THE WOODCUTS
The engravings are by Dürer’s own hand; the woodcuts are copies of his designs by capable assistants. As early as 1499 he had published the impressive illustrations for the Revelation of Saint John. For terror and ferocity the print representing the four riders who begin the destruction of mankind before the last day has never been equaled. For twelve years he worked at the designs for the Life of the Virgin, and a large and a small series of the Passion of Christ. One woodcut from the Little Passion, Christ in Gethsemane with the sleeping apostles, is reproduced. He has used the small scale of the plate to indicate a peculiar heartlessness in the disciples calmly sleeping so near their agonized Lord. The postures of vehement prayer and of complete exhaustion are affectingly truthful. The basis of such designs is the artist’s own pen drawing, which is pasted or traced on a pear-wood plank. All the blank spaces are cut away with a knife, leaving the lines in relief. This wood block may be set up with type pages and printed on an ordinary press. It is thus better adapted to book illustration than engraving, which requires special printing.
About 1511 Dürer reprinted the Revelation, and published the three new books. They were justly popular, and from that time he painted only when he pleased. The woodcuts, which faithfully represent drawings made with a coarse quill pen, will look rude to eyes accustomed to the often meaningless finish of modern illustrations. It will require patience to see how direct, sincere, and vigorous is the expression. With so coarse a tool nothing can be left to chance or smoothed down. Every line must tell, and every line in the Dürer woodcut does tell its story of structure and feeling. Dürer’s woodcuts are as fine in their way as his more popular engravings.
THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE
By Dürer
THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN
By Dürer
