III
Duress journey was successful in that he obtained from Charles V. what he sought--the confirmation of his privilegium.
CHARLES, by God's grace, Roman Emperor Elect, etc.
Honourable, trusty, and well-beloved,
Whereas the most illustrious Prince, Emperor Maximilian, our dear lord and grandfather of praiseworthy memory, appointed and assigned unto our and the Empire's trusty and well-beloved Albrecht Dürer the sum of 100 florins Rhenish every year of his life to be paid from and out of our and the Empire's customary town contributions, which you are bound to render yearly into our Imperial Treasury; and whereas we, as Roman Emperor, have graciously agreed thereto, and have granted anew this life pension unto him according to the terms of the above letter; we therefore earnestly command you, and it is our will, that you render and give unto the said Albrecht Dürer henceforward every year of his life, from and out of the said town contributions and in return for his proper quittance, the said life pension of 100 florins Rhenish, together with whatever part of it stands over unpaid since the Emperor Maximilian's grant; etc.
Given at our and the Holy Empire's town Köln on the fourth day of the month November (1520), etc.
(Signed) KARL.
(Signed) ALBRECHT, Cardinal, Archbishop of Mainz, Chancellor.
Besides, he got back to Nuremberg without falling in with highwaymen, though the following little letter shows us that in this he was fortunate.
Dear Master Wolf Stromer,--My most gracious lord of Salzburg has sent me a letter by the hand of his glass-painter. I shall be glad to do anything I can to help him. He is to buy glass and materials here. He tells me that near Freistadtlein he was robbed and had twenty florins taken from him. He has asked me to send him to you, for his gracious lord told him if he wanted anything to let you know. I send him, therefore, to your Wisdom with my apprentice. Your Wisdom's,
ALBRECHT DÜRER.
No doubt he had enriched his mind and cheered his heart in the company of prosperous, go-ahead, and earnest men; but as he says, "when I was in Zeeland, a wondrous sickness overcame me, such as I never heard of from any man, and this sickness remains with me" (see p. 156). And, alas! it was to remain with him till he died of it. So that his journey cannot be considered as altogether fortunate.
FOOTNOTES:
He was one of the leading Humanists of the time. The Madonna referred to was still at Bamberg, at the beginning of the present century.
Owing to the existence of some rudimentary form of Zollverein, Dürer's pass not only freed him of dues in the Bamberg district but as far down the Rhine as Köln.
Hans Wolf, successor to Hans Wolfgang Katzheimer.
There is a portrait drawing of Jobst Plankfelt by Dürer in the Städel collection at Frankfurt.
That is the head of the Fuggers' branch house at Antwerp.
Erasmus of Rotterdam, the famous Humanist.
Holbein also painted a portrait of this man in 1528. The picture is in the Louvre.
A pen-and-ink likeness of him by Dürer is in the possession of the painter Bendemann, of Düsseldorf. It bears the inscription in Dürer's hand, "1520. Hans Pfaffroth van Dantzgen ein Starkmann."
These were four pictures painted upon linen. They represented The justice of Trajan, Pope Gregory praying for the Heathen, and two incidents in the story of Erkenbald. The pictures were burnt in 1695, but their compositions are reproduced in the well-known Burgundian tapestries at Bern. See Pinchart, in the Bulletins de l'Academie de Bruxelles, 2nd Series, XVII.: also Kinkel, Die brusseler Rathhausbilder, &c., Zurich, 1867.
A rapid sketch made by Dürer in this place is in the Academy at Vienna. It is dated 1520, and inscribed, "that is the pleasure and beast-garden at Brussels, seen down behind out of the Palace."
A reproduction of an old view of this house will be found in L'Art, 1884, I. p. 188.
This picture was painted on four panels and represented the Seven Sacraments and a Crucifix. It is now lost. A similar picture is in the Antwerp Gallery, ascribed to Roger van der Weyden.
This is perhaps the drawing in the Bounat collection at Paris; it has been photographed by Braun (see illus. opposite).
It is believed that Dürer here refers to an edition of the satirical tale edited by Thomas Murner, and published at Strassburg in 1519.
"He afterwards particularly described to Melanchthon the splendid spectacles he had beheld, and how in what were plainly mythological groups, the most beautiful maidens figured almost naked, and covered only with a thin transparent veil. The young Emperor did not hocour them with a single glance, but Dürer himself was very glad to get near, not less for the purpose of seeing the tableaux than to have the opportunity of observing closely the perfect figures of the young girls." As he himself says, "Being a painter, I looked about me a little more boldly."--See Thausing's "Life of Dürer," vol. ii., p. 181.
Het oud register van diversche mandementen, a fifteenth-century folio manuscript, still preserved in the Antwerp archives.
On April 6, 1520.
Tommaso was sent to Flanders in 1520 by Pope Leo X. to oversee the manufacture of the "second series" of tapestries. The painter does not seem to have returned to Italy.
Engravings by Marcantonio from Raphael's designs.
The picture is lost, but an engraving of it made by And. Stock in 1629 is well-known.
The fine monoliths brought from Ravenna and still to be seen in Aachen Cathedral.
The confirmation of his pension; see p. 166.
Member of a Nürnberg family.
The object of the whole expedition was doubtless, that Dürer might see and sketch the whale. In the British Museum is a study of a walrus by Dürer, dated 1521, and inscribed, "The animal whose head I have drawn here was taken in the Netherlandish sea, and was twelve Brabant ells long and had four feet."
Gerhard van de Werve.
Pupil and afterwards friend of Erasmus.
These people were Dürer's principal Nürnberg friends.
It is assumed by commentators that Chapel means Altar-piece, and it is guessed that the particular altar-piece is the one in the Berlin Museum which Charles V. is reported to have carried about with him, and which belonged to the Miraflores Convent. The guesses are worthless.
In St. Jacob's was the Entombment by Hugo van der Goes.
It is in white marble. It was sculpted about 1501-6. Some critics have refused to accept it as a genuine work. Dürer ought to have been in a position to know the truth.
At this time there were plenty of his pictures at Bruges. Dürer doubtless saw his Madonna in St. Donatien's, now in the Academy of the same town.
The famous altar-piece painted by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, of which the central part is still in its original place and the wings are divided, two of their panels being at Brussels and the rest at Berlin.
This drawing from Dürer's sketch-book is in the Court Library at Vienna (see pl. opposite).
The story is recounted in Flandria illustrata (A. Sanderi, Colon., 1641, i. 149.)
Gerhard Horeboul of Ghent. Charles V.'s 'Book of Hours' in the Vienna library is his work. He also had a hand in the Grimani Breviary. After 1521 he went to England and entered the service of Henry VIII. His daughter Susanna was likewise in the service of the English King. She married and died in England.
Perhaps Jan van den Perre, afterwards goldsmith to Charles V.
That is to say, drawings representing Christ bearing HIS CROSS. Mount of Olives means the Agony in the Garden.
The inn-keeper of the Golden Head is known to have been a painter. His name was Heinrich Keldermann.
Though born at Köln, he was called Hans von Nürnberg. He was cannon-founder and gun-maker to Charles V.
Doubtless Dürer's portrait of Maximilian, now in the Gallery at Vienna, dated 1519. (see p. 215).
Jacopo de' Barbari.
Bernard van Orley.
The catalogue of this library exists in the inventory of the Archduchess' possessions.
This is in the Musée Wicar at Lille; another portrait of Lukas van Leyden by Dürer was in the Earl of Warwick's collection (see opposite).
Hieronymus Imhof.
A quarto tract by Luther, printed in 1520 (without place or date), entitled Von der Babylonischen gefenglnuss der Kirchen.