Our Portrait Gallery 3 1 1 



Luther, in a letter to his friend Eoban Hesse, writes: "As 

 for Diirer, assuredly affection bids us mourn for one who was 

 the best of men, yet you may well hold him happy that he 

 has made so good an end, and that Christ has taken him 

 from the midst of this time of troubles, and from yet greater 

 troubles in store, lest he, that deserves to behold nothing but 

 the best should be compelled to behold the worst ; therefore 

 may he rest in peace with his fathers. Amen." 



In addition to woodcuts, Diirer engraved on copper, and 

 in the latter part of his life did some etching. He was the 

 author of works on geometry and perspective, and on the 

 proportions of the human figure, and on fortification. He 

 left behind him a diary, which, together with some of his 

 letters, was afterwards published in German. Our own 

 British Museum contains in a large volume (part of Lord 

 Arundel's collection) a very fine series of his original draw- 

 ings. A still richer one is in the Albertina Palace at Vienna. 1 



1 We have been indebted for many of the above facts to Sidney Colvin's 

 biography in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." 



