DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0061
III.]
durer’s childhood and youth.
43
More important for the student, because more easily traced,
is Durer’s development as an engraver upon copper. For a clear
understanding of this we are again indebted to the minute and
protracted studies of the late Professor Thausing. He has
shown how Diirer at first contented himself with copying
Wolgemut’s prints; how by degrees he came to take a more and
more important share in designing the subjects which Wolgemut
engraved, Diirer still confining himself to copying the engravings
thus jointly designed; and how, after several years, he cast him-
self free of leading strings and stood forth an independent
craftsman in this line also. Further Thausing has shown how
between the years 1500 and 1505 Diirer fell under the influence
of the Venetian painter then resident in Niirnberg, Jacopo de’
Barbari. This influence manifested itself not alone in the design
and execution of engravings, but in Diirer’s paintings and
drawings also. Led by Jacopo, whose wonderful paintings of
still-life at Augsburg are well-known, Diirer made a set of
minutely finished studies of animal and vegetable life. He gave
up also his old method of painting with the cooperation of
assistants, and commenced that series of pictures, done with his
own hand from first to last, which for perfection of finish in
minutest details can only be compared with the works of Van
Eyck. The ‘Adoration of the Magi’ in the Uffizi, finished in
the year 1504, was Durer’s first public example of the kind of
work he was for the future prepared to produce. In the same
year he made his engraving of ‘ Adam and Eve,’ which embodied
the results of those studies of the human figure to which we must
hereafter refer at greater length. In this print Diirer manifests
himself a consummate master of the technical process of engraving.
It is a finer piece of work by far than anything that Jacobo de’
Barbari or any other living artist could produce. It is the work
with which Diirer stood forth and claimed the position of
preeminence that was his due.
With the year 1504 the first epoch of Durer’s career definitely
closes. The preceding ten years had been no time of light
amusement. Life to Diirer was a very serious business. Few
men had greater capacities for happiness, few were ever more
kindly, more generous, more attractive to their fellows, few
wove the tapestry of their life upon a blacker warp. These
durer’s childhood and youth.
43
More important for the student, because more easily traced,
is Durer’s development as an engraver upon copper. For a clear
understanding of this we are again indebted to the minute and
protracted studies of the late Professor Thausing. He has
shown how Diirer at first contented himself with copying
Wolgemut’s prints; how by degrees he came to take a more and
more important share in designing the subjects which Wolgemut
engraved, Diirer still confining himself to copying the engravings
thus jointly designed; and how, after several years, he cast him-
self free of leading strings and stood forth an independent
craftsman in this line also. Further Thausing has shown how
between the years 1500 and 1505 Diirer fell under the influence
of the Venetian painter then resident in Niirnberg, Jacopo de’
Barbari. This influence manifested itself not alone in the design
and execution of engravings, but in Diirer’s paintings and
drawings also. Led by Jacopo, whose wonderful paintings of
still-life at Augsburg are well-known, Diirer made a set of
minutely finished studies of animal and vegetable life. He gave
up also his old method of painting with the cooperation of
assistants, and commenced that series of pictures, done with his
own hand from first to last, which for perfection of finish in
minutest details can only be compared with the works of Van
Eyck. The ‘Adoration of the Magi’ in the Uffizi, finished in
the year 1504, was Durer’s first public example of the kind of
work he was for the future prepared to produce. In the same
year he made his engraving of ‘ Adam and Eve,’ which embodied
the results of those studies of the human figure to which we must
hereafter refer at greater length. In this print Diirer manifests
himself a consummate master of the technical process of engraving.
It is a finer piece of work by far than anything that Jacobo de’
Barbari or any other living artist could produce. It is the work
with which Diirer stood forth and claimed the position of
preeminence that was his due.
With the year 1504 the first epoch of Durer’s career definitely
closes. The preceding ten years had been no time of light
amusement. Life to Diirer was a very serious business. Few
men had greater capacities for happiness, few were ever more
kindly, more generous, more attractive to their fellows, few
wove the tapestry of their life upon a blacker warp. These