Who was DURER, ALBRECHT ?

DURER, ALBRECHT (Germ.). Surnamed the Father of German Art. A celebrated Painter, Engraver, Modeller, Sculptor and Architect, born at Nuremberg on the 21st of May, 1471, where he died on the 6th of April, 1528. I cannot presume, in a work of this kind, to give more than a general idea of this great Master's manifold achievements in the domain of Art, so much the more because his claim as a medallist is but of the slightest. To understand however the vast influence he has exercised upon German and Italian Renaissance Art (Medallic Art included) during the first quarter of the sixteenth century, and after his death, it is necessary to enter into some details which strictly speaking, do not come within the scope of my study. Albrecht Dürer was descended from a Hungarian family of Eytas, near Jula, but his father, Albrecht Dürer the Elder ?, who was a goldsmith, had settled at Nuremberg, after a prolonged residence in the Netherlands. The famous artist was the third child of a family of eighteen ; he was first apprenticed to his father, but from early youth showed greater inclination for linework and painting. At the age of thirteen, he executed a portrait of himself, preserved in the Albertine Collection at Vienna, which proves that he had already attained considerable artistic skill. Three years later, he succeeded in completing his far-famed Via Crucis. In 1486, he entered the studio of Michael Wohlgemuth, the best painter of Nuremberg at the time, and on his leaving it, in 1490, began a series of travels, which he extended as far as Italy, visiting Venice, working on his way there at Colmar, Augsburg, Innspruck, and Trent, and returning via Basle and Strassburg. In 1494, his father arranged a marriage for him with Agnes Frey, the daughter of a Nuremberg merchant. A passage from a letter written by Pirckheimer some two years after Dürer's death has given rise to the legend that this was an ill-starred union, and that the beautiful Agnes, another Xantippe, had been a source of sorrow and grief to him, but Thausing thinks this statement should be received with great caution. Dürer has left several portraits of his wife; one is signed Mein Agnes, and another, Albrecht Dürerin (1504) ; he also executed a medallic portrait of her (illustrated), which is a remarkable piece of work. Dürer is described "as a fine specimen of his race ; of a commanding figure ; noble, courteous in manners, his fine blue eyes harmonizing with the rich fair hair; his language and voice equally sweet; he possessed a mild, gentle character, a delicate and almost morbid sensibility. " After his marriage, Dürer established himself in his native town, which was then the great centre of German Art. With the collaboration of such assistants and pupils as Hans Leonhard Schäufelein, Hans von Kulmbach, Hans Baldung, and others, he executed many paintings, amongst which are the celebrated triptych in the Royal Gallery at Dresden (Virgin and Child, St. Sebastian, and St. Anthony) and the first Baumgartner Altar-piece. The best known of Dürer's earlier works are : 1493, Christ as a child; — 1494, Death of Orpheus; — Entombment of Christ; — 1495, Series of designs on wood, illustrating the Apocalypse; — 1499, Oswalt Krell; — 1498 and 1500, Portraits of himself; — 1503, Virgin and Child; — 1504, Adoration of the Magi; — Salvator Mundi ; — The Great Passion ; — Life of the Virgin, &c. In 1505, the artist returned to Venice, where he spent eight months. From his letters, we learn that he became intimately acquainted with Giovanni Bellini, that Raphael exchanged tokens of esteem with him, as did also Lanzi, but that he had the sorrow not to meet with his great master, Andrea Mantegna, of Mantua. If during his sojourn in Italy, Dürer made many friends, it is also whilst there, that the forger, Marc Antonio Raimondi, first saw his works and by his piratical imitations became for him a source of endless troubles. To this period belong several paintings, all bearing the artist's monogram : Adoration of the Magi ; - Christ among the Doctors in the Temple ; — Christ on the cross, &c. In June 1507, Dürer returned to Nuremberg, and produced in rapid succession several important works : Adam and Eve ; — Martyrdom of the 10.000 Virgins; — Altar of Heller; — Virgin and Child; — The Holy Trinity; — Virgins; — Samson overthrowing the Philistines ; — Charlemagne ; — Emperor Sigismund, &c. From 1512 the artist was attached to the service of the Emperor Maximilian, who, as a great patron of Art, highly esteemed him, and even raised him to the nobility of the empire. An interesting story is told in connection with this monarch. " On one occasion on which Dürer was painting so large a subject as to require steps to reach it, Maximilian, then present, requested a nobleman of his suite to steady it for the artist. This, of course, the nobleman declined to do ; seeing which the Emperor himself attended the painter, and turning round to his ill-advised courtier, thus apostrophized him. — " Sir, understand that I can make Albrecht a noble like and above you ; but neither I nor any one else on earth can make an artist like him. " (Dictionary of Universal Biography). Dürer executed a series of important works for Maximilian, known as the " Triumph ". He has left several portraits of his exalted Patron, and this Emperor's Prayer-book, illustrated and adorned by the artist, is an exquisite piece of handicraft. After Maximilian, Charles V., Ferdinand of Bohemia, and other princes, extended their favour to Dürer, who, versed as he was in mathematics, architecture and military warfare, could give them excellent advice on the subject of fortifications and artillery. In 1520, Dürer visited the Netherlands; he has left a detailed account of his journey ; at Antwerp he met Erasmus, of whom he painted a portrait. His sojourn in the Low Countries had a decided influence upon his style, which underwent a thorough change. Greater simplicity, more harmony of conception, take the place of petty and superfluous details and overcrowded design. Amongst his ater works the best are perhaps : Portrait of an old Man (Louvre); — Portrait of Kleeberger (Vienna) ; — Portrait of Holzschuher (Berlin); — The four Apostles (Munich), &c. The great artist died during the Holy Week in 1528, at the early age of 57 ; his tomb still exists at Nuremberg, and bears the following epitaph, composed by Pirckheimer : ME.AL.DV, QUIQCQUID ALBERTI DURERI MORTALE FUIT, SUB HOC CONDITUR TUMULO . EMIGRAVIT VIII idus APRILIS MDXXVIII. On hearing of his death, Melanchthon wrote : Doleo tali el viro el artifice Germaniam orbatam esse. During the latter years of his life, Dürer had manifested great sympathy with the doctrines and progress of the Reformation. He was a great admirer of Luther, and is said to have exclaimed, on learning that he was ill: "O Lord! if Luther dies, who will explain the Holy Gospel to us with such clearness. " The great artist was a keen observer and admirer of nature, and this is the secret of the incomparable charm which fascinates us in his works. On various occasions he recommended his pupils to study carefully Creation's book. To what proportions he did this himself we can gather an idea from the numerous studies of animals, scenery and the human form, due to his pen, and which are preserved at the British Museum, the Uffizzi Gallery, and in the museums of Paris, Bremen, Basle, &c. He wrote : "Carefully obverse nature; let yourself be guided by it; do not wander from it by thinking that you will find something better in your own imagination. This is an illusion ; Art is hidden in nature; he shall possess it that can draw it out. The more the form of your work corresponds to the living form, the better your work will appear. This is certain. Never think that you can do better than what God has done, for your work is nought compared to the creating power of God... No man can execute a fine figure by consulting only his imagination, unless his memory is peopled with a multitude of remembrances. Art ceases to be solely the product of individual sentiment; transmitted and learned, it fertilizes itself. The mysterious treasure which one has amassed in the heart's recesses spreads out by means of one's works, of the new creature drawn from one's bosom and to which a sensible form has been given... " To Melanchthon he said once : An ignorant man is like an unpolished mirror. " Such were Dürer's principles of Art. Dürer has been more widely influential as a designer of woodcuts and engraver on metal than as a painter. M. André Michel, the eminent French critic remarks : " Mais c'est peut-?tre le burin á la main que Dürer fut le plus vraiment lui-m?me, et manifesta, avec la plus farouche énergie, la liberté la plus grande et la subtilité la plus profonde, sa pensée et son génie. Au point de vue technique, pour la souplesse du modelé, la finesse et la vigueur des contours, la douceur harmonieuse des planches creusées d'un nombre it fini de tailles et jamais fatiguées, il est un buriniste incomparable. " The Museums of Munich, Vienna, Stuttgart, Venice, and others, preserve also works of sculpture in wood and stone from his studio. The British Museum possesses one of his bas-reliefs in honestone, representing the Nativity of St. John. Various scientific writings from his pen have come down to us : The Art of Measuring, printed in 1525 ; — Treatise on the Fortification of cities, castles and boroughs, 1527; — Treatise of Proportions, MDXXVIIl, &c. Dürer's fame, both upon technical and intellectual grounds, is unequalled among German artists. His work is thoroughly national in character. His early style, under the tutelage and influence of Wohlgemuth, when he mainly devoted himself to religious compositions, is perhaps more fantastic, lugubrious, allegoric, sometimes even harsh; his later style is influenced by the Italian masters, Mantegna, Bellini and Raphael; but his art reaches its highest development after the painter's stay in Flanders, where he acquired the secret of soft and fresh colouring so peculiar to Flemish masters. The mysticism of the refined metaphysical, painstaking artist of the early days gives way to the simplicity of nature ; distinction, grace, and refinement are blended with the result of everprogressing artistic perception ; of no one better than of Dürer can it be said that his works bear the impress of a great master's mind andhand. Lt us now consider Dürer's medallic work. Some experts still quesion whether any medals can be assigned to him with certainty. Notwithstanding von Sallet's admirable papers on the subject, published at various times in the Zeitschrift für Numismatik, the problem is not absolutely solved. The Dürer monogram exists on a large number of works, sculpture, painting, &c. made at a later date by servile imitators who passed off their own productions as those of the great Nuremberg Master. Erman, on von Sallet's authority, expresses the opinion that only three medals can lay some serious claim to Dürer's authorship in spite of the rather doubtful form of the monogram. At any rate these medals are all by the same hand. Their attribution to him is favoured by the well-known fact that the artist sent in 1508 a Portrait-Medallion of a lady to Frederick of Saxony, of which he cast a second specimen, the first having been loss in transit. Antonio Abondio, in the second half of the same century, freely copied this medallion as Durer's work. These three medals are : 1508. Michael Wohlgemuth (Berlin Museum; Collection of Max Rosenheim Esq.). 1508. Dürer's wife (Berlin Museum ; illustrated above). 1514. Dürer's Father (Berlin Museum). According to Imhoof, Sammlung eines Nürnbergischen Münzcabinets, 1782, this medal represents Dürer's friend, Willibald Pirckheimer. Of the Portrait-medal of Michael Wohlgemuth, von Sallet says that he never saw an original specimen. He condemns all those that have come under his notice as later casts of a contemporary copy. The well-known collector of Renaissance Art, Mr. Max Rosenheim, has had the good fortune to meet with what he believes to be an undoubted original, which he has courteously lent me for illustration. The size of this piece is 55 mill, and consequently larger than the Berlin Museum specimen which von Sallet describes as a reduced copy. This medal presents all the characteristics of early German work, and on the plain reverse side are still visible traces in old handwriting of the name of Michael Wohlgemuth : thus confirming the correct attribution of the portrait and removing suspicion of modern copy. The medal of Agnes Frey, Dürer's wife, which is illustrated above from one of the two Berlin Museum specimens, is in von Sallet's terms, a genial work far surpassing all similar contemporaneous medallic productions. Later casts are very common ; there is one in the Berlin Museum, and another is described under n° 176 of Dr Merzbacher's" Kunst-Medaillen Katalog, München,Mai, 1900". By most experts, the portrait presented on this medal is accepted as that of Agnes Frey, Dürer's wife. It appears, however, that it does not correspond with other portraits of this lady of a later date. Antonio Abondio, in the second half of the sixteenth century, copied it as the head of Dürer's wife, with the attributes of Venus. The same model seems to have been used by Dürer for some of his Madonnas, and it might be correct to call this portrait, Head of Madonna. The third medal is generally thought to represent Dürer's father, head in profile, to 1., wearing fur cap and coat ; in front, the monogram, and date 1514. The above illustration is taken from Bolzenthal. A good and probably old cast exists in the Berlin Museum ; there was also one in the Addington Collection, 1883. The original model in honestone is preserved at Berlin. The portrait corresponds fairly to that given by Dürer of his father on the painting of 1497 in the Pinacothek of Munich. The elder Dürer died in 1502 ; Dürer must have therefore executed his model from a drawing. All these three medals bear a distinct stamp of superior workmanship ; they are genial studies from nature, notwithstanding the low relief, and to use von Sallet's own expression : We know of no other artist of that time, who could have done such work as this. " From the similarity of work and treatment, one might feel inclined, with Erman, to ascribe to Dürer a beautiful medal with portrait of Jacob Fugger. There is also a medal of the Elector of Brandenburg, Joachim I., which was executed, it is said, after a drawing by Dürer. The artist's monogram appears further on a Portrait-medal of Luther, 1526, of which Bolzenthal gives three sizes, but which certainly, like a multitude of other works, are neither by the artist nor even belong to his time. Prof. Knackfuss in his recent Life of Dürer (Leipzig, 1900) makes the following remarks concerning the medals attributed to Dürer : "Even works of a kind which Dürer had probably never made at all, small reliefs in lithographic stone and portrait-medals, were signed with his monogram and brought into the market as works of Dürer. " In a recent article, Is Hans Daucher the author of the medals attributed to Albert Dürer? (Burlington Magazine, VII, p. 455 sqq.), Mr. S. Montagu Peartree is endeavouring to prove that the medals hitherto ascribed to Dürer, — including a fine relief in the J. Pierpont Morgan collection, representing a Nude female, full length, seen from behind, and leaning on a pedestal, — which are all signed with the Dürer monogram, are most probably the work of the Augsburg Sculptor, Hans Daucher († 1537), although they may have been, and most likely were, executed from designs by the great Nuremberg artist : " When in 1520 Dürer is asked to furnish a design tor a medal in honour of the young Emperor Charles he is recorded to have supplied a sketch on paper, not a model in relief ". The question of the authorship of the Dürer medals however still remains open to discussion, and it is possible that Dr Habich of Munich, who will be shortly publishing his views on the subject, may be able to finally settle the question. Numerous portraits, some contemporaneous, exist of Dürer. One by Hans Schwartz served as prototype to Hans Betzold's fine medal, illustrated above. There is another, on the reverse of which is the bust of the Countess Palatine, Susan, dated 1530. The Friedländer collection contained a fine Portrait-medallion of the artist in boxwood, of 1529 ; another in the Posony Collection is of very inferior work. A silver specimen of the well-known Portrait-medal of Dürer, of late sixteenth century work, was sold at Frankfort- on -Main, April, 1900, for 935 Marks. The description is a follows : Obv. IMAGO * ALBERTI * DVRERI * AETATIS * SVAE * LVI * Bearded bust to r. R. * INCLITA * VIRTVS * M * D * XXVII. Helmeted arms . This piece came from the Montenuovo and Itzinger Cabinets. Hans Dollinger (Dachauer?) had executed already in 1532 a profile portrait of Dürer, depicted with long hair, on a stone basrelief. At Munich may be found also an allegoric representation of a duel between Dürer and Lazarus Spengler (?) before the Emperor Maximilian. It has already been noticed that Dürer executed his medallions in honestone, and that they were reproduced in metal by the process of casting. The Berlin Museum possesses one of the original stone models, dated 1514, purporting to represent Dürer's father. The technique of early German medals differs altogether from that of Italian medals of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I shall, in studying the work of Pisano, later on, endeavour to describe the process used by the great Italian Masters in the execution of their fine medals, a process which has now been brought in vogue again by some of the modern French medallists. Dürer and his school, Peter Vischer, Peter Flötner, and other German artists of the first half of the sixteenth century, seem to have been the first to realize the value of models in stone for the manifold reproductions of medals or plaques in lead, bronze, silver and gold. Prof. Dr Konraa Lange in his admirable monograph of Peter Flötner (Berlin, 1897) gives an interesting account of the process of casting medals, as practised by Dürer, and his contemporaries or followers. It would appear that first of all models were prepared in lithographic stone, which is easy to work and durable. Then from the stone model moulds were produced which served for casting impressions in lead. These lead impressions were eagerly sought after by the goldsmiths who copied them freely. Every goldsmith of the Renaissance possessed a set of lead models ; thus we find that Hans Reinhard the Elder bequeathed his lead models (Bleie und Patronen) to his sons, 1579. But apparently such lead models were already in use in the fourteenth ana fifteenth centuries, as may be seen at the Musée Cluny in Paris and Historisches Museum at Basle. To Dürer's school, whether influenced directly by him or by his works, belong no doubt Peter Vischer the younger, Hans Krug the Elder, Hans Schwartz, Ludwig Krug, Peter Flötner, Friedrich Hagenauer, Burgmaier, Hieronymus Magdeburger and the whole galaxy of Nuremberg artists who brought German Renaissance Medallic Art to a level, in certain respects, with the best school of Italian fifteenth and sixteenth century Medallists. 1. It is interesting to note that the name of Dürer's father, " Albrecht der Hölper " appears on a document dated 20. Feb. 1470, as Assayer and Inspector of the coins at Nuremberg. Bibliography. — Bolzenthal, Skizzen zur Kunstgeschichte der modernen Medaillen-Arbeit (1429-1840), Berlin, 1840. — Dr Alfred von Sallet, Untersuchungen über Albrecht Dürer, Berlin, 1874. — Adolf Erman, Deutsche Medailleure des sechzehnten und siebzechnten Jahrhunderts, Berlin, 1884. — Andri Michel, Albert Dürer, Grande Encyclopédie. — Thausing, Dürer, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Kunst, Leipzig, 1884. — Ch. Ephrussi, Les dessins d'Albert Dürer, Paris, 1828. — ?uvre d' Albert Durer, texte par Georges Duplessis, Paris, 1877. — Schmidt, Biography of A. Dürer , Kunst und Künstler. — Woermann, Geschichte der Malerei, Leipzig, 1884, vol. II, pp. 370-418. — H. Janitscheck, Die Malerei, Geschichte der deutschen Kunst. — Bartsch, Le Peintre-graveur, vol. VII, pp. 1-197. — Chambers' Encyclopaedia. — Encyclopaedia Britannica. — Grand Dictionnaire Larousse — Numismatic Circular, vol.- VIII, p. 3948. — A. von Sallet, Die Medaillen Albrecht Dürer's, Zeitschrift für Numismatik, 1875. — Nürnbergische Münzbelustigung en u. s. w., Altdorf, 1764-77. — C.-F. Gebert, Geschichte der Münz- stätte der Reichstadt Nürnberg, 1891.

Source: Biographical dictionary of medallists; coin, gem, and seal-engravers, mint-masters, ancient and modern, with references to their works B.C. 500-A.D. 1900; compiled by L. Forrer, London 1904