DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28460#0283
252
Early German and Flemish Woodcuts.
Conditious
under whioli
woodcuts were
published.
Patronage
of wood-
engraving by
Maximilian I.
Our know-
ledge of wood-
engravers at
this period.
The painter-engravers, to whom we owe all the fine work of this
period in wood-engraving, were usually at their hest when they
worked on their own initiative and issued their woodcuts directly to
the public; they were seldom on tlie same level of excellence when
tlie commission came from a publisher and the work appeared in the
form of illustrations to a hook. There is one remarkable instance of
another kind of publication which originated in court patronage, a
new phenomenon in the history of the graphic arts in Germany. The
Emperor Maximilian I, with a view to self-aggrandisement rather
than any real desire to promote the welfare of art, projected an
immense series of illustrated works to commemorate the glories of
the liouse of Habsburg and the achievements of his own reign. The
scheme amused liim in his leisure moments during a number of years,
and we know from various extant memoranda that many publications
were planned besides those that were actually accomplished, in whole
or in part. Tlie_latter inelude the Genealogy of the Habsburgs; a
collection of Saints connected by the ties of kinship witli the Imperial
house; “ Freydal,” a record of Maximilian’s masquerades and tourna-
ments; “ Theuerdank,” a poetical and allegorical narrative of liis
wooing of Mary of Burgundy; “ Der Weisskunig,” a prose romance in
which the youth and education of the Emperor, and the principal
events of liis public life, are described in the guise of fiction ; and
lastly, the Triumplial Procession, witli wliicli the Triumphal Car
and Triumphal Areh are intimately connected, resuming, in one
magnificent pageant, the whole content of the other portions of
the programme.
This is not the place to repeat tlie liistory of these publications,
wliich has been elucidated by a series of critical essays accompanying
the new editions of the Emperor Maximilian’s works in the Jcihrbuch
of the Imperial collections of art at Vienna.1 I mention them here
on account of tlieir unique importance as a source of information
about the relations between author, publisher, illustrator, and wood-
engraver at this period, and because the blocks themselves, of wliicli
a large number are preserved to this day at Vienna, throw much
iight on the vexed question whether the actual cutting was ever done
by the artist wlio designed tlie subject on the block. The wood-
ldocks of the Arch were cut by ITieronymus Andrea, of Nuremberg;
1 Jahrbuch, i, Triiimphal Processiou; iv, Triumphal iArch; iv, v. Saints; vi,
Weisskunig; vii, x, Genealogy; viii, Theuerdank. 'Tho Freydal miniatures and
woodcuts form the aubject of a separate publication, edited hy Q. von Leitner, Vienna.
1880-82. There is a good summary of the general results of these investigations
on pp. 116-142 of C. von Lutzow’s' “ Qeschichte dcs deutschen Kupferstiches und
Holzschnittes,” Berlin, 1891.
Early German and Flemish Woodcuts.
Conditious
under whioli
woodcuts were
published.
Patronage
of wood-
engraving by
Maximilian I.
Our know-
ledge of wood-
engravers at
this period.
The painter-engravers, to whom we owe all the fine work of this
period in wood-engraving, were usually at their hest when they
worked on their own initiative and issued their woodcuts directly to
the public; they were seldom on tlie same level of excellence when
tlie commission came from a publisher and the work appeared in the
form of illustrations to a hook. There is one remarkable instance of
another kind of publication which originated in court patronage, a
new phenomenon in the history of the graphic arts in Germany. The
Emperor Maximilian I, with a view to self-aggrandisement rather
than any real desire to promote the welfare of art, projected an
immense series of illustrated works to commemorate the glories of
the liouse of Habsburg and the achievements of his own reign. The
scheme amused liim in his leisure moments during a number of years,
and we know from various extant memoranda that many publications
were planned besides those that were actually accomplished, in whole
or in part. Tlie_latter inelude the Genealogy of the Habsburgs; a
collection of Saints connected by the ties of kinship witli the Imperial
house; “ Freydal,” a record of Maximilian’s masquerades and tourna-
ments; “ Theuerdank,” a poetical and allegorical narrative of liis
wooing of Mary of Burgundy; “ Der Weisskunig,” a prose romance in
which the youth and education of the Emperor, and the principal
events of liis public life, are described in the guise of fiction ; and
lastly, the Triumplial Procession, witli wliicli the Triumphal Car
and Triumphal Areh are intimately connected, resuming, in one
magnificent pageant, the whole content of the other portions of
the programme.
This is not the place to repeat tlie liistory of these publications,
wliich has been elucidated by a series of critical essays accompanying
the new editions of the Emperor Maximilian’s works in the Jcihrbuch
of the Imperial collections of art at Vienna.1 I mention them here
on account of tlieir unique importance as a source of information
about the relations between author, publisher, illustrator, and wood-
engraver at this period, and because the blocks themselves, of wliicli
a large number are preserved to this day at Vienna, throw much
iight on the vexed question whether the actual cutting was ever done
by the artist wlio designed tlie subject on the block. The wood-
ldocks of the Arch were cut by ITieronymus Andrea, of Nuremberg;
1 Jahrbuch, i, Triiimphal Processiou; iv, Triumphal iArch; iv, v. Saints; vi,
Weisskunig; vii, x, Genealogy; viii, Theuerdank. 'Tho Freydal miniatures and
woodcuts form the aubject of a separate publication, edited hy Q. von Leitner, Vienna.
1880-82. There is a good summary of the general results of these investigations
on pp. 116-142 of C. von Lutzow’s' “ Qeschichte dcs deutschen Kupferstiches und
Holzschnittes,” Berlin, 1891.