whether painter or engraver, naturally excelling in
portraits. But choice portraits are less numerous in engraving than in
painting, for the reason, that painting does not always find a
successful translator.

[Illustration: PHILIP MELANCTHON.

(Engraved by Albert Duerer from his own Design.)]

[Sidenote: Duerer.]

The earliest engraved portraits which attract attention are by Albert
Duerer, who engraved his own work, translating himself. His eminence as
painter was continued as engraver. Here he surpassed his predecessors,
Martin Schoen in Germany, and Mantegna in Italy, so that Longhi does
not hesitate to say that he was the first who carried the art from
infancy in which he found it to a condition not far from flourishing
adolescence. But, while recognizing his great place in the history of
engraving, it is impossible not to see that he is often hard and
constrained, if not unfinished. His portrait of ERASMUS is justly
famous, and is conspicuous among the prints exhibited in the British
Museum. It is dated 1526, two years before the death of Duerer, and has
helped to extend the fame of the universal scholar and approved man of
letters, who in his own age filled a sphere not unlike that of
Voltaire in a later century. There is another portrait of Erasmus by
Holbein, often repeated, so that two great artists have contributed to
his renown. That by Duerer is admired. The general fineness of touch,
with the accessories of books and flowers, shows the care in its
execution; but it wants expression, and the hands are far from
graceful.

Another most interesting portrait by Duerer, executed in the same year
with the Erasmus, is PHILIP MELANCTHON, the St. John of the
Reformation, sometimes called the teacher of Germany. Luther, while
speaking of himself as rough, boisterous, stormy, and altogether
warlike, says, "but Master Philippus comes along softly and gently,
sowing and watering with joy according to the rich gifts which God has
bestowed upon him." At the date of the print he was twenty-nine years
of age, and the countenance shows the mild reformer.

[Sidenote: Caracci.]

Agostino Caracci, of the Bolognese family, memorable in art, added to
considerable success as painter undoubted triumphs as engraver. His
prints are numerous, and many are regarded with favor; but out of the
long list not one is so sure of that longevity allotted to art as his
portrait of TITIAN, which bears date 1587, eleven years after the