DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0100
So
durer’s literary remains.
[chap.
of the Melancholic Temperament, the temperament that is to say
of the student, the author, and the artist, was intended to express
this painfulness of intellectual conception. It is really a work
of religious art and, as such, it has taken and maintains an
astonishing hold upon the minds of thoughtful men.
In sadness or in joy Durer’s creative vigour was ever the
same, and made continual demands upon his inventive genius.
Painting was too slow ; woodcutting depended too much upon
the honesty and skill of the woodcutter. Line engraving enabled
the artist to express himself completely but, though quicker
than painting and admitting of unlimited multiplication, it still
was not quick enough for Diirer. Thausing has shown how
about this time the artist discovered certain processes for short-
ening the work it involved. Already in 1510 there are signs of
a change in Durer’s style. He attempted to work with the dry-
point and actually accomplished four plates in that manner. Two
of these may have been bitten in with an acid; if so it possessed
insufficient strength. The four plates were not successful, for
they wore out too soon. In 1514 Diirer tried the substitution of
iron for copper, iron yielding more easily to the action of the acid.
The result was rough but effective and the process was employed
again at different times, Durer’s “Great Gun of Ntirnberg” being
the best known print from a plate of this kind. The final step,
likewise taken in 1514, was to try the effect of a combination of
etching and engraving. Prints from such plates are more silvery
in tone than those of the earlier period. The effect thus obtained
is excellent, and henceforward Diirer always worked in this
way, etching his plate lightly over first of all and then using his
burin to deepen the furrows. The ‘ S. Jerome in the Cell ’ is the
first important example of a print of this kind.
In 1512 Kaiser Maximilian visited Ntirnberg and stayed
there from the 4th to the 15th of February. The visit was
destined to introduce a new factor into Durer’s life. The Em-
peror was just then full of a conception such as never before or
since entered into the mind of a human being. This conception
was to take form in a great woodcut representing the “Triumph
of Maximilian.” In its completed state it consisted of two parts,
the ‘Gate of Honour’ and the ‘Triumphal Procession.’ The
‘Gate of Honour’ was intended to resemble one of the monu-
durer’s literary remains.
[chap.
of the Melancholic Temperament, the temperament that is to say
of the student, the author, and the artist, was intended to express
this painfulness of intellectual conception. It is really a work
of religious art and, as such, it has taken and maintains an
astonishing hold upon the minds of thoughtful men.
In sadness or in joy Durer’s creative vigour was ever the
same, and made continual demands upon his inventive genius.
Painting was too slow ; woodcutting depended too much upon
the honesty and skill of the woodcutter. Line engraving enabled
the artist to express himself completely but, though quicker
than painting and admitting of unlimited multiplication, it still
was not quick enough for Diirer. Thausing has shown how
about this time the artist discovered certain processes for short-
ening the work it involved. Already in 1510 there are signs of
a change in Durer’s style. He attempted to work with the dry-
point and actually accomplished four plates in that manner. Two
of these may have been bitten in with an acid; if so it possessed
insufficient strength. The four plates were not successful, for
they wore out too soon. In 1514 Diirer tried the substitution of
iron for copper, iron yielding more easily to the action of the acid.
The result was rough but effective and the process was employed
again at different times, Durer’s “Great Gun of Ntirnberg” being
the best known print from a plate of this kind. The final step,
likewise taken in 1514, was to try the effect of a combination of
etching and engraving. Prints from such plates are more silvery
in tone than those of the earlier period. The effect thus obtained
is excellent, and henceforward Diirer always worked in this
way, etching his plate lightly over first of all and then using his
burin to deepen the furrows. The ‘ S. Jerome in the Cell ’ is the
first important example of a print of this kind.
In 1512 Kaiser Maximilian visited Ntirnberg and stayed
there from the 4th to the 15th of February. The visit was
destined to introduce a new factor into Durer’s life. The Em-
peror was just then full of a conception such as never before or
since entered into the mind of a human being. This conception
was to take form in a great woodcut representing the “Triumph
of Maximilian.” In its completed state it consisted of two parts,
the ‘Gate of Honour’ and the ‘Triumphal Procession.’ The
‘Gate of Honour’ was intended to resemble one of the monu-