the untrue imaginary Picture of a man and his work that I want, . . . but the actual natural Likeness, true as the face itself, nay, truer in a sense, Which the Artist, if there is one, might help to give, and the Botcher never can" (Carlyle, Friedrich). 712. "ECCE HOMO!" Ascribed to Roger van der Weyden. (See under 653, p. 267.) See under 711 above, p. 273. 747. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND ST. LAWRENCE. Ascribed to Hans Memling. See under 686, p. 274. St. Lawrence may nearly always be distinguished by his gridiron the emblem of his martyrdom. He was a pious deacon of the Christian Church, who was put to death by the Romans. A new kind of torture was, says the legend, prepared for him. He was stretched on a sort of bed, formed of iron bars in the manner of a gridiron, and was roasted alive. "But so great was his constancy that in the middle of his torments he said, 'Seest thou not, O thou foolish man, that I am already roasted on one side, and that, if thou would'st have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other?' Then St. Lawrence lifted up his eyes, and his pure and invincible spirit fled to heaven." 705. STS. MATTHEW, CATHERINE, AND JOHN. Stephan Lochner (Early German: died 1451). Three figures, full of innocent fervour and graceful sentimentality, by "Meister Stephan "- -a native of Constance, who settled in Cologne, and whose work has the stamp of the early Cologne School (see 687, p. 265). His chief work is the so-called Dombild, now in Cologne Cathedral: "Item. I gave two white pennies," says Albert Dürer in his diary, "to see the picture that Master Staffan of Cologne painted." 783. THE EXHUMATION OF BISHOP HUBERT. Ascribed to Thierri Bouts (Early Flemish: 1420-about 1475). Thierri Bouts-called by early authors Thierry, or Dierik of Haarlem, from the name of his native town, and by modern writers Thierri Stuerbout, in consequence of a confusion of persons, now rectified - was town's painter of Louvain, and a pupil probably of Roger van der Weyden. His principal works are now in the Brussels Museum. This picture formerly ascribed to Jan van Eyck, to Van der Meire, or to -- Justus of Ghent is probably not by him; pictures in the Gallery attributed to him by the latest critics are 774 and 943, pp. 272, 282. St. Hubert was originally a nobleman of Aquitaine, much addicted to all worldly pleasures, and especially to that of the chase. But one day in Holy Week, when all good Christians were at their devotions, as he was hunting in the forest of Ardennes, he encountered a milkwhite stag bearing the crucifix between his horns. Filled with awe and astonishment, he renounced the pomps and vanities of the world, turned hermit in that very forest of Ardennes, was ordained, and became Bishop of Liège. So the legend runs, embalming, we may suppose, the conversion of some reckless lover of the chase, like the wild huntsman of the German legend. And at Liège he was buried, but thirteen years afterwards his body was disinterred, and lo! it was found entire even the episcopal robes in which he had been interred were without spot or stain. A century later the body was removed from Liège and reinterred in the abbey church of the Benedictine monks of Ardennes. The Emperor Louis le Débonnaire assisted at the translation of the relics, and the day was long kept as a festival throughout this part of Flanders. This is the subject of the present picture. On the altar behind the principal group stands a shrine, on which is a little figure of St. Hubert with his hunting-horn. The royal personage assisting represents Louis le Débonnaire. is of wonderful beauty, finished in every part (abridged from Mrs. Jameson: Sacred and Legendary Art, pp. 431, 432). Though it is thus an historical picture, the artist takes the figures from his own time, and the heads, like miniatures in character and delicacy of expression, are doubtless portraitsthe whole scene being a picture of a Flemish Cathedral on some festival day. Notice, as a particularly interesting little piece of life, the man flattening his nose against the pillar on the left, with a jeering expression, as if he "didn't half believe it all." It is a piece of living grotesque, exactly such as meets one in the sculptured stones of a medieval cathedral itself" peeping round the corner at you and lurking in secret places, like a monk's joke whispered in church" (Conway, P. 17). The picture Unknown (German School: 16th century.) 1079. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. Unknown (Early Flemish 15th century). "The National Gallery possesses one of the best of David's authenticated works (1045, p. 273), and a comparison between it and the "Adoration of the Magi," numbered 1079, goes far to prove them to be by one hand. Compare, for instance, the figure of the beggar in the one picture with that of St. Joseph, in shadow behind the Virgin, in the other. And the evidence of style is confirmed by a curious discovery that I happened to make one bright day, when the glass was off the latter picture. Low down in the left-hand corner the word OUVVATER is written in a way that precludes the notion of forgery, for it has been scratched with, perhaps, the butt end of a brush, while the paint was still wet, so that the red underpainting shows through the letters. David was born at Ouwater, or Oudewater, about 1450, and did not migrate to Bruges till 1484" (Armstrong: Notes on the National Gallery, p. 29). 1078. THE DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS. Unknown (Early Flemish 15th century). 722. A LADY'S PORTRAIT. Ascribed to Sigmund Holbein (German: 1465-1540). A German housewife-with a characteristic mixture about her of sentimentality (for she holds a forget-me-not in her hand) and of austerity (for there is something forbidding, surely, in those terribly angular fingers of hers). 696. MARCO BARBARIGO. Ascribed to G. van der Meire (Early Flemish). He was Venetian Consul in London in 1449, and holds in his hand a letter addressed to him there. elected Doge, but died (in 1486), after six months. It is recorded of him as He was subsequently holding the office for Doge that he was a specially mild-tempered and good man- -a character which is not belied in this portrait of him in his earlier days. 1151. THE ENTOMBMENT. Unknown (Early Flemish: 15th century). "Belongs rather to the school of Germany, for it is a copy, in colour, of Martin Schongauer's engraving of the 'Entombment "" (Armstrong: Notes on the National Gallery, p. 29). 710. PORTRAIT OF A MONK. Unknown (Early Flemish: 15th century). 1080. HEAD OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. Unknown (Early German: 15th century). The introduction of children's faces-in the character of mourning angels-to so ghastly a subject is very characteristic of the love of horror common to the Flemish and German Schools. 1036. A MAN'S PORTRAIT. Unknown 2 (Early Flemish or Dutch: 16th century). A picture, it might be, of Hamlet with the skulls: "That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once." In his left hand he holds a flower: "there's pansies, that's for thoughts." 266. THE DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS. Lambert Lombard (Flemish: 1505–1566). Not an interesting picture by a very cultivated and interesting man, who travelled in Italy in the suite of Cardinal Pole, and there made Vasari's acquaintance. 656. A MAN'S PORTRAIT. Mabuse (Flemish: about 1470-1532). Jean Gossaert, called Mabuse from the town in Hainault (now in France) where he was born, is interesting in the history of art as the man who began the emigration of Flemish painters to Italy. He set out in 1508 in the suite of Philip of Burgundy, and remained in Italy about ten years. The sitter here is of the Flemish national type, but the Italian influence may be seen in the Renaissance architecture of the background. 245. PORTRAIT OF A SENATOR. Albrecht Dürer (German: 1472-1528). Dürer is the greatest of all German artists: and in all the characteristics of his art he is the central representative of the German spirit,"its combination of the wild and rugged with the homely and the tender, its meditative depth, its enigmatic gloom, its sincerity and energy, its iron diligence and discipline." The range of his powers is shown not only in his works that survive, but in the estimation in which he was 1 Formerly ascribed to Van der Goes. 2 'Probably by a Flemish master contemporaneous with Holbein, to whom it was formerly ascribed (Official Catalogue). ". 66 held by his contemporaries. When he went to Venice they “praised his beautiful colouring," Bellini honoured him with his friendship, "and he was everywhere treated," so he wrote, "as a gentleman." Raphael sent him some drawings, on one of which this note in Dürer's handwriting may still be seen: Raphael of Urbino, who has been so highly esteemed by the Pope, drew these naked figures, and sent them to Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg to show him his hand." He was a writer as well as an artist. "Painting," said Melanchthon, "was the least of his accomplishments;" whilst of his personal qualities Luther bore testimony when he wrote: "As for Dürer, assuredly affection bids us mourn for one who was the best of men. . . . May he rest in peace with his fathers: Amen!" He had He was born at Nuremberg-the son of a goldsmith and the third of eighteen children-and Albert of Nuremberg he remained to the end -the painter of a city distinguished for its “self-restrained, contented, quaint domesticity." His first training was from his father in the goldsmith's trade; next, when fifteen, he was apprenticed for three and a half years to Wohlgemuth, the chief painter of the town; and lastly came his Wanderjahre, a long course of travel and study in foreign lands. In 1494 he settled down at Nuremberg, and there, with the exception of a visit to Venice in 1505-1506 (see p. 153 m.), and to the Netherlands in 1520-1521, he passed the remainder of his life in the busy and honoured exercise of the various branches of his art. married, at the age of twenty-three, a well-to-do merchant's daughter. The stories which have long passed current with regard to her being imperious, avaricious, and fretful, have been entirely discredited on closer knowledge of the facts. The marriage was childless, but husband and wife lived throughout on terms both of affection and companionship. As for examples of Dürer's work, the widely-spread prints of the "Knight and Death” and the "Melancholia" give the best idea of his powers of imagination; while in actual specimens of his handiwork in drawing, the British Museum is the second richest collection in the world. Of his paintings, which are very rare, the most important are at Vienna; but in England, besides this portrait, there is another at Hampton Court, and others are in the possession of the Marquis of Lothian and the Duke of Northumberland respectively. This old man, strong and yet melancholy, is precisely true to Dürer's favourite type of human strength founded on labour and sorrow. And the choice of this type is characteristic of his mind. With the Reformation came, says Mr. Ruskin, “the Resurrection of Death. Never, since man first saw him face to face, had his terror been so great." Nothing shows the character of men of that time so clearly as the way in which they severally met the King of Terror. "It haunted Dürer long; and the answer he gave to the question of the grave was that of patient hope; and two-fold, consisting of one |