by other persons, who did not scruple to
father them on Albrecht. That this is true is also proved by the
circumstance that in the year 1511 he represented the whole life of Our
Lady in twenty sheets of the same size, executing it so well that it
would not be possible, whether in invention, in the composition of the
perspective-views, in the buildings, in the costumes, or in the heads of
old and young, to do better. Of a truth, if this man, so able, so
diligent, and so versatile, had had Tuscany instead of Flanders for his
country, and had been able to study the treasures of Rome, as we
ourselves have done, he would have been the best painter of our land,
even as he was the rarest and most celebrated that has ever appeared
among the Flemings. In the same year, continuing to give expression to
his fantasies, Albrecht resolved to execute fifteen woodcuts of the same
size, representing the terrible vision that S. John the Evangelist
described in his Apocalypse on the Isle of Patmos. And so, setting his
hand to the work, with his extravagant imagination, so well suited to
such a subject, he depicted all those things both of heaven and of earth
so beautifully, that it was a marvel, and with such a variety of forms
in those animals and monsters, that it was a great light to many of our
craftsmen, who have since availed themselves of the vast abundance of
his beautiful fantasies and inventions. By the hand of the same master,
also, is a woodcut that is to be seen of a nude Christ, who has round
Him the Mysteries of His Passion, and is weeping for our sins, with His
hands to His face; and this, for a small work, is not otherwise than
worthy of praise.

Then, having grown both in power and in courage, as he saw that his
works were prized, Albrecht executed some copper-plates that astonished
the world. He also set himself to make an engraving, for printing on a
sheet of half-folio, of a figure of Melancholy, with all the instruments
that reduce those who use them, or rather, all mankind, to a melancholy
humour; and in this he succeeded so well, that it would not be possible
to do more delicate engraving with the burin. He executed three small
plates of Our Lady, all different one from another, and most subtle in
engraving. But it would take too long if I were to try to enumerate all
the works that issued from Albrecht's hand; let it be enough for the
present to tell that, having drawn a Passion of Christ in thirty-six
parts, and