Part 19 (2/2)
IV
Among the prints with lesser reputations are several which attain a far higher success. There is the iron plate of the _Agony in the Garden,_ B.
19, already mentioned (p. 235), in which the storm-tortured tree and the broken light and shade are full of dramatic power (see ill.u.s.tration), the _Angel with the Sudarium_, B. 26, where the arabesque of the folds of drapery and cloud unite with the daring invention of the central figure to create a mood entirely consonant with the subject. There is the woman carried off by a man on an unicorn, in which the turbulence of the subject is expressed with unrivalled force by the rich and beautiful arabesque and black and white pattern.
B. Nos. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18, of the _Little Pa.s.sion_, on copper, are all of them noteworthy successes of more or less the same kind; and in these, too, we come upon that racy sense for narration which can enhance dramatic import by emphasising some seemingly trivial circ.u.mstance, as in the gouty stiffness of one of Christ's scourgers in the _Flagellation_, or the abnormal ugliness of the man who with such perfect gravity holds the basin while Pilate _washes his hands:_ while in the _Crown of Thorns_ and _Descent into Hades_ we have peculiarly fine and suitable black and white patterns, and in the _Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate_[80] and the _Ecce h.o.m.o_ figures of monumental dignity in tiny gems of glowing engraver's work. The repose and serenity of the lovely little _St. Antony_;[81] the subsidence of commotion in the noonday victory of the little _St. George on foot_, B. 53--perhaps the most perfect diamond in the whole brilliant chain of little plates, or the staid navety of the enchanting _Apollo and Diana_, B. 68;[82]
who shall prefer among these things? Every time we go through them we choose out another until we return to the most popular and slightly obvious _St. George on Horseback_, B. 54. Next come the dainty series of little plates in honour of Our Lady the Mother of G.o.d, commencing before Durer made a rule of dating his plates; before 1503 and continuing till after 1520, in which the last are the least worthy. Among these the Virgin embracing her Child at the foot of a tree, B. 34, dated 1513; The Virgin standing on the crescent moon, her baby in one arm, her sceptre in the other hand and the stars of her crown blown sideways as she bows her head, B. 32, dated 1516, and the stately and monumental Virgin seated by a wall, B. 40, dated 1514, are at present my favourites. And to these succeeded the n.o.ble army of Apostles and Martyrs of which the more part are dated from 1521 to 1526, though two, B. 48 and 50, fall as early as 1514.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SMALL HORSE--Copper Engraving, B. 96]
Then amongst the most perfect larger plates I cannot refrain from mentioning the _St. Jerome_, B. 60, with its homely seclusion as of Durer's own best parlour in summer time which not even the presence of a lion can disturb; the idyllic and captivating _St. Hubert_, B. 57; the august and tranquil _Cannon_, B. 99: and lastly, perhaps, in the little _Horse_, B. 96, we come upon a theme and motive of the kind best suited to Durer's peculiar powers, in which he produces an effect really comparable to those of the old Greek masters, about whose lost works he was so eager for sc.r.a.ps of information, and whose fame haunted him even into his slumbers, so that he dreamed of them and of those who should ”give a future to their past.” This delightful work may ill.u.s.trate an allegory now grown dark or some misconception of a Grecian story; but though the relation between the items that compose it should remain for ever unexplained, its beauty, like that of some Greek sculpture that has been admired under many names, continues its spell, and speaks of how the simplicity, austerity and n.o.ble proportions of cla.s.sical art were potent with the spirit of the great Nuremberg artist, and occasionally had free way with him, in spite of all there was in his circ.u.mstances and origins to impede or divert them. (See also the spirited drawing, Lipp. 366.)
V
It would be idle to attempt to say something about every masterpiece in Durer's splendidly copious work on metal plates. There is perhaps not one of these engravings that is not vital upon one side or another, amazingly few that are not vital upon many. One other work, however, which has been much criticised and generally misunderstood, it may be as well to examine at more length, especially as it ill.u.s.trates what was often Durer's practice in regard to his theories about proportion, with which my next Part will deal. I speak of the _Great Fortune_ or _Nemesis_ (B. 77). His practice at other times is ill.u.s.trated by the splendid _Adam and Eve_ (B. 1), over the production of which the nature of the canon he suggested was perhaps first thoroughly worked out. But before this and afterwards too he no doubt frequently followed the advice he gives in the following pa.s.sage.
To him that setteth himself to draw figures according to this book, not being well taught beforehand, the matter will at first become hard. Let him then put a man before him, who agreeth, as nearly as may be, _with the proportions he desireth_; and let him draw him in outline according to his knowledge and power. And a man is held to have done well if he attain accurately to copy a figure according to the life, so that his drawing resembleth the figure and is like unto nature. _And in particular if the thing copied as beautiful; then is the copy held to be artistic_, and, as it deserveth, it is highly praised.
Durer himself would seem to have very often followed his own advice in this. The _Great Fortune_ or Nemesis is a case in point. The remarks of critics on this superb engraving are very strange and wide. Professor Thausing said, ”Embodied in this powerful female form, the Northern wors.h.i.+p of nature here makes its first conscious and triumphant appearance in the history of art.” With the work of the great Jan Van Eyck in one's mind's eye, of course this will appear one of those little lapses of memory so convenient to German national sentiment.
”Everything that, according to our aesthetic formalism based on the antique, we should consider beautiful, is sacrificed to truth.” (I have already pointed out that this use of the word ”truth” in matters of art const.i.tutes a fallacy)[83] ”And yet our taste must bow before the imperishable fidelity to nature displayed in these forms, the fulness of life that animates these limbs.” Of course, ”imperishable fidelity to nature” and ”taste that bows before it” are merely the figures of a clumsy rhetoric. But the idea they imply is one of the most common of vulgar errors in regard to works of art. In the first place one must remind our enthusiastic German that it is an engraving and not a woman that we are discussing; and that this engraving is extremely beautiful in arabesque and black and white pattern, rich, rhythmical and harmonious; and that there is no reason why our taste should be violated in having to bow submissively before such beauties as these, which it is a pleasure to wors.h.i.+p. Now we come to the subject as presented to the intelligence, after the quick receptive eye has been satiated with beauty. Our German guide exclaims, ”Not misled by cold definite rules of proportion, he gave himself up to unrestrained realism in the presentation of the female form.” Our first remark is, that though the treatment of this female form may perhaps be called realistic, this adjective cannot be made to apply to the figure as a whole. This ma.s.sively built matron is winged; she stands on a small globe suspended in the heavens, which have opened and are furled up like a garment in a manner entirely conventional. She carries a scarf which behaves as no fabric known to me would behave even under such exceptional and thrilling circ.u.mstances.
Dr. Carl Giehlow has recently suggested that this splendid engraving ill.u.s.trates the following Latin verses by Poliziano:
Est dea, quse vacuo sublimis in aere pendens It nimbo succincta latus, sed candida pallam, Sed radiata comam, ac stridentibus insonat alis.
Haec spes immodicas premit, haec infesta superbis Imminet, huic celsas hominum contundere mentes Incessusque datum et nimios turbare paratus.
Quam veteres Nemesin genitam de nocte silenti Oceano discere patri. Stant sidera fronti.
Frena manu pateramque gerit, semperque verendum Ridet et insanis obstat contraria coeptis.
Improba vota domans ac summis ima revolvens Miscet et alterna nostros vice temperat actus.
Atque hue atque illuc ventorum turbine fertur.
There is a G.o.ddess, who, aloft in the empty air, advances girdled about with a cloud, but with a s.h.i.+ning white cloak and a glory in her hair, and makes a rus.h.i.+ng with her wings. She it is who crushes extravagant hopes, who threatens the proud, to whom is given to beat down the haughty spirit and the haughty step, and to confound over-great possessions. Her the men of old called Nemesis, born to Ocean from the womb of silent Night. Stars stand upon her forehead. In her hand she bears bridles and a chalice, and smiles for ever with an awful smile, and stands resisting mad designs. Turning to nought the prayers of the wicked and setting the low above the high she puts one in the other's place and rules the scenes of life with alternation. And she is borne hither and thither on the wings of the whirlwind.
If this suggestion is a good one it shows us that Durer was no more consistently literal than he was realistic. The most striking features of his ill.u.s.tration are just those to which his text offers no counterpart, i.e., the nudity and physical maturity of his G.o.ddess.
Neither has he girdled her about with cloud nor stood stars upon her forehead. I must confess that I find it hard to believe that there was any close connection present to his mind between his engraving and these verses.
In a former chapter I have spoken of the fas.h.i.+on in female dress then prevalent; how it underlined whatever is most essential in the physical attributes of womanhood, and how probably something of good taste is shown in this fas.h.i.+on (see pp. 92 and 93). What I there said will explain Durer's choice in this matter; and also that what Thausing felt bow in him was not taste, but his prejudices in regard to womanly attractiveness, and his misconception as to where the beauty of an engraving should be looked for and in what it consists. These same prejudices and misconceptions render Mrs. Heaton (as is only natural in one of the weaker s.e.x) very bold. She says, ”A large naked winged woman, whose ugliness is perfectly repulsive.” This object, I must confess, appears to me, a coa.r.s.e male, ”welcome to contemplation of the mind and eye.” The splendid Venus in t.i.tian's _Sacred and Profane Love_, or his _Ariadne_ at Madrid; or Raphael's _Galatea_; or Michael Angelo's _Eve_ (on the Sistine vault) are all of them doubtless far more akin to the _Aphrodite_ of Praxiteles, or to her who crouches in the Louvre, than is this _Nemesis_; but we must not forget that they are works on a scale more comparable with a marble statue; and that in works of which the scale is more similar to that of our engraving, Greek taste was often far more with Durer than with Thausing. This is an important point, though one which is rarely appreciated. However, there is no reason why we should condemn ”misled by cold definite rules of taste” even such pictures as Rembrandt's _Bathing Woman_ in the Louvre, though here the proportions of the work are heroic. Oil painting was an art not practised by the Greeks, and this medium lends itself to beauties which their materials put entirely out of reach. Besides, Rembrandt appealed to an audience who had been educated by Christian ideals to appreciate a pathos produced by the juxtaposition of the fact with the ideal, and of the creature with the creator, to appeal to which a Greek would have had to be far more circ.u.mspect in his address--even if he had, through an exceptional docility and receptiveness of character, come under its influence himself. These considerations when apprehended will, I believe, suffice to dispel both prejudice and misconception in regard to this matter; and we shall find in Professor Thausing's remarks relative to the treatment of the ”female form divine” in this engraving no additional reason for considering it a comparatively early work. And we shall only smile when he tells us ”The _Nemesis_ to a certain _degree_ (sic) marks the extreme _point_ (sic) reached by Durer in his unbiased study of the nude. His further progress became more and more influenced by his researches into the proportions of the human body.” The bias will appear to us of rather more recent date, and we shall be ready to consider with an open mind how far Durer's practice was influenced for good or evil by his researches into the proportions of the human body.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 80: See page 258.]
[Footnote 81: See page 260.]
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