DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0055
III.]
durer’s childhood and youth.
37
“When I had finished my learning, my Father sent me off, and I
stayed away four years till he called me back again. As I had gone
forth in the year 1490 after Easter (Easter Sunday was April 11), so
now I came back again in 1494, as it is reckoned, after Whitsuntide
(Whit-sunday was May 18).”
Would that Diirer had taken us a little closer into his confi-
dence and told us where he went to. He would have saved
much controversy, out of which, unfortunately, little certainty has
resulted. According to Christoph Scheurl, an old and tolerably
credible authority, Diirer wandered off through Germany, like
other journeymen, and was at Colmar in 1492, where he met
three of Martin Schongauer’s brothers. We hear of him also at
Strassburg and Basel. Afterwards he may have gone to Venice.
We possess sketches of this period by him—one a view of
Innsbruck, another of Trient—which prove him to have been at
any rate on the road to the city of the lagoons. Moreover in
one of his letters written from Venice eleven years later, he says,
“ The thing which pleased me eleven years ago pleases me now
no more.” The arguments for and against this first Venetian
visit are too long for reproduction here, and the student who is
interested in the question must refer to the pages of Thausing
and Ephrussi. One thing is certain, in whatever direction
Durer’s inclination took him he had his eyes open to observe
nature. He filled his sketch-books with landscapes, views of
towns, and careful studies of plant and animal life. Everyday
his experience grew wider. He observed the men and the
methods of different schools; his work became increasingly
excellent, and his thought increasingly rich. It was during his
absence, in the year 1493, that he painted an interesting portrait
of himself, which has recently been discovered at Leipzig. A
copy of this picture attracted the attention of Goethe, who
thought it an original, and described it in an often-quoted
passage:—
“ Priceless,” he says, “I considered Albrecht Durer’s portrait, painted
by himself, with the date 1493, that is to say in his two and twentieth
year, half life-size, half-length, showing both hands, the elbows hidden,
a little purple-red cap with a tassel of short small strings, the neck
bare to below the collar-bone, an embroidered border at the top of the
shirt, the folds of the sleeves bound together with peach-coloured bands,
a blue-grey cloak bordered with yellow strings, in the hand (as an
durer’s childhood and youth.
37
“When I had finished my learning, my Father sent me off, and I
stayed away four years till he called me back again. As I had gone
forth in the year 1490 after Easter (Easter Sunday was April 11), so
now I came back again in 1494, as it is reckoned, after Whitsuntide
(Whit-sunday was May 18).”
Would that Diirer had taken us a little closer into his confi-
dence and told us where he went to. He would have saved
much controversy, out of which, unfortunately, little certainty has
resulted. According to Christoph Scheurl, an old and tolerably
credible authority, Diirer wandered off through Germany, like
other journeymen, and was at Colmar in 1492, where he met
three of Martin Schongauer’s brothers. We hear of him also at
Strassburg and Basel. Afterwards he may have gone to Venice.
We possess sketches of this period by him—one a view of
Innsbruck, another of Trient—which prove him to have been at
any rate on the road to the city of the lagoons. Moreover in
one of his letters written from Venice eleven years later, he says,
“ The thing which pleased me eleven years ago pleases me now
no more.” The arguments for and against this first Venetian
visit are too long for reproduction here, and the student who is
interested in the question must refer to the pages of Thausing
and Ephrussi. One thing is certain, in whatever direction
Durer’s inclination took him he had his eyes open to observe
nature. He filled his sketch-books with landscapes, views of
towns, and careful studies of plant and animal life. Everyday
his experience grew wider. He observed the men and the
methods of different schools; his work became increasingly
excellent, and his thought increasingly rich. It was during his
absence, in the year 1493, that he painted an interesting portrait
of himself, which has recently been discovered at Leipzig. A
copy of this picture attracted the attention of Goethe, who
thought it an original, and described it in an often-quoted
passage:—
“ Priceless,” he says, “I considered Albrecht Durer’s portrait, painted
by himself, with the date 1493, that is to say in his two and twentieth
year, half life-size, half-length, showing both hands, the elbows hidden,
a little purple-red cap with a tassel of short small strings, the neck
bare to below the collar-bone, an embroidered border at the top of the
shirt, the folds of the sleeves bound together with peach-coloured bands,
a blue-grey cloak bordered with yellow strings, in the hand (as an