THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS
By Dürer
THE PAINTED PORTRAITS
JOHN AND PETER
PAUL AND MARK
By Dürer.
From the first Dürer revealed in portraiture an inflexible curiosity as to form and insight as to character. The earlier portraits, those of his master Wohlgemuth, and of his own father, have a speaking lifelikeness. But the very endeavor to omit nothing and say everything with resolute truthfulness makes some of the early portraits stiff and forbidding. This defect is hardly noticeable in the three admirable portraits of his maturity, which are our special theme.
They were all painted after his Venetian visit of 1506. There he saw portraiture as faithful as his own, but softer and more agreeable. Open-minded student that he always was, he readily learned the lesson. The charming head of a young woman represents the fruits of this new experience. With a comeliness that is by no means merely pretty, one gets the sense also of character and of capacity. The tightly drawn hair, the head held alertly a little forward, tell of aggressiveness with self-control, of perfect physical and mental well-being. It was such strong mothers as this that bore the men who in finance, manufactures, commerce, and scholarship made the little city of Nuremberg famous. Initials on the bodice suggest that this may be the wife Agnes, who was an efficient business partner and a terror to certain easygoing friends. Firm yet minutely varied lines, modeling soft and lifelike but also decisive,—such are the technical merits of this masterpiece.
