Part 12 (1/2)

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

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

_Nurnberg's hand, Geht durch alle land;_

and which may be rendered in our modern vernacular--

”Nurnberg's hand Goes through every land.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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