DOI Heft:
Woodcuts
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69864#0021
WOODCUTS.
XXV.
DURER. Hercules. B. 127.
From an impression in the British Museum.
O satisfactory explanation has been found for the title “ Ercules ” given by Diirer himself
to this composition. The introduction of such a title within the frame of the woodcut
itself is extremely unusual at this period. The source which he or his humanist friends
consulted for the deeds of the hero remains to be discovered. Most of us may be
content to shut our eyes to the literary problem, and simply admire one of the finest
and most romantic of Diirer’s great fifteenth century series of woodcuts.
XXVI.
DURER. St. Michael and his Angels fighting with the Dragon. B. 72.
From the copy of the German edition of the Apocalypse, 1498, in the British Museum.
XXVII.
DURER. The Trinity. 1511. B. 122.
From the impression in the Dresden Cabinet, formerly in the Cornill d' Orville Collection.
XXVIII.
DURER. The Arms of Ferdinand, King of Hungary and Bohemia.
B. 155. On the back, the Dedication of Diirer’s Book on
Fortification to the King. 1527.
Collotype from impressions in the British Museum.
On a large shield, quarterly, the Arms of Bohemia (1, 4) and Hungary (2, 3); on an
inescutcheon the Arms of Austria, Burgundy (old and new), Brabant, and Spain (Castile, Leon, Aragon,
Sicily, and Granada); over all a second inescutcheon with the Eagle of Tyrol and Lion of Flanders.
The large shield is surmounted by a royal crown and surrounded by the Collar of the Golden Fleece.
The Fleece itself is cut on a separate block and the link which connects it with the Collar is on a
third block. On either side of the Fleece is printed the title of the book.
The dedication to King Ferdinand is taken from the very rare first edition of the book, which
contains, when complete, the large folded woodcut of the Siege of a Fortress. Those who are curious
in such matters may observe that Diirer calls himself in the first edition “ Undertenigister,” which was
corrected in the second edition of the same year to “ Untertenigster.” The earlier spelling is that of
Diirer’s original draft of the letter, which is preserved in the second volume of the Sloane Diirer MSS.
in the British Museum (Add. 5229). There are several other small differences in the text. A copy
of the first edition, unfortunately incomplete, since it lacks the large woodcut, was presented to the
British Museum in 1904 by Mr. Mitchell. The woodcut of King Ferdinand’s Arms in this copy is
coloured; the reproduction of that woodcut was, accordingly, made from a separate leaf in the Museum
which contains the woodcut uncoloured and has the text of the first edition on the back. The text
being reproduced here from the uncut leaf in the book itself, the sizes of the back and front of our
reproduction do not tally, and it is to that slight extent not an exact facsimile of an existing leaf.
C. D.
r9
XXV.
DURER. Hercules. B. 127.
From an impression in the British Museum.
O satisfactory explanation has been found for the title “ Ercules ” given by Diirer himself
to this composition. The introduction of such a title within the frame of the woodcut
itself is extremely unusual at this period. The source which he or his humanist friends
consulted for the deeds of the hero remains to be discovered. Most of us may be
content to shut our eyes to the literary problem, and simply admire one of the finest
and most romantic of Diirer’s great fifteenth century series of woodcuts.
XXVI.
DURER. St. Michael and his Angels fighting with the Dragon. B. 72.
From the copy of the German edition of the Apocalypse, 1498, in the British Museum.
XXVII.
DURER. The Trinity. 1511. B. 122.
From the impression in the Dresden Cabinet, formerly in the Cornill d' Orville Collection.
XXVIII.
DURER. The Arms of Ferdinand, King of Hungary and Bohemia.
B. 155. On the back, the Dedication of Diirer’s Book on
Fortification to the King. 1527.
Collotype from impressions in the British Museum.
On a large shield, quarterly, the Arms of Bohemia (1, 4) and Hungary (2, 3); on an
inescutcheon the Arms of Austria, Burgundy (old and new), Brabant, and Spain (Castile, Leon, Aragon,
Sicily, and Granada); over all a second inescutcheon with the Eagle of Tyrol and Lion of Flanders.
The large shield is surmounted by a royal crown and surrounded by the Collar of the Golden Fleece.
The Fleece itself is cut on a separate block and the link which connects it with the Collar is on a
third block. On either side of the Fleece is printed the title of the book.
The dedication to King Ferdinand is taken from the very rare first edition of the book, which
contains, when complete, the large folded woodcut of the Siege of a Fortress. Those who are curious
in such matters may observe that Diirer calls himself in the first edition “ Undertenigister,” which was
corrected in the second edition of the same year to “ Untertenigster.” The earlier spelling is that of
Diirer’s original draft of the letter, which is preserved in the second volume of the Sloane Diirer MSS.
in the British Museum (Add. 5229). There are several other small differences in the text. A copy
of the first edition, unfortunately incomplete, since it lacks the large woodcut, was presented to the
British Museum in 1904 by Mr. Mitchell. The woodcut of King Ferdinand’s Arms in this copy is
coloured; the reproduction of that woodcut was, accordingly, made from a separate leaf in the Museum
which contains the woodcut uncoloured and has the text of the first edition on the back. The text
being reproduced here from the uncut leaf in the book itself, the sizes of the back and front of our
reproduction do not tally, and it is to that slight extent not an exact facsimile of an existing leaf.
C. D.
r9