in the text of the "Schatz-behalter" to represent Christ voluntarily embracing and taking unto himself Death. "Christ," says he, "has sought out death in the midst of an open place; his looks are those at once of a redeemer's commiseration and a martyr's resolve; ordinarily it is death, himself, who chooses his own victim, to waylay him; this time it is one stronger than he who advances in unheard of free submission; and at the supreme surrender the fiend himself is awed into solemnity. The two approach each other with deliberation, and with something of ceremony; Christ gently draws to himself the abhorred monster, who, with no forwardness or rudeness, returns the embrace." "Few inventions in art are more simply daring, or better expressed with rougher means."

But Wolgemuth is not now known to us only as a designer on wood. The ingenuity of Professor Thausing of Vienna, seconded by that of Professor Colvin, has, within the last few years, assigned to Wolgemuth a considerable number of rare prints, signed by a W, and hitherto generally attributed to Wenzel, a goldsmith of Olmutz.

The unique print of the "Annunciation," which has been lately reproduced, exhibits a just perspective, a careful shading, a noble disposition of draperies, and a skill and interest in depicting details of the household, which is fully worthy of Durer. It is a curious fact that a number of Durer's most celebrated early prints are found duplicated over this same signature of W. The great "Hercules," the "Anymone," the "Couple Walking with Death behind a Tree," the "Dream of Love," are of this number.

While W was supposed to be the obscure goldsmith of Olmutz, these duplicates have been categoried among the copies of Durer; but it has now been pointed out that some of them are superior to the corresponding productions of Durer, and that in the case of the "Couple Walking," the position of the figures in the respective prints is reversed, and that Durer's picture is probably the copy.

Sufficient probability, on the whole, concedes these prints to Wolgemuth, and it is added that "the discovery seriously detracts from Durer's achievements, for it shows that he was

indebted to his master for the designs of nearly all his prints in the Italian manner."

But we must pass on to the last, and notwithstanding what we have said, the greatest name of all, Albert Durer, the great master of Nuremberg, who stands utterly alone in supreme and mysterious thoughtfulness. It is, however, only his earliest prints that the period can claim, for his activity extends far into the succeeding century.

Durer began to work about 1493, and in wood cutting his fame was established in 1498 by his great design of the "Apocalypse," indicating, as it did, the advent of a climax of power and character.

In metal plate his engraving of the "Adam and Eve" of 1504, one of his earliest dated prints, was regarded by him as his best work; and in purity and simplicity of design, and perfection of technique, his opinion is justified by subsequent criticism. Still those prints of Durer from metal plates to which may be fairly assigned a date as early as 1504, evince a far different spirit from the products of his riper years. The question of chronology of Durer's undated prints is a subject involved in much obscurity. By some the "Woman with the Wildman" is regarded as his earliest effort, by others the "Holy Family with the Butterfly," and it is true that these plates indicate only a clever 'prentice hand. The "Four Naked Women" has the earliest impressed date, 1497; but the style of this piece is superior to many undated and presumably earlier specimens. Perhaps as a general rule the prevalent opinion may be followed of assigning to a date prior to 1504 those prints of Durer's in which the initials of his name, arranged in cypher, are small and light, and occupy a central position at the bottom of the picture, as distinguished from those in which the cypher accompanies a date or occupies a tablet which is treated differently in different prints. Among the early prints may be numbered the "Anymone," the "St. Jerome in the Wilderness," the "Prodigal Son," the "Vir gin with the Monkey," the "Dream of Love," the "Couple Walking," and the "Men at Arms." It is to be noted that none of these pieces involve the high and weird imagination which pervades acknowledged works of the master's maturity.