DRAWINGS.
IV.
DURER. St. John the Baptist awaiting Martyrdom.
Collotype from the pen and ink drawing (io by 6iinl) in the British Museum, from the Sloane
Collection.
AINT JOHN kneels with eyes downcast, in an attitude expressive of resignation. The
executioner, sword in hand, looks keenly upwards, awaiting the signal to strike. The
monogram is a forgery. This drawing, characteristic as it is of Diirer’s manner in the
early “nineties” of the fifteenth century, was long left among the nameless drawings
of the Nuremberg School in the old black leather volume from which the fine series
of the Sloane Diirers had been taken. The study which has been devoted of late to Diirer’s earliest
drawings has made it easier to recognise his handiwork, and so for the last six years this subject has lain
among the master’s early sketches. It has not yet been reproduced in any scientific publication connected
with Diirer, but Dr. Giehlow has urged its claims to recognition as a Diirer at Berlin and Vienna.
DURER. A Cavalry Skirmish near the Gate of a Town.
Collotype from the pen and bistre sketch (8 by f in I) in the British Museum, on the back of the
drawing of a Mounted Courier (Lippmann 209).
To the left is a fortified town near the sea, which has the sail on the horizon beloved by
Diirer. In front of the gate is a fool, with long-eared cap on his head. In the foreground a number
of riders, one of whom is a woman, are plunging wildly about, with a few men on foot running among
the horses. On the slope of a hill to the right, a fugitive rider, transfixed from behind by a spear, has
fallen backwards from the saddle, and his horse gallops away, looking back to see what has become
of its master. Outside the limits of the composition, which are hastily marked with the pen, is a
separate sketch of a woman on a larger scale. Several groups of curved lines, not connected with the
composition, have been drawn at a different time in Indian ink.
The drawing on the front of the paper is generally dated 1490, or not much later, and there is
no reason to doubt that this spirited but hasty sketch is of the same date. Dr. Lippmann does not
mention it, and it has not been reproduced or described before.
VI.
DURER. Allegorical Composition.
Collotype from the pen and ink^dr awing (10 by fin.} at Windsor Castle. (JLippmann 389.)
Three women are seated in the foreground, one of whom, wearing a winged head-dress, points
with her right hand to a round dish at which she is gazing, perhaps for the purpose of divination.
The woman by her side watches her with a smiling expression, while the third, seated behind them
under a willow tree, looks earnestly at the distance, where three women with an outspread sail are
borne along on a dolphin’s back. (This group is taken from an Italian niello, by Peregrini, Dutuit
6
IV.
DURER. St. John the Baptist awaiting Martyrdom.
Collotype from the pen and ink drawing (io by 6iinl) in the British Museum, from the Sloane
Collection.
AINT JOHN kneels with eyes downcast, in an attitude expressive of resignation. The
executioner, sword in hand, looks keenly upwards, awaiting the signal to strike. The
monogram is a forgery. This drawing, characteristic as it is of Diirer’s manner in the
early “nineties” of the fifteenth century, was long left among the nameless drawings
of the Nuremberg School in the old black leather volume from which the fine series
of the Sloane Diirers had been taken. The study which has been devoted of late to Diirer’s earliest
drawings has made it easier to recognise his handiwork, and so for the last six years this subject has lain
among the master’s early sketches. It has not yet been reproduced in any scientific publication connected
with Diirer, but Dr. Giehlow has urged its claims to recognition as a Diirer at Berlin and Vienna.
DURER. A Cavalry Skirmish near the Gate of a Town.
Collotype from the pen and bistre sketch (8 by f in I) in the British Museum, on the back of the
drawing of a Mounted Courier (Lippmann 209).
To the left is a fortified town near the sea, which has the sail on the horizon beloved by
Diirer. In front of the gate is a fool, with long-eared cap on his head. In the foreground a number
of riders, one of whom is a woman, are plunging wildly about, with a few men on foot running among
the horses. On the slope of a hill to the right, a fugitive rider, transfixed from behind by a spear, has
fallen backwards from the saddle, and his horse gallops away, looking back to see what has become
of its master. Outside the limits of the composition, which are hastily marked with the pen, is a
separate sketch of a woman on a larger scale. Several groups of curved lines, not connected with the
composition, have been drawn at a different time in Indian ink.
The drawing on the front of the paper is generally dated 1490, or not much later, and there is
no reason to doubt that this spirited but hasty sketch is of the same date. Dr. Lippmann does not
mention it, and it has not been reproduced or described before.
VI.
DURER. Allegorical Composition.
Collotype from the pen and ink^dr awing (10 by fin.} at Windsor Castle. (JLippmann 389.)
Three women are seated in the foreground, one of whom, wearing a winged head-dress, points
with her right hand to a round dish at which she is gazing, perhaps for the purpose of divination.
The woman by her side watches her with a smiling expression, while the third, seated behind them
under a willow tree, looks earnestly at the distance, where three women with an outspread sail are
borne along on a dolphin’s back. (This group is taken from an Italian niello, by Peregrini, Dutuit
6