DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28460#0266
Division D.— Woodcuts from Boohs.
235
Flemisli. On the other hand the extremities are very badly drawn, especially the
hands and feet of the child. Conway, following Kenonvier, “ Histoire de la Gravure,”
1860, p. 172, remarks on the resemblance of this cut to the works of the Master of
Zwolle (Maitre a la Navette), especially to his engraving of the same subject. He
thinks that the woodcut was executed by a man who had been trained as an engraver
in the school of this master, from the fact that more attention has been paid to the
parts cut away than to the parts left standing. This is true to some extent, but there
is, strictly speaking, no use of white line in the woodcut, certainly not any trace of
work done with the burin, though there are undoubtedly white bits picked out from
the black with the knife.
The present impression of the cut cannot be ascribed to either the first or second
edition of the book, Hain 2852 (1484-5) and 2854 (1495). The first edition is not in the
British Museum, but Mr. C. Sayle has kindly examined for me the copy in the University
Library, Cambridge, andinforms me that in pt. I tlie cut on fol. 1 a has over it Dit is dat
boec van | sinte bernaerd5 sermone, and in pt. II, fol. 4b , it has no text over it, but on
the back one column of priut, beginning “ Hoe dat dit huns,” &c. Of the secoud edition,
1495, the Brit'sh Museum copy contains the cut only once, on the first page of Pt. II.,
Winter Stuck, where it has text over it as follows : Sermones B raardi In Duytssche,
but accorrling to Conway, p. 267, the cut occurs in both volumes. The present
impression, without text, agrees pretty closely with the 1495 edition as regards the
condition of the block, and may perhaps be a proof without text takeu at the time when
that edition was being prepared.
D 37.
1488. Temptatio diaboli de fide. W.—D 13.
From Dat sterfboeck, fol., Zwolle, Pieter van Os, 1488, 1491. Campbell
1620-1; Conrvaj7, Sect. xvii, 7, pp. 104, 268, 337; Proctor 9132, 9140.
The dying man is tempted to renounce his faith, and to commit
suicide. The bed lies obliquely across the design from r. to 1. The djing
man reaches out his r. arm from the bed-clothes and points to a vision,
near the bottom of the bed, of a king and queen (Solomon and his wife)
adoring an idol, to which a devil calls his attention with the words ©0£t
illS 00 tjCiSc (Fac sicut pagani, orig.). In the foreground r. are a half-
naked woman, carrying a rod and scourge, and a man who is putting a
knife to his throat. A devil on the near side of the bed tempts the dying
man to suicide with the words Soft PU SClUCU (Interhcias te ipm.)
Beyond the bed a physician and two other persons stand talking.
A devil is pulling away the sheet from under the dying man, and another,
hovering in the air, exclaims |Bc Ijcllc tS tC hV0l;.CH (Infernus fractus
est). Above the head of the bed sfcand God the Father (with a book),
God the Son, and the Blessed Virgin. The floor of the room is tiled, and
shaded under the bed.
[201 x 145.] Good impredsion, wit’u narrow margin [2-8]. In the lower margin,
centre, is the signature, a itj., and there is text on the verso.
From the William Russell collectien. Purchased from Messrs. Colnaghi, 1860.
This is a fairly close copy of the original cut in the first edition of the Ars Moriendi
blockbook (unique copy in B. M., from the Weigel collection), but Mr. Conway (p. 104)
need nut Lave hesitated in pronouncing these cuts to be copies, rather tlian tlie original
bloeks cut up (as was the case with the Biblia Pauperum and Canticum Canticorum,
used to illustrate books printed by P. van Os), for there are strongly rnarked differences.
For a triple border we have a single line, but tliat might be a consequence of the cutting
down of the blocK. A moment’s comparisun, however, of the copy with the original
will show how much the faces have lo»t in expression, and how stiff and me* hanical the
shading has become throughout. Mr. Conway attributes the copy to his “first Zwolle
woodcutter,” to whom he also attributes the St. Bernard described above. The block-
book itself, hitherto treated as the first version of these compositions, and certainly a
work of the greatest technical exc.ellence, if not originality, is believed by Prof. Max
1 ehrs to be copicd from the series of Ars Moriendi engravings by the Master E. S., of wliich
235
Flemisli. On the other hand the extremities are very badly drawn, especially the
hands and feet of the child. Conway, following Kenonvier, “ Histoire de la Gravure,”
1860, p. 172, remarks on the resemblance of this cut to the works of the Master of
Zwolle (Maitre a la Navette), especially to his engraving of the same subject. He
thinks that the woodcut was executed by a man who had been trained as an engraver
in the school of this master, from the fact that more attention has been paid to the
parts cut away than to the parts left standing. This is true to some extent, but there
is, strictly speaking, no use of white line in the woodcut, certainly not any trace of
work done with the burin, though there are undoubtedly white bits picked out from
the black with the knife.
The present impression of the cut cannot be ascribed to either the first or second
edition of the book, Hain 2852 (1484-5) and 2854 (1495). The first edition is not in the
British Museum, but Mr. C. Sayle has kindly examined for me the copy in the University
Library, Cambridge, andinforms me that in pt. I tlie cut on fol. 1 a has over it Dit is dat
boec van | sinte bernaerd5 sermone, and in pt. II, fol. 4b , it has no text over it, but on
the back one column of priut, beginning “ Hoe dat dit huns,” &c. Of the secoud edition,
1495, the Brit'sh Museum copy contains the cut only once, on the first page of Pt. II.,
Winter Stuck, where it has text over it as follows : Sermones B raardi In Duytssche,
but accorrling to Conway, p. 267, the cut occurs in both volumes. The present
impression, without text, agrees pretty closely with the 1495 edition as regards the
condition of the block, and may perhaps be a proof without text takeu at the time when
that edition was being prepared.
D 37.
1488. Temptatio diaboli de fide. W.—D 13.
From Dat sterfboeck, fol., Zwolle, Pieter van Os, 1488, 1491. Campbell
1620-1; Conrvaj7, Sect. xvii, 7, pp. 104, 268, 337; Proctor 9132, 9140.
The dying man is tempted to renounce his faith, and to commit
suicide. The bed lies obliquely across the design from r. to 1. The djing
man reaches out his r. arm from the bed-clothes and points to a vision,
near the bottom of the bed, of a king and queen (Solomon and his wife)
adoring an idol, to which a devil calls his attention with the words ©0£t
illS 00 tjCiSc (Fac sicut pagani, orig.). In the foreground r. are a half-
naked woman, carrying a rod and scourge, and a man who is putting a
knife to his throat. A devil on the near side of the bed tempts the dying
man to suicide with the words Soft PU SClUCU (Interhcias te ipm.)
Beyond the bed a physician and two other persons stand talking.
A devil is pulling away the sheet from under the dying man, and another,
hovering in the air, exclaims |Bc Ijcllc tS tC hV0l;.CH (Infernus fractus
est). Above the head of the bed sfcand God the Father (with a book),
God the Son, and the Blessed Virgin. The floor of the room is tiled, and
shaded under the bed.
[201 x 145.] Good impredsion, wit’u narrow margin [2-8]. In the lower margin,
centre, is the signature, a itj., and there is text on the verso.
From the William Russell collectien. Purchased from Messrs. Colnaghi, 1860.
This is a fairly close copy of the original cut in the first edition of the Ars Moriendi
blockbook (unique copy in B. M., from the Weigel collection), but Mr. Conway (p. 104)
need nut Lave hesitated in pronouncing these cuts to be copies, rather tlian tlie original
bloeks cut up (as was the case with the Biblia Pauperum and Canticum Canticorum,
used to illustrate books printed by P. van Os), for there are strongly rnarked differences.
For a triple border we have a single line, but tliat might be a consequence of the cutting
down of the blocK. A moment’s comparisun, however, of the copy with the original
will show how much the faces have lo»t in expression, and how stiff and me* hanical the
shading has become throughout. Mr. Conway attributes the copy to his “first Zwolle
woodcutter,” to whom he also attributes the St. Bernard described above. The block-
book itself, hitherto treated as the first version of these compositions, and certainly a
work of the greatest technical exc.ellence, if not originality, is believed by Prof. Max
1 ehrs to be copicd from the series of Ars Moriendi engravings by the Master E. S., of wliich