DURER
210
Dt^RER
and the acquaintance with classical antiquity which
he occasionally drew upon in his work. Diirer's
art, however, with its sources in the German Mid-
dle Ages, remained essentially German; the influ-
ence of the art of Italy and the Netherlands was
merely supplementary. In his own country there were
few chances for inural paintings; but the demand for
altar-pieces and portraits was all the greater. His
woodcuts were eagerly sought after by the general
public, his engravings on copper by connoisseurs.
Among his fine compositions are: the Baumgiirtner
altar-painting, the central panel of which represents
the Adoration of the Christ Child, the wings, the
donors as 5^ts. (ieorge and Eustachius; the " Lamenta-
tion of Christ", in which the pathos is noteworthy;
and the remarkable picture of himself (1500). These
are preserved in the Old Pinakothek in Munich. The
portrait of himself just mentioned is greatly idealized
as is also that of a lady of the Fiirleger family. On the
other hand, in the portraits of his father and mother
realism predominates. But here, as in the " Pnidii;:)!
Son" and in his drawings, Diirer
seeks to elevate his naturalism by
former by his directions to the wood-engravers who
carried out his designs.
Second Period:"i.505 to 1520. — In the "Festival of the Rosary", painted in Venice for German mer- chants residing there, he competes, not unsuccessfully, with the Italian colourists, though it may be said that colour was not his strong point. The painting (Abbey of Strahow, Prague) is damaged, but a good copy is preserved in the Imperial Museum at Vienna. An oil- painting of the same period, "Christ on the Cross", and other works that followed, e. g. " Adam and Eve" (Madrid and Florence), show that Diirer's trip to Italy and the acquaintance made there with Giovanni Bellini were not without profit to his art; but Diirer's nationality and the independence of his geniiis are always evident. Another work much admired was the so-called Heller altar-piece, destroyed at Munich in 1()74 by fire. Valuable studies for this picture and an indistinct copy are still e.xtant. One of the finest examples of (jerman art is the "Adoration of the Trinity" or " .\11 Saints" (1511). Placed beside the " Disputa" of Raphael or the Sistine paintings of Michelangelo pro-
M.VDONNA AND CHILD (1512)
Imperial Museum, VieDua
Portrait of Himself (1500)
Old Pinakothek. Munich
Albbecht Dureb
HlERONYMnS HOLZSCHUHER (1526)
Royal Museum, Berlin
sweet simplicity, depth of feeling, and grandeur of
conception. The "Adoration of the Magi" in the
Uffizi at Florence will bear comparison, at least for
German taste, with the masterpieces of Italy and
the Netherlands. Diirer's woodcuts have a quality
entirely their own; though without colouring, they
yet produced the eflfect of colour. The "Apocalypse"
"(15 cuts) is distinguished by its daring fancy and
grandeur of conception. The most striking of the
series are: the "Four Riders", the "Angels of the
Euphrates", the "Battle of the Angels with the
Dragon ' '. To the same period belong, for the most part.,
the powerful " Larger Passion " (7, later 12, cuts) as well
as the beautiful "Life of the Virgin" (l(j, later 20, cuts),
in which the scenes from the life of the Holy Family in
Egypthaveallthesweetnessof a charming idyll. Men-
tion .should lie made of the so-called " Green Passion"
in the .\lbertina Museum at Vienna, a .scries of twelve
drawings with the pen on green paper, also of the
" ,'^maller Pa.ssion " of a later date in .'i7 woodcuts, and
of the 17 copperplate engravings on the same subject.
For the fifth time the artist came back to the Passion
of Christ eight years before his <ieath; a few sketches
are to be found in the Uffizi at Florence and in the
Alliertina at Vienna. Wood and copperplate engrav-
ing were brovight to great perfection by Diirer; the
latter, and etching as well, by his own work; the
duced in the same year, it would not suffer from
the comparison. God the Father sits upon a throne
and holds forth the Cross with the Crucified; above
both of them, in the form of a dove, the Holy
Ghost hovers. About them the .saints of heaven in
two companies with the Mother of God and John the
Baptist at their head kneel in adoration. In the upper
part of the picture, above the blessed hosts, choirs of
angels surround the Holy Trinity; in the lower part,
the Church Militant, led by the powerful figures of a
pope and an emperor, takes part in the adoration. As
an idealizationof the world this mult it \Kle stands above
the clouds. At the very bottom and to one side, as
though left behind, is seen the luunble figure of the
painter. This work deserves no less praise for its per-
fection of finish than for its sublimity of conception.
The frame, carved in renaissance style from draw-
ings liy Diirer, is still preserved at Nuremberg.
In the same year, 1511, Diirer produced the "Virgin
with the Pear", one of the finest of his Madonnas. In
the years 15i:!-14 he executed three great copper-
plate oni;ravings; the.se may, perhaps, be looked
upon as ideal representations of a fearless knight, an
un.satislied searcher for knowledge, and a saint happy
in God and are called: "The Knight with Death and
the Devil"; " Melancholia"; "St.. Jerome in his Study".
To these must be added various paintings, e.g. of Charle-
