file which includes the original illustrations4 ,see #dagcd-;h4htm or #dagcd-;h4zip3 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/cache_/epu b_/#dagcd_/pg#dagcd-;images4html7 or 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/files_/#da gcd_/dagcd-;h4zip7 ,images of the original pages are available through ,internet ,archive4 ,see http3_/_/archive4org_/details_/drerbyher berte#jj;fursiala ,masterpieces in ,colour ,edited ,by ,t4 ,leman ,hare ,d,,rer #adga-aebh 99 99 99 99 99 ,,masterpieces ,,in ,,colour ,,series ,,artist4 ,,author4 ,,velazquez4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,reynolds4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,turner4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,romney4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,greuze4 ,,alys ,,eyre ,,macklin4 ,,botticelli4 ,,henry ,b4 ,,binns4 ,,rossetti4 ,,lucien ,,pissarro4 ,,bellini4 ,,george ,,hay4 ,,fra ,,angelico4 ,,james ,,mason4 ,,rembrandt4 ,,josef ,,israels4 ,,leighton4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,raphael4 ,,paul ,g4 ,,konody4 ,,holman ,,hunt4 ,,mary ,e4 ,,coleridge4 ,,titian4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,millais4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,carlo ,,dolci4 ,,george ,,hay4 ,,gainsborough4 ,,max ,,rothschild4 ,,tintoretto4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,luini4 ,,james ,,mason4 ,,franz ,,hals4 ,,edgcumbe ,,staley4 ,,van ,,dyck4 ,,percy ,m4 ,,turner4 ,,leonardo ,,da ,,vinci4 ,m4 ,w4 ,,brockwell4 ,,rubens4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,whistler4 ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood4 ,,holbein4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,burne-,,jones4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,vig,e ,,le ,,brun4 ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,chardin4 ,,paul ,g4 ,,konody4 ,,fragonard4 ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,memlinc4 ,w4 ,h4 ,j4 ,j4 ,c4 ,,weale4 ,,constable4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,raeburn4 ,,james ,l4 ,,caw4 ,,john ,s4 ,,sargent4 ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood4 ,,lawrence4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,d,,rer4 ,h4 ,e4 ,a4 ,,furst4 ,,hogarth4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,others in ,preparation4 99 99 99 99 99 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,i4--,,portrait ,,of ,,hieronymus ,,holzschuer4 ,frontispiece 7,from the ,oil-painting in the ,berlin ,museum4 ,painted in #aebf7 ,holzschuer was one of ,drer's ,nuremberg friends--a patrician1 and ,councillor of the ,city4 ,drer's portraits are remarkable for their strength in characterisation4 ,d,,rer by ,,herbert ,e4 ,a4 ,,furst ,illustrated with ,eight ,reproductions in ,colour ,illustration3 ,,in ,,sempiternum4 ,london3 ,t4 ,c4 ,e4 ,c4 ,jack ,new ,york3 ,frederick ,a4 ,stokes ,co4 ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,plate ,i4 ,portrait of ,hyeronymus ,holzschuer ,frontispiece ,from the ,oil-painting in the ,berlin ,museum ,page ,,ii4 ,portrait of a ,woman #ad ,from the ,oil-painting in the ,berlin ,museum ,,iii4 ,portrait of the ,artist #bd ,from the ,oil-painting in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich ,,iv4 ,portrait of the ,painter's ,father #cd ,from the ,oil-painting in the ,national ,gallery ,v4 ,portrait of ,oswalt ,krel #dj ,from the ,oil-painting in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich ,,vi4 ,the ,madonna with the ,siskin #ej ,from the ,oil-painting in the ,berlin ,museum ,,vii4 ,,ss4 ,john and ,peter #fj ,from the ,oil-painting in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich ,,viii4 ,,ss4 ,paul and ,mark #gj ,from the ,oil-painting in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich ,illustration ,this is a wonderful world6 ,and not the least wonderful thing is our ignorance of it4 ,i would chat with you1 reader1 for a while2 would discuss ,drer1 whom ,i have known and loved for many a year1 and whom ,i want to make beloved by you also4 ,here ,i sit1 pen in hand1 and would begin4 ,begin--where8 ,with the ,beginnings8 ,the ,beginnings8 ,where do things begin2 when and why8 ,so our ignorance1 like a many-headed monster1 raises its fearsome heads and would bar the way4 ,by most subtle links are all things connected--cause and effect we call them2 and if we but raise one or the other1 fine ears will hear the clinking--and the monster rises4 ,there are so many things we shall never know1 cries the poet of the unsaid1 ,maeterlinck4 ,let us venture forth then and grope with clumsy fingers amongst the treasures stored2 let us be content to pick up a jewel here and there1 resting our minds in awe and admiration on its beauty1 though we may not readily understand its use and meaning4 ,foolish men read books and dusty documents1 catch a few dull words from the phrasing of long thoughts1 and will tell you1 these are facts6 ,wise men read books--the books of ,nature and the books of men--and say1 facts are well enough1 but oh for the right understanding6 ,for between sunrise and sunset1 between the dusk of evening and the dusk of dawn1 things happen that will never happen again2 and the world of to-day is ever a world of yesterdays and to-morrows4 ,reader1 ,i lift my torch1 and by its dim light ,i bid you follow me4 ,for it is a long journey we have to make through the night of the past4 ,many an encumbrance of four and a half centuries we shall have to lay aside ere we reach the treasure-house of ,drer's ,art4 ,from the steps of ,kaiser ,wilhelm ,,ii4's throne we must hasten through the ages to ,kaiser ,maximilian's city1 ,nuremberg--to the days when ,wilhelm's ancestors were but ,margraves of ,brandenburg1 scarcely much more than the ,burggraves of ,nuremberg they had originally been4 ,from the days of the ,maxim gun and the ,lee-,metford to the days of the howitzer and the blunderbuss4 ,when ,york was farther away from ,london than ,new ,york is to-day4 ,when the receipt of a written letter was fact but few could boast of2 and a secret billet-doux might cause the sender to be flung in gaol4 ,when the morning's milk was unaccompanied by the morning news2 for the printer's press was in its infancy4 ,when the stranding of a whale was an event of ,european interest1 and the form of a rhinoceros the subject of wild conjecture and childish imagination4 ,when this patient earth of ours was to our ancestors merely a vast pancake toasted daily by a circling sun4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ii4--,,portrait ,,of ,a ,,woman 7,from the ,oil-painting in the ,berlin ,museum7 ,this beautiful portrait represents1 artistically1 the zenith of ,drer's art4 ,it shows ,venetian influence so strongly1 and is painted with so much serenity of manner1 that one is almost inclined to doubt its ascription4 ,when the woods were full of hobgoblins1 and scaly ,beelzebubs were busily engaged in pitching the souls of the damned down a yawning hell-mouth1 and the angels of the ,lord in crimson and brocade carried the blessed heavenward4 ,in those days scholars filled their books with a curious jumble of theology1 philosophy1 and old women's talk4 ,dr4 ,faustus practised black magic1 and the besom-steeds carried witches from the ,brocken far and wide into all lands4 ,then no one ventured far from home unaccompanied1 and the merchants were bold adventurers1 and ,kings of ,scotland might envy ,nuremberg burgesses--so neas ,sylvius said4 ,and that a touch of humour be not lacking1 ,i bid you remember that my lady dipped her dainty fingers into the stew1 and1 after1 threw the bare bones to the dogs below the table2 and ,i also bid you remember that satins and fine linen oft clothed an unwashed body4 ,cruel plagues1 smallpox1 and all manner of disease and malformations inflicted a far greater number than nowadays1 and the sad ignorance of doctors brewed horrid draughts amongst the skulls1 skeletons1 stuffed birds1 and crocodiles of their fearsome-looking surgeries4 ,in short1 it was a poetic age2 when all the world was full of mysteries and possibilities1 and the sanest and most level-headed were outrageously fantastic4 ,there are people who will tell you that the world is very much the same to-day as it was yesterday1 and that1 after all1 human nature is human nature in all ages all the world over4 ,but1 beyond the fact that we all are born and we all must die1 there is little in common between you and me--between us of to-day and those of yesterday--and we resemble each other most nearly in things that do not matter4 ,frankly1 therefore1 ,albrecht ,drer1 who was born on ,may #ba1 #adga1 is a human being from another world1 and unless you realise that too1 ,i doubt you can understand him1 much less admire him4 ,for his ,art is not beautiful4 ,germans have never been able to create anything beautiful in ,art3 their sense of beauty soars into ,song4 ,but even whilst ,i am writing these words it occurs to me that they are no longer true1 for the ,german of to-day is no longer the ,german of yesterday1 standing peaceful on his scientific watch-tower2 and to the raging1 struggling multitude here and elsewhere solemnly1 from hour to hour1 with preparatory blast of cow-horn emit his ',hret ihr ,herren und lasst's euch sagen' 444 as ,carlyle pictures him2 he is most certainly not like the ,lutheran ,german with a child's heart and a boy's rash courage4 ,frankly ,i say you cannot admire ,drer if you be honestly ignorant or ignorantly honest4 ,we of to-day are too level-headed2 our brains cannot encompass the world that crowded ,drer's dreams4 ,for the ,german's brain was always crowded2 he had not that nice sense of space and emptiness that makes ,italian ,art so pleasant to look upon1 and which the ,japanese employ with astonishing subtlety4 ,you remember ,wagner's words in ,goethe's ,faust-- ,zwar weiss ich viel2 doch mcht ich ,alles wissen4 7,i know a lot1 yet wish that ,i knew ,all47 ,it is not only his eagerness to show you all he knows1 but also his ravenous desire to know all that is to be known4 ,hence we speak of ,german thoroughness1 at once his boast and his modesty4 ,here again ,i have to pull up4 ,generalisations are so easy1 appear so justified1 and are more often than not misleading4 ,drer was not a pure-blooded ,teuton2 his father came from ,eytas in ,hungary4#a #a ,eytas translated into ,german is ,thr 7,door71 and a man from ,thr a ,threr or ,drer4 ,that ,german music owes a debt of gratitude to ,hungary is acknowledged4 ,does ,drer owe his greatness to the strain of foreign blood8 ,possibly2 but it does not matter4 ,he was a man1 and a profound man1 therefore akin to all the world1 as ,dante and ,michelangelo1 as ,shakespeare and ,millet4 ,born into ,german circumstances he appears in ,german habit--that is all4 ,his father ,albrecht was a goldsmith1 and ,albrecht the son having shown himself worthy of a better education than his numerous brothers1 was1 after finishing school1 apprenticed to and would have remained a goldsmith1 had his artistic nature not drawn him to ,art2 at least so his biographer1 i4e4 the painter himself1 tells us4 ,it was not the artist alone who longed for freer play1 for freer expression of his faculties4 ,it was to a great extent1 ,i feel sure1 the thinker4 ,drer took himself tremendously seriously2 were it not for some letters that he has left us1 and some episodes in his graphic art1 one might be led to imagine that ,drer knew not laughter1 scarcely even a smile4 ,he consequently thought it of importance to acquaint the world with all the details of his life and work1 recording even the moods which prompted him to do this or that4 ,in ,drer the desire to live was entirely absorbed in the desire to think4 ,he was not a man of action1 and the records of his life are filled by accounts of what he saw1 what he thought1 and what others thought of him2 coupled with frequent complaints of jealousies and lack of appreciation4 ,drer was deep but narrow1 and in that again he reflects the religious spirit of ,protestantism1 not the wider culture of ,humanism4 ,his ego looms large in his consciousness1 and it is the salvation of the soul rather than the expansion of the mind which concerns him2 but withal he is like ,luther--a ,man4 ,his idea then of ,art was1 that it should be employed1 as he himself explained1 in the service of the ,church to set forth the sufferings of ,christ and such like subjects1 and it should also be employed to preserve the features of men after their death4 ,a narrow interpretation of a world-embracing realm4 ,the scope of this little volume will not admit of a detailed account of ,drer's life4 ,we may not linger on the years of his apprenticeship with ,michael ,wolgemut1 where he suffered much from his fellow-'prentices4 ,we must not accompany him on his wanderjahre1 these being the three years of peregrination which always followed the years of apprenticeship4 ,neither may we record details1 as of his marriage with ,agnes ,frey--mein ,agnes1 upon his return home in #adid4 ,his ,agnes was apparently a good housewife and a shrewd business woman1 to whom he afterwards largely entrusted the sale of his prints4 ,he had a great struggle for a living4 ,and here an amusing analogy occurs to me4 ,painting does not pay1 he complains at one time1 and therefore he devotes himself to black and white4 ,was it ever thus8 ,would that some of our own struggling artists remembered ,drer1 and even when they find themselves compelled to do something to keep the pot aboiling1 at any rate do their best4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iii4--,,portrait ,,of ,,the ,,artist 7,from the ,oil-painting in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich7 ,this picture bears the date #aejj and a ,latin inscription1 ,i1 ,albert ,drer1 of ,nuremberg1 painted my own portrait here in the proper colours1 at the age of twenty-eight4 ,according to ,thausing1 this picture had a curious fate4 ,the panel on which it was painted was sawn in two by an engraver to whom it was lent1 and who affixed the back to his own poor copy of the picture--thus using the seal of the ,nuremberg magistrates1 which was placed upon it1 to authenticate his copy as a genuine work of the master4 ,we have it on ,drer's own authority that he took up etching and wood-engraving because it paid better4 ,and strange--into this bread-and-butter work he put his best4 ,it is not his painting that made his fame and name1 though in that branch of ,art he was admired by a ,raphael and a ,bellini4 ,agnes ,frey bore him no children2 this fact1 ,i think1 is worthy of note4 ,even a cursory glance at ,drer's etchings and woodcuts will reveal the fact that he was fond of children--kinderlieb1 as the ,germans say4 ,i do not doubt that he would have given us even more joy and sunshine in his ,art had he but called a child his own4 ,instead1 we have too often the gloomy reflection of death throughout his work4 ,the gambols and frolics of angelic cupids are too often obscured by the symbols of suffering1 sin1 and death4 ,again1 we must not allow a logical conclusion to be accepted as an absolute truth4 ,drer was certainly more familiar with death and suffering than we are4 ,unless the grey lady and the dark angel visit our own homes1 most of us--of my readers1 at any rate--have to seek deliberately the faces of sorrow in the slums and the grimaces of death in the ,coroner's ,court4 ,but in ,drer's days death lurked beyond the city walls2 the sight of the slain or swinging victims of knightly valour1 and peasant's revenge1 blanched the cheeks of many maidens1 and queer plagues and pestilences mowed the most upright to the ground4 ,the ,dance of ,death was a favourite subject with the old painters1 not because their disposition was morbid1 but because the times were more out of joint than they are now4 ,all these points have to be realised before one can hope to understand ,drer even faintly4 ,again1 when we examine more closely the apparently quaint and fantastic form his mode of visualising takes1 we must make allowances for the habits and customs and costumes of the times--as indeed one has to1 in the case of all old masters1 and for which reason ,i humbly submit that the study of old masters properly belongs to the few1 not the many4 ,a great deal of erroneous opinions are held simply because it is difficult to disentangle the individual from the typical4 ,drer1 whose wanderjahre had taken him to ,strasburg and ,ble and ,venice1 returned home again apparently uninfluenced4 ,critics from ,raphael's age down to the last few years have lamented this fact2 have thought that knowledge of classic antiquity might have made a better artist of him4 ,now1 ,drer was not an artist in its wider sense2 he was a craftsman certainly1 but above all a thinker4 ,drer uses his eyes for the purposes of thought2 he could close them without disturbing the pageants of his vision4 ,but whereas we have no hint that his dreams were of beauty1 we have every indication that they were literal transcriptions of literary thoughts4 ,when he came to put these materialisations into the form of pictures or prints1 the craftsman side1 the practical side of his nature1 resolved them into scientific problems1 with the remarkable result that these visions are hung on purely materialistic facts4 ,from our modern point of view ,drer was decidedly lacking in artistic imagination1 which even such men as ,goya and ,blake1 or si parva licet comparere magnis ,john ,martin and ,gustave ,dor1 and the delightful ,arthur ,rackham of our own times possess4 ,his importance was his craftsmanship1 whilst the subject-matter of his pictures--the portraits excepted--and particularly of his prints1 are merely of historic interest--von kulturhistorischer ,bedeutung1 the ,german would say4 ,in #aejf and #aejg he visited ,venice1 as already stated1 gracefully received by the nobles and ,giovanni ,bellini1 but disliked by the other painters4 ,he returned home apparently uninfluenced by the great ,venetians1 ,titian1 remember1 amongst them4 ,gentile ,bellini and ,vittore ,carpaccio were then the only painters at ,venice who saw the realistic side of ,nature2 but they were prosaic1 whilst our ,drer imbued a wooden bench or a tree trunk with a personal and human interest4 ,those of my readers who can afford the time to linger on this aspect of ,drer's activity should compare ,carpaccio's rendering of ,st4 ,jerome in his study with ,drer's engraving of the same subject4 ,drer the craftsman referred in everything he painted or engraved to ,nature4 ,but of course it was ,nature as he and his times saw it2 neither ,hals1 ,rembrandt1 neither ,ribera1 ,velazquez1 neither ,chardin nor ,constable1 neither ,monet nor ,whistler had as yet begun to ascend the rungs of progress towards truthful--that is1 optical sight4 ,drer's reference to ,nature means an intricate study of theoretical considerations1 coupled with the desire to record everything he knew about the things he wished to reproduce4 ,his was an analytical mind1 and every piece of work he produced is a careful dovetailing of isolated facts4 ,consequently his pictures must not be looked at1 but looked into--must be read4 ,again an obvious truth may here mislead us4 ,the analytical juxtaposition of facts was a characteristic of the age4 ,drer's ,art was a step forward2 he--like ,raphael1 like ,titian--dovetailed1 where earlier men scarcely joined4 ,drer has as yet not the power that even the next generation began to acquire--he never suggests anything2 he works everything out1 down to the minutest details4 ,there are no slight sketches of his but such as suggest great travail of sight1 encumbranced by an over-thoughtful mind4 ,to understand ,drer you require time2 each print of the ,passions1 ,the ,life of ,mary1 the ,apokalypse1 should be read like a page printed in smallest type1 with thought and some eye-strain4 ,that of course goes very much against the grain of our own age2 we demand large type and short stories4 ,the study of his work entails considerable self-sacrifice4 ,your own likes and dislikes you have to suppress1 and try to see with eyes that belong to an age long since gone4 ,do not despise the less self-sacrificing1 who refuse the study of old ,art2 and distrust profoundly those others who laud it beyond measure4 ,the green tree is the tree to water2 the dead tree--be its black branches and sere leaves never so picturesque--is beyond the need of your attentions4 ,the ,scylla and ,charybdis of sthetic reformers is praise of the old1 and poor appraising of the new4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iv4--,,portrait ,,of ,,the ,,painter',s ,,father 7,from the ,oil-painting in the ,national ,gallery4 ,painted in #adig7 ,an interesting picture1 which has unfortunately suffered by retouching4 ,it is the only portrait by ,drer the nation possesses4 ,other works of his may be seen at ,south ,kensington and at ,hampton ,court4 ,now the old ,italians thought ,drer a most admirable artist1 blamed what they called the defects of his ,art on the ungainliness of his models1 and felt convinced that he might have easily been the first among the ,italians had he lived there1 instead of the first among the ,flemings4 ,they were of course wrong1 for it is the individual reflex-action of ,drer's brain which caused his ,art to be what it is2 in ,italy it would still have been an individual reflex-action1 and ,drer had been in ,venice without the desired effect4 ,drer might1 however1 himself seem to confirm the ,italians' opinion3 he strayed into the barren fields of theoretical speculations--barren because some of his best work was done before he had elaborated his system1 barren because speculation saps the strength of natural perception4 ,drer sought a ,canon of ,beauty1 and the history of ,art has proved over and over again that beauty canonised is damned4 ,one more remark3 his contemporaries and critics praised the extraordinary technical skill with which he could draw straight lines without the aid of a ruler1 or the astounding legerdemain with which he reproduced every single hair in a curl--the ,paganini worship which runs through all the ages2 which in itself is fruitless2 touches the fiddle-strings at best or cerebral cords1 not heart-strings4 ,out of all the foregoing1 out of all the mortal and mouldering coverings we have now to shell the real1 the immortal ,drer--the ,drer whose mind was longing for truth1 whose soul was longing for harmony1 and who out of his longings fashioned his ,art1 as all great men have done and will do until the last4 ,on the title-page of the ,small ,passion is a woodcut--the ,man of ,sorrows4 ,there1 reader1 you have1 in my opinion1 the greatness of ,drer2 he never surpassed it4 ,it is the consciousness of man's impotence2 it is the saddest sight mortal eyes can behold--that of a man who has lost faith in himself4 ,if ,drer were here now ,i am sure he would lay his hand upon my shoulder1 and1 his deep true eyes searching mine1 his soft and human lips would say3-- ,you are right1 my friend2 this is my best1 for it is the spirit of my age that spoke in me then4 ,in front of the ,pantheon at ,paris is a statue called ,the ,thinker4 ,a seated man1 unconscious of his bodily strength1 for all his consciousness is in the iron grip of thought4 ,he looks not up1 not down--he looks before him2 and methinks1 reader1 ,i can hear an unborn voice proclaim3 ,this too was once the ,spirit of an ,age4 ,two milestones on the path of human progress2 an idle fancy if you will--no more4 ,of the ,man of ,sorrows then we spoke3 ,it is a small thing1 but done exceeding well1 for in the simplicity of form it embraces a world of meaning2 and whilst you cannot spare one iota from the words of the ,passion1 on account of this picture1 yet all the words of ,christ's suffering seem alive in this plain print4 ,could there be a better frontispiece8 ,in judging1 not enjoying1 a work of art1 one should first make sure that one understands the methods of the artist2 one should next endeavour to discover his evident purpose or aim1 or motif1 and forming one's judgment1 ask3 ,has the artist succeeded in welding aim and result into one organic whole8 ,neither the motif nor its form are in themselves of value1 but the harmony of both--hence we may place ,drer's ,man of ,sorrows by the side of ,michelangelo's ,moses1 as of equal importance1 of equal greatness4 ,this ,man of ,sorrows we must praise as immortal ,art1 and the reason is evident2 ,drer1 who designed it during an illness1 had himself suffered and knew sorrow--felt what he visualised4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,v4--,,portrait ,,of ,,oswalt ,,krel 7,from the ,oil-painting in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich4 ,painted in #adii7 ,a striking portrait2 somewhat cramped in expression1 but full of interest4 ,the trees in the background stamp it at once as a work of ,german origin4 ,drer's attempt to portray more than the flesh is particularly noticeable here1 because not quite successful4 ,if we compare another woodcut1 viz4 the one from ,die heimliche ,offenbarung ,johannis1 illustrating ,revelations i4 #ab-ag1 we will have to draw a different conclusion4 ,let us listen to the passage ,drer set himself to illustrate3 #ab4 ,and ,i turned to see the voice that spake with me4 ,and being turned1 ,i saw seven golden candlesticks2 #ac4 ,and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the ,son of man1 clothed with a garment down to the foot1 and girt about the paps with a golden girdle4 #ad4 ,his head and hairs white like wool1 as white as snow2 and his eyes as a flame of fire2 #ae4 ,and his feet like unto fine brass1 as if they burned in a furnace2 and his voice as the sound of many waters4 #af4 ,and he had in his right hand many stars3 and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword3 and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength4 #ag4 ,and when ,i saw him1 ,i fell at his feet as dead4 ,assuming that a passage such as this can be illustrated1 and that without the use of colour1 is his a good illustration8 ,does it reproduce the spirit and meaning of ,st4 ,john1 or only the words8 ,look at the two-edged sword glued to the mouth1 look at the eyes as a flame of fire2 can you admit more than that it pretends to be a literal translation8 ,but it is not even literal2 verse #ag says distinctly1 ,and when ,i saw him1 ,i fell at his feet as dead4 ,but ,st4 ,john is here represented as one praying4 ,then what is the inference8 ,that ,drer was unimaginative in the higher sense of the word2 that he1 like the ,spirit of the ,reformation1 sought salvation in the ,,word4 ,throughout ,drer's ,art we feel that it was constrained1 hampered by his inordinate love of literal truthfulness2 not one of his works ever rises even to the level of ,raphael's ,madonna della ,seggiola4 ,like ,german philosophy1 his works are so carefully elaborated in detail that the glorious whole is lost in more or less warring details4 ,his ,art suffers from insubordination--all facts are co-ordinated4 ,he himself knew it1 and towards the end of this life hated its complexity1 caused by the desire to represent in one picture the successive development of the spoken or written word2 a desire which even in our days has not completely disappeared4 ,drer therefore appeals to us of to-day more through such conceptions as the wings of the ,paumgaertner altar-piece1 or the four ,temperaments 7,st4 ,peter1 ,st4 ,john1 ,st4 ,mark1 and ,st4 ,paul71 than through the crowded centre panels of his altar-pieces2 and the strong appeal of his engravings1 such as the ,knight of the ,reformation 7#aeac7 or the ,melancholia 7#aead71 is mainly owing to the predominant big note of the principal figures1 whilst in the beautiful ,st4 ,jerome 7,hieronymus im ,gehus7 it is the effect of sunshine and its concomitant feeling of well-being--,gemthlichkeit1 to use an untranslatable ,german word--which makes us linger and dwell with growing delight on every detail of this wonderful print4 ,in spite of appearances to the contrary1 ,drer was1 as ,i have said1 unimaginative4 ,he needed the written word or another's idea as a guide2 he never dreamt of an ,art that could be beautiful without a mission--he never created4 ,try to realise for a moment that throughout his work--in accordance with the conception of his age--he mixes purely modern dress with biblical and classical representation1 as if our ,leightons1 ,tademas1 ,poynters1 were to introduce crinolines1 bustles1 or empire gowns amongst ,venuses and ,apollos4 ,in the pathetic ,deposition from the ,cross the ,magdalen is just a modern ,nuremberg damsel1 and the ,virgin's headwrap is slung as the northern housewife wore it1 and not like an ,oriental woman's2 ,joseph of ,arimathea and ,nicodemus are clad as ,nuremberg burghers1 and only in the figure of ,john does he make concession to the traditional classic garment4 ,such an anachronistic medley could only appear logical so long as the religious spirit and the convictions of the majority were at one4 ,i dare scarcely hint at1 much less describe1 the feelings that would be stirred in you if a modern painter represented the ,crucifixion with ,nicodemus and the man from ,arimathea in frock-coats1 ,mary and the ,magdalen in walking costume1 and a company of ,horse-guards in attendance4 ,the abyss of over four centuries divides us from ,drer2 my suggestion sounds blasphemous almost1 yet it is a thought based on fact and worthy of most careful note4 ,owing to a convention--then active1 now defunct--,drer grasped the hands of all the living1 bade them stop and think4 ,not one of those who beheld his work could pass by without feeling a call of sympathy and understanding4 ,everyman ,drer6--that is his grandeur4 ,to this the artists added their appreciation2 what he did was not only truly done1 but on the testimony of all his brothers in ,art well done4 ,so with graver1 pen1 and brush he gave his world the outlines of ,belief4 ,in his pictures the illiterate saw1 as by revelation1 that which they could not read1 and the literate1 the literati--,erasmus1 ,pirkheimer1 ,melanchthon amongst the most prominent--saw the excellence of the manner of his revelations4 ,i cannot think of any better way of explaining the effect of ,drer's ,art as an illustrator upon his time1 than to beg you to imagine the delight a short-sighted man experiences when he is given his first pair of spectacles4 ,everything remains where it is2 he has not lost his sense of orientation1 but on a sudden he sees everything more clearly1 more defined1 more in detail3 and where he previously had only recognised vague effects he begins to see their causes4 ,such was the effect of ,drer's ,art3 features1 arms1 hands1 bodies1 legs1 feet1 draperies1 accessories1 tree-trunks and foliage1 vistas1 radiance and light1 not suggested but present1 truly realised4 ,when ,i say ,drer was not imaginative ,i mean to convey that imagination was characteristic of the age1 not of him alone1 but the materialisation1 the realisation of fancy1 that is his strength4 ,all these considerations can find1 unfortunately1 no room for discussion in these pages1 for it were tedious to refer the reader to examples which are not illustrated4 ,we must perforce accept the limitations of our programme1 and devote our attention to his paintings--far the least significant part of his activity4 ,drer was the great master of line--he thinks in line4 ,this line is firstly the outline or contour in its everyday meaning2 secondly1 it is the massed army of lines that go to make shadow2 thirdly1 it is line in its psychical aspect1 as denoting direction1 aim1 tendency1 such as we have it in the print of the ,melancholia4 ,no one before him had ever performed such wonderful feats with line1 not even ,mantegna with his vigorous but repellent parallels4 ,this line was the greatest obstacle to his becoming a successful painter4 ,for his line was not the great sweep1 not the graceful flow1 not the spontaneous dash1 not the slight touch1 but the heavy1 determined1 reasoned move1 as of a master-hand in a game of chess4 ,to him1 consequently1 the world and his ,art were problems1 not joys4 ,consider one of his early works--the portrait of his father1 the honest1 ,god-fearing1 struggling goldsmith4 ,the colour of this work is monotonous1 a sort of gold-russet4 ,it might almost be a monochrome1 for the interest is centred in the wrinkles and lines of care and old age with which ,father ,time had furrowed the skin of the old man1 and which ,drer has imitated with the determination of a ploughshare cleaving the glebe4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vi4--,,the ,,madonna ,,with ,,the ,,siskin 7,from the ,oil-painting in the ,berlin ,museum4 ,painted about #aejf7 ,although this picture shows that it was painted under ,venetian influence1 it betrays the unrest of ,drer's mind1 which makes nearly all his work pleasanter to look into than to look at4 ,drer's works generally should be read4 ,when we come to his subject pictures1 we will have to notice at once that they have been constructed1 not felt4 ,it has been remarked that ,drer did for northern ,art1 or at least attempted1 what ,leonardo did for ,italian ,art1 viz41 converted empirical ,art into a theoretical science4 ,whether such conversion was not in reality a perversion1 is a question that cannot be discussed here4 ,we have1 at any rate1 in ,drer a curious example of an artist referring to ,nature in order to discard it2 the idealist become realist in order to further his idealism4 ,most of his pictures contain statements of pictorial facts which are in themselves most true1 but taken in conjunction with the whole picture quite untrue4 ,drer lacked the courage to trust his sense of sight1 his optic organ3 beauty with him is a thing which must be thought out1 not seen4 ,drer had come into direct contact with ,italian ,art1 had felt himself a gentleman in ,venice1 and only a parasite in ,nuremberg4 ,from ,italy he imported a conception of beauty which really was quite foreign to him4 ,italy sowed dissension in his mind1 for he was ever after bent on finding a formula of beauty1 which he could have dispensed with had he remained the simple painter as we know him in his early self-portrait of #adic4 ,there can be no doubt that ,drer was principally looking towards ,italy for approval1 as indeed he had little reason to cherish the opinions of the painters in his own country1 who were so greatly his inferiors both in mind as in their ,art4 ,much has been made of the fact that painting was a free ,art1 not a ,guild in ,nuremberg4 ,now carpentering was also a free ,art at ,nuremberg1 and painting was not free in ,italy1 so the glory of freedom is somewhat discounted2 but whatever ,art was1 ,drer1 at any rate1 was not an artist in ,raphael's1 ,bellini's1 or ,titian's sense4 ,he was pre-eminently a thinker1 a moralist1 a scientist1 a searcher after absolute truth1 seeking expression in ,art4 ,once this is realised his pictures make wonderfully good reading4 ,the ,deposition1 for example1 is full of interest4 ,the dead ,christ1 whose still open lips have not long since uttered ,into ,thy hands1 ,o ,lord1 is being gently laid on the ground1 ,his poor pierced feet rigid1 the muscles of ,his legs stiff as in a cramp4 ,the ,magdalen holds the right hand of the beloved body1 and the stricken mother of ,christ is represented in a manner almost worthy of the classic ,niobe4 ,wonderfully expressive1 too1 are all the hands in this picture4 ,drer found never-ending interest in the expressiveness of the hand4 ,but if we were to seek in his colour any beauty other than intensity1 we should be disappointed1 as we should for the matter of that in any picture painted before the advent of ,titian4 ,again that monster ,ignorance stirs4 ,for as ,i speak of colour1 as ,i dogmatise on ,titian1 ,i am aware that colour may mean so many different things1 and any one who wished to contradict me would be justified in doing so1 not because ,i am wrong and he is right1 but because of my difficulty in explaining colour1 and his natural wish to aim at my vulnerable spot4 ,because ,i am well-nigh daily breaking bread with painters who unconsciously reveal the workings of their mind to me1 ,i know that all the glibly used technical terms of their ,art are as fixed as the colour of a chameleon4 ,different temperaments take on different hues4 ,there is colour in ,van ,eyck and ,crivelli1 in ,bellini and ,botticelli1 but deliberate colour harmonies1 though arbitrary in choice1 belong to ,titian4 ,drer is no colourist1 because1 as we have already said1 painting was the problem1 not the joy of expression--in that he is ,mantegna's equal1 and ,beato ,angelico's inferior4 ,thus looking on the ,madonna mit dem ,zeisig at ,berlin1 we may realise its beauty with difficulty4 ,for whatever it may have been to his contemporaries1 to us it means little1 by the side of the splendid ,madonnas from ,italy1 or even compared with his own engraved work4 ,this ,madonna with the ,siskin is a typical ,drer4 ,in midst of the attempted ,italian repose and beauty of the principal figures1 we have the vacillating1 oscillating profusion of ,gothic detail4 ,the fair hair of the ,madonna drawn tightly round the head reappears in a gothic mass of crimped curls spread over her right shoulder4 ,on her left hangs a piece of ribbon knotted and twisted4 ,the cushion on which the infant ,saviour sits is slashed1 laced1 and tassled4 ,the ,infant holds a prosaic schnuller or baby-soother in ,his right hand1 whilst the siskin is perched on the top of ,his raised forearm4 ,of the wreath-bearing angels1 one displays an almost bald head1 and the background is full of unrest4 ,even the little label bearing the artist's name1 by which old masters were wont to mark their pictures1 and which in ,bellini's case1 for instance1 appears plain and flatly fixed1 bends up1 like the little films of gelatine1 which by their movements are thought to betray the holder's temperament4 ,one of the tests of great ,art is its appearance of inevitableness3 in that the artist vies with the creator3 ,the ,moving ,finger writes1 and having writ1 ,moves on2 nor all your piety nor wit ,shall lure it back to cancel half a line4 ,there are a good many lines in the ,siskin ,madonna which bear cancelling3 not one in the ,madonna of the title-page of the ,marieenleben1 which for that reason is a work of greater ,art4 ,the fact is1 that whilst his engraved and black and white work reaches at times monumental height1 great in saecula saeculorum1 there are too few of his painted pictures that have the power to arrest the attention of the student of ,art1 who must not be confounded with the student of ,art-history4 ,as a painter he is essentially a primitive2 as a graver he overshadows all ages4 ,thus we see his great pictures one after the other3 his ,paumgaertner altar-piece1 his ,deposition--both in ,munich2 ,the ,adoration of the ,magi in the ,uffizi2 the much damaged but probably justly famed ,rosenkranz fest in ,prague1 with his own portrait and that of his friend ,pirckheimer in the background1 and ,emperor ,max and ,pope ,julius ,,ii4 in the foreground2 the ,dresden altar-piece1 or the ,crucifixion1 with the soft body of the crucified ,christ and the weirdly fluttering loin-cloth2 the strangely grotesque ,christ as a ,boy in the ,temple in the ,barberini ,palace2 the ,adam and ,eve2 the ,martyrdom of the #aj1jjj ,christians--thus1 ,i say1 we see them one after the other pass before us1 and are almost unmoved4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vii4--,,ss4 ,,john ,,and ,,peter 7,from an ,oil-painting in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich4 ,finished in #aebf7 ,this1 with the ,,ss4 ,paul and ,mark1 originally formed one picture1 and was painted for the ,council of his beloved city1 ,nuremberg1 as a gift1 two years before his death4 ,drer had inscribed lengthy quotations from the ,bible below the picture2 these quotations1 proving the militant fervour of his ,protestant faith1 were subsequently removed on that account4 ,drer's works were always more than works of ,art4 ,true1 the ,paumgaertner altar-piece has stirred us on account of the wing-pictures1 but there is good reason for that1 and we will revert to this reason later4 ,the ,adoration of the ,magi seems reminiscent of ,venetian influence4 ,not until we reach the year #aeaa do we encounter a work that must arrest the attention of even the most indolent3 it is the ,adoration of the ,holy ,trinity1 or the ,all ,saints altar-piece1 painted for ,matthew ,landauer1 whom we recognise1 having seen ,drer's drawing of his features1 in the man with the long nose on the left of the picture4 ,this picture is without a doubt the finest1 the greatest altar picture ever painted by any ,german4 ,it is not by any means a large picture1 measuring only #d ft4 #c in4 #c ft4 #aj-c_/d in41 but it is so large in conception that it might well have been designed to cover a whole wall4 ,drer has here surpassed himself2 he has for once conceived with the exuberance of a ,michelangelo1 for it is more serious than a ,raphael1 it is less poetic than a ,fra ,angelico3 but personally ,i state my conviction1 that if ever all the ,saints shall unite in adoration of the ,trinity1 this is the true and only possibility1 this is instinct with verisimilitude1 this might be taken for documentary evidence4 ,this communion of saints was beholden by man4 ,if ever a man was a believer irrespective of ,church1 ,creed1 or sect--,drer was he4 ,i confess to a sense of awe in beholding this work1 akin to ,fra ,angelico in its sincerity1 akin to ,michelangelo in its grandeur1 and ,german wholly in the naturalness of its mystery4 ,with more than photographic sharpness and minuteness of detail does ,drer materialise the vision3 ,god-,father1 an aged ,king--a ,charlemagne2 ,god-,son1 the willing sufferer2 the ,holy ,ghost1 the dove of ,sancgrael2 the ,heavenly ,hosts above2 the ,saints beside and below--,saints that have lived and suffered1 and are now assembled in praise--for the crowd is a living1 praying1 praising1 and jubilant crowd4 ,well might the creator of this masterpiece portray himself1 and proudly state on the tablet he is holding3 ,albertus ,drer ,noricus faciebat4 ,this picture is not a vision--it is the statement of a dogmatic truth2 as such it is painted with all the subtlety of doctrinal reasoning2 not a romantic vision1 nor a human truth1 such as we find in ,rembrandt's religious works4 ,it is a ceremonial picture1 only the ceremony is full1 not empty2 full of conviction1 reverence1 and faith6 ,such pictures are rare amongst ,italians--in spite of all their sense of beauty2 more frequent amongst the trans-alpine peoples1 but never built in so much harmony4 ,unfortunately it has suffered1 and is no longer in its pristine condition2 it were fruitless therefore to discuss the merits of its colour4 ,mindful of my intention only to pick up a jewel here and there1 ,i will not weary the reader with the enumeration of his altar-pieces1 ,nativities1 ,entombments1 ,pits and ,madonnas4 ,i can do this with an easy mind1 because in my opinion 7and you1 reader1 have contracted by purchase to accept my guidance7 his religious paintings are of historical rather than ,art interest4 ,the ,adams and ,eves of the ,uffizi and the ,prado cannot rouse my enthusiasm either4 ,in these pictures ,drer makes an attempt to create something akin to ,dr4 ,zamenhof's ,esperanto2 a universal standard for the language of ,art in the one case1 of ,life in the other3 and in either case this language1 laboriously and admirably constructed but lacking in vitality1 leaves the heart untouched4 ,drer's attempts to paint a classical subject1 such as ,hercules slaying the ,stymphalian birds1 are unsatisfying4 ,i cannot see any beauty of conception in a timid and illogical mixture of realism and phantasy--it is not whole-hearted enough4 ,even ,rembrandt's ridiculous ,rape of ,ganymede has reason and ,art on his side4 ,imagination was not ,drer's forte2 it is therefore with all the greater pleasure that we turn to his portraits4 ,portraits are always more satisfactory than subject pictures1 a fact which is particularly noticeable to-day4 ,there are scores of painters whose portrait-painting is considerably more impressive than their subject-painting--not because portrait-painting is less difficult1 but because it is more difficult to detect the weaknesses of painting in a portrait4 ,from the early ,goethe-praised self portrait of #adic down to the wonderful portraits of #aebf there are but few that are not rare works of ,art1 and of the few quite a goodly proportion may not be genuine at all4 ,drer's ego loomed large in his consciousness1 and therefore1 unlike ,rembrandt 7who also painted his own likeness time and again1 though only for practice71 ,drer was really proud of his person--as to be sure he had reason to be4 ,the portrait of #adic shows us the young ,drer1 who was in all probability betrothed to his ,agnes2 he is holding the emblem of ,fidelity--,man's ,troth as it is called in ,german--which on ,goethe's authority ,i may explain is ,eryngo1 or anglice ,sea-holly1 in his hand4 ,five years later this same ,drer1 having probably returned from ,venice1 appears in splendid array1 a true gentleman1 gloved1 and his naturally wavy hair crisply crimped1 clad in a most fantastic costume4 ,as his greatest portrait the ,munich one1 dated #aejj1 has always been acclaimed4 ,his features here bear a striking resemblance to the traditional face of ,christ1 and no doubt the resemblance was intentional4 ,the nose1 characterised in other pictures by the strongly raised bridge1 loses this disfigurement in its frontal aspect4 ,there is an almost uncanny expression of life in his eyes2 dark ages of ,byzantine belief and ,art spring to the mind1 and compel the spectator into an attitude of reverence not wholly due to the merits of the painting4 ,the comparison with ,holbein's work naturally obtrudes itself1 when ,drer's portraits are the subject of discussion4 ,in the ,wallace collection is a most delightful little miniature portrait of ,holbein1 by his own hand4 ,compare the two heads4 ,what a difference6 ,holbein the craftsman par excellence2 the man to whom drawing came as easily as seeing comes to us4 ,with shrewd1 cold1 weighing eyes he sizes himself up in the mirror4 ,he1 too1 is a man of knowledge2 he does his work faithfully and exceedingly well1 but leaves it there4 ,he never moralises1 draws no conclusions1 infers nothing1 states merely facts--and if the truth must be said1 is the greater craftsman4 ,drer's mind was deeper2 one might say the springs of his talent welling upwards had to break through strata of cross-lying thought1 reaching his hand after much tribulation1 and teaching it to set down all he knew4 ,so the ,paumgaertner portraits1 at one time supposed to represent ,ulrich von ,hutten and ,franz von ,sickingen--the ,reformation knights--show a marvellous grasp of character1 wholly astonishing in the unconventional attitude1 whilst the portrait of his aged master1 ,michael ,wohlgemut1 overstates in its anxiety not to understate4 ,his portrait of ,kaiser ,maximilian1 quiet1 dignified1 is yet somewhat small in conception4 ,two years later1 however1 he painted a portrait now in the ,prado1 representing presumably the ,nuremberg patrician1 ,hans ,imhof the ,elder4 ,purely technically considered this picture appears to be immeasurably above his own portrait of #aejj1 and above any other excepting the marvellous works of #aebf4 ,whoever this ,hans ,imhof was1 ,drer has laid bare his very soul4 ,these later portraits show that ,drer stood on the threshold of the modern world4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,viii4--,,ss4 ,,paul ,,and ,,mark 7,from an ,oil-painting in the ,alte ,pinakothek1 ,munich4 ,finished in #aebf7 ,see ,note preceding ,plate ,,vii4 ,hieronymus ,holzschuer is another of ,drer's strikingly successful efforts to portray both form and mind1 and although the colour of the man's face is of a conventional pink1 yet the pale blue background1 the white hair1 the pink flesh1 and the glaring eyes stamp themselves indelibly on the mind of the beholder1 much to the detriment of the other picture in the ,berlin ,gallery1 ,jacob ,muffel4 ,jacob ,muffel1 contrary to ,jerome ,holzschuer1 looks a miser1 a hypocrite1 and the more unpleasant1 as he does not by any means look a fool4 ,but ,drer's craftsmanship here exceeds that of the ,holzschuer portrait1 whom we love for the sake of his display of white hair and flaming eyes4 ,the enigma to me is how a man who had painted the three last portraits mentioned1 could have fallen to the level of the ,madonna with the ,apple of the same year4 ,the finest portrait under his name is the ,portrait of a ,woman at ,berlin4 ,this indeed is a brilliant piece of portraiture1 absolutely modern in feeling1 exceeding ,holbein2 and unless my eyes1 which have not rested upon its surface for over ten years1 deceive me1 it is quite unlike any portrait painted by him before--the nearest perhaps being the man's portrait at ,munich of #aejg4 ,the picture is supposed to show ,venetian influence1 and might therefore belong to this epoch2 but1 to my thinking1 documentary evidence alone could make this picture in its not ,drer-like mode of seeing an undoubted work from his hand4 ,space forbids further enumeration1 further discussion of his work4 ,as to details of his biography the reader will find in almost every library some reliable records of his life1 and several inexpensive books have also appeared of recent years4 ,drer's life was in reality uneventful4 ,he died suddenly on ,april #f1 #aebh1 in ,nuremberg1 having in all probability laid the foundations of his illness on his celebrated journey into ,flanders in #aebj-ba1 where he was fted everywhere1 and right royally received both by the civic authorities and his own brothers of the palette4 ,his stay at ,venice as a young man1 and this last-mentioned journey1 were the greatest adventures of his body4 ,his mind was ever adventurous1 seeking new problems1 overcoming new difficulties4 ,it is so tempting to liken him to his own ,jerome in his ,study1 yet ,st4 ,jerome's life was the very antithesis of our ,drer4 ,in ,drer there was nothing of the ,faust-,natur1 as the ,germans are fond of expressing an ill-balanced1 all-probing mind4 ,drer's moral equilibrium was upheld by his deep and sincere religious convictions4 ,he is firmly convinced that ,god has no more to say to humanity than the ,bible records4 ,drer's difficulties end where ,faust's began4 ,the last years of ,drer's life were spent in composing books on the theory and practice of ,art4 ,to write an adequate ,life of ,drer then is impossible in so small a compass4 ,and if anything ,i said were wise1 it were surely the fact that ,i wanted you1 reader1 in the very beginning to expect no more than a dim light on the treasure store of ,drer's ,thought and ,drer's ,art4 ,but however dim the light1 ,i hope it has been a true light4 ,and here my conscience smites me6 ,all along ,i may have appeared querulous1 seeking to divulge ,drer's limitations rather than his excellences4 ,perhaps6 ,there are so many misconceptions about ,drer4 ,he was a deep-thinking man2 he was like the churches of the ,north--narrow1 steep1 dimly religious within1 full of traceries1 lacework1 gargoyles1 and grotesques without4 ,i have read that it used to be said in ,italy3 ,all the cities of ,germany were blind1 with the exception of ,nuremberg1 which was one-eyed4 ,true6 ,true also of ,drer and ,german ,art4 ,in #aebf1 two years before his death1 ,drer presented a panel to his native city1 now cut in two1 robbed of its ,protestant inscription1 and hanging in the ,alte ,pinakothek at ,munich4 ,drer's last great work6 ,it is as though he felt that the divine service of his life was drawing to its close4 ,his life and ,art ,i have likened to a ,gothic ,cathedral2 his last works were as the closed wings of a gigantic altar-piece1 before which he leaves posterity gazing overawed4 ,the life-size figures of this great work represent the four ,apostles3 ,st4 ,john in flaming red1 with ,st4 ,peter1 ,st4 ,mark in white1 with ,st4 ,paul4 ,drer's greatest work3 here for once his mind and his hand were at one4 ,menacing1 colossal in conception these figures rise1 simple with the simplicity ,drer aimed for1 and at last attained2 ,byzantine in their awe-inspiring grandeur4 ,but instead of the splendour of ,byzantine gold he places his figures upon a jet-black ground1 as if he wished to instil the knowledge that there is no light except that which the four ,apostles reflect4 ,he had said as much indeed himself years ago4 ,these four figures1 painted with greater care than any other1 are his artistic last will and testament4 ,in the letter1 by which he humbly begs acceptance of these pictures from the ,council1 he quotes the words of the four ,apostles1 which his pictures illustrate1 viz3-- ,st4 ,peter1 in his second epistle in the second chapter4 ,st4 ,john1 in the first epistle in the fourth chapter4 ,st4 ,paul1 in the second epistle to ,timothy in the third chapter4 ,st4 ,mark1 in his ,gospel in the twelfth chapter4 ,read them and behold3 ,the ,book and the sword6 ,the religion of love in ,saracenic fierceness4 ,the menacing guardians of the ,word4 ,drer with finality excludes the faithless from all hope4 ,it is this finality1 this absolute faith in the ,word1 this firm conviction of the finiteness of all things1 which characterise the whole of his ,art4 ,the spirit which brooks no uncertainty and suffers no metaphor1 glues a veritable sword to the lips of the ,son of man4 ,this finality is the cause of ,drer's isolation4 ,he has no followers in the world of creative ,art4 ,close the doors of ,drer's cathedral and the world rolls on1 rolls by unheeding4 ,after ,drer and ,luther had gone--,luther1 on whose behalf ,drer uttered so touching a prayer--,germany1 the holy empire1 fell upon evil times4 ,after the death of ,maximilian the fields of the cloth of gold and the fields of golden harvest were turned into rude jousting places of ruder rabble4 ,the hand of time was set back for centuries4 ,we have a shrewd suspicion that ,carlyle's ,german1 with his cowhorn blasts1 did not tell the universe what o'clock it really is4 ,we have a shrewd suspicion that in the beginning of last century the clocks in ,germany had only just begun ticking after centuries of rest4 ,i am straying1 reader4 ,what was it that ,drer had inscribed on the ,apostle ,panels8 ,all worldly rulers in these times of danger should beware that they receive not false ,teaching for the ,word of ,god4 ,for ,god will have nothing added to ,his ,word nor yet taken away4 ,hear1 therefore1 these four excellent men1 ,peter1 ,john1 ,paul1 and ,mark1 their warning4 ,the narrow outlook of his time speaks here6 ,for words which bear addition or suffer subtraction1 can never be the words of ,god4 ,god's words are worlds4 ,our words are stammerings1 scarcely articulate4 ,reader6 look you1 my torch burns dimly2 let us back unto the day4 ,the plates are printed by ,,bemrose ,,sons1 ,,ltd41 ,london and ,derby ,the text at the ,,ballantyne ,,press1 ,edinburgh