TECHNICAL PROCESSES A.D. 1844. Albert Durer's ALBERT DURER'S "SMALL PASSION." (See p. 102, Vol. I.) HE earliest examples of medieval wood engraving were pro T'd car ont example wood, cut across the grain at the sides. Albert Durer's works were so engraved. Mr. Josi, keeper of the Print Room in the British Museum, brought to my notice the woodcuts of Albert Durer's "Small Passion," and obtained permission to have stereotypes made of them. I published them in an edition of the " Small Passion" in 1844, and reprint here the preface to the work.1 Albert Durer's early life, like that of many of the most eminent medieval Artists, was passed in the workshop of a Goldsmith. He was the son and grandson of a goldsmith, but he left his father's craft in his sixteenth year, to become a Student of Painting under Michael Wolgemuth. He was an indefatigable Artist in all branches of Art up to the time of his death. We find his well-known monogram on Paintings, Sculptures, Engra 1 "The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, pourtrayed by Albert Durer, edited by Henry Cole, an AssistantKeeper of the Public Records. London Joseph Cundall. 1844." 2 The Paintings of Albert Durer are by no means common in this country. The best specimen in the metropolis is an altar-piece in three parts, in the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, which formerly belonged to Charles I., and is described in James the Second's Catalogue as "Our Lady with Christ in her lap with a coronet on her head; two fryars by them and two doors." Mrs. Jameson has given Paintings by a full account of it in her Companion Albert to private Picture Galleries, p. 23. ing on copper of the Death of the Virgin. (See Mrs. Jameson ut supra, p. 204.) 3 In the Print Room of the British Museum is a specimen of Albert Durer's wonderful powers of sculpture in lithographic, or hone-stone, not quite eight inches high, and about five and a half wide. In this small space are sculptured in very high relief, an interior, with a woman lying in bed, called St. Elizabeth, and as many as eight figures, besides a dog, furniture, &c. the scene being intended to represent the Naming of St. John. A figure of a young man entering is said to represent Albert Durer himself. The expression and character given to heads not larger than the size of a little finger's nail, are a most marvellous exhibition of executive power; of itself refuting the idea that the same hand should have engraved so rudely PROCESSES AND ART MANUFAC- A.D. 1844. Part II. vings,' Etchings (which process he is said to have invented), Draw- TECHNICAL ings on Wood, Ornamental designs of all kinds. In the practice of all he obtained an eminence, which places him at the head of the Artists of his own country, and in the first rank of his Italian contemporaries, Raffaelle, Michael Angelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, &c. Selections. Like these great men, Albert Durer was not only a Painter. He left treatises on Fortification, Mensuration, and the Proportions of the Human Body, the chief part of which have been published oftentimes; and his original manuscripts of them, fancifully written in party-coloured inks, exist in the British Museum. (Nos. 5228 to 5231 of Additional MSS.) His journals, &c. show him to have been in communication with most of his great contemporaries; Raffaelle, Mabuse, Lucas van Leyden, Quintyn Matsys, Melancthon, Erasmus, Luther, &c. Of the two last he bequeathed to us portraits. Nuremberg was the place of his birth and of his death. He was born on the 20th May, 1471, and died 6 April, 1528, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. Those, who may desire further information on Albert Durer's life, will find many details of it given in the "Treatise on Wood Engraving," published by Messrs. Knight, and Dr. Nagler's works hereafter noticed.' The engravings of the present work are called by Albert Durer himself the "Small Passion," " die Kleine Passion," to distinguish them from a set of larger engravings of the same subject— the wood cuts attributed to him. This sculpture bears the date of 1510, the same as a woodcut (No. 93, Bartsch) of the Life of the Virgin, to which it has a strong general resemblance. It was purchased by Payne Knight at Brussels, for five hundred guineas, and bequeathed by him to the British Museum, of which it is one of its choicest treasures, alone well repaying a visitation. 1 The Print Room of the British Museum possesses a volume of Albert Durer's original sketches and drawings, in chalk, charcoal, pencil, pen and ink, on paper of all sizes and colours. Of all subjects; portraits, sacred compositions, anatomy, natural history, ornaments. It is numbered 5,218 of the additional MSS. and in 2 See the History of the Life of PROCESSES A.D. 1844. TECHNICAL "the Large Passion," "die Grosse Passion," and another set of small engravings. on copper, of exquisite beauty of execution, which the author names the "Passion in Kupffer."2 The "Small Passion" appears by the dates (A.D. 1509 and 1510) on several of the subjects,' to have been executed whilst Albert Durer was in the meridian of his practice as a designer on wood. For though his wood engravings of the Apocalypse were published as early as 1498, his most important and best works, The History of the Virgin, the Large Passion, and the present work were executed between 1509 and 1512. The present work, with the exception of two subjects, is taken from the original engravings drawn by Albert Durer himself on the wood, and engraved under his own superintendence. Two editions at least of these engravings were printed by Albert Durer in Germany; a third edition a century later, at Venice; and the present, it is believed, makes the fourth edition of the genuine blocks. I say genuine blocks, for so great was the popularity and estimation of the work, that there has been more than one obvious imitation of them, besides several avowed copies constantly circulating throughout Europe. The "Small Passion" is stated by all Passio Domini nostri Jesu, ex Hieronymo Paduano, Dominico Mancino, Sedulio, et Baptista Mantuano, per fratrem Chelidonium collecta, cum figuris Alberti Dureri Norici Pictoris. Eleven cuts, each 15 inches high, and varying from 11 to 11 inches wide, besides the title-page. 2 A series of sixteen subjects, 4 3 Bartsch (Le Peintre Graveur, vol. portent le monogramme de Durer" Nr. 18, l'annee 1510" (Adam and Eve driven forth from Paradise), "et Nr. 31, l'annee 1509" (Jesus brought before Herod of present edition). This is not correct, for there are two others with dates, namely, Jesus bearing his Cross, 1509, and St. Veronica, 1510. 4 This work, entitled in ornamental German letters, "Apocalipsis cum figuris,” was Albert Durer's first publication of wood engravings. It consists of sixteen subjects, 15 inches by II and 10 inches, and was printed at Nuremberg 1498. • The second of his most important works on wood: a series of twenty cuts (see Bartsch, Le Peintre Graveur, vol. vii. p. 131, Nos. 76 to 95 inclusive), each 11 inches by 8 inches, executed in 1511. On the last, "Impressum Nurnberge per Albertum Durer pictorem. Anno Christiano Millesimo quingentesimo undecimo." PROCESSES AND ART MANUFAC A.D. 1844. Part II. writers on the subject, Bartsch, Heinecke, Ottley, Nagler, &c. to TECHNICAL have consisted originally of thirty-seven subjects. Not one of these writers seems himself to have seen, or compared together all the editions he speaks of; and there is some confusion in their various accounts of them. All agree that the earliest edition was published Selections. without any accompanying letter-press. Dr. Nagler thus describes the title-page of the first edition: "Nach Heinecke," says he, " wäre folgende die erste Ausgabe. Ueber dem Holzschnitt mit dem leidenden Heiland, ist mit beweglichen Lettern gedrückt Figuræ Passionis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi. Und am Ende finit impressum Nornbergae 1511." (See-Neues Allgemeines Künstler. Lexicon bearteitet von Dr. G. R. Nagler band, p. 537. München, 1836-7.) I have never been able to meet with a title-page so arranged, except in an imitation of the Small Passion, of which mention will be made hereafter. Of all the engravings of this work, the sitting Christ on the frontispiece is by far the most rare. There are two sets of impressions from the original blocks in the British Museum. The title-page of one of these sets, (that in the volume bequeathed by Mr. Nollekens to Mr. Douce, with reversion to the Museum), is arranged as follows: FIGURÆ PASSIO nis Domini nostri Jesu Christi above the figure of the sitting Christ. It is different in character and paper, is very inferior to all the rest of the set, and certainly is not an impression from the original block, but from the copy. The set itself consists of a miscellaneous collection of impressions, all without any letter-press. The other set, formerly in the Cracherode collection, has no letter-press, and wants the title-page. A search has been altogether vain to discover a first edition, bound as a volume, and consisting of the thirty-seven cuts apparently issued originally together. The second edition of the genuine blocks was published with the title, of which an exact copy is given in this edition. On the reverse I have printed a copy of the last page of the second edition, which shows the date of its publication, and denounces piracies of the work, directed doubtless against |