Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3) by S. Spooner (best ebook reader under 100 TXT) 📖
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woman holding some utensils. The folding doors on one side shows a
study, and a man making a pen by candle light; and on the other, a
school, with boys writing, and sitting at different tables. The whole
is lighted in an agreeable and surprising manner; every object is
expressed with beauty and astonishing force. Nor does the subject appear
too crowded, for it was one of his peculiar talents to show, in a small
compass, more than other painters could do in a much larger space. His
pictures are generally confined to a few figures, and sometimes to a
single one, and when he attempted larger compositions, he was generally
less successful. The works of this artist are not numerous, from the
immense labor and time he bestowed upon a single one; and from this
circumstance, and the estimation in which they are held by the curious
collectors, they have ever commanded enormous prices. They were always
particularly admired in France, in the days of Napoleon, there were no
less than seventeen of his pictures gathered into the Louvre, most of
which were, after his downfall, restored to their original proprietors,
among which was the famous Dropsical Woman, from the collection of the
King of Sardinia. At Turin, are several pictures by Douw, the most
famous of which is the one just named--the Dropsical Woman, attended by
her physician, who is examining an urinal. This picture is wonderfully
true to nature, and each particular hair and pore of the skin is
represented. In the gallery at Florence is one of his pictures,
representing an interior by candle-light, with a mountebank, surrounded
by a number of clowns, which is exquisitely finished. The great fame of
Gerhard Douw, and the eager desire for his works, have given rise to
numerous counterfeits. We may safely say that there is not an original
picture by this artist in the United States. Douw died, very rich, in
1674.
ALBERT DURER.
This extraordinary artist was born at Nuremberg in 1471. His father was
a skillful goldsmith, from Hungary, and taught his son the first
rudiments of design, intending him for his own profession; but his early
and decided inclination for the arts and sciences induced him to permit
young Durer to follow the bent of his genius. He received his first
instruction in painting and engraving from Martin Hapse. When he had
reached the age of fourteen, it was his father's intention to have
placed him under the instruction of Martin Schoen, of Colmar, the most
distinguished artist of his time in Germany, but the death of the latter
happening about that time, he became a pupil of Michael Wolgemut, in
1486, the first artist then in Nuremberg, with whom he studied
diligently four years. He also cultivated the study of perspective, the
mathematics, and architecture, in all of which he acquired a profound
knowledge. Having finished his studies, he commenced his travels in
1490, and spent four years in traveling through Germany, the
Netherlands, and the adjacent counties and provinces. On his return to
Nuremberg, in 1494, he ventured to exhibit his works to the public,
which immediately attracted great attention. His first work was a piece
of the Three Graces, represented by as many female figures, with a globe
over their heads. He soon after executed one of his masterpieces, a
drawing of Orpheus. About this time, to please his father, as it is
said, he married the daughter of Hans Fritz, a celebrated mechanic, who
proved a fierce Xantippe, and embittered, and some say shortened his
life. In 1506, he went to Venice to improve himself, where his abilities
excited envy and admiration. Here he painted the Martyrdom of St.
Bartholomew for the church of S. Marco, which was afterwards purchased
by the Emperor Rodolphus, and removed to Prague. He also went to
Bologna, and returned home in 1507. This journey to Italy had no effect
whatever upon his style, though doubtless he obtained much information
that was valuable to him, for at this period commenced the proper era of
his greatness.
DURER'S WORKS AS A PAINTER.
Though Durer was most famous as an engraver, yet he executed many large
paintings, which occupy a distinguished place in the royal collections
of Germany, and other European countries. In the imperial collection at
Munich are some of the most celebrated, as Adam and Eve, the Adoration
of the Magi, the Crucifixion--a grand composition--the Crowning of the
Virgin, the Battle between Alexander and Darius, and many other great
works. Durer painted the Wise Men's Offering, two pictures of the
Passion of Christ, and an Assumption of the Virgin, for a monastery of
Frankfort, which proved a source of income to the monks, from the
presents they received for exhibiting them. The people of Nuremberg
still preserve, in the Town Hall, his portraits of Charlemagne and some
Emperors of the House of Austria, with the Twelve Apostles, whose
drapery is remarkable for being modern German, instead of Oriental. He
sent his own portrait to Raffaelle, painted on canvas, without any
coloring or touch of the pencil, only heightened with shades and white,
yet exhibiting such strength and elegance that the great artist to whom
it was presented expressed the greatest surprise at the sight of it.
This piece, after the death of Raffaelle, fell into the possession of
Giulio Romano, who placed it among the curiosities of the palace of
Mantua. Besides the pictures already mentioned, there is by him an Ecce
Homo at Venice, his own portrait, and two pictures representing St.
James and St. Philip, and an Adam and Eve in the Florentine Gallery.
There are also some of his works in the Louvre, and in the royal
collections in England. As a painter, it has been observed of Durer that
he studied nature only in her unadorned state, without attending to
those graces which study and art might have afforded him; but his
imagination was lively, his composition grand, and his pencil delicate.
He finished his works with exact neatness, and he was particularly
excellent in his Madonnas, though he encumbered them with heavy
draperies. He surpassed all the painters of his own country, yet he did
not avoid their defects--such as dryness and formality of outline, the
want of a just degradation of the tints, an expression without
agreeableness, and draperies broad in the folds, but stiff in the forms.
He was no observer of the propriety of costume, and paid so little
attention to it that he appears to have preferred to drape his saints
and heroes of antiquity in the costume of his own time and country.
Fuseli observes that "the coloring of Durer went beyond his age, and in
his easel pictures it as far excelled the oil color of Raffaelle in
juice, and breadth, and handling, as Raffaelle excelled him in every
other quality."
DURER'S WORKS AS AN ENGRAVER.
Durer derived most of his fame from his engravings, and he is allowed to
have surpassed every artist of his time in this branch of art. Born in
the infancy of the art, he carried engraving to a perfection that has
hardly been surpassed. When we consider that, without any models worthy
of imitation, he brought engraving to such great perfection, we are
astonished at his genius, and his own resources. Although engraving has
had the advantage and experience of more than three centuries, it would
perhaps be difficult to select a specimen of executive excellence
surpassing his print of St. Jerome, engraved in 1514. He had a perfect
command of the graver, and his works are executed with remarkable
neatness and clearness of stroke; if we do not find in his plates that
boldness and freedom desirable in large historical works, we find in
them everything that can be wished in works more minute and finished, as
were his. To him is attributed the invention of etching; and if he was
not the inventor, he was the first who excelled in the art. He also
invented the method of printing wood-cuts in chiaro-scuro, or with two
blocks. His great mathematical knowledge enabled him to form a regular
system of rules for drawing and painting with geometrical precision. He
had the power of catching the exact expression of the features, and of
delineating all the passions. Although he was well acquainted with the
anatomy of the human figure, and occasionally designed it correctly, his
contours are neither graceful nor pleasing, and his prints are never
entirely divested of the stiff and formal taste that prevailed at the
time, both in his figures and drapery. Such was his reputation, both at
home and abroad, that Marc' Antonio Raimondi counterfeited his Passion
of Christ, and the Life of the Virgin at Venice, and sold them for the
genuine works of Durer. The latter, hearing of the fraud, was so
exasperated that he set out for Venice, where he complained to the
government of the wrong that had been done him by the plagiarist, but he
could obtain no other satisfaction than a decree prohibiting Raimondi
from affixing Durer's monogram or signatures to these copies in future.
Vasari says that when the prints of Durer were first brought into Italy,
they incited the painters there to elevate themselves in that branch of
art, and to make his works their models.
DURER'S FAME AND DEATH.
The fame of Durer spread far and wide in his life-time. The Emperor
Maximillian I. had a great esteem for him, and appointed him his court
painter, with a liberal pension, and conferred on him letters of
nobility; Charles V., his successor, confirmed him in his office,
bestowing upon him at the same time the painter's coat of arms, viz.,
three escutcheons, argent, in a deep azure field. Ferdinand, King of
Hungary, also bestowed upon him marked favors and liberality. Durer was
in favor with high and low. All the artists and learned men of his time
honored and loved him, and his early death in 1528 was universally
lamented.
DURER'S HABITS AND LITERARY WORKS.
Durer always lived in a frugal manner, without the least ostentation for
the distinguished favors heaped upon him. He applied himself to his
profession with the most constant and untiring industry, which, together
with his great knowledge, great facility of mechanical execution, and a
remarkable talent for imitation, enabled him to rise to such
distinction, and to exert so powerful an influence on German art for a
great length of time. He was the first artist in Germany who practiced
and taught the rules of perspective, and of the proportions of the human
figure, according to mathematical principles. His treatise on
proportions is said to have resulted from his studies of his picture of
Adam and Eve. His principal works are _De Symmetria partium in rectis
formis humanorum corporum_, printed at Nuremberg in 1532; and _De
Verieitate Figurarum, et flexuris partium, et Gestibus Imaginum_; 1534.
These works were written in German, and after Durer's death translated
into Latin. The figures illustrating the subjects were executed by
Durer, on wood, in an admirable manner. Durer had also much merit as a
miscellaneous writer, and labored to purify and elevate the German
language, in which he was assisted by his friend, W. Pirkheimer. His
works were published in a collected form at Arnheim, in 1603, folio, in
Latin and in French. J. J. Roth wrote a life of Durer, published at
Leipsic in 1791.
LUDOLPH BACKHUYSEN.
This eminent painter was born in 1631. His father intended him for the
mercantile profession, but nature for a marine painter. His passion for
art induced him to neglect his employer's business, with whom his father
had placed him, and to spend his time in drawing, and in frequenting the
studios of the painters at Amsterdam. His fondness for shipping led him
frequently to the port of the city, where he made admirable drawings of
the vessels with a pen, which were much sought after by the collectors,
and were purchased at liberal prices. Several of his drawings were sold
at 100 florins each. This success induced him to paint marine subjects.
His first essays were successful, and his pictures universally admired.
While painting, he would not admit his most intimate friends to his
studio, lest his fancy might be disturbed. He hired fishermen to take
him out to sea in the most tremendous gales, and on landing, he would
run impatiently to his palette to secure the grand impressions of the
views he had just witnessed. He has represented that element in its most
terrible agitation, with a fidelity that intimidates the beholder. His
pictures on these subjects have raised his reputation even higher than
that of W. van de Velde; although the works of the later, which
represent the sea at rest, or in light breezes, are much superior, and
indeed inimitable. His pictures are distinguished for their admirable
perspective, correct drawing, neatness and freedom of touch, and
remarkable facility of execution. For the burgomasters of Amsterdam, he
painted a large picture with a multitude of vessels, and a view of the
city in the distance; for which they gave
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