In 1504 Pirkheimer’s wife Crescentia died in childbirth, after only two years of married life. Her husband bore witness that she had never caused him any trouble, except by her death; and engaged Dürer to make a picture of her death-bed. This work was beautifully executed in water-colors, and depicts the expiring woman on a great bedstead, surrounded by many persons, among whom are Pirkheimer and his sister Charitas, the Abbess, with the Augustinian Prior.
The exquisite copper-plate engraving of “The Nativity” dates from this year, and shows the Virgin adoring the new-born Jesus, in the shelter of a humble German house among massive ancient ruins, while Joseph is drawing water from the well, and an old shepherd approaches the Child on his knees. The “Adam and Eve” was also done on copper this year, with the parents of all mankind, surrounded by animals, and standing near the tree of knowledge, from which the serpent is delivering the fatal apple to Eve.
In the same year Dürer painted a carefully wrought “Adoration of the Kings,” for the Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony. It was afterwards presented by Christian II. to the Emperor Rudolph, and is now in the Uffizi, at Florence, which contains more pictures by Dürer than any other gallery outside of Germany. Here also is the controverted picture of “Calvary,” dated 1505, displaying on one small canvas all the scenes of the Passion, with an astonishing number of figures finished in miniature.
“The Satyr’s Family” is an engraving on copper, showing the goat-footed father cheerily playing on a pipe, to the evident amusement of his human wife and child. “The Great Horse” and “The Little Horse” are similar productions of this period, in which the commentators vainly strive to find some recondite meaning. Sixteen engravings on copper were made between 1500 and 1506.
Dürer has been called “The Chaucer of Painting,” by reason of the marvellous quaintness of his conceptions; and Ruskin speaks of him as “intense in trifles, gloomily minute.” His details, minute as they were, received the most careful study, and were all thought out before the pictures were begun, so that he neither erased nor altered his lines, nor made preliminary sketches. He was essentially a thinker who drew, rather than a drawer who thought.
CHAPTER III.
The Journey to Venice.—Bellini’s Friendship.—Letters to Pirkheimer.—“The Feast of Rose Garlands.”—Bologna.—“Adam and Eve.”—“The Coronation of the Virgin.”
Late in 1505 Dürer made a journey to Venice, probably with a view to recover his health, enlarge his circle of friends and patrons, and study the famous Venetian paintings. He was worn down by continuous hard work, and weary of the dull uneventfulness of his life, and hailed an opportunity to rest in sunny Italy. He borrowed money from Pirkheimer for his journey, and left a small sum for family expenses during his absence. Between Nuremberg and her rich Southern rival there was a large commerce, with a weekly post; and many German merchants and artists were then residing in Venice. Dürer rode down on horseback; and suffered an attack of illness at Stein, near Laibach, where he rewarded the artist who had nursed him by painting a picture on the wall of his house. On arriving at Venice, the master was cordially received, and highly honored by the chief artists and literati of the city. The heads of Venetian art at that time were Giovanni Bellini and Carpaccio, both of whom were advanced in years; and Giorgione and Titian, who were not mentioned by our traveller, though they were both at work for the Fondaco de’ Tedeschi at the same time as himself.