DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52444#0033
INTRODUCTION.
the last engraved by Diirer, we recognize at once with what fidelity he
adhered throughout his life to the form adopted in early manhood. (All
but the last of the monograms here given were photo-engraved from
unsatisfactory tracings,— the one of 1495 from the reduction in Ephrussi.
They will do, however, to show the form of the letters, which is all that
is needed.)
It is apparent from the initials and monograms which we have been
able to examine, that, according to the evidence furnished by them,
Diirer’s earliest mark consists of a very pointed A with a small d along-
side of it, and that the monogram, in its final form, does not appear,
in connection with a date, upon either drawing or engraving, before the
year 1497. After that date it is steadily adhered to, not, however, to
the absolute exclusion of slight variations, which occasionally show a
return to a more pointed form of the A, as, for instance, on the “ Apollo
and Diana ” (No. 36 of this catalogue). As none of the engravings are
marked with the initials,— the A and d or D placed alongside of one
another,— the conclusion would seem to be justified that none of them
(with the exception of “ The Ravisher,” No. 1, which has neither initials
nor monogram) can be earlier than 1495 or 1496, and that “The Holy
Family with the Dragon-fly” (No. 2), which still shows the small d,
although enclosed within the A, cannot be later. And this date corre-
sponds approximately to the time when Diirer settled down permanently
in Nuremberg, and established a household, with probably a “shop,” of
his own. “And as I went away in the 1490 year after Easter,” he writes
in his family chronicle (L. u. F., p. 8), “thereupon I came back when
they counted 1494 after Pentecost. And when I had come home again
Hans Frey bargained with my father, and gave me his daughter, named
Jungfrau Agnes, and gave me with her 200 fl. and celebrated the wed-
ding, that was on Monday before St. Margaret’s day [July 7] in the
1494 year.”
It may be objected, of course, and with perfect truth, that the evidence
offered by monograms is of purely external character, and hence, that
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the last engraved by Diirer, we recognize at once with what fidelity he
adhered throughout his life to the form adopted in early manhood. (All
but the last of the monograms here given were photo-engraved from
unsatisfactory tracings,— the one of 1495 from the reduction in Ephrussi.
They will do, however, to show the form of the letters, which is all that
is needed.)
It is apparent from the initials and monograms which we have been
able to examine, that, according to the evidence furnished by them,
Diirer’s earliest mark consists of a very pointed A with a small d along-
side of it, and that the monogram, in its final form, does not appear,
in connection with a date, upon either drawing or engraving, before the
year 1497. After that date it is steadily adhered to, not, however, to
the absolute exclusion of slight variations, which occasionally show a
return to a more pointed form of the A, as, for instance, on the “ Apollo
and Diana ” (No. 36 of this catalogue). As none of the engravings are
marked with the initials,— the A and d or D placed alongside of one
another,— the conclusion would seem to be justified that none of them
(with the exception of “ The Ravisher,” No. 1, which has neither initials
nor monogram) can be earlier than 1495 or 1496, and that “The Holy
Family with the Dragon-fly” (No. 2), which still shows the small d,
although enclosed within the A, cannot be later. And this date corre-
sponds approximately to the time when Diirer settled down permanently
in Nuremberg, and established a household, with probably a “shop,” of
his own. “And as I went away in the 1490 year after Easter,” he writes
in his family chronicle (L. u. F., p. 8), “thereupon I came back when
they counted 1494 after Pentecost. And when I had come home again
Hans Frey bargained with my father, and gave me his daughter, named
Jungfrau Agnes, and gave me with her 200 fl. and celebrated the wed-
ding, that was on Monday before St. Margaret’s day [July 7] in the
1494 year.”
It may be objected, of course, and with perfect truth, that the evidence
offered by monograms is of purely external character, and hence, that
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