Part 19 (1/2)

[Footnote 75: See the exquisite landscape in the collection of Mr C S

Ricketts and Mr C H Shannon, reproduced in the sixth folio of the Durer Society, 1903 Mr Ca as in a , but what convinces him that these retouches are not by Durer? The pen-work seems to be at once too clever and too careless to have been added by another hand to preserve a fading drawing]

[Footnote 76: XII Discourse]

[Footnote 77: XIII, Discourse]

[Footnote 78: Ibid]

[Footnote 79: Literary Remains of Albrecht Durer, p I 50]

CHAPTER IV

DuRER'S METAL ENGRAVINGS

I

For the artist or designer the chief difference between the engraving done on a wood block and that done on raved line in a wood block is in relief, that on a metal plate is entrenched; the ink in the one case is applied to the crest of a ridge, in the other it fills a groove into which the surface of the paper is squeezed Though lines almost as fine as those possible onthis they force the nature of their medium, whereas on a copper plate fine lines come naturally Perhaps no section of Durer's work reveals his unique powers so thoroughly as his engravings on n and execution; and no expenditure of pains or patience seems to have limited his intentions, or to have hindered his execution or rendered it less vital And perhaps it is this fact which witnesses with our spirit and bids us recognise the master: rather than the coorous though it be; or than the symbols and types which he composed from such forms for the traditional and novel ideas of his day And this unweariable assiduity of his is continually employed in the discovery of very noble arabesques of line and patterns in black and white,and dispersion of the stars Intensity of application, constancy of purpose, when revealed to us by beautifully variegated surfaces, the result of huhtly impress us, more than quaint and antiquated notions about the four temperaments, or about witches and their sabbaths, or about virtues and vices ean divinities, and in legends about thereat difficulty and very ill It is the astonishi+ng assurance of the central human will for perfection that awes us; this perception that flinches at no difficulty, this perception of how greatly beauty deserves to be eiven permanence to

II

In the encomium which Erasmus wrote of Albert Durer he dealt, as one sees by the passage quoted (p 186), with Durer's engraved work alreat hus by Durer, and very likely had heard Durer hie them, as Melanchthon tells us was his wont (p 187) We know that Durer gave Erass, and we may feel sure that he was questioned pretty closely as to ere the aims of his art, and wherein he seemed to himself to have best succeeded The sentence I underlined (on p 186) gives us probably some reflection of Durer's reply We e as to how Apelles was praised, was full of the idea that art was an imitation, and may probably have refused to understand what Durer may very likely have told hi his Greek and Latin sources have prevented the reverent Durer froh most of his praise seems mere literary co another source

”He reproduces not , but also observes the laws of perfect syard to the position of it” How one would like to have heard Durer, as Erasmus may probably have heard him, explain the principles on which he composed! No doubt there is no very radical difference between his sense of coreat artists But to hear one so preoccupied with explaining his processes to hiain For though there are doubtless no absolute rules, and the appeal is always to a refined sense for proportion,--yet to hear a creator speak of such things is to have this sense, as it were, washed and rendered delicate once ret that Eras fuller than this hint In the saives of Mantegna,--we feel that Durer's own is behind it; but as it stands it is disjointed and absurd, like solimpse of how much more was lost than was preserved by the reporters of the sayings of Jesus It is the saelo, and indeed of all other great men

It is impossible to accept ”his hand was not trained to follow the perception and nina; but how suggestive is the allusion to ”broken and scattered statues set up as examples of art,” for artists to for into contact not only with Mantegna but with titian, Leonardo, Raphael, Michael Angelo, is indeed the saddest fact in regard to his life We can well believe that he felt it in Mantegna's case Ah! Why could he not bring himself to accept the overtures made to him, and become a citizen of Venice?

III

The subjects of these engravings are even generally trivial or antiquated, either in themselves or by the way they are approached

Perhaps alone aure of Jesus, as it is drawn in the various series on copper and wood illustrating the Passion, is conceived in a manner which touches us to-day with the directness of a revelation; and even this cannot be cos, either for essential adequacy, or for various and convincing application No, we hts” drop out of our appreciation of Durer's works, and be replaced by the ”great character” latent in thes on copper stands out fro the rest, and indeed from all his works In the _Melancholy_ the co and proportion; the arabesque of line is not richer or sweeter, the variations from black to white are not s No, by its conception alone the _Melancholy_ attains to its unique ie, not the impressiveness of an idea or situation, as in the case of the _Knight, Death, and the Devil_, by which almost asto choose between the workmanshi+p of the two plates; both are absolutely impeccable, and outside the work of Durer himself, unrivalled The _Melancholy_ is the only creation by a German which appears to reatest Italian In it we have the i conceived for mental vision, and addressed to the eye exclusively If there was an allegory, or if the plate forined) one of a series representative of the four teination are addressed with such force and felicity that the inquiries which attempt to answer these questions uid interest to the conte the iht; for that plate always seems to me the mere illustration of a literary idea, a sheer statement of items which require to be connected by some story, and some of which have the crude obviousness of folk-lore syenial navety

They have not been fused in the rapture of some unique mood, not focussed by the intensity of an e all his works only Durer'sportrait of himself has an equal or even similar power to bind us in its spell For this reason I atte comparison between the _Sibyls_ of the Sistine Chapel and the _Melancholy_ a comparison which I do not suppose to have any other value or force than that of a stiination which the works themselves address

[Illustration: MELANCHOLIA Copper engraving, B 74]

The ielo to betray his intention of ie and exceptional women, ”liesture, they lift down or open their books or unwind their scrolls like those accustomed to be the cynosure of many eyes, who have lived before crowds of inferiors, a spectacle of dignity from their childhood upwards On the other hand, the pose and build of the _Melancholy_It is not till we come to the face that we find traits that correspond with the obvious sys and wreath, or the serious richness of the black and white effect of the composition; but that face holds our attention as not even the Sibylla Delphica cannot by beauty, not by conscious inspiration, but by the spell of unanswerable thought, by the power to brood, by the patience that can and dare go unresolved for un about her; she cannot see unto the end; she is powerful, she is capable in many works, she has borne children, she rests froht wanders, sleeps or dreams The spirit of the North, with its industry, its cool-headed calculation, its abundance in contrivance, its elaboration of duty and accumulation of possessions--there she sits, absorbed, unsatisfied Impetuosity and the frank avowal of intention are themselves an expression of the will to create that which is desirable; they can but form the habit of every artist under happy circumstances They proceed on the expectation of i to power in action; while, if beauty be not impetuous, she is frank, and adds to the avowal of her intention the promise of its fulfilment The work of art and the artist are essentially open; they promise intimacy, and fulfil that pro so impressive as intimacy which iift without reserve, increase without let But the circuelo's were not An intense brooding melancholy arises from the repressed and baffled desire to create; and in so their success is a necessary character of all lovely and spiritual creations in this world

Now Michael Angelo's works, because of their Southern impetuosity and volubility, are not so instinct with this divine sorrow, this immobility of the soul face to face with evil, as is Durer's _Melancholy_ He inspires and exhilarates us more, but takes us out of ourselves rather than leads us home

Here is Durer's success: let and hindered as it really is, he makes us feel the inalienable constancy of rational desire, watching adverse circumstance as one beast of prey watches another She keeps hold on the bird she has caught, the ideal that perhaps she will never fully enjoy

Michael Angelo pictures for us freedoht and ecstasy give, the freedonise it; Durer shows us the constancy that bridges the intervals between such free hours, that gives continuity to man's necessarily spasenius: as Michael Angelo's athletes ht typify by their naked beauty and the unexplained ienius of the sudden South--sudden in action, sudden in thought, suddenly ht to day the more rapidly as the tropics are approached