Part 14 (1/2)
In the old cemetery of St. John lies all that is mortal of the artist who has given lasting celebrity to Nurnberg. Let us take a walk in that direction. Pa.s.sing out of the town by the gate opposite Durer's house, the sculptured representations of the scenes of Christ's Pa.s.sion, by Adam Krafft, already alluded to, will guide our footsteps on our way.
About three-quarters of a mile from the town, we reach the gate beside which stands Krafft's group of the Crucifixion.[257-*] We enter, and stand in a graveyard thickly covered with gravestones. Here the burgher aristocracy of Nurnberg have been buried for centuries.
The heavy slabs which cover the graves are in many instances highly enriched by bronze plates elaborately executed, containing coats of arms, emblems, or full-length figures. Each grave is numbered, and that of Durer is marked 649. The stone had fallen into decay, when Sandrart the painter had it renewed in 1681.[258-*] This honourable act of love from a living artist to a dead brother, enabled the memorial to stand another century of time. The artists of Nurnberg now look after its conservation; it has recently been repaired by them, and on the anniversary of the Spring morning when the great master departed, they reverently visit his resting-place. The inscription upon it runs thus:--
ME. AL. DU.
QUICQUID ALBERTI DURERI MORTALE FVIT SUB HOC CONDITUR TUMULO.
EMIGRAVIT. VIII. IDUS. APRILIS M.D.XXVIII.
The sentiment of this epitaph has been beautifully rendered by Longfellow--
”_Emigravit_ is the inscription on the tombstone where he lies; Dead he is not,--but departed--for the artist never dies.”
Thus ends our brief review of the life and labours of Durer and his fellow artists. If it has ”called up forgotten glories,” it has not been a labour ill-bestowed. If it should induce others to leave England for Nurnberg, as the writer hereof was induced, he can venture to predict full satisfaction from the journey. Any one who may ramble through its streets, know its past history, feel its poetic a.s.sociations, like the American bard we have just quoted, will say, as he has done, of old Nurnberg and the great and good Albert Durer--
”Fairer seems the ancient city, and the suns.h.i.+ne seems more fair, That he once has trod its pavement, that he once has breathed its air!”
FINIS.
PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., CITY ROAD, LONDON.
FOOTNOTES:
[190-*] Sir E. Head's introduction to the English translation of Kugler's ”Handbook of Painting.” Part II.
[191-*] Longfellow's ”Spanish Student.”
[212-*] Engravings of these will be found in the _Art-Journal_ for 1854, pp. 307-8.
[212-] Longfellow.
[215-*] They have been presented from time to time to such potentates as the townsmen wished to conciliate. Thus, his Four Apostles, bequeathed by the artist to his native town, was presented by the council to the Elector Maximilian I., of Bavaria, and are now in the Pinacothek in Munich.
[218-*] ”Guido seems to have availed himself of some of these figures in his celebrated fresco of the Car of Apollo, preceded by Aurora, and accompanied by the Hours.”--CHATTO'S _History of Wood Engraving_, p.
303.
[221-*] For a general notice of Durer's works, and several engravings of the best of them, see the _Art-Journal_ for 1851, pp. 141-144 and pp.
193-196. See also, ”Vignettes d'Albert Durer,” par George Franz.
[223-*] These incipient bastions and horn-works may be seen in our cut, p. 194.