Dürer: Artist-BiographiesSweetser, M. F. (Moses Foster)
History
Dürer: Artist-Biographies
Sweetser, M. F. (Moses Foster)
Dürer, Albrecht, 1471-1528
About this time the master's brother Andreas, the goldsmith, returned
to Nuremberg after his long wanderings, and eased the evident anxiety
of his family by settling respectably in life. Hans was still in his
brother's studio, where he learned his art so well that he afterwards
became court-painter to the King of Poland.
In 1511 Dürer published a third edition of the engravings of the
Apocalypse, with a warning to piratical engravers that the Emperor had
forbidden the sale of copies or impressions other than those of the
author, within the Empire, under heavy penalties to transgressors. To
the same year belong three of the master's greatest works in engraving
on wood.
"The Great Passion" contains twelve folio woodcuts, unequal in
their execution, and probably made by different workmen of varying
abilities. The vignette is an "Ecce Homo;" and the other subjects are,
the Last Supper, Christ at Gethsemane, His Betrayal, the Scourging,
the Mockery, Christ Bearing the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Descent
into Hell, the Maries Mourning over Christ's Body, the Entombment,
and the Resurrection. These powerful delineations of the Agony of Our
Lord are characterized by rare originality of conception, pathos,
and grandeur. They were furnished with Latin verses by the monk
Chelidonius, and bore the imperial warning against imitation. Four
large editions were printed from these cuts, and numerous copies,
especially in Italy, where the Emperor's edict was inoperative.
"The Little Passion" was a term applied by Dürer himself to
distinguish his series of thirty-seven designs from the larger
pictures of "The Great Passion." It is the best-known of the master's
engravings; and has been published in two editions at Nuremberg, a
third at Venice in 1612, and a fourth at London in 1844. The blocks
are now in the British Museum, and show plainly that they were not
engraved by Dürer. This great pictorial scene of the fall and
redemption of man begins with the sin of Adam and Eve, and their
expulsion from Eden, and follows with thirty-three compositions from
the life and passion of Christ, ending with the Descent of the Holy
Ghost and the Last Judgment. Its title was _Figuræ Passionis Domini
Nostri Jesu Christi_; and it was furnished with a set of the Latin
verses of Chelidonius.
The third of Dürer's great works in wood-engraving was "The Life
of the Virgin," with explanatory Latin verses by the Benedictine
Chelidonius. This was published in 1511, and contains twenty pictures,
full of realistic plainness and domestic homeliness, yet displaying
marvellous skill and power of invention. To the same year belong the
master's engravings of the Trinity, St. Christopher, St. Gregory's
Mass, St. Jerome, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, the Holy Family
with the Guitar, Herodias and the Head of John the Baptist, and the
Adoration of the Magi; and the copper-plates of the Crucifixion and
the Virgin with the Pear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account