Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/241

POPULAR LIFE AS REFLECTED BY ART 229 in the illustration accompan} T ing a prayer against human weakness, Diirer represents the thin figure of a doctor who, with large spectacles, is examining a urinal, while in his left hand he holds his rosary behind his back. Over a prayer to be defended from temptation the same artist drew a fox playing the flute by the side of a puddle, and attracting a flock of chickens, which surrender themselves to him. Close to a giver of alms stands a fox that has stolen a hen. A satyr sits blow- ing a horn while an angel prays. Beneath David play- ing on the harp we find a screaming heron. An ' Address to the Mighty ' is illustrated by a picture of an emperor who holds a globe in his left hand, the sceptre in his right, while he is seated in a carriage drawn by a goat, which a child on a wooden horse drags by the beard. Among the most remarkable of these serio-comic productions is a picture of the Blessed Virgin absorbed in prayer while the Holy Spirit hovers above her ; in the left corner the devil is vanishing, followed by a hailstorm, and tearing his hair. The spirit of humour had the effect of bringing into bold relief that which was of the greatest importance. It was not wanting even in representations of the enmity of the devil to good, and of the triumph finally of Christ and His Church. We find the artists placing near the spirit of evil angels in every position of infantile sport. The extravagances and abuses of the time are con- sequently ridiculed and satirised in the best known engravings, the female vanity and love of dress taking ever a prominent place. Amorous fops, old as well as young, were used as targets for wit, and artists were inexhaustible in their mockery of any insolent preten- sions on the part of the peasants.