DÜRER AND HOLBEIN
Last Days
THREE
The last period of Dürer’s life began in 1520. Emperor Maximilian was his friend and patron; but his death in 1519 stopped all the things that Dürer was doing for him. So in July, 1520, the artist, with his wife and her maid, set out for the Netherlands to secure a continuance of the patronage and privileges granted during the lifetime of Maximilian. Everywhere he was handsomely received. Throughout all his travels, which lasted a year, he was entertained by the best and most intellectual society of his time.
On July 12, 1521, Dürer reached home again. His mind was now filled with schemes for religious pictures; but he produced comparatively little. One reason for this was the bad state of his health. Another was that he gave more and more of his time to mathematical study, which he considered important. His most famous picture of this time is the portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher at Berlin.
At Nuremberg, in 1525, was published his book on geometry, and in 1527 appeared a work on fortification. But his health was failing. He had caught a fever in the Low Countries, from which he never fully recovered. On the night of April 6, 1528, he died, so suddenly that there was not even time to call his dearest friends to his side.
He was buried in a vault belonging to his wife’s family, in the cemetery of Saint John, at Nuremberg. Luther, the great reformer, said of the famous artist in a letter, “As for Dürer, assuredly affection bids us mourn for one who was the best of men; yet you may well hold him happy that he has made so good an end, and that Christ has taken him from the midst of this time of trouble, and from greater troubles in store, lest he, that deserved nothing but the best, should be compelled to behold the worst. Therefore may he rest in peace with his fathers. Amen!”
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
ERASMUS—Holbein