H E N C A L D E R E V E R I R I H G . F r om a por tr ait by himself: As I/ze Sun colour s t/ze ow er so A r t colour s lz fl , fe. TH E LITTLE M ASTERS B Y WI L L I A M B E L L !C O TT A ullz or o Lectur es on Mr Fine Ar ls é‘ c f , . L O N D O N M ON L W MARS T N S E ARLE RI N S A PS O , O . , VIN GTO ROWN B N GS E ET STREET C UILDI , FL 1 8 8 0. All r i hts re ( g ser ved. LO N N O : R. CLAY D , BO NQ , AND TAYLO R B READ 9TRE ET B I LL. L C. P RE F A E C . H E qualifications of the author for the task of writin g this short Treatise are rather artistic than e i lit rary . It is both biograph cal and critical in the Ar tists notices of the , but in the historical portion he E n has bee n mainly a translator . ve the facts of the life of Albert Diirer have only of late years been fully u d i the el cidate , wh le the lives of group of younger men, The L M called ittle asters, who surrounded him , and con r t n r i tinned his p ac ice in painting and e g aving un ted , were very imperfectly kno w n t ill Adolf Rosen berg pub lished his Sebald and Bar t/4d Bdrm ; z w ei M olar der Deane/ten Renaissan e 18 75 Die Deane/ten c , ; and Klein ”mister in t n Dr R , the four eenth and fiftee th parts of . obert ’ Dohme s Kim“ mi d Karistler . e m him e m Other authoriti s also ca e before , but thes ono graphs revealed many interes ting particulars of the ver y P E A E vi R F C . r u to Dr . R e t he emarkable men nder review , and os nberg e author is bound to acknowledge his indebtedness. H Mr G WR i B M has also to thank . e d, of the ritish useum , Pr s o i i readinm i and ofes or C lv n, for the r in aid ng him a s with det ils regarding some of the work . The critical opin ion expre ssed of the productions of h L M The t ese beloved ittle asters is another matte r. y to have been long known me for the most part, as well P c l e as those of their contemporaries . racti al y acquaint d — — with both the arts painting an d engraving practised m in unison by the , the reader must receive the estimate s c x and des riptions as exclusively mine, e cept when other stated . WB S. C O N TE N TS. PTER 1 CHA . INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ll . TUE YORE RUNNRRS OF TH E LITTLE H ABTERB TER Ill CHAP . DURER THE RB PUTED EACH E R OF TH E I “ , T L TTLE “ASTE R. C TER IV HAP . ALBRECHT m uoam T CHAP ER V . ' aw as cnr aurnom a s w oax s CHAPTER V l . HANS S EBALD HERA! AND BARTHEL B EHA M H PTER VII C A . TH E WORKS OF THE BEHAN S CHAPT R V I E II . H E IXRICH ALDEGREV ER H T X C AP ER I . GEORG P EXCZ PTER X CHA . JACOB B INCK H ANS BROSAM ER ’ T r r e 2 2 a ences he e e t . on a e er fl, f nces o (B . 92) (B 75) p g , nd similar r ef " o n s ubse uent a es a o B ARTSCH Ls m r as aav aua q p g , re t , G , ‘71 ol v s. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE ' REVE R B Y H I E L F r ontier z ece PORTRAIT OF ALDEG . MS F p N B ALDEGREVE R O RNAME T. r ORNA T B Y ALDEGB EVER MEN . ORNA ENT B Y SE AL B EII AM M . B D ORNAMEN - T. B Y SEEALD B EIIAM ORN AMENT BY E AL B EHA . S B D M AD ORA IO B r ALT ORFE R double late T N OR THE MAGI . D ( p ) ORNA ENT BY SE AL B EHA M . B D M PORTRAITS OF SEBALD AN D B ARTII EL B ER AM UN BY SE AL B EHAM THE S . B D P ER OR H B Y B ARTE EL B EHA TEE EM C ARLE S V . M N E NT B E OR AM . Y S BALD B EHAM ” DI SSIP AVIT SU STANTIA UA E AL B F HA M B M S M . B Y S B D B E AL E ORNAMENTS . Y S B D B E AM E N'I‘O ORI B Y E AL MEM M . S B D B EH AM TIIE MA ON NA OF THE WIN O ARTII EL B E II AM D D W. B Y B RN A E NT B Y E O M . S BALD B ER AM MA O NN A or THE CRE CENT MOON ALDE GREV E R D S . B r JOIIN OF LE EN B Y DE YD . AL GREVER WE N ' DDI G GUE STS . B r ALDEGRE VE R JOSEP H OL ms B RETE REN Y P E c S D BY . B S OP II ONI SDA . B Y PEc PORTRAIT OF JA O 131 HI E C B c . B ! MS LF TH E L I TTLE M A S TE RS . H E R C A P T I . I N OD ION TR UCT . H E group of artists to which this short treatise is t e o devo ed is associat d t gether, not only in time and c but i lo ality, also in the more important character stic of t G employing, not the pale te and brush , but the raver and P - of T . r rinting press, as their means expression hey we e all truly in harmony with the spirit of the age in which they lived ; the majority of them restless intellects as w ell e a e as gift d p int rs , thus they adopted the new art, then im n mensely popular, of e graving and in their works, and in those of the other painter engravers immediately pre c e eding them, we recognise the gr at change and develop ment of northern art in the e arly part of the sixteent h T century. his great change was from medimvalism t o a a l re lism, from h gio ogy and clerical mythology to poetry For and genr e. some years past the writer has been a 2 II E IT E MAsTERs T L TL . te an d attrac d to the subject , has found the period extra ordinarily rich in invention and interesting in relation to h he hO es the entire history of modern art, so t at p to a make his readers share in s ome me sure this interest, ma s n e w to which y be pos ibly them . M II . uch has been written lately on the r evival of classic thin gs which changed t he motives and tastes of E l e urope, main y at first in lit rature, but very quickly in n n t all the arts , especially architecture, but begi ni g wi h . E G r sculpture In ngland , and in e many especially, this period of Renaissance has employed t he pens of able and learned inquirers, but the actual movement, slow but the T irresistible, took place not in eutonic division of our L c continent, but through the atin nations, as we all ' them : mai nly and first in I taly ; the n in France ; and S G feebly in pain . In ermany, indeed, although lite ra u h as ff ture was to c ed by the e thetic spirit, a quite di erent e influence was at work, penetrating, like the pow r of i the spr ng, to foundations of society and of all thought, c o R whi h br ught about the eformation, coincident, or a t - The ne rly so , wi h the spread of our plate printing. f di ference of the two movements is total and absolute . In Italy the higher clergy became essentially free of medimv al l t n Christianity, but the intel ec ual obedie ce of the com munity remain ed as it was centuries befor e whatever the mor al character of the priest might be his authority was u l s unq estioned , painters , ike the re t of the community, showing no incli nation even to entertain the great ques We v tions that were agitating the northern mind . ha e scarcely any evidence that any one of the great Italian r masters, except such as we e monks , had any ideas what v or . e er touching religion , morality, the conduct of life The Italian nature left these matters to the delegated I N OD ION 3 TR UCT .