The Mentor, No. 48, Two Early German Painters: Dürer and Holbein TWO EARLY GERMAN PAINTERS DÜRER AND HOLBEIN By FRANK JEWETT MATHER, Jr. _Marquand Professor of Art and Archeology, Princeton University_ [Illustration] [Illustration] THE MENTOR SERIAL No. 48 [Illustration] DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS MENTOR GRAVURES PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF Dürer PORTRAIT OF YOUNG WOMAN Dürer HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER Dürer ERASMUS Holbein MEIER MADONNA Holbein QUEEN JANE SEYMOUR Holbein ALBRECHT DÜRER A great painter gives us much more than skilfully arranged lines and colors. These are only the symbols by which we may share his vision of the world. What we must try to find in any work of art is the soul of a great man. This is particularly true of so serious an artist as Albrecht Dürer (doo´-rer) of Nuremberg, who was born in 1471, a little before the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation. In that movement he shared heartily, but without bitterness for the Catholic Church, in which he had been bred. He was a broad-minded Christian, a thoughtful and thorough craftsman. In the little drawing he did of himself at thirteen we see the serious, worried lad already a competent draftsman. We may see him again in the Madrid portrait, the confident young painter of twenty-seven; at Munich, the mature and dignified artist of thirty-six; and finally, in the haggard woodcut profile, as a man grown old with unabated ardor of spirit. The accent of study and concentration is present at every stage. He painted so carefully that such work did not pay him. The engravings, of which he did about 100 with his own hand, brought him in a comfortable fortune. They are marvels of faithful observation and of minute execution. When old age and illness made painting and engraving difficult, he wrote books on the proportions of the human body and the art of fortification. We must not expect a man of such stern and high ideals to be charming. He may, however, have many true things to tell about life and character that it behooves us to know. THE ENGRAVINGS [Illustration: MICHAEL WOHLGEMUTH By Dürer]