Copies op albert durer. ' f>t 



fallible token of its being a copy ; fo that nothing is 

 left for them to do, but to pronounce by reports, or 

 from the deficiency of the name at bottom. 



The virgin Mary, with the wallet, of 15 14. No. 39. 

 Of this plate there is an impreffion current in all col- 

 lections, which, if it be not a copy, is at leafl fo arti- 

 ficially retouched by a modern^ but very fkilful artift, 

 that, when held up with the firft impreffions, it is 

 hardly to be known again. In nothing is the difference 

 more difcernible than in the head of the infant Jefus. 

 The antient original impreffions keep the head of the 

 child nearly in a perfect light. The left fide of the 

 cheek is not feparated from the nofe by the fmalleft 

 etching. On the contrary, in the modern impreffion 

 the lower eyelid to the left is quite fhaded, and the 

 eye-mufcle and the brow-mufcle are fo ftrongly mark- 

 ed, that the child feems actually to be making gri- 

 maces, or to have got the gripes. In the old impref- 

 fion the countenance is open and ferene. The right 

 arm likewife in the modern impreffion feems to be 

 turned more like a bologna- faufage than an arm, and 

 in all the bendings of the contour much too hard. In 

 the antient impreffions in the head of the mother the 

 nofe is kept in a broad light, and the right cheek, as 

 well as the right eye- lid, are but little fhaded ; whereas 

 the latter, in the modern impreffions, or probably in 

 the copy, are quite fhaded. In the old ones there is 

 fcarcely any fhade on the left cheek, where the drapery 

 covers the ear. In the modern impreffions a powerful 

 fhade is continued down. The folds of the drapery on 

 the left breait are in the old impreffions kept ex- 

 tremely weak, in the modern they refemble wet paper. 



e 2. On 



