FINE ARTS.
ALBERT BORER'S PASSION OF CHRIST.
Tins little volume is a great curiosity. It is a reprint of a set of wood- cuts designed and drawn on the wood by ALBERT DURER himself, and engraved under his superintendence ; not copies of them, but impressionS taken by means of stereotype casts from the original blocks in the British Museum. In effect we have a picture-book published in Lon- don in the nineteenth century, which three hundred years ago was po- pular in Germany and Italy ; and in order that the outside should cor- respond with the contents, the cover is adapted from an old German binding of the fifteenth century. Strange as it may seem, the new impressions are better than the old ones; owing partly to the improved practice of modern printing, and partly to the increased sharpness which the process of stereotyping gives to the lines of the wood-engraving. But a work of ALBERT DURER'S is valuable otherwise than as a mere curiosity ; and this will be prized for its intrinsic worth by all who can appreciate what is truly excellent in art, despite the quaint and gothic mannerism of style, and the imperfections of the medium in which the designs are executed. The strongly-marked character of the figures and the vigorous expression of the sentiment of the subject that, distinguish these designs, forcibly impress the mind with the great skill
and earnest purpose of the designer : the spirit of power and even of beauty is perceptible beneath the rude and almost grotesque execution.
ALBERT DURER published three different series of designs illustrat- ing the principal events in the life of Christ, entitled " The Pas- sion,"—a set of eleven wood-cuts, each fifteen and a half inches high and nearly twelve wide, which he called " The Large Passion " ; a set of sixteen small engravings on copper, of exquisite beauty; and the pre- sent set of thirty-seven cuts, called by him " The Small Passion." This was the most popular of the three : ALBERT DURER himself printed at least two editions of it in Naremburg ; a third set of im- pressions from the original blocks was printed a century later in Venice, and many copies of them were made and published in other places. Mane ANTONIO was one of the first engravers who copied " The Small Passion," which he executed on copper ; and the second edition of the cuts published by ALBERT DURER contains a denunciation of these piracies, which is supposed to have been particularly directed against this illustrious offender. The mere fact of their having been copied by an Italian engraver of the works of RAFFAELLE, at a time when art had attained its highest elevation in Italy, is sufficient to mark the estimation in which the designs of the great German artist were held by his contemporaries. We glean these particulars from the very in- forming preface to this volume by its editor, Mr. HENRY COLE of the Record Office, more popularly known by his pseudonyme of FELIX SUMMERLY; to whom the public is indebted for this diffusion of one of the rarest treasures of medireval art that the British Museum possesses. It was only so recently as 1839 that these blocks were secured by the Trustees of the Museum, through the agency of Mr. Jost, the keeper of the prints ; and he bought them of the Reverend Mr. BOISSIER, whose father accidentally met with them at Rome. Five-and-twenty only were found ; and these have suffered from the effects of time and use, but not so materially as to injure the designs. The worn edges of the lines in the cuts have been restored almost to their original crispness, partly by skilful retouching, and partly by the operation of stereotyping : the shrinking of the plaster-mould in drying reduces the thickness of the lines of the cut, thus rendering the metal-cast sharper. The two missing blocks have been supplied by Mr. THURSTON THOMPSON ; who has copied impressions of them with admirable fidelity to the manner and spirit of the originals. The chief characteristic of these designs, and that which doubtless made them so popular, is the lively and forcible distinctness with which the subjects are presented to the mind. They are dramatic in the true meaning of the term : a story is told and an action is going on in every one. In this respect they are comparable with the Cartoons of RAF- FAELLE' indeed, this dramatic character is the life of all grand and lasting pictures, and constitutes their greatest charm. The compositions of ALBERT DURER are remarkable for directness of aim and plainness of meaning : there are no " figures to let." His art is homely in its simplicity ; and the dry angular manner of the German school gives it a gothic quaintness, that stamps its nationality as much as the costumes and physiognomies. Yet there are visible traces of that intuitive feeling for grace and dignity which are always to be found in the works of a great master, but incidentally manifested rather than obtrusively dis- played, and invariably made subservient to the development of character and sentiment : vivid expression of the subject is the end to which all the resources of the artist are directed. ALBERT DITRER'S draperies are grandly and beautifully cast ; the angular folds peculiar to the early masters both of Italy and Germany give strength and point to the style, besides rendering less conspicuous the defects of the work- manship, which are very evident in the flowing lines, and deteri- orate the curves of the fleshy forms. The great artist's knowledge of form and power of delineation are even more evident in his draped than his naked figures ; not only on this account, but be- cause the soft and delicate contours and ideal beauty of the an- tique sculpture, which RAFFAELLE so finely emulated in his draw- ing, are less congenial to the austere and homely vigour of ALBERT DURER. Some of the beads and attitudes of the male figures remind us of RAFFAELLE and other Italian painters ; but the two groups of Adam and Eve, introductory to the events in the life of Christ, are more akin to the exaggerations of GOLTZIUS. This may partly be accounted for by the less frequent opportunities that the German master enjoyed of studying the nude figure ; but it is throughout evident that the forte of ALBERT DURER is in the expression of action, rather than of graceful serenity and repose. The indication of move- ment in some of the figures is marvellous : those seated or kneeling also are firmly and characteristically drawn ; while such as are standing passively are deficient in stability as well as elegance. Great allowance must, however, be made for the imperfections of the cutting. As specimens of German popular art at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and of the genius and style of ALBERT DURER, these designs of the " Passion of Christ " will be most acceptable to all true lovers of art ; and their republication will do much to demonstrate the supe- riority of character and purpose in design over mere mechanical neat- ness of execution and conventional elegance of style.
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