will to continue and endure.

The difference introduced by the engravers becoming more and more capable of rendering Durer's hand is well ill.u.s.trated by comparing the frontispiece to the _Apocalypse_, added about 1511, with the other cuts which had appeared in 1498. Doubtless Durer's hand had changed its character considerably during this period of constant and rapid development, and it requires tact and knowledge to separate the differences due to the creator from those due to the engraver. Durer's drawings differed as widely from the earlier drawings as does the engraving from the earlier blocks. But, as we may see by early drawings done as preliminary studies for engravings, the method of his pen strokes had changed less than the character of the forms they rendered; the conception of the design as a whole had advanced more rapidly than the skill and sleight of hand which expressed it. The engraver has by 1511 become capable of expressing a greater variety of speed in the stroke, makes it taper more finely, and can follow the tongue-like lap and flicker as the pen rises and dips again before leaving the surface of the block (as in the outer ends of the strokes that represent the radiance of the Virgin's glory). Holbein, later on, was to obtain a yet more wonderful fidelity from Lutzelburger, the engraver of his _Dunce of Death_.

Still it were misleading to suppose that Durer's disregard for the facilities and limitations of wood-cutting went the lengths that the demands made upon modern skill have gone. Not only has the line been reproduced, but it has been drawn not with a full pen or brush, but in pencil or with watered ink; and the delicate tones thus produced have been demanded of and rendered by human skill. Durer always uses a clear definite stroke; and in thus limiting himself he shows an appreciation of the medium to be used in reproducing his drawing, and recognises its limits to a large extent, though this is the only limitation he accepts.

Less and less does he consider the possibilities which engraving offers for the use of a white line on black Doing his drawing with a black line, he contents himself with the qualities that the resources and facilities of the full pen line give: and his design is for a drawing which can be cut on wood, not for something that first really exists in the print; the prints are copies of his drawings. His drawings were not prepared to receive additions in the course of cutting, such as could only be rendered by the engraver. Faithfulness was the only virtue he required of Hieronymus Andreae. Yet even in such drawings as Durer's no doubt were, there would have been some qualities, some defects perhaps, that the print does not possess. For a print, from the mode of inking, has a breadth and unity which the drawing never can have. Even in drawings made with full flowing brush or pen, there will be modulations in the strength of the ink, or occasioned by the surface of the wood or paper, in every stroke, by which the, sensitive artist in the heat of work cannot help being influenced, and which will lead him to give a bloom, a delicacy, to his drawing, such as a print can never possess. And, on the other hand, the unity of the print can never be quite realised in the drawing, however much the artist may strive to attain it, because the conditions must change, however slightly, for strokes produced in succession; while in a print all are produced together, and variations, if variations there are, occur over wide s.p.a.ces and not between stroke and stroke. It is considerations, of this kind that in the last resort determine the quality of works of art. The artist is taught, though often unconsciously, by the means he employs, but the diligent man who is not by nature an artist never can learn these things: he can Imitate the manner and form, never the grace, the bloom, and the life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE APOCALYPSE, 1498 St. Michael fighting the Dragon, Woodcut, B. 72 From the impression in the British Museum Face p. 262]

II

Durer's first important issue of woodcuts was the _Apocalypse_. A great deal has been written in praise of this production as a political pamphlet against the corrupt Papacy. It was undoubtedly the most important series of woodcuts that had ever appeared, by the size, number and elaboration of the designs. It also undoubtedly attacks ecclesiastical corruption, but not ecclesiastical only. Whether to Durer and his friends it appeared even chiefly directed against prelates, or even against those who sat in high places; whether the popes, bishops and figures typical of the Church seemed to him to ill.u.s.trate the moral in any pre-eminent degree, may be doubted. Still more doubtful is it whether there was any objection to papacy or priesthood as inst.i.tutions connected with these figures in his mind. Unworthy popes, unworthy bishops, and an unworthy Rome were censured: but not popes, bishops, or Rome as the capital see of the Church. Durer's work as a whole shows no distaste for saints, the Virgin, or bishops and popes; he had no objection, no scruple apparently, to introducing the notorious Julius II. into his _Feast of the_ Rosary, some ten years later. There has perhaps been a tendency to read the intention of these designs too much in the light of after events: and by so doing a great slur is cast on Durer's consistency; for, had these designs the significance read into them, he must be supposed an altogether convinced enemy of the Church; and the tremendous salaams which he afterwards made to her in far more important works ought, to logical minds, to appear horribly insincere.

Viewed as works of art, one reads about the cut of the four riders upon horses, "For simple grandeur this justly famous design has never been surpa.s.sed." One's sense of proportion receives such a shock as gives one the sensation of being utterly outcast, in a world where such a precious dictum can pa.s.s without remark as a sample of the discrimination of the chief authority on the life and art of Albert Durer. Neither simple nor grand is an adjective applicable to this print in the sense in which we apply it to the chief masterpieces of antiquity and of the Renaissance.

To say even that Durer never surpa.s.sed this design is to utter what to me at least seems the most palpable absurdity. There is an immense advance in design, in conception and in mastery of every kind shown over the best prints of the _Apocalypse_ and _Great Pa.s.sion_, in the prints added to the latter series ten years later, and still more in the _Life of the Virgin_. And still finer results are arrived at in single cuts of later date, and in the _Little Pa.s.sion_. If we want to see what Durer's woodcuts at their finest are for breadth and dignity of composition, for richness and fertility of arabesque and black and white pattern, for vigour and subtlety of form, for boldness and vivacity of workmanship, we must turn to the _Samson_ (1497?) (B. 2), the Man's _Bath_ (14-?), (B. 128), among the earlier blocks published before the _Apocalypse_, then to those designed in or about the year 1511. The golden period for Durer's woodcuts, the date of the publication of his most magnificent series, the _Life of the Virgin_ and several delightful separate prints. Among these we find it hard to choose, but if some must be mentioned let it be the _St. Joachim's Offering Rejected by the High Priest_ (B. 77), the _Meeting at the Golden Gate_ (B. 79) (see ill.u.s.tration), the _Marriage of the Virgin_ (B. 82), the _Visitation_ (B. 84), the _Nativity_ (B. 85) (see ill.u.s.tration), the _Presentation_ (B. _55_), the _Flight into Egypt_ (B. 89).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Detail enlarged from "Nativity."--"Life of the Virgin"

Woodcut, B. 85]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Enlarged detail from "The Embrace of St. Joachim and St.

Anne at the Golden Gate."--"Life of the Virgin," Woodcut, B. 79]

In the glorious masterpieces of this series Durer has found the true balance of his powers. The dignity and charm of the decorative effect of these cuts has never been surpa.s.sed; and to the racy narrative vivacity of such groups and figures as those isolated and enlarged in our ill.u.s.tration there is added an idyllic charm of which perhaps the best examples are the _Visitation_ and the _Flight into Egypt_. This sweetness of allure is still more pervasive in the separate cuts that bear this golden date, 1511, that is in the _St. Christopher_ (B. 103), and the _St. Jerome_ (B. 114). And the _Adoration of the Magi_ (B. 3) is much finer than the one included in the _Life of the Virgin_. This idyllic charm had already been touched _upon before_ in the _a.s.sumption of the Magdalen_ (B. 121) (15?), and in the _St. Antony_ and _St. Paul_ and the _Baptist_ and _St. Onuphrius of_ 1504. It is not felt to lie very deep in the conception of the subject, for all are treated in an obviously conventional manner, the touches of racy realism being confined to subordinate incidents and details. Neither the subjects nor the mood of the artist lend themselves to the dramatic impressiveness of such cuts as the _Blowing of the Sixth Trumpet_ or the _St. Michael overwhelming the Dragon of the Apocalypse_ (_see_ page 262), where the inspiration appears to be Gothic, perhaps developed under the influence of Mantegna's _Combat between Sea Monsters_, of which Durer early made an elaborate pen-and-ink copy. We find an aftermath of the same inspiration in the engraving on iron, dated 1516, representing a man riding astride of an unicorn carrying off a shrieking woman. Such stormy and strenuous lowerings of the imagination break in upon Durer's habitual mood as St. Peter's thunders into Milton's "Lycidas," of which the general felicitous mingling of a conventional pedantry with idyllic charm and racy touches of realistic effect is very similar to the general effect of the golden group we have been describing. Among all the work that finds its climax in the beautiful creations of 1511, only in a few prints of the _Little Pa.s.sion_, published in 1511, do we find any dramatic power or creativeness of essential conception. I may mention the _Christ Scourging the Money-changers in the Temple_, the _Agony in the Garden_, and Judas' _Kiss_, where, though the general effect be rather confused, the central figure is full of appropriate power. _Christ haled by the hair before_ _Annas_ (the most wonderful of all), Christ before _Pilate_, Christ _Mocked_, the _Ecce h.o.m.o_ (a most beautiful composition), the Veronica's napkin incident, _Christ_ being nailed _to the Cross_ (a masterpiece), the _Deposition_, the _Entombment_:--several others of the series have idyllic charm or touches of narrative force which link them with the general group, but these alone stand out and in some ways surpa.s.s it. After this date Durer seems in a great measure to have relinquished wood for metal engraving; however, most of his occasional resumptions of the process were marked by the production of masterpieces, if we put on one side the workshop monsters produced for Maximilian--and even in these, in details, Durer's full force is recognisable. I may mention the _Madonna_ crowned and _worshipped by a concert of Angels_, 1518 (B. 101), which, though a little cold, like all the work of that period, is still a masterpiece; and then, after the inspiriting visit to Antwerp, we have the magnificent portrait of Ulrich Varnbuler, 1522 (B. 155), the _Last Supper_, 1523 (B. 53) (see ill.u.s.tration here), and the glorious piece of decoration representing Durer's Arms, 1523 (B. 160) (see ill.u.s.tration).

I have reproduced less of Durer's wood engravings than would be necessary to represent their importance and beauty, because most, being large and bold, are greatly impoverished by reduction; besides, they are nearly all well known through comparatively cheap reproductions. I have enlarged two details to give an idea of Durer's workmanship when employed upon racy realism (see ill.u.s.tration, page 264), and when employed in endowing a single figure with supreme grace and dignity (see ill.u.s.tration, page 265).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Christ haled before Annas From the "Little Pa.s.sion"--_Between_ pp. 266 & 267]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DuRER'S ARMORIAL BEARINGS Woodcut, B. 160]

CHAPTER VI

DuRER'S INFLUENCES AND VERSES

I

Before closing this part of my book something must be said of Durer's influence on other artists. It is one of the foibles of modern criticism to please itself by tracing influences, a process of the same nature as that of tracing resemblances to ferns and other growths on a frosted pane. No one would deny that resemblances are there; it is to distinguish them and estimate their significance without yielding to fancifulness, which is the well-nigh hopeless task. It is often forgotten that similar circ.u.mstances produce similar effects, and that coincidences from this cause are very rife. Then, too, it is forgotten that the influence that produces rivalry is stronger, more important, and less easily estimated, than that which is expressed by imitation or plagiarism; besides, it affects more original and fertile natures. The stimulus of a great creative personality often is more potent where discernible resemblances are few and vague, than where they are many and obvious. In Durer's day the study and imitation of antique art which had brought about the Renascence in Italy was the fashion that in successive waves was pa.s.sing over Europe and moulding the future. He himself felt it, and welcomed it now as an authority not to be gainsaid, and again as an example to be competed against and surpa.s.sed. This fashion, this trend of opinion and hope, was the significance behind the effect produced on him by Jacopo de' Barbari, whose charming but ineffectual originality succeeded merely in creating an eddy in that stream. It was the tide behind him which so powerfully stirred and stimulated Durer.

The resemblances traceable between certain still life studies by the two men, or even in figures of their engravings, is insignificant compared with the fact that through Jacopo Durer probably first felt the energy and true direction of the great tidal waves which were then rolling forth from Italy. Even Mantegna's influence was probably less the effect of a personal affinity than that through him a power streamed direct from the antique dawn. This great and master influence of those days was more one of hope, indefinite, incomprehensible, visionary, than one of knowledge and a.s.sured discovery. Raphael may have received it from Durer, as well as Durer from Bellini. Figures and incidents from Durer's engravings are supposed to have been adapted in certain works, if not of his own hand at least proceeding from his immediate pupils. For Raphael, Durer was a proof of the excellence of human nature in respect to the arts, even when it could not form itself on the immediate study and contemplation of antiques, and thus added to the zest and expectation with which he improved himself in that direction. These great men did not distinguish clearly between pregnancy due to their own efforts, that of their contemporaries and immediate predecessors, and that due to their more mystic pa.s.sion for antiquity. Michael Angelo, t.i.tian, and Correggio were destined to be the signets by which this great power was to be most often and clearly stamped on the work of future artists.

From the unhappy location of his life Durer was debarred from any such obvious and overwhelming effect on after generations. The influences which helped to shape him were no doubt at work on all the more eminent artists, his fellow-countrymen; on Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Burgkmair, Lucas Cranach, or Baldung Grien, to mention only the elect. What the stimulus of his achievements, of his renown, meant for these men we have no means of computing; yet we may feel sure that it was vastly more important and significant than any actual traces of imitation or plagiarism from his works, which can with difficulty and for the more part very doubtfully be brought home to them;--vastly more important and significant too we may be sure than his effect upon his pupils and other more or less obscure painters, engravers, and block designers, in whose work actual imitation or adaption of his creations is more certain and more abundant. His pictures, plates, and woodcuts were copied both in Italy and in the North, both as exercises for the self-improvement of artists and to supply a demand for even secondhand reflections of his genius and skill. He was not destined to lend the impress of his splendid personality to the tide of fashion like the great Italians; their influence was to supersede his even in the North.

This is obvious: but who shall compare or estimate the accession of force which the tide as a whole gained from him, or that more latent power which begins to be disengaged from the reserve and lack of proper issue from which he evidently suffered, now that the great tide of the Renaissance has spent its mighty onrush and become merged in the constant movement of life--that power by which he moves us to commiserate his circ.u.mstances and to feel after the more and better, which we cannot doubt that he might have given us had he been more happily situated?

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LAST SUPPER Woodcut, p. 53]

II

Only to compare the value of Michael Angelo's sonnets with that of the doggerel rhymes which Durer produced, may give us some idea of the portentous inferiority in Durer's surroundings to those of the great Italian. Both borrow the general idea of the subject, treatment, and form of their poems from the fashion around them. But that fashion in Michael Angelo's case called for elevated subject, intimate and imaginative treatment, and adequacy of form, whereas none of these were called for from Albrecht Durer; and if his friends laughed at the rudeness of his verses, it was not that they themselves conceived of anything more adequate in these respects, only something more scholarly, more pedantic. Michael Angelo's verse was often crabbed and rude, but the scholarship and pedantry of Italy forbore to laugh at that rudeness, because a more adequate standard made them recognise its vital power and n.o.ble pa.s.sion as of higher importance to true success. Still, in the following rhymes, Durer shows himself a true child of the Renascence, at least in intention; and was proud of a desire for universal excellence.

When I received this from Lazarus Spengler, I made him the following poem in reply (Mrs. Heaton's translation):

In Nurnberg it is known full well A man of letters now doth dwell, One of our Lord's most useful men, He is so clever with his pen, And others knows so well to hit, And make ridiculous with wit; And he has made a jest of me, Because I made some poetry, And of True Wisdom something wrote, But as he likes my verses not, He makes a laughing stock of me, And says I'm like the Cobbler, he Who criticised Apelles' art.

With this he tries to make me smart, Because he thinks it is for me To paint, and not write poetry.

But I have undertaken this (And will not stop for him or his), To learn whatever thing I can, For which will blame me no wise man.

For he who only learns one thing, And to naught else his mind doth bring, To him, as to the notary, It haps, who lived here as do we, In this our town. To him was known To write one form and one alone.

Two men came to him with a need That he should draw them up a deed; And he proceeded very well, Until their names he came to spell: Gotz was the first name that perplexed, And Rosenstammen was the next.

The Notary was much astonished, And thus his clients he admonished, "Dear friends," he said, "you must be wrong, These names don't to my form belong; Franz and Fritz[84] I know full well, But of no others have heard tell."

And so he drove away his clients, And people mocked his little science.

To me that it may hap not so, Something of all things I will know.

Not only writing will I do, But learn to practise physic too; Till men surprised will say, "Beshrew me, What good this painter's medicines do me!"

Therefore hear and I will tell Some wise receipts to keep you well.

A little drop of alkali, Is good to put into the eye; He who finds it hard to hear, Should mandel-oil put in his ear; And he who would from gout be free, Not wine but water drink should he; He who would live to be a hundred, Will see my counsel has not blundered.

Therefore I will still make rhymes Though my friend may laugh at times.

So the Painter with hairy beard Says to the Writer who mocked and jeered.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 84: Equivalent to our John Doe and Richard Roe.]

PART IV

DuRER'S IDEAS

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER I