His growing fame meanwhile had attracted the attention of the Emperor Maximilian, “the last of the Knights,” who in February, 1512, visited Nuremberg. Dürer is commissioned to design the Triumphal Arch, the Triumphal Car, and similar monumental records of the Emperor’s prowess; not to speak of such orders as the decoration of the Emperor’s Prayer-Book, etc. Such distraction absorbed the greater part of the artist’s time and energies, and there was left little opportunity for the development of his work along the lines he had hitherto followed. It may be that we owe to this fact, and to the quick mode of producing a print such a process offers, the six etchings on iron which bear dates from 1515 to 1518. But, whatever the reason, we are glad that he etched these plates. Discarding, for the moment, the elaborate and detailed method of line work of his engravings on copper, he adopts a more open system, such as would “come well” in the biting—closer work than in his woodcuts, but perfectly adapted to that which he wished to say.
There is a tense and passionate quality in Christ in the Garden which places this etched plate among the noteworthy works even of Dürer, while the wind-torn tree to the left of Christ gives the needed touch of the supernatural to the composition. The Carrying Off of Proserpine—the spirited drawing for which is now in the J. Pierpont Morgan collection—is the working out, with allegorical accessories, of a study of a warrior carrying off a woman. The last of his plates, the Cannon, of 1518, with its charming landscape, was doubtless executed to supply, promptly, a popular demand. It represents a large field piece bearing the Arms of Nuremberg, and the five strangely costumed men to the right, gazing upon the “Nuremberg Field Serpent,” obviously have some relation to the fear of the Turk, then strong in Germany.
ALBRECHT DÜRER. CHRIST IN THE GARDEN
Size of the original etching, 8¾ × 6⅛ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
ALBRECHT DÜRER. ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM
Size of the original engraving, 9⅞ × 7⅝ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In 1519 we have the first of Dürer’s engraved portraits—Albert of Brandenburg, “The Little Cardinal” to distinguish it from the larger plate of 1523. Opinions as to Dürer’s importance as a portrait engraver vary considerably. Some students feel that in these later works the engraver has become so engrossed in the delight of his craft that he has failed to concentrate his attention upon the countenance and character of the sitter, bestowing excessive care upon the accessories and the minor accidents of surface textures—wrinkles and similar unimportant matters. On the other hand, such an authority as Koehler maintains that the Albert of Brandenburg, preeminent for delicacy and noble simplicity among these portrait engravings by Dürer, “will always be ranked among the best portraits engraved anywhere and at any time.”
Frederic the Wise, Elector of Saxony, was one of the earliest patrons of Dürer, founder of the University of Wittenberg and a supporter of the Reformation, although he never openly embraced the doctrines of Martin Luther. Dürer’s drawing in silver-point gives a straightforward and characterful presentation of the man, and, in this instance, translation into the terms of engraving has nowise lessened the directness of appeal.