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
THE MENTOR
SERIAL No. 48
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 linesand colors. These are only the symbols by which we may sharehis vision of the world. What we must try to find in any work ofart is the soul of a great man. This is particularly true of so serious anartist as Albrecht Dürer (doo´-rer) of Nuremberg, who was born in 1471,a little before the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation. In that movementhe shared heartily, but without bitterness for the Catholic Church,in which he had been bred. He was a broad-minded Christian, a thoughtfuland thorough craftsman. In the little drawing he did of himself atthirteen we see the serious, worried lad already a competent draftsman.We may see him again in the Madrid portrait, the confident young painterof twenty-seven; at Munich, the mature and dignified artist of thirty-six;and finally, in the haggard woodcut profile, as a man grown old withunabated 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 comfortablefortune. They are marvels of faithful observation and of minuteexecution. When old age and illness made painting and engraving difficult,he wrote books on the proportions of the human body and the art offortification. We must not expecta man of such stern andhigh ideals to be charming.He may, however, have manytrue things to tell about lifeand character that it behoovesus to know.
THE ENGRAVINGS
MICHAEL WOHLGEMUTH
By Dürer
At fifteen Dürer was apprenticedto the painter andwoodcutter, Michael Wohlgemuth.The lad saw the advantagesof the new process ofwoodcutting and copperplateengraving, by which a designmight be multiplied. Thenthe good wife Agnes, whom hemarried by parental arrangementat twenty-three, cameto be a thrifty saleswoman forthe prints. The work was ofthe most taxing kind, being alldone under a magnifying l