in him that
faith by which he led a new life of prayer and praise, and won a
martyr's crown. His solemn-faced horse seems to realize that a miracle
is taking place; and in the foreground are five delicately drawn
hounds. On the steep hill in the rear a noble and picturesque mediaeval
castle rears its battlemented towers above long lines of cliffs.
Tradition says that the face of Eustachius is a portrait of the
Emperor Maximilian. When the Emperor Rudolph secured the original
plate of the engraving, he had it richly gilded.

"The Great Fortune," or "The Nemesis," is a copper-plate showing a
repulsively ugly naked woman, with wings, holding a rich chalice and
a bridle, while on the earth below is a beautiful mountain village
between two confluent rivers. Sandrart says that this is the Hungarian
village of Eytas, where Duerer's father was born; but there is
no proof of this theory. "The Coat-of-Arms with the Cock" is a
fine copper-plate, with some obscure allegorical significance,
representing, perhaps, Vigilance by the cock which stands on a closed
helmet, and Faith by the rampant lion on the shield below.

CHAPTER V.

St. Jerome.--The Melencolia.--Death of Duerer's Mother.--Raphael.
--Etchings.--Maximilian's Arch.--Visit to Augsburg.

The copper-plate engraving of "St. Jerome in his Chamber" was executed
in 1514, and is one of Duerer's three greatest works, a marvel of
brilliancy and beauty, full of accurate detail and minute perfection.
The saint has a grand and venerable head, firmly outlined against a
white halo, and is sitting in a cheerful monastic room, lighted by the
sun streaming through two large arched windows, while he writes at his
desk, translating the Scriptures. In the foreground the lion of St.
Jerome is drowsing, alongside a fat watch-dog; a huge pumpkin hangs
from one of the oaken beams overhead; and patristic tomes and
convenient German utensils are scattered about the room.

"The Virgin on the Crescent Moon" was a copper-plate executed also in
1514, showing the graceful and charming Mary, treated with an idealism
which almost suggests Raphael. This is one of the best of the
seventeen Mary-pictures (_Marien-bilder_) which Duerer executed in
copper. Other copper-plates of 1514 represented Sts. Paul and Thomas,
the Bagpipe-Player, and a Dancing Rustic and his Wife.

"The Melencolia" is the most weirdly fascinating of Duerer's works, and
the most mysterious and variously interpreted. It rep