Part 20 (1/2)

[Footnote 82: See Frontispiece]

[Footnote 83: See page 19]

CHAPTER V

DuRER'S WOODCUTS

It is now generally accepted that Durer did not hirave 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 airaver took certain liberties for his own convenience, and probably did not attener

”The hand” was equivalent to what modern artists call ”the touch,” and nisable in the vast majority of the strokes orDurer affected extreht line, Reht stroke used so as to seeh indeed he varies the character of his touch more continually and s and etchings the ht Already in the woodcuts provided by Michael Wolgeeneral atteh still those of an engraver, are frequently iven by the draughtsman Still, no one with practical experience would consider these woodcuts as adequate facsiemut, or his partner and step-son, Pleydenwurff, of still less interest and irounds 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 i 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 Hieronyravers,” 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 hihter because it is ih 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 iht be that had otherwise stamped a personal character on their work; and all remonstrancemaster spared himself not a whitpossible was perhaps the greatest aid that Durer drew from German character; it was not only an aid, but an exahty spirit of his that restively ever again vows never to take so e 103); that coement after years of repeatedly e 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, felloorkers, and helpers, which enabled hiloos with the will to continue and endure

The difference introduced by the engravers beco Durer's hand is well illustrated by co 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 develope to separate the differences due to the creator fros differed as widely fro fros done as prelis, the ed less than the character of the forn as a whole had advanced ht of hand which expressed it The engraver has by 1511 becoreater variety of speed in the stroke, ue-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 raver of his _Dunce of Death_

Still it were ard for the facilities and liths that the deone Not only has the line been reproduced, but it has been drawn not with a full pen or brush, but in pencil or atered 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 li himself he shows an appreciation of the nises its lih 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 draith 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 drahich can be cut on wood, not for so 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 Hieronys as Durer's no doubt were, there would have been some qualities, some defects perhaps, that the print does not possess For a print, fro, has a breadth and unity which the drawing never can have Even in drawingsbrush or pen, there will be th 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 hi, 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 e, however slightly, for strokes produced in succession; while in a print all are produced together, and variations, if variations there are, occur over wide spaces and not between stroke and stroke It is considerations, of this kind that in the last resort deterh often unconsciously, by the ent s: he can Irace, the bloom, and the life

[Illustration: 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 ireat deal has been written in praise of this production as a political paainst the corrupt Papacy It was undoubtedly the most important series of woodcuts that had ever appeared, by the size, nuns 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 seeree, may be doubted Still more doubtful is it whether there was any objection to papacy or priesthood as institutions 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 reat slur is cast on Durer's consistency; for, had these designs the significance read into theether convinced enemy of the Church; and the tremendous salaams which he afterwards ical minds, to appear horribly insincere

Viewed as works of art, one reads about the cut of the four riders upon horses, ”For sin has never been surpassed” 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 pass without remark as a sample of the discrimination of the chief authority on the life and art of Albert Durer Neither sirand 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 surpassed this design is to utter what to me at least seems the n, in conception and in mastery of every kind shown over the best prints of the _Apocalypse_ and _Great Passion_, in the prints added to the latter series ten years later, and still in_ And still finer results are arrived at in single cuts of later date, and in the _Little Passion_ If ant 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 workmanshi+p, we must turn to the _Sa 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 in_ and several delightful separate prints A these we find it hard to choose, but if so Rejected by the High Priest_ (B 77), the _Meeting at the Golden Gate_ (B 79) (see illustration), the _Marriage of the Virgin_ (B 82), the _Visitation_ (B 84), the _Nativity_ (B 85) (see illustration), the _Presentation_ (B _55_), the _Flight into Egypt_ (B 89)

[Illustration: Detail enlarged froin”

Woodcut, B 85]

[Illustration: Enlarged detail from ”The Embrace of St Joachiin,” 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 surpassed; and to the racy narrative vivacity of such groups and figures as those isolated and enlarged in our illustration there is added an idyllic charm of which perhaps the best exaypt_ This sweetness of allure is still olden date, 1511, that is in the _St Christopher_ (B 103), and the _St Jeroi_ (B 3) is in_ This idyllic charm had already been touched _upon before_ in the _assudalen_ (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 conventionalconfined to subordinate incidents and details Neither the subjects nor the mood of the artist lend themselves to the dra of the Sixth Truon 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 after on iron, dated 1516, representing awoination break in upon Durer's habitual mood as St Peter's thunders into Milton's ”Lycidas,” of which the general felicitousof a conventional pedantry with idyllic charm and racy touches of realistic effect is very siroup we have been describing A all the work that finds its climax in the beautiful creations of 1511, only in a few prints of the _Little Passion_, published in 1511, do we find any dramatic power or creativeness of essential conception I ers in the Teony 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 homo_ (a most beautiful co nailed _to the Cross_ (a masterpiece), the _Deposition_, the _Entombment_:--several others of the series have idyllic chareneral group, but these alone stand out and in soreat ; 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 _worshi+pped by a concert of Angels_, 1518 (B 101), which, though a little cold, like all the work of that period, is still avisit to Antwerp, we have the nificent portrait of Ulrich Varnbuler, 1522 (B 155), the _Last Supper_, 1523 (B 53) (see illustration here), and the glorious piece of decoration representing Durer's Arms, 1523 (B 160) (see illustration)

I have reproduced less of Durer's wood engravings than would be necessary to represent their ie and bold, are greatly impoverished by reduction; besides, they are nearly all well known through coed two details to give an idea of Durer's workmanshi+p when ee 264), and when enity (see illustration, page 265)

[Illustration: Christ haled before Annas From the ”Little Passion”--_Between_ pp 266 & 267]

[Illustration: DuRER'S ARMORIAL BEARINGS Woodcut, B 160]

CHAPTER VI

DuRER'S INFLUENCES AND VERSES

I