printing.

About 1511 Dürer reprinted the Revelation, and published the three new books. They were justly popular, and from that time he painted only when he pleased. The woodcuts, which faithfully represent drawings made with a coarse quill pen, will look rude to eyes accustomed to the often meaningless finish of modern illustrations. It will require patience to see how direct, sincere, and vigorous is the expression. With so coarse a tool nothing can be left to chance or smoothed down. Every line must tell, and every line in the Dürer woodcut does tell its story of structure and feeling. Dürer’s woodcuts are as fine in their way as his more popular engravings.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE

By Dürer

THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN

By Dürer

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.

DÜRER, by himself

In the Prado, Madrid.

Among Dürer’s portraits of himself, the head in which the master gave himself the aspect of a Christ is the favorite of many people. The workmanship is of extraordinary carefulness and beauty. Every detail of the fur, of the flowing hair, of the powerful, slender hand, is there; but the effect remains large. There is in the face a sense of dignity, reserve, decision, and sympathy. Other portraits are probably much more like Dürer as Nuremberg saw him. This presents his own ideal of himself as creative artist, exemplifying a spiritual beauty that he ever strove to attain. Despite an