unworthy jealousies or
captious criticism. Well would it be for us all, and infinitely better
for the world of art, if we practised still more

"Those gentler charities which draw
Man closer with his kind,
Those sweet humilities which make
The music which they find."[227-*]

Duerer was essentially a man to love. His nature was kindly and open; he
knew no envy, and was never known to condemn the work of another
artist,--which, if bad, he would only criticise with a smile, and a
"Well! the master has done his best." His general information was so
good, that it was declared of him by a contemporary, that his power as
an artist was his least qualification. His personal appearance was
dignified, and his face eminently handsome.[227-[+]] Yet, with all these
means of being happy, and making others so, few men endured more misery.
In an evil hour his family made a match for him in the household of Hans
Frei, whose daughter Agnes he married, and scarcely knew peace after.
She was a heartless, selfish woman, who could have no feeling in common
with her husband, and who only valued his art according to the money it
realised. "She urged him to labour day and night solely to earn money,
even at the cost of his life, that he might leave it to her," says
Pirkheimer, in one of his letters to Tscherte, their mutual friend the
Viennese architect. All his friends she insulted and drove from the
house, in order that their visits might not interfere with his labours.
His aged mother, whom he had taken into his house after his father's
death, was subject to contempt and ill-treatment. His letters from
Venice are sad, and show no pleasant home-thoughts. Yet he did much for
the bad woman to whom he was wedded, and seems to have thought of her
gratification by numerous presents. His amiable heart would not allow
him to separate from her, thus he bore her ill humours for his life, and
patiently endured his lot.[228-*] There were few men more adapted to
make a woman happy than Duerer: he had a handsome person, much fame, good
friends, great talent, and the most kindly amiability; but his wife was
perhaps the worst on record, on whom all this was thrown away. Yet she
was of very religious habit, and preserved all the externals of
propriety; but, as Pirkheimer observes, "one would rather choose a woman
who conducts herself in an agreeable manner, than a fretful, jealous,
scolding wife, however devout she may be."

Banished f