Antonio Pollaiuolo. By Maud Cruttwell. 51 illustrations. London: Duckworth and Company. 1907.
Note su Mantegna e Pollaiuolo. By Arthur Mayger Hind. 2 illustrations. L’Arte, Vol. 9, pp. 303-305. Rome. 1906.
GERMAN ENGRAVING: THE MASTER OF
THE AMSTERDAM CABINET AND
ALBRECHT DÜRER
WITH the exception of Martin Schongauer, none of Dürer’s immediate predecessors better repays a thorough study, or exerts a more potent fascination, than the Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet. The earlier writers, from Duchesne to Dutuit, were united in their opinion that this engraver was a Netherlander; but Max Lehrs, following the track opened up by Harzen, has proved conclusively that the Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet (so called because the largest collection of his engravings—eighty subjects out of the eighty-nine which are known—is preserved in the Royal Print Rooms in Amsterdam) was not a Netherlander but a South German, a native of Rhenish Suabia—the very artist, in fact, who designed the illustrations of the Planets and their influences and the various arts and occupations of men, for the so-called “Medieval House Book” in the collection of Prince von Waldburg-Wolfegg.
In subject-matter he owes little to his predecessors, and in technique he is an isolated phenomenon. St. Martin and the Beggar and St. Michael and the Dragon show that he was acquainted with the work of Martin Schongauer; the Ecstasy of St. Mary Magdalen is obviously based upon a similar engraving by the Master E. S. of 1466; but for the most part he stands alone. He seems to have worked entirely in dry-point upon some soft metal—lead or pewter, perhaps—and the ink which he used, of a soft grayish tint, combines with the breadth and softness of the lines to impart to his prints much of the character of drawings in silver-point.
The Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet has treated a wide range of subjects, his preference being for scenes of everyday life. His prints show appreciation of the beauties of landscape, his skill in the treatment of wide spaces is masterly, and there is a beauty and sweetness in the expression of his faces which makes him a worthy rival of Martin Schongauer himself. He has left us no purely ornamental designs, such as might serve in the decoration of vessels used in the church, and we may infer, from the character of his engravings, that he was a painter, who used the dry-point as a diversion, rather than a professional engraver, pursuing his craft as a means of livelihood. In power of composition he can hardly rank with Martin Schongauer, and in range of intellect he falls short of the heights reached by Albrecht Dürer; but his very limitations, perhaps, render him a more companionable personage, and his modernity makes an immediate appeal to us all.
MASTER OF THE AMSTERDAM CABINET. ECSTASY
OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN
Size of the original engraving, 7⅝ × 5¼ inches
In the Royal Print Room, Amsterdam
