r, which is now at Florence, was executed by the young artist in
1490, probably to carry with him as a souvenir of home. Muendler says,
"For beauty and delicacy of modelling, this portrait has scarcely been
surpassed afterwards by the master, perhaps not equalled."

It was claimed by certain old biographers that the eminent Martin
Schongauer of Colmar was Duerer's first master; but this is now
contested, although it is evident that his pictures had a powerful
effect on the youth. Schongauer was the greatest artist and engraver
that Germany had as yet produced, and exerted a profound influence on
the art of the Rhineland. He renewed the fantastic conceits and
grotesque vagaries which the Papal artists of Cologne had suppressed
as heathenish, and prepared the way for, or perhaps even suggested,
the weird elements of Duerer's conceptions. At the same time he passed
back of his Netherland art-education, and studied a mystic benignity
and dreamy spirituality suggestive of the Umbrian painters, with whose
chief, the great Perugino, Martin was acquainted. Herein Duerer's works
were in strong contrast with Schongauer's, and showed the new spirit
that was stirring in the world.

Next to Schongauer, the great Italian artist Mantegna exercised the
strongest influence upon Duerer, who studied his bold and austere
engravings with earnest admiration, showing his traits in many
subsequent works. Probably he met the famous Mantuan painter during
the _Wander-jahre_, in Italy; and at the close of his Venetian journey
he was about to pay a visit of homage to him, when he heard of his
death.

During his three years of study we have seen that the delicate and
sensitive youth suffered much from the reckless rudeness and jeering
insults of his companions, rough hand-workers who doubtless failed to
understand the poignancy of the torments which they inflicted on the
sad-eyed son of genius. But his home was near at hand, and the tender
care of his parents, always beloved. How often he must have wandered
through the familiar streets of Nuremberg, with his dreamy artist-face
and flowing hair, and studied the Gothic palaces, the fountains
adorned with statuary, and the rich treasures of art in the great
churches! Beyond the tall-towered town, danger lurked on every road;
but inside the gray walls was peace and safety, and no free lances nor
marauding men-at-arms could check the aspiring flight of the youth's
bright imagination.

"And when the