DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0270
244
durer’s literary remains.
[chap.
then it cometh thus to pass in things made by processes the least liable
to error, much more will it happen in other things which are made
by the free hand.
This, however, is not the kind of Difference whereof I here treat;
for I am speaking of a Difference (from the mean) which a man specially
intendeth, and which standeth in his will, of which I have spoken once
and again... .This is not the aforesaid Difference which we cannot sever
from our work, but such a Difference as maketh a thing fair or foul, and
which may be produced by the ‘Words of Difference’ dealt with above
in this Book. If a man produce ‘different’ figures of this kind in his
work, it will be judged by every man in his mind according to his own
opinion, and these judgments seldom agree one with another... .Yet let
every man beware that he make nothing impossible and inadmissible in
Nature, unless indeed he would make some fantasy, in which it
is allowed to mingle creatures of all kinds together....
He that desireth to make himself seen in his work must turn to
account, so far as he can, whatever is suitable for the same. But here
it must be noted that an artist of understanding and experience can
show more of his great power and art in small things, roughly and rudely
done, than many another in his great work. Powerful artists alone will
understand that in this strange saying I speak truth. For this reason a
man may often draw something with his pen on a half-sheet of paper in
one day or engrave it with his tool on a small block of wood, and
it shall be fuller of art and better than another’s great work whereon he
hath spent a whole year’s careful labour. And this gift is wonderful.
For God sometimes granteth unto a man to learn and know how to
make a thing the like whereof, in his day, no other can contrive; and
perhaps for a long time none hath been before him and after him
another cometh not soon. Of this we behold examples in the days
of the Romans in the time of their splendour. Little is now produced
in our work like unto the works of art which were made by them and
whereof we can still behold the wrecks.
If we were to ask how we are to make a beautiful figure, some
would give answer: According to human judgment (i.e. common taste).
Others would not agree thereto, neither should I without a good reason.
Who then will give us certainty in this matter? I believe that no man
liveth who can grasp the whole beauty of the meanest living creature;
I say not of a man, for he is an extraordinary creation of God, and other
creatures are subject unto him. I grant, indeed, that one man will
conceive and make a more beautiful figure and will explain the natural
cause of its beauty more reasonably than another, but not to such
an extent that there could not be anything more beautiful. For so fair
a conception ariseth not in the mind of man; God alone knoweth such,
and he to whom He revealeth it, he knoweth it likewise. That only,
and nought else, containeth the perfect truth which is the most
beautiful form and stature of a man that can be.
Men deliberate and hold numberless differing opinions about Beauty,
and they seek after it in many different ways, although ugliness is there-
by rather attained. Being then, as we are, in such a state of error, I
know not certainly what the ultimate measure of true beauty is, and
durer’s literary remains.
[chap.
then it cometh thus to pass in things made by processes the least liable
to error, much more will it happen in other things which are made
by the free hand.
This, however, is not the kind of Difference whereof I here treat;
for I am speaking of a Difference (from the mean) which a man specially
intendeth, and which standeth in his will, of which I have spoken once
and again... .This is not the aforesaid Difference which we cannot sever
from our work, but such a Difference as maketh a thing fair or foul, and
which may be produced by the ‘Words of Difference’ dealt with above
in this Book. If a man produce ‘different’ figures of this kind in his
work, it will be judged by every man in his mind according to his own
opinion, and these judgments seldom agree one with another... .Yet let
every man beware that he make nothing impossible and inadmissible in
Nature, unless indeed he would make some fantasy, in which it
is allowed to mingle creatures of all kinds together....
He that desireth to make himself seen in his work must turn to
account, so far as he can, whatever is suitable for the same. But here
it must be noted that an artist of understanding and experience can
show more of his great power and art in small things, roughly and rudely
done, than many another in his great work. Powerful artists alone will
understand that in this strange saying I speak truth. For this reason a
man may often draw something with his pen on a half-sheet of paper in
one day or engrave it with his tool on a small block of wood, and
it shall be fuller of art and better than another’s great work whereon he
hath spent a whole year’s careful labour. And this gift is wonderful.
For God sometimes granteth unto a man to learn and know how to
make a thing the like whereof, in his day, no other can contrive; and
perhaps for a long time none hath been before him and after him
another cometh not soon. Of this we behold examples in the days
of the Romans in the time of their splendour. Little is now produced
in our work like unto the works of art which were made by them and
whereof we can still behold the wrecks.
If we were to ask how we are to make a beautiful figure, some
would give answer: According to human judgment (i.e. common taste).
Others would not agree thereto, neither should I without a good reason.
Who then will give us certainty in this matter? I believe that no man
liveth who can grasp the whole beauty of the meanest living creature;
I say not of a man, for he is an extraordinary creation of God, and other
creatures are subject unto him. I grant, indeed, that one man will
conceive and make a more beautiful figure and will explain the natural
cause of its beauty more reasonably than another, but not to such
an extent that there could not be anything more beautiful. For so fair
a conception ariseth not in the mind of man; God alone knoweth such,
and he to whom He revealeth it, he knoweth it likewise. That only,
and nought else, containeth the perfect truth which is the most
beautiful form and stature of a man that can be.
Men deliberate and hold numberless differing opinions about Beauty,
and they seek after it in many different ways, although ugliness is there-
by rather attained. Being then, as we are, in such a state of error, I
know not certainly what the ultimate measure of true beauty is, and