DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52444#0180
CATALOGUE OF DURER’S ENGRAVINGS,
and in certain ways a pioneer of the Reformation, was born at Rotterdam about
the year 1467, and died at Basel on July 12, 1536. Diirer met him and
drew his portrait several times in the Netherlands (1520-21; see one of these
drawings in Ephrussi, p. 277), and it was to him that he addressed in his Diary
the fervent words of entreaty to take up the work of Luther, upon the receipt of
the news that the latter had been kidnapped. The inscription on the print dis-
tinctly informs us that it was “drawn from the life by Albert Diirer.” Never-
theless, it must have been engraved from the drawings made in the Netherlands
five years before, a fact which may in part explain the small satisfaction given by
this portrait to Erasmus himself as well as to others. “ Technically, as an en-
graving,” says Thausing (2d Germ, ed., II, p. 268), “ the portrait of Erasmus,
‘ which his writings show better ’ [the words of the Greek phrase in the inscrip-
tion], is as superior to that of Melanchthon as it is inferior to it in truthfulness,
fidelity, and sentiment. Erasmus was polite enough, upon the receipt of the
picture, to excuse its shortcomings by remarking that he himself had changed in
the intervening five years.” Kaufmann repeats Thausing’s estimate, and adds
(“ Diirer,” p. 125, note 1): “ Luther, who did not belong to the admirers of
Erasmus, and did not know him personally, curiously enough referred to this
engraving, when he expatiated unfavorably on the character of Erasmus in his
after-dinner speeches.” As his authority for this statement Kaufmann gives
“Deutsche Rundschau von Julius Rodenberg. Siebenter Jahrgang, 9 Heft.
Berlin, 1881. P. 467.” Mr. Ruskin’s opinion may be found in the “Ariadne
Fiorentina ” (Lecture V). This portrait was possibly the last of Diirer’s engrav-
ings on copper, the only other works of the kind, dated 1526, being the
Melanchthon, No. 101, and the Apostle Philip, No. 80 of this catalogue.
88
and in certain ways a pioneer of the Reformation, was born at Rotterdam about
the year 1467, and died at Basel on July 12, 1536. Diirer met him and
drew his portrait several times in the Netherlands (1520-21; see one of these
drawings in Ephrussi, p. 277), and it was to him that he addressed in his Diary
the fervent words of entreaty to take up the work of Luther, upon the receipt of
the news that the latter had been kidnapped. The inscription on the print dis-
tinctly informs us that it was “drawn from the life by Albert Diirer.” Never-
theless, it must have been engraved from the drawings made in the Netherlands
five years before, a fact which may in part explain the small satisfaction given by
this portrait to Erasmus himself as well as to others. “ Technically, as an en-
graving,” says Thausing (2d Germ, ed., II, p. 268), “ the portrait of Erasmus,
‘ which his writings show better ’ [the words of the Greek phrase in the inscrip-
tion], is as superior to that of Melanchthon as it is inferior to it in truthfulness,
fidelity, and sentiment. Erasmus was polite enough, upon the receipt of the
picture, to excuse its shortcomings by remarking that he himself had changed in
the intervening five years.” Kaufmann repeats Thausing’s estimate, and adds
(“ Diirer,” p. 125, note 1): “ Luther, who did not belong to the admirers of
Erasmus, and did not know him personally, curiously enough referred to this
engraving, when he expatiated unfavorably on the character of Erasmus in his
after-dinner speeches.” As his authority for this statement Kaufmann gives
“Deutsche Rundschau von Julius Rodenberg. Siebenter Jahrgang, 9 Heft.
Berlin, 1881. P. 467.” Mr. Ruskin’s opinion may be found in the “Ariadne
Fiorentina ” (Lecture V). This portrait was possibly the last of Diirer’s engrav-
ings on copper, the only other works of the kind, dated 1526, being the
Melanchthon, No. 101, and the Apostle Philip, No. 80 of this catalogue.
88