DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52444#0019
INTRODUCTION.
I. The Meaning of Durer’s Work.
Of all the artists whose names are in everybody’s mouth, Diirer is the
one least understood. Max Allihn is quite right when he says of some
of his compositions that they “may be fittingly likened to the sphinx of
the old legend, for they attack every one who, either as critic or his-
torian, or harmless wanderer, enters the realm of art, and propose to
him their insolvable riddles.” And if the truth were told, it would be
found that all so attacked were vanquished, and that they ought to be
counted among the dead.
The difficulties which beset the Diirer student are manifold, and of a
peculiar kind. Rembrandt, who always comes up in the mind as Durer’s
rival in the fascination which he exercises upon those who venture within
the reach of his influence, repulses at first by his apparent ugliness, and
to the specialist in prints brings many a sore trial through the Protean
shapes which his plates assume in the way of “states,” but as to the
subject matter of his compositions, it is as easily understood as the con-
versation of a neighbor of to-day. The truth is that Rembrandt is thor-
oughly modern, and utters his homely but heartfelt sentences in simple
speech, which only gains from what there still adheres to it of an anti-
quated flavor. As to his genesis and the reason for his being and ap-
pearing just where and as he did, these also are perfectly clear, and can
be deduced logically from the conditions which preceded and surrounded
him. With Diirer, on the other hand, all this is different. He does not,
indeed, trouble us with “states,” for among all his authenticated works of
i
I. The Meaning of Durer’s Work.
Of all the artists whose names are in everybody’s mouth, Diirer is the
one least understood. Max Allihn is quite right when he says of some
of his compositions that they “may be fittingly likened to the sphinx of
the old legend, for they attack every one who, either as critic or his-
torian, or harmless wanderer, enters the realm of art, and propose to
him their insolvable riddles.” And if the truth were told, it would be
found that all so attacked were vanquished, and that they ought to be
counted among the dead.
The difficulties which beset the Diirer student are manifold, and of a
peculiar kind. Rembrandt, who always comes up in the mind as Durer’s
rival in the fascination which he exercises upon those who venture within
the reach of his influence, repulses at first by his apparent ugliness, and
to the specialist in prints brings many a sore trial through the Protean
shapes which his plates assume in the way of “states,” but as to the
subject matter of his compositions, it is as easily understood as the con-
versation of a neighbor of to-day. The truth is that Rembrandt is thor-
oughly modern, and utters his homely but heartfelt sentences in simple
speech, which only gains from what there still adheres to it of an anti-
quated flavor. As to his genesis and the reason for his being and ap-
pearing just where and as he did, these also are perfectly clear, and can
be deduced logically from the conditions which preceded and surrounded
him. With Diirer, on the other hand, all this is different. He does not,
indeed, trouble us with “states,” for among all his authenticated works of
i