In 1500 Dürer painted the noble portrait of himself which is now at Munich, and is the favorite of all lovers of the great artist. It shows a high and intellectual forehead, and tender and loving eyes, with long curling hair which falls far down on his shoulders. In many respects it bears the closest resemblance to the traditional pictures of Christ, with its sad and solemn beauty, and large sympathetic eyes, and has the same effeminate full lips and streaming ringlets.
During the next five years Dürer was in some measure compensated for the trials of his home by the cheerful companionship of his old friend Pirkheimer, who had recently returned from service with the Emperor’s army in the Tyrolese wars. At his hospitable mansion the artist met many eminent scholars, reformers, and literati, and broadened his knowledge of the world, while receiving worthy homage for his genius and his personal accomplishments. Baumgärtner, Volkamer, Harsdorfer, and other patricians of the city, were his near friends; and the Augustine Prior, Eucharius Karl, and the brilliant Lazarus Spengler, the Secretary of Nuremberg, were also intimate with both Dürer and Pirkheimer. During the next twenty years the harassed artist often sought refuge among these gatherings of choice spirits, when weary of his continuous labors of ambition.
Dürer pathetically narrates the death of his venerable father, in words as vivid as one of his pictures, and full of quaint tenderness: “Soon he clearly saw death before him, and with great patience waited to go, recommending my mother to me, and a godly life to all of us. He received the sacraments, and died a true Christian, on the eve of St. Matthew (Sept. 21), at midnight, in 1502.... The old nurse helped him to rise, and put the close cap upon his head again, which had become wet by the heavy sweat. He wanted something to drink; and she gave him Rhine wine, of which he tasted some, and then wished to lie down again. He thanked her for her aid, but no sooner lay back upon his pillows than his last agony began. Then the old woman trimmed the lamp, and set herself to read aloud St. Bernard’s dying song; but she only reached the third verse, and behold his soul had gone. God be good to him! Amen. Then the little maid, when she saw that he was dying, ran quickly up to my chamber, and waked me. I went down fast, but he was gone; and I grieved much that I had not been found worthy to be beside him at his end.”
At this time Albert took home his brother Hans, who was then twelve years old, to learn the art of painting in his studio; and his other young brother, Andreas, the goldsmith’s apprentice, now set forth upon his Wander-jahre. Within two years his mother, the widowed Barbara, had exhausted her scanty means; and she also was taken into Dürer’s home, and lovingly cared for by her son.
In 1503 Dürer’s frail constitution yielded to an attack of illness. A drawing of Christ crowned with thorns, now in the British Museum, bears his inscription: “I drew this face in my sickness, 1503.” In the same year he executed a copper-plate engraving of a skull emblazoned on an escutcheon, which is crowned by a winged helmet, and supported by a weird woman, over whose shoulder a satyr’s face is peering. A contemporary copper-plate shows the Virgin nursing the Infant Jesus. The painting of this same subject, bearing the date of 1503, is now in the Vienna Belvedere, portraying an unlovely German mother and a very earthly baby.
The celebrated “Green Passion” was executed in 1504, and is a series of twelve drawings on green paper, illustrating the sufferings of Christ. Some critics prefer this set, for delicacy and power, to either of the three engraved Passions. The theory is advanced that these exquisite drawings were made for the Emperor, or some other magnate, who wished to possess a unique copy. The Green Passion is now in the Vienna Albertina, the great collection of drawings made by the Archduke Albert of Sachsen-Teschen, which includes 160 of Dürer’s sketches, designs, travel-notes, studies of costume and architecture, &c.
Over 600 authentic sketches and drawings by Dürer are now preserved in Europe, and are of great interest as showing the freedom and firmness of the great master’s first conceptions, and the gradual evolution of his ultimate ideas. They are drawn on papers of various colors and different preparations, with pen, pencil, crayon, charcoal, silver point, tempera, or water-colors. Some are highly finished, and others are only rapid jottings or bare outlines. The richest of the ancient collections was that of Hans Imhoff of Nuremberg, who married Pirkheimer’s daughter Felicitas, and in due time added his father-in-law’s Dürer-drawings to his own collection. His son Willibald further enriched the family art-treasures by many of the master’s drawings which he bought from Andreas Dürer, and by inheriting the pictures of Barbara Pirkheimer. He solemnly enjoined in his will that this great collection should never be alienated, but should descend through the Imhoff family as an honored possession. His widow, however, speedily offered to sell the entire series to the Emperor Rudolph, and it was soon broken up and dispersed. The Earl of Arundel secured a great number of Dürer’s drawings here, and carried them to England. In 1637 Arundel bought a large folio containing nearly 200 of these sketches, which was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1753 by Sir Hans Sloane. The museum has now one of the best existing collections of these works, some of which are of rare interest and value, especially the highly finished water-colors and pen-drawings.
The interesting sketch-books used by Dürer on his journeys to Venice and to the Netherlands remained forgotten in the archives of a noble Nuremberg family until within less than a century, when the family became extinct, and its property was dispersed. They were then acquired by the venerable antiquary Baron von Derschau, who sold them to Nagler and Heller. Nagler’s share was afterwards acquired by the Berlin Museum; and Heller’s was bequeathed to the library of Bamberg.