His picture of Adam and Eve in Paradise, formerly at Prague, but now unfortunately lost, called forth the following epigram: "When the angel beheld them, wondering cried he from Eden, Had I so beautiful seen you, never had ye been banished." But it is by his engravings that Albert Dürer is principally known. He gave great attention to this art, was the inventor of etching, and improved greatly the art of cutting in wood. His works have been pirated and counterfeited to a great extent; but many undoubtedly genuine engravings by his own hand still remain to us, and are among the choicest treasures of the amateur and antiquary. They are marked with his anagram. His best engravings on copper are Fortune, Melancholy, Adam and Eve in Paradise, Knight Death and the Devil, Temperance, Holy Hubert, Hieronymus, and the so-called Minor Passion, in sixteen plates. Of this last we shall speak more particularly hereafter. Of wood-cuts, the most remarkable are the Great Passion, in thirteen leaves, the triumphal arches of the Emperor Maximilian, and the marginal drawings in a prayer-book of the Emperor. He executed many others, however, not unwor thy of his genius and reputation. Besides these works, he was the first to improve the science of perspective in Germany, inventing valuable instruments in its aid; and he published an admirable work on human proportion, still in use among artists. He wrote the first part of a treatise on fortifications. He was an excellent geometrician, and used geometry to improve the forms of the German letters, showing that their formation depended on geometric laws. As a writer, he contributed to the purity of the German language, then in a crude and unformed state, in which work his friend Perkheimer was an assistant. He was a most exact and skilful draughtsman. In a pleasant trial of skill he took his pencil, and at once drew a circle as round as Giotto's O. Even the critical Ruskin accepts the fidelity of his drawings of leaves and foliage as worthy of imitation. Fuseli says his color was as superior to Raphael in juice and breadth of handling as Raphael excelled him in other respects. The English Stothard particularly admired his works, and made his draperies objects of especial study. But in the midst of these varied and precious labors his life was hastening to a close. Worn out by mental suffering, he yielded to the insidious disease of which he had had some slight attack many years before, and died of consumption on the 6th of April, 1528, aged exactly fifty-seven years. His biographer, Campe, says: "He was weary of life, his body emaciated, and his fine aspect gone." In regard to his moral character, his contemporaries and posterity have but one voice, and it is the same which speaks from all his works. He was upright and manly in all his dealings; he was first pure and then peaceful, patient in suffering, modest in prosperity. He knew no jealousy nor envyings, but lived in perfect love with all men, seeking to do good to all whom he met. His wife's ill-treatment could not anger him, the cares of life fret him, nor its honors spoil him. He was, in the words of one of his biographers, genuine German artist and a right pious man." a His appearance was striking and picturesque. In the earliest portrait of himself by his own hand, he is represented in a rich costume, with his long curls flowing over his shoulders. "Campe says that he was well made, his chest manly and broad, his hands slight, his brow serene, his nose slightly aquiline, his hair dark brown falling in natural curls over his shoulders, his expression kindly and open, and that there was something so pleasant in his talk that he was listened to with attention and delight." The portrait at Munich has an intensity of expression betokening an enthusiasm bordering on that divine madness which belongs to the inspired soul. His works are very rare in this country, and in conclusion we shall say a few words of those which are most common, -the copper engravings and the wood-cuts called the Minor Passion, a series of pictures of the life and sufferings of Jesus of Nazareth. This was his favorite theme, often repeated, and his whole soul expresses itself in these wonderful works. They are drawn with his usual skill and care, and beautifully engraved by his own hand. It is a touching thing to hold in one's hand one of these little prints, preserved for over three hundred years, and enter into the feelings of him who cut these lines. It is hard to criticise; the story takes possession of the heart, and we forget the art in the feeling called up. Nothing is without meaning. In the rough wood of the cross we see the marks of the hastily driven nails; in the expression of every one of the by-standers is something which marks the spirit of the scene. Especially original and characteristic is his manner of representing the Redeemer himself. Herein is his departure from the Italian and Catholic models most clearly shown. Jesus is not fresh and fair with beautiful youth; he is not girt about with a mystic halo; he is not exalted above human sympathy. Rather would we say that he was one of the working-people, that his limbs were worn with toil and his face furrowed by exposure. His sensitive frame shrinks from the blows of his tormentors, his soul sickens at the moral tortures to which he is exposed. His weary head sinks beneath the scourging, so that one soldier, with a touch of compassion, supports it with his hand. It seems to show the simple earnestness with which Albert Dürer entered into these themes, that, however varied the accessories in different pictures of a subject, the main thought is often precisely the same. An instance of this may be found in the treachery of Judas: the grouping of the soldiers, the attitude of Peter and the servant of the high-priest, are very different in the wood-cut and the copper-plate; but the relative positions and the expressions of Christ and the traitor are nearly the same, as if this scene were so impressed on his mind that he could not see it otherwise. So the rich and beautiful head on the cross, bending as much in resignation as drooping in suffering, is very similar in all his pictures which we have seen. But the most powerful of the series of copperplates is the Agony in the Garden. The weary disciples slumber heavily below, while on the mountain-top Jesus, with both arms upraised to heaven, wrestles alone with his sorrow, and every nerve and muscle struggles upward in an agony of aspiration and prayer. The ministering angel is speeding towards him, but he bears the cross in his hands. The range of expression is almost infinite. The malice and stupidity of his foes, the cowardice and hypocrisy of his judges, are admirably expressed. When Pilate washes his hands of the blood of Jesus, the face of the soldier who holds the ewer seems a perfect satire on the emptiness and pusillanimity of the act. Not the less can Albert Dürer express the sweet charities of life. A Madonna and Child, engraved on copper, is a beautiful picture of full, happy babyhood and genuine motherly feeling. Another picture represents the beautiful old legend of St. Christopher and the Christ child. The union of tenderness and strength in the grand old giant is in fine keeping with the loveliness of the sweet child, who sits upon his shoulder and playfully fondles his hair. In the Descent into Hell, a subject borrowed from an old Catholic tradition, Christ has most tenderly taken a sinner by the arm, and is striving to lift him out of the abyss, as a mother would save a fallen child. But why should we multiply words on such a theme, when we have said, and that with the added testimony of the learned and simple for hundreds of years, that the artist was worthy of his theme? What can we add more? We look on these works, not to admire and criticise, but to feel more deeply the meaning and the influence of the greatest life that was ever lived on earth. There is no dearer name in German art than that of Albert Dürer. His designs are reproduced in books for the people and for children, and not the lore of schools, but a simple and loving heart, is alone needed to appreciate his spirit. His country has not been wanting in due honor to his memory. On the three hundredth anniversary of his death, the corner-stone of his monument in bronze, modelled by the celebrated Rauch, was laid, to be dedicated to his memory. The house where he lived and labored, in the Gieselgasse at Nuremberg,, is still preserved. The amateur and student of art does not fail to make a pilgrimage to it; and though he may have visited the most classic spot of Europe, and studied in her most celebrated galleries, he may yet count among the richest treasures gathered from his journeyings his deeper insight into the spirit and life of Albert Dürer. E. D. C. THE COVENANT VOW. WHEN that clear signal sound, "Seek ye my face," 66 Thy face, Lord, will I seek,"”—and this was meet. For I would ever mean the same; no pause This is my first and deepest wish,— my all But thy dear voice o'er Life's far troubled wild. And when in heaven no anchoring word I need, The Church Triumphant's glorious melody. L. P. S. |