The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-02-23
Miss Shows
Art
Talks.


and ambitious Netherlands. Having
o common source and common his
tory until the rise of the school of
Cologne In the fourteenth century the
two divisions of the country hence
forth developed an individual artistic
character. Previous to this time the
School of Bohemia had indeed exer-
cised some definite Germanic power,
but it soon died away leaving the
later teaching to the larger and more
fruitful development. Yet it was
long time before any master arose
who could rank with the great
Itslians of the Renaissance or the
neighboriDg Flemings. Meister Will
helm and Meister stephan painted
beautiful, mystical religious pieces
with tender hands in light, subdued
colors, more or less conventional and
more or less Byzantian. And Meis-
ter Stephan was superseded by the
Fleming Wander Weyden who
brought the gift of richer expression
to some later minds of more native
strength and originality. Martin
Schonganer was one of these, "gold-
smith, engraver and painter" whom
the Germans called Martin Schon,
and the French Beau Martin. from
the great beauty of his works. And
another was Michael Wolgemuth of
the early school of Franconia who be-
came the teacher of Albrecht Durer.
Who has not read those beautiful
lines of L"ngfellow's and felt some
kinshiP with both the masters?
''In the valley of the Pegnitz, where across
broad meadow lands,
Rise the blue Franconian mountains, Nurem-
berg, the ancient stands.
Here where art was still religion, with a sim
pie, reverent heart,
Lived and labored Albrecht Durer the evan
gelist OF art"
He WAS indeed to his own people
and own time, as we'll as to all people
asd all time, the bearer of good news.
And as q messenger of important
issues he was born of good family
in q propitious environment at q
period when the forces Of the middle
ages were giving place to modern
history. 1t was the time Of Luther
Rnd-usrsemas,--ef-Si Thomas Moore
in England, and the discovery of a
new world in the reckoning western
seas. 1t was the time OF the inven-
ton of printing and the equally inn
portant development of the art of
engraving, and above all the time
when the deep German moral sense
and the practical stability of the
Northern ideals was overcoming
the late Italian conception of beauty
with a spiritual power that was not
matter of convention and grace,
but a thing OF sterling character.
1t WAS such time and such a
spirit that Durer came to interpret
and he did it faithfully, never finch
ing from a task that sometimes made
him seem TO love the weird and ugly
and grotesque for their own sake aud
not for what they taught. Some one
has said that such work was better
done in black and white and so
DuIer's best expression is found per.
haps in his precious engravings.
His painting had something of the
hard touch of the graver, but while
he retained his inherent Independ-
ence ne knew the best that the
Italians could teach him, and in all
decisive points he ranks with the
best OF them. AZ portrait painter
he mastered the soul as well as the
body, and in landscape and acces-
series he was absolutely quick and
sure in draughtsmanship and color.
Durer's portrait of himself, which
was painted in later life, is well
known, but for some inexplicable
reason reproductions of his pictures
are muchl less common than those
from other masters. His contempor-
airy, Lucas CTanach, of the School
of Saxony, Is much better known,
as we'll as Hans Holbein who is "his
only peer north of the Alps.n
Durer had very few pupils who
achieved distinction, aud Holbein
founded no school, so the PAINTERS
who followed him seem for the most
part to be isolated workers, and the
glory of German art died out in the
great reaction that swept over
Europe after the Reformation spent
its force.
But Holbein, Hans Holbein the
younger. who was born in Augsburg
in 1887 when Durer was twenty-siX
years old is, only:less expressive of the
intense realism and mystic beauty OF
Germany than the older master
vybiIa ha Ia narhanc mora f1IIy ~ niool