ALBERT DÜRER. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS, 1526.
ALBERT DÜRER. "THE CANNON," 1513.
The style of drawing shown in these woodcuts was no doubt to a great extent determined by the nature of the method of cutting the block. The drawing on the smooth plank—not on the cross section of the tree, as in modern wood-engraving—was actually cut with a knife, not a graver. Each line had to be excavated, as it were, from the surface, the ground or white part sunk each side, so as to make it take the ink and print the impression of its surface sharply upon the paper in the press. These conditions would necessarily lead to a certain economy of line both as to quantity and direction, and would favour the use of bold outline and lines expressive of relief surfaces or shadow arranged in a comparatively simple way, and often running into solid black, as in small folds of drapery and details. The drawing was probably done with a reed or quill pen, which latter still remains perhaps the best tool for emphatic, graphic drawing on the scale of book designs, since it offers the maximum possibility of effect with the minimum of simplicity and economy of means. Its only rival (though it may also be regarded as a useful auxiliary to the pen) is the narrow flexible brush point, and this has the advantage of spreading more easily into solid blacks, though more likely to lead one into looseness of style owing to its very facility.
Fine and firm graphic draughtsmanship and rich design, with a fine sense of the decorative value of armorial bearings and processional grouping, may be seen in the famous series of woodcuts called "The Triumphs of Maximilian," in which Albert Dürer and Hans Burgmair co-operated. That is to say each did a large proportion of the designs. It was a very vast work for wood-engraving. The scheme was in two parts, one consisting of a design of a triumphal arch, in general idea in emulation of the old Roman imperial triumphal arches. This part of the work consisted of ninety-two blocks which, when put together, form one woodcut 10½ feet high by 9 feet wide. This part was all designed and drawn upon the blocks by Albert Dürer, and engraved by Hieronymus Andreæ.
ALBERT DÜRER. "LITTLE PASSION." THE TAKING DOWN FROM THE CROSS.
HANS BURGMAIR. GROUP OF KNIGHTS FROM "THE TRIUMPHS OF MAXIMILIAN."
The second part consisted of the triumphal procession and the triumphal car of Maximilian and his Queens, designed by Dürer, as well as other allegorical and heraldic cars and warlike machines, and cars with officers of the court, groups of knights in armour, men-at-arms of all kinds, country people, and even groups of African savages. Sixty-six of the designs of the procession are due to Hans Burgmair.