In Raphael's picture we see the working of the artist's imagination. The Italian artist clothes his figures to suit his sense of beauty, and follows, in the fall of the drapery and the construction of the groups, his instinct for the rhythm of lines; the German does his best to make a sym metrical whole of the reality with which he is obliged to deal: far from uplifting us with him to heaven, he remains with us upon the earth. Holbein is not, like Raphael, a painter for all times and nations, but lie compensates for this lack by depth of feeling and truthfulness of pres entation. There can be no question of any influence exerted by the Italian upon the German picture. Both are governed by the same artistic tradi tions, which had developed slowly through several centuries to the point of admitting freedom along with symmetry in composition, and of making a fundamental unity of sentiment compatible with great variety of indi vidual expression.
Raphael .. Albrecht the other hand, Raphael was acquainted with engravings on wood and copper displaying the inventive imagination of Albrecht Darer, his power of giving character to whatever he touched, the vigor and clearness of his themes. The two artists exchanged letters and examples of their work, from which we may conclude beyond doubt that Christ bearing the Cross (p1. 35, fig. 3), in Diirer's woodcut The Great Passion, furnished the suggestion for the oil-painting of Raphael which is known as the Spasimo di Sicilia (fig. 4), the Sicilian " Death-Agony;'' it was painted for the Convent of Santa Maria dello Spasinio, at Palermo, in Sicily, but was afterward taken to Madrid. To Diirer belongs the happy idea by which the procession is represented as coming from the city and just turning toward Golgotha; thus we are enabled to overlook its extent, and the Saviour, who has fallen under the weight of the cross, looking out from the picture, appears naturally as the central point of the whole. The woodcut is distinguished by vividness of action and dramatic grasp; the bearing and gesticulation of single figures are ener getically expressive of the artist's meaning. In this matter Raphael has not excelled Diirer, and in many points has simply followed him, but he has arranged the whole composition with greater clearness.
In Diirer's picture Veronica with the handkerchief kneels beside Christ; Raphael sets this legend aside and gives to the mother her place beside the son; she has fallen, like him, upon her knees, and stretches out her arms toward him. The other women, with John, form a sym metrical group busied about Mary, but at the same time in evident rela tion to the principal figure of Jesus. Diirer shows Mary, with hands
folded over her breast, following behind her son in his journey of suffering. She and John are separated from him by Simon of Cvrene, who seeks to relieve the Saviour of the cross, while opposite to Veronica is a soldier attempting to drag Jesus to his feet by the cord. This soldier appears also in Raphael's picture, but his coarse face is less prominent; we see chiefly his back, and the eve is gratified by the more energetic movement which the artist has imparted to his muscular body. The two soldiers with cord and lance and Simon of Cyrene form a group on one side which corre sponds to the group of sympathizing women with the apostle on the other. Thus we have a clear arrangement and a balance of contrasts. Moreover, the turning of the procession is better defined by the horseman with the flag, and the Roman and the Jew opposite him are more sharply distinguished. In Diirer's work there is more picturesque confusion; Raphael displays his figures in a manner suggestive of ancient reliefs. The idea belonged to the German; the Italian brought it to more harmo nious perfection and made strength blossom into beauty.
Albrecht Dfirer: Guido Revd.—Among Diirer's woodcuts we find also " the head full of blood and wounds" (pt. 35, fig. 5), executed in a size larger than life. In its majestic power it reminds us of the Otricoli bust of Zeus 8,As,v. 6), but its beauty is of a more spiritual order. Depth of pain and the consciousness of overcoming pain—that blending of hero ism and passive suffering which exalts us above death—find here as perfect an expression as in Bach's Passion-mnsic. The mouth is slightly opened, like that of the Zeus of Otricoli, but, unlike that, for lamentation; the forehead is furrowed with pain; the skin hangs loose under the brows. Vet through all this agitation we feel the repose in which the immovable steadfastness of the inner nature of the life that is at bottom divine declares itself with overpowering force, far more nobly than in the bent head and upward glance of Guido Reni's Ecce 35,fig. 6). Guido was one of those Italians who after Raphael's time sought to arrest the decline of art by a thorough study of antiquity and of the old masters; his Madonnas are modelled upon the .Viobc. his Christ is the typical martyr of art— a beautiful body and a soul which draws its power of conquering pain from God above. Diirer's Saviour is himself God; in him are salvation and eternity.