The Dürer Society (1.1898)

DURER’S “FEAST OF THE ROSE-GARLANDS.”
The Original Picture and the Copies.


URER’S “ Feast of the Rose Garlands,” or “ Institution of the Rosary,” as it is
sometimes, though less correctly called, and the circumstances in which it was
painted, have been so recently described by Mr. Lionel Cust (“ Portfolio,” Jan.
1897), that I need not go into the matter in detail. I will only mention a
few facts about the picture which are of interest, and then pass on to

its history, and give a short account of the

stages by which it arrived at its present lamentable

state of decay.

The original

picture was

painted by Diirer, at Venice, in

1706, for the altar of the

German nation in the chapel to the left of the

high

altar in San Bartolommeo, close to the

Fondaco de’Tedeschi, headquarters

of the German merchants, which was destroyed by fire

in

1707, and rebuilt during that year by the architect Hieronymus, probably a native of Augsburg.
His portrait, the drawing for which is at Berlin, is introduced holding a square on the extreme
right of the picture, behind the man holding a rosary. We see Diirer influenced by his Venetian
surroundings—the angel with the halo especially recalls Bellini’s great picture painted for San Zaccaria
in 1707—but remaining German to the core. He bestowed great pains on the work, for he was
put on his mettle by his Venetian rivals, who said he was a good engraver but no colourist.
He began the grounding of his picture and the studies for details in January. The actual
execution of the picture took him five months, and it was not completed till September, his own
portrait in the new French mantle of red and black being the last figure inserted. The ecclesiastic
with a cardinal’s hat hanging on his back, on whose head St. Dominic is placing a wreath, is
almost certainly Cardinal Domenico Grimani (1461-1723), Patriarch of Aquileia, a collector and patron
of art. The other ecclesiastic behind Julius IL, from his prominent position and violet dress, is
probably the Patriarch of Venice, Antonio Suriani, who was patron of the Church of San
Bartolommeo, though he does not hold the patriarchal cross. Durer speaks in one of his letters
to Pirckheimer of “the Patriarch,” which would naturally mean the Patriarch of Venice, visiting his
studio, in company of the Doge, when the picture was nearly finished. None of the laymen
on the right, except Maximilian himself, can be identified with certainty, though many names have
been suggested. They are no doubt members of the German community at Venice. The figure
beside Durer, however, bears some resemblance to Pirckheimer, who was living at Nuremberg.

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