CHAPTER XXIV.

ALBERT DURER AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.-THE ITALIANIZED ART OF

THE School of the Van Eycks appears to have had an immediate influence upon the schools of Germany, at Ulm, Colmar, Nürnberg, and other places. The earliest distinguished master of these schools was MARTIN SCHONGAUER, commonly called Martin Schoen. He was born at Ulm, in the early part of the fifteenth century, about 1420, as he was an established artist in 1441. He appears to have been originally an engraver, and an excellent one, and to have first turned much of his attention to painting, after a visit to the Netherlands, where he dwelt some time, chiefly at Antwerp: he is called by the Italians Martino d'Anversa, and also Bel Martino. From a letter of Lambertus Lombardus to Vasari, dated Liége, April 27, 1565, it is inferred that he was a scholar of Rogier Vander Weyden,' or Roger of Bruges. Martin was still at Ulm in 1461, but he appears to have settled at Colmar about 1470, and was the founder of a school of painting there: where also his principal works are still preserved. He died at Colmar, February 2nd,

1 Gaye, "Carteggio Inedito d'Artisti," ii. 177.

1488. Martin's pictures are similar in style to those of the old Flemish school, but he does not approach his reputed master Vander Weyden; his execution is not nearly so delicate or refined, and his drawing is very inferior; he is, however, accounted the best German painter of the fifteenth century; his engravings also, though crude in light and shade, are among the best of the early productions of this class. He devoted too much of his time to engraving to become a good painter. His prints, though not so well executed, have more taste, and are in a better style than those of Albert Dürer.

German writers speak of the "Maria im Rosenhag," or Madonna in the rose-bushes, with life-size figures,-now in the sacristy of the Martinskirche at Colmar, as the most important and most characteristic of this painter's works; and it constitutes, according to Passavant, the key by which all other pictures attributed to him are to be judged. Of the other works at Colmar assigned to him, several in the Library are, according to the same authority, works only of his school.

A very interesting small German picture on panel, formerly in the King of Holland's collection, in the taste of the early Flemish school, representing the "Death of the Virgin," now in the National Gallery, is attributed to this painter, but it resembles Albert Dürer's works, and is much more delicately executed than anything by Martin, at Colmar. The composition is in accordance with church tradition-the Virgin having received the last offices of the Church, is lying in a bed, and is attended upon by the twelve Apostles, who are all variously occupied around her: above is the Deity, supported by angels, about to receive her soul. From a window in the apartment is seen a square or place in a town, executed with all the clearness and detail of John Van Eyck. Some of the heads of the Apostles are of a very fine character, much resembling the heads found in the early German woodcuts, and nearly all are very richly coloured. The picture is a masterpiece of its kind, and is pronounced by Dr. Waagen the best of all the pictures attributed to Martin Schoen; it is, doubtless, much better than anything ever painted by that master.

Schoen is said to have been the master of Albert Dürer; but Albert did not visit Colmar until after Martin's death. Lambert Lombard makes this mistake in the letter referred to; he indeed calls Martin "the father of all the famous artists in Germany."

ALBRECHT DÜRER was born at Nürnberg, in 1471, and in 1486 was placed with MICHAEL WOLGEMUTH (1434-1519), the most dis1 Waagen, "Kuntswerke und Küntsler in Deutschland;" Passavant, "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der alten Malerschulen Deutschlands," in the Kunstblatt for 1846. 2 "Handbuch," p. 176, 1862.

tinguished painter and engraver at Nürnberg of that time; there is a portrait of him by Albert in the Pinacothek at Munich, painted in 1516, Michael's eighty-second year, as inscribed on the picture. Wohlgemuth appears to have kept up a complete manufactory of pictures, by means of a numerous school of pupils, and such works as are attributed to him are conspicuous for the prevailing ugliness both of feature and of limb, which seems uniformly to characterize the German painters of this period, passion being expressed by distortion; as if they had had an especially ill-favoured people for models; though this idea is not conveyed by the works of sculpture of the period. And the portraits of Dürer, of Holzschuher, and of Wohlgemuth himself, indicate, on the contrary, handsomefeatured men.1

His master-piece is considered the Peringsdorfer altar-piece, 1487, originally in the church of the Augustines at Nuremberg; now in part in the Moritzkapelle there; it is conspicuous for some large figures of saints. The Pinacothek at Munich possesses five large pictures of the life of Christ by this painter, all conspicuous for the characteristic defects of their time in Germany: the best of these are the "Crucifixion" and the "Taking down from the Cross;" the former has much similarity with the ordinary works of his pupil Dürer. The Belvedere Gallery at Vienna has likewise an altar-piece with wings, representing St. Jerome and other saints, which may be reckoned among Wohlgemuth's master-pieces; it is dated Anno Dm мCCCCCXI. Wohlgemuth's services were more important as a wood-engraver than as a painter. He and Pleydenwurff cut in wood the illustrations of a curious old work in folio, known as the "Nürnberg Chronicle;" it was written by Hartmann Schedel, a physician, who died, however, before its completion, in 1485. It was published in Latin in 1493, under the title " Liber Chronicorum per viam Epitomatis et Breviarii compilatus." A German translation appeared in the following year. The cuts consist of views of towns and portraits of eminent men.

Albert Dürer soon became the most celebrated master of his time, north of the Alps; and his reputation reached even to the "Eternal City." The great painter of Rome sent some drawings to Albert, and received from him something by his hand in return. One of these drawings by Raphael is still preserved at Vienna, in the collection of the Archduke Charles. It represents two naked male figures drawn in red chalk, a back and a side view; they are studies from the life. On this drawing is written in Albert's own handwriting, "1515, Raphael of Urbino, who has been so highly

1 Von Rettberg, “Nürnberg's Kunstleben in seinen Denkmalen Dargestellt," Stuttgart, 1854.

esteemed by the Pope, drew these naked figures, and sent them to Albrecht Dürer, in Nürnberg, to show him his hand."”'

2

Fuseli, who alludes to this exchange of drawings, conjectures that Raphael, by transmitting this specimen of his hand to Albert intended to make the latter sensible of the difference between imitating nature and drily copying a model, a supposition not more reasonable than it is charitable: the present can have been prompted only by affection and admiration.

Albert was but partly German: his father, Albrecht Dürer the elder (1427-1502), was a Hungarian goldsmith, who had settled in Nürnberg in 1455; and Albert was himself brought up to his father's business, but he prefered painting, though eventually he seems to have made it secondary to the study of engraving, both on copper and on wood; as an engaver he was perhaps superior to all men of his time in the practical execution of his work.'

Having passed through his Lehr- and Wander-jahre (1486-92), Albert settled in Nuremberg, and, in 1494, married Agnes Frey, the pretty daughter of a singer and player on the harp, and with her he received a dowry of 200 florins, but for which, says an old writer quoted by Arend,' he had afterwards at least 2000 unhappy days. She is said to have been jealous, imperious, avaricious, and fretful, constantly urging him to work to make provision for her, after his death.

In January, 1506, Albert visited the north of Italy, and when at Venice he painted a picture of the "Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew," or, according to others, the "Coronation of the Virgin ;" and he observes, in a letter to his friend Pirkheimer, "The Venetian painters abuse my style, and say that it is not after the antique,

1 "1515, Raffahill di Urbin der so hoch peim Papst geacht ist gewest, hat diese nackete Bild gemacht, und hat sy dim Albrecht Dürer gen Nornberg geschikt, In sein hand zu weisen," Passavant, "Rafael," &c.

2 Works, vol. iii. p. 265.

3 There is an interesting portrait of the elder Albert by his son, but not signed, in the Frankfort Gallery, inscribed ALBRECHT THURER DER ELTER UND ALT 70 JOR, dated 1494 (?). The similar portrait in the Munich Gallery is supposed to be a copy of this. It is an early work, is hard and brown, and bears the following inscription:-Das malt Ich nach meines Vatters Gestalt, da er war Siebenzig Jar alt. Albrecht Dürer der elter, signed with the painter's monogram, and dated 1497 instead of 1494. Which is the copy may be a question. A copy of the Frankfort picture was exhibited by the Duke of Northumberland at Manchester in 1857; it appears to be signed A.N. 1497 Albrecht Thurer der elter VI ID. aet. 70 Jor. VI ID. aet. for VND alt? The Frankfort picture was engraved by Hollar in

1664, with the date 1497.

4.66 Das Gedechtniss der ehren eines derer vollkomnesten Künstler seiner und aller nachfolgenden Zeiten, Albrecht Dürers," &c. 12mo. Gosslar, 1728. See also Sandrart's "Academie," who publishes a letter by Albert's friend Georg Hartman, ii. p. 229, 1675.

and therefore that it is not good." Albert admired the works of John Bellini, and said that he was the best painter in Venice; Bellini was then eighty years of age. He was altogether well pleased with his visit to Venice: he painted several pictures there, and writes to his friend Pirkheimer, with complete satisfaction, that at Venice he was a gentleman, while at home he was but a parasite. All his finest pictures were painted after this Venetian visit; his powers seem to have culminated in 1511, when he attained his fortieth year. He appears to have been well appreciated by the Signory of Venice, for, in a memorial to the town council of Nuremberg some years afterwards, he complained that during the thirty years he had worked in that city he had not received 500 florins of Nuremberg money; that his patrons were princes and strangers, and that he spent strange money in the town; while he might have remained at Venice with an annual grant of 200 ducats from the Signory, and that he had received a similar offer of 300 florins and free lodging at Antwerp, both of which offers he had declined, purely out of love to his native city. The Emperor Maximilian had appointed him his court painter, and he held the same dignity under Charles V.; the emolument, however, was only 100 florins a-year.

The offer at Antwerp must have been made during his journey through the Low Countries in 1520-21, which has been already mentioned. He set out with his wife and her maid in Whitsunweek in 1520, as we learn from his own diary (and not therefore, as Arend says, to escape from the importunities of his wife). His diary is preserved, and contains many interesting details." We may judge from it that the chief object of his journey was to negotiate the sale of his prints: he also made use of his opportunity of taking portraits, generally drawn in pencil; but for which he appears to have been commonly paid the seemingly small sum of one florin, twenty pence English, though when we consider that in those days two or three pence constituted the ordinary daily wages of a skilled workman, the price is not contemptible.

Albert Dürer's pictures are scarce, though few of the great German Galleries are without a specimen of his work: St. John and St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Mark, painted on two panels in 1526, and presented by the painter to the council of Nuremberg, are two of his most praised oil-pictures: they are now in the Pinacothek at Munich, but are inferior works.

16 Noch schelten sy es und sagen, es sey nit antigisch art, dozu sey es nit gut." Von Murr, "Journal zur Kunstgeschichte," vol. x. p. 7. This volume contains eight letters from Albert to Pirkheimer.

66

2 Von Murr, "Journal," &c.; and in the Reliquien von Albrecht Dürer," Nürnberg, 1828.