SUPPLEMENTARY READING
LIFE OF ALBRECHT DÜRER (Translated from the German.)—By Moritz Thausing. The standard biography.
ALBRECHT DÜRER—(“Classics of Art”). Complete collection of reproductions of Dürer’s works in half tone.
ALBRECHT DÜRER—By Lina Eckstein. (Popular Library of Art.) A concise but readable epitome of the main facts.
ALBRECHT DÜRER—By T. Sturge Moore. (Scribner’s.) Somewhat fuller and of excellent literary quality.
ALBRECHT DÜRER—By Frederick Nüchter. (Macmillan.) Especially recommended as a biography and for excellent cuts of good scale at a moderate price.
HANS HOLBEIN AND HIS TIMES. (Translated from the German)—By A. Woltmann. The standard biography.
HANS HOLBEIN—By G. S. Davies. A recent and thorough work, in folio, with many illustrations.
HANS HOLBEIN—(“Classics of Art”). Useful collection of half tone cuts of all his work at a moderate price.
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Editorial
In the letters that we have received from members of The Mentor Association we have had appreciation in full measure from readers of mature minds. The young people were yet to be heard from.
It meant a great deal to us, therefore, to receive a letter from a teacher concerning the work that she was doing with The Mentor. She had under her charge a class in High School, the pupils varying in age from 14 to 18 years. The teacher has been using The Mentor regularly. She distributes the pictures and the pupils read Monday’s Daily Reading on Monday, and so following, day by day throughout the week. On Friday afternoon she gives an hour to The Mentor. The article in The Mentor is read aloud to the class and also the Saturday Daily Reading. The teacher then reviews the subject with the pupils and asks them questions. In this way, she tells us, her class thoroughly absorbs each weekly subject in turn. Since receiving this letter we have made inquiry, and we find that a number of teachers are doing the same thing. We call the attention of teachers generally to this. It is a plan worth trying.
So much for the reading matter and the profit to be obtained for children therefrom. We have said nothing about the pictures, and surely it is not necessary to lay stress on the appeal made to children by beautiful pictures. And it is not merely a dull, crude interest that it arouses. It is in many cases an intelligent taste, that readily responds to cultivation. A writer in one of our daily papers called attention recently to an impressive scene that may be observed every Saturday morning at the Metropolitan Museum. It is a gathering of school children, who are assembled with open eyes and ears and eager and hungry minds to see and hear and know the things of beauty and of curious interest in the museum. These pupils are invited by the Metropolitan Museum itself, and under the sponsorship of The School Art League of New York.
When this was started the Museum people, it is said, doubted whether it would work. They were afraid perhaps that the school children would feel that they were being “done good to” and wouldn’t come. As a matter of fact, however, those who came first told the others that the visit was simply wonderful, and more and more came, until now you may see 600 children at the Metropolitan on Saturday morning, hanging on the lips of the people who are telling them about the art of the pictures and the stories that go with them. It is a most inspiring sight for those who are interested in education.
Most children are born with a certain understanding of the beautiful and a longing for it. They “want to know,” and they listen eagerly as long as anyone can tell them something that is interesting as well as informing. That is the attitude of mind that The Mentor addresses itself to, whether it is the mind of a child or of a grown-up. We have had plenty of assurances that The Mentor has interested and helped older readers. It is most gratifying to learn of the benefit that The Mentor is bringing to young readers—to have word from our readers that the children in the school or in the home are enjoying The Mentor. One reader tells us that he is taking The Mentor particularly for his children. “I want them to grow up with it,” he says. That interests us deeply. We want The Mentor to be a real factor in the life of the home, and a real part of the education of the young generation.
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN—Dürer
DÜRER AND HOLBEIN
The Young Artist
ONE
Albrecht Dürer was born on May 21, 1471, at Nuremberg, Germany. His father was named Albrecht Dürer also. He was a goldsmith, who at the age of forty married his master’s daughter, who was only fifteen years old. In spite of the difference in their ages, the marriage was a happy one, and was blessed with eighteen children, of whom Albrecht was second.
As a boy he showed himself more worthy of an education than any of his many brothers, and was apprenticed to a goldsmith. But he wanted to become an artist, and, being his father’s favorite son, his wish was granted. So at the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to the principal painter of Nuremberg, Michael Wohlgemuth. Here, as one of the artist’s assistants, he turned out little sketches of religious subjects, and some woodcuts for book illustrations. He had a hard time, as his companion apprentices were a rough crowd, and took great delight in making young Dürer suffer.
In 1490 he finished his apprenticeship, and began his “years of travel.” These lasted until 1494. He visited Colmar, Basel, Strasburg, and other German cities. Shortly after his return in July, 1494, he married Agnes Frey, who was a good wife for him. She was an excellent housekeeper and a shrewd business woman. They had no children.
But Dürer had not been married more than a few months when he decided to make a journey to northern Italy to complete his artistic education. He was very poor, and the great expense of such a trip made it necessary for him to leave his wife behind. He did not stay away long. Sometime in 1495 he returned to Nuremberg, where he lived without change for the next ten years.
Like many another artist, Dürer had his early struggles against poverty and indifference. Painting did not pay; so he turned to wood and copper engraving, and in this way made a fair living.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF—Dürer
DÜRER AND HOLBEIN
The Middle Years
TWO
Dürer visited Venice in the fall of 1505, and stayed there until the spring of 1507. The main reason for this journey was the commission to paint a picture for the Germans living at Venice. His fame had spread greatly, and as his countrymen wanted to dedicate a picture in the Church of Saint Bartholomew they chose him to paint it. The picture that Dürer did for them was the “Adoration of the Virgin,” better known as the “Feast of the Rose Garlands.” Emperor Rudolf II later got hold of it. It was carried to Vienna upon men’s shoulders, as a thing of great value. It is now, greatly injured, in the monastery of Strahov at Prague.
At Venice, Dürer was treated with great respect and admiration. He held a high position there; although most of the Italian artists were jealous of him. But in spite of his desire to remain in Italy for the rest of his life, he returned to Nuremberg in 1507.
All over Europe, Dürer was now recognized as a great painter. All the living master artists of the age were his friends or acquaintances. The great Raphael felt honored to exchange drawings with him.
But his intimate life was not so happy. It has been said that his wife plagued him to death with her meanness. It is undoubtedly true that, although Agnes was a good housewife and manager, she made the artist overwork himself for money. For years her name was held up among the Germans as an example of an unworthy wife. In none of his letters does Dürer speak of her with tenderness or affection.
Beyond this the artist’s life was uneventful. The years from 1507 to 1511 he spent in painting. The three following he devoted mostly to engraving on both wood and copper. Copper engraving especially took up much of his time. At the same time he resumed etching. He was also interested in mathematical and anatomical studies on the proportions and structure of the human frame.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER—Dürer
DÜRER AND HOLBEIN
Last Days
THREE
The last period of Dürer’s life began in 1520. Emperor Maximilian was his friend and patron; but his death in 1519 stopped all the things that Dürer was doing for him. So in July, 1520, the artist, with his wife and her maid, set out for the Netherlands to secure a continuance of the patronage and privileges granted during the lifetime of Maximilian. Everywhere he was handsomely received. Throughout all his travels, which lasted a year, he was entertained by the best and most intellectual society of his time.
On July 12, 1521, Dürer reached home again. His mind was now filled with schemes for religious pictures; but he produced comparatively little. One reason for this was the bad state of his health. Another was that he gave more and more of his time to mathematical study, which he considered important. His most famous picture of this time is the portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher at Berlin.
At Nuremberg, in 1525, was published his book on geometry, and in 1527 appeared a work on fortification. But his health was failing. He had caught a fever in the Low Countries, from which he never fully recovered. On the night of April 6, 1528, he died, so suddenly that there was not even time to call his dearest friends to his side.
He was buried in a vault belonging to his wife’s family, in the cemetery of Saint John, at Nuremberg. Luther, the great reformer, said of the famous artist in a letter, “As for Dürer, assuredly affection bids us mourn for one who was the best of men; yet you may well hold him happy that he has made so good an end, and that Christ has taken him from the midst of this time of trouble, and from greater troubles in store, lest he, that deserved nothing but the best, should be compelled to behold the worst. Therefore may he rest in peace with his fathers. Amen!”
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
ERASMUS—Holbein
DÜRER AND HOLBEIN
The Young Artist
FOUR
Hans Holbein came of an artistic family. Indeed, he is usually known as Holbein the Younger; for his father, Hans Holbein the Elder, was a painter of great ability himself. His uncle also, his mother’s father, and most of his family were painters and decorators in the city of Augsburg, Germany, where Holbein the Younger was born sometime toward the end of the fifteenth century.
No one knows exactly the year in which Holbein first opened his eyes. In those times they did not keep such an accurate record of births and deaths as they do nowadays. So, unless a man was the son of a king or some other important person, it did not matter much when he was born. Still, we are probably right when we say that Hans Holbein was born in 1497.
Those were the days of Augsburg’s prosperity. All its magnificence is gone now; but then it boasted of many merchant princes, men of distinction, and patrons of the fine arts. It was a favorite city of Emperor Maximilian himself. There was less travel at that time than now, and consequently the citizens of each town were much more closely bound together. Civic pride ran high. It was the period of the Renaissance, that great period of awakening to the appreciation of fine things in art and literature. So of course Augsburg had its Guild of Painters, and Holbein the Elder was a member of it.
Hans was the favorite son, and both he and his brother Ambrose were educated to be artists in their father’s studio. There they worked until 1515, when Hans and Ambrose journeyed to Basel, at that time a center of learning and art.
There Holbein’s chief occupation was the drawing of title pages for books. Erasmus, the great scholar, is said to have been his patron, and helped him in many ways. Another powerful patron was Jacob Meier, the first commoner who ever held the office of burgomaster of Basel, and under whose rule the reformation of the city laws was peaceably carried out. He was the original of Holbein’s first portrait painted in Basel, and for him, eight or nine years later, was painted the famous Meier Madonna.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
THE MEIER MADONNA—Holbein
DÜRER AND HOLBEIN
The Middle Years
FIVE
In 1517 Holbein left Basel on a journey of two years. No one knows exactly where he traveled. It is said that he did not go to Italy; but others maintain that he must have spent some time there. Anyway, in 1519 he returned to Basel, and in the same year his brother Ambrose died. The next year, 1520, was an important one in the artist’s life. Erasmus returned to Basel, and Holbein became a citizen of the town, and was admitted to the Guild of Painters. Also at this time he married. His wife was a widow with two children. She was some years older than the artist, and seems to have been somewhat of a shrew. It is said that it was her tongue that drove Holbein to England in the summer of 1526. More probably it was the usual desire,—to make more money than he was earning at Basel.
At that time art was having a hard time in Germany. The Reformation—when Luther and his followers broke away from the Roman Church—forced painters to do almost anything for a living. Stained glass designing, furniture decoration, and book illustration made up most of Holbein’s commissions.
It was at this time also that he drew his famous Dance of Death series. These drawings are not dated; but they must have been made sometime before 1527, for in that year the engraver, Hans Lützelberger, who was doing that part of the work, died, leaving his work unfinished. Another wood engraver able to render the action and expression of the little faces could not be found. So for ten years their publication was delayed.
The Dance of Death is a highly moral set of pictures, depicting the work of the great Reaper in all fields of life. In the various pictures Death is shown taking grim satisfaction in the consternation of his victims. Pope, emperor, preacher, nun, rich and poor, young and old, all are unready for his coming. All vainly resist. The artist must have worked hard and carefully over these engravings.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
QUEEN JANE SEYMOUR—Holbein
DÜRER AND HOLBEIN
Last Days
SIX
Holbein arrived in London toward the end of 1526. It is said that the English called him, colloquially, “Master Haunce.” He went immediately to Chelsea, where Sir Thomas More lived. Erasmus had given him a letter of introduction to this famous statesman and author, and the artist was made welcome, and given many commissions for portraits. Holbein remained at Chelsea throughout his first visit to England. Sir Thomas More introduced him to many of the greatest men of the day.
At this time England was just beginning to feel the first influence of the Renaissance. London was still a dirty, noisy town of the Middle Ages. The houses were made of wood and mud, and built with the earth as a flooring. The streets were narrow and crowded, with the houses and little shops set close together. From the highest to the lowest, London was far from being the center of fashion it was to become not many years later.
Consequently, when the dreaded plague broke out in 1528, London was just the kind of city in which it would spread most rapidly. So Holbein gave up his work in England and returned to Basel. There he finished the decorations for the town hall, which had been begun in 1521. But he was not happy there. All his friends were either dead or had left the city. So about 1531 he returned to London.
This time he needed no introduction. His reputation was established in England. The merchants of the Steelyard, the great German trading company established on the banks of the Thames, gave him plenty of work to do, and he did it well. These portraits contain some of Holbein’s most careful work.
In 1537 he painted the great portrait of Henry VII with Elizabeth of York, and Henry VIII with Jane Seymour, for the privy chamber of the Palace of Westminster. This picture was destroyed in the fire that burned the palace in 1698. In 1543 the plague broke out again in England.
A will, presumably made in October, 1543, by Holbein, was found in London some years ago. And not long after making this, in November, the great artist died, probably of the plague. His death was surrounded by mystery. Not even the place of his burial is known for certain. It was either in the church of Saint Andrew Undershaft or Saint Catharine Cree. His death, in the prime of his active life, was a great loss to the world; but his work survives, and will live forever.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.