“It is very surprising in regard to that man, that in a rude and barbarous age he was the first of the Germans who not only arrived at an exact imitation of nature, but has likewise left no second; being so absolute a master of it in all its parts,—in etching, engraving, statuary, architecture, optics, symmetry, and the rest,—that he had no equal except Michael Angelo Buonarotti, his contemporary and rival; and he left behind him such works as were too much for the life of one man.”—John Andreas.
In the preface to his Latin translation of “The Four Books of Human Proportion,” the Rector Camerarius says: “Nature gave our Albert a form remarkable for proportion and height, and well suited to the beautiful spirit which it held therein; so that in his case she was not unmindful of the harmony which Hippocrates loves to dwell upon, whereby she assigns a grotesque body to the grotesquely-spirited ape, while she enshrines the noble soul in a befitting temple. He had a graceful hand, brilliant eyes, a nose well-formed, such as the Greeks call Τετράγωνον, the neck a little long, chest full, stomach flat, hips well-knit, and legs straight. As to his fingers, you would have said that you never saw any thing more graceful. Such, moreover, was the charm of his language, that listeners were always sorry when he had finished speaking.
“He did not devote himself to the study of literature, though he was in a great measure master of what it conveys, especially of natural science and mathematics. He was well acquainted with the principal facts of these sciences, and could apply them as well as set them forth in words: witness his treatises on geometry, in which there is nothing to be desired that I can find, at least so far as he has undertaken to treat the subject.... But Nature had especially designed him for painting, which study he embraced with all his might, and was never tired of considering the works and methods of celebrated painters, and learning from them all that commended itself to him.... If he had a fault it was this: that he worked with too untiring industry, and practised a degree of severity towards himself that he often carried beyond bounds.”
A LIST OF
ALBERT DÜRER’S CHIEF PAINTINGS
NOW IN EXISTENCE, WITH THE DATES OF THEIR EXECUTION,
AND THEIR PRESENT LOCATIONS.
***The interrogation-mark is annexed to the titles of certain paintings which two or more critics regard as of doubtful authenticity.
GERMANY.