Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/480

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

450 Painting bearing a, scroll inscribed " Melencolia," rises the rainbow of Hope, and the light of future joy is beginning to gleam in the tearful eyes of the winged spirit ; whilst the little child beside her, with his tablet and pencil, ready to carry on the work she may not finish, is a symbol of the ever- new vitality of the human race. In S. Jerome in his Study, produced about the same time as the Melencolia, the answer to the great question is more assured and definite ; the saint has acquired so thorough a mastery over the spirit-world that nothing can ruffle his holy serenity. Of Diirer's large oil paintings we must name the apos- tles Philip and James (1516), in the Uffizi, Florence ; the portrait of the Emperor Maximilian I. (1519), in the Belve- dere, Vienna ; the half-length figures of SS. Joseph and Joachim and SS. Simeon arid Lazarus, in the Pinakothek, Munich, the interior wings of an altar-piece produced in 1523, after a visit to the Netherlands, which sensibly affected the great master's style ; and two companion pictures — one of the Apostles John and Peter, the other of Mark and Paid — also in the Munich Gallery, remark- able works, full of dignity and individuality of character, supposed to represent the four temperaments ; the melan- choly being embodied in the face and figure of S. John, the phlegmatic in that of S. Peter, the sanguine in that of S. Mark, and the choleric in that of S. Paul. England, we believe, contains but two paintings by Albrecht Diirer — the Portrait of Himself already noticed ; and a bust portrait of a Senator, in the National Gallery. Of Diirer's later portraits the most remarkable are those engraved on copper of Cardinal Albert of Branden- burg, the Elector Frederick, Pirkheimer, Melanchthon, Erasmus, and other celebrated men of his day; and two