DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0051
HL]
durer’s childhood and youth.
33
went over the other drawings in his possession and put in his
signature wherever it was wanting. Sometimes he added more
than his signature, as, for instance, on that early portrait drawing
of himself where the following inscription is written in his
mature handwriting,
“This portrait of myself I made from a mirror in the year 1484,
whilst I was still a child—Albrecht Diirer.”
When we come to his correspondence with Heller about the
picture he was painting for him we shall see how anxious he
was that the work should endure for centuries. He was not
satisfied to do his work and die. He wanted his work to be
known and remembered as his. He desired that posterity should
know him as an individual. His little notes and memoranda
take posterity into his confidence. He tells us -about himself
and his work, as though he were answering our questions. Thus
he foresaw that we should like to know something about the
drawing which Raffaelle sent him, so he wrote upon it,
“ 1515—Raffahell di Urbin, who is held in such high esteem by the
Pope, he made these naked figures and sent them to Albrecht Diirer at
Niirnberg to show him his hand.”
This inscription was valueless for Diirer himself; he would never
have forgotten the fact it records, but he knew it would interest
posterity and therefore wrote it. Similar reasons induced him
to describe the wonderful crosses which fell from heaven, and to
record his dreams, as we shall hereafter see.
Our knowledge of Durer’s life is mainly due to his own
recording instinct. We are thus enabled to read much of the
story of his life in his own words, and we need only now and
then interrupt him with a parenthesis. Similarly we need not
trouble to deduce his theory of art from his pictures, for he has
left most of his ideas upon paper and we can thus read his
thoughts in his own handwriting.
The first document that must detain our attention is his
family history, written by him rather late in life, in the year
the Reformation was accomplished in Niirnberg. Bearing this
fact in mind, and remembering that Diirer was a follower of
Luther, it is interesting to observe how completely he retained
his sympathy with the faith of his parents.
C. D.
3
durer’s childhood and youth.
33
went over the other drawings in his possession and put in his
signature wherever it was wanting. Sometimes he added more
than his signature, as, for instance, on that early portrait drawing
of himself where the following inscription is written in his
mature handwriting,
“This portrait of myself I made from a mirror in the year 1484,
whilst I was still a child—Albrecht Diirer.”
When we come to his correspondence with Heller about the
picture he was painting for him we shall see how anxious he
was that the work should endure for centuries. He was not
satisfied to do his work and die. He wanted his work to be
known and remembered as his. He desired that posterity should
know him as an individual. His little notes and memoranda
take posterity into his confidence. He tells us -about himself
and his work, as though he were answering our questions. Thus
he foresaw that we should like to know something about the
drawing which Raffaelle sent him, so he wrote upon it,
“ 1515—Raffahell di Urbin, who is held in such high esteem by the
Pope, he made these naked figures and sent them to Albrecht Diirer at
Niirnberg to show him his hand.”
This inscription was valueless for Diirer himself; he would never
have forgotten the fact it records, but he knew it would interest
posterity and therefore wrote it. Similar reasons induced him
to describe the wonderful crosses which fell from heaven, and to
record his dreams, as we shall hereafter see.
Our knowledge of Durer’s life is mainly due to his own
recording instinct. We are thus enabled to read much of the
story of his life in his own words, and we need only now and
then interrupt him with a parenthesis. Similarly we need not
trouble to deduce his theory of art from his pictures, for he has
left most of his ideas upon paper and we can thus read his
thoughts in his own handwriting.
The first document that must detain our attention is his
family history, written by him rather late in life, in the year
the Reformation was accomplished in Niirnberg. Bearing this
fact in mind, and remembering that Diirer was a follower of
Luther, it is interesting to observe how completely he retained
his sympathy with the faith of his parents.
C. D.
3