man would have surpassed us all if he had had the
masterpieces of art constantly before his eyes as we have." Even so at
the present day is it seen, that if Duerer had studied classic art, and
imbibed its principles, he might have added a rare beauty to the weird
ugliness and solemnity of his designs, and substituted the sweet
Graces for the grim Walkyrie. Yet in that case the world would have
lost the fascinations of the sad and profound Nuremberg pictures, with
their terrific realism and fantastic richness.

Italy did not disdain to borrow the ideas of the transalpine artist;
and even Raphael took the design of his famous picture of "The
Entombment" (_Lo Spasimo_) from Duerer's picture in "The Great
Passion." Titian borrowed from his "Life of the Virgin" the figure of
an old woman, which he introduced in his "Presentation in the Temple."
The Florentine Pontormo copied a whole landscape from one of Duerer's
paintings; and Andrea del Sarto received many direct suggestions from
his works.

"It is very surprising in regard to that man, that in a
rude and barbarous age he was the first of the Germans who
not only arrived at an exact imitation of nature, but has
likewise left no second; being so absolute a master of it in
all its parts,--in etching, engraving, statuary,
architecture, optics, symmetry, and the rest,--that he had
no equal except Michael Angelo Buonarotti, his contemporary
and rival; and he left behind him such works as were too
much for the life of one man."--JOHN ANDREAS.

In the preface to his Latin translation of "The Four Books of Human
Proportion," the Rector Camerarius says: "Nature gave our Albert a
form remarkable for proportion and height, and well suited to the
beautiful spirit which it held therein; so that in his case she was
not unmindful of the harmony which Hippocrates loves to dwell upon,
whereby she assigns a grotesque body to the grotesquely-spirited ape,
while she enshrines the noble soul in a befitting temple. He had a
graceful hand, brilliant eyes, a nose well-formed, such as the Greeks
call [Greek: Tetragonon], the neck a little long, chest full, stomach
flat, hips well-knit, and legs straight. As to his fingers, you would
have said that you never saw any thing more graceful. Such, moreover,
was the charm of his language, that listeners were always sorry when
he had finished speaking.

"He did not devote himself to the study of literature