Dodgson. Ostendorfer and the Beautiful Virgin of Regensburg

513

OTHberbertfebe mycbc vergäre
gen Jute 6tfch^en in Kegenfourg grober fernen mal


dependent interest, is the small woodcut (Heller, Zusätze, p. 102; Pass. III. 313. 14;
Nagl. Mon. IV. 641. 19; Friedländer, p. 51) here reproduced (Abb. 1). Though often
described, it is of great rarity, and has never, to my knowledge, been reproduced, so
that the present illustration, taken from the uncoloured impression (size of woodcut,
122:96) in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, of which I owe a photograph to the
kindness of Dr. Bock, may prove of interest to many readers.1) The woodcut exemplifies
how much less care was often bestowed upon book-illustrations than upon designs
intended for publi-
cation as separate
sheets. The church is
rudely cut and ridi-
culously small in Pro-
portion to the size of
the figures near it, but
the main architectural
features, as we know
them from the larger
woodcut, are clearly
discernible again in
this side view. The
iron rail is represented
exactly as before, but
the statue, which cor-
responds generally to
the more detailed re-
presentation on the
large sheet, is placed
upon an entirely diffe-
rent column and base

of wrought stone in
late Gothic style. Since
it is not likely that this
elaborately finished
cripple to the shrine,

£uGratia iptfoflegto.
Abb. 1. Passavant III. 313. 14 (verkleinert)
supported by a friend, while a beggar

pedestal would be
abandoned, almost as
soon as finished, for
the much simpler
column with a round
shaft, we must con-
clude that the latter
was itself the pro-
visional support of the
statue, to be replaced
by this carefully diisel-
led shaft so soon as
it was ready. Since
the small woodcut
bears the date 1522,
an earlier date must
be assigned to the
large one; this agrees
with the internal evi-
dence of the subject,
displaying as it does,
the outburst of fanati-
cal devotion at its
climax. The little il-
lustration represents
the approach of a
sits by the way-side

craving alms, and a pilgrim is praying with outstretched arms before the statue. On
the ground near the base is a monogram which must be read as PA, and evidently
denotes the initials of the woodcutter. Ostendorfer's own monogram is on the base
of the statue. Nagler (Mon. IV, No. 1728) reads the monogram as MD and interprets
it as that of a Regensburg artist and religious, Mathias Diernhofer, but the figures
are entirely in Ostendorfer's männer — they are to be compared with those on the

, The Germanic Museum possesses a copy of the book (Inc. 3905), in which the wood-
cut is coloured and defective.