



Produced by D Alexander, Juliet Sutherland and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









 _ARTIST-BIOGRAPHIES._

 DUeRER.

 BOSTON:
 HOUGHTON, OSGOOD, AND COMPANY.

 The Riverside Press, Cambridge.

 1879.




 COPYRIGHT.
 BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.
 1877.

 FRANKLIN PRESS:
 RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY,
 BOSTON.




ARTIST-BIOGRAPHIES.

PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT.


The growth of a popular interest in art and its history has been very
rapid during the last decade of American life, and is still in
progress. This interest is especially directed towards the lives of
artists themselves; and a general demand exists for a uniform series
of biographies of those most eminent, which shall possess the
qualities of reliability, compactness, and cheapness.

To answer this demand the present series has been projected. The
publishers have intrusted its preparation to Mr. M. F. Sweetser, whose
qualities of thoroughness in research and fidelity in statement have
been proved in other fields of authorship. It is believed that by the
omission of much critical and discursive matter commonly found in art
biographies, an account of an artist's life may be presented, which is
at once truthful and attractive, within the limits prescribed for
these volumes.

The series will be published at the rate of one or two volumes each
month, at 50 cents each volume, and will contain the lives of the most
famous artists of mediaeval and modern times. It will include the lives
of many of the following:--

 Raphael,                Claude,             Van Dyck,
 Michael Angelo,         Poussin,            Gainsborough,
 Leonardo da Vinci,      Delacroix,          Reynolds,
 Titian,                 Delaroche,          Wilkie,
 Tintoretto,             Greuze,             Lawrence,
 Paul Veronese,          Duerer,              Landseer,
 Guido,                  Rubens,             Turner,
 Murillo,                Rembrandt,          West,
 Velasquez,              Holbein,            Copley,
 Salvator Rosa,          Teniers,            Allston.




PREFACE.


This little volume presents an account of the life of one of the
noblest and most versatile artists of Germany, with a passing glance
at the activities of Northern Europe at the era of the Reformation.
The weird and wonderful paintings of Duerer are herein concisely
described, as well as the most famous and characteristic of his
engravings and carvings; and his quaint literary works are enumerated.
It has also been thought advisable to devote considerable space to
details about Nuremberg, the scene of the artist's greatest labors;
and to reproduce numerous extracts from his fascinating Venetian
letters and Lowland journals.

The modern theory as to Duerer's wife and his home has been accepted
in this work, after a long and careful examination of the arguments
on both sides. It is pleasant thus to be able to aid in the
rehabilitation of the much-slandered Agnes, and to have an oppressive
cloud of sorrow removed from the memory of the great painter.

The chief authorities used in the preparation of this new memoir are
the recent works of Dr. Thausing and Mr. W. B. Scott, with the series
of articles now current in "The Portfolio," written by Professor
Colvin. Mrs. Heaton's biography has also been studied with care; and
other details have been gathered from modern works of travel and
art-criticism, as well as from "The Art Journal," "La Gazette des
Beaux Arts," and other periodicals of a similar character.

                                  M. F. SWEETSER.




CONTENTS.


 CHAPTER I.

 1471-1494.                                                       PAGE

 The Activities of Nuremberg.--The Duerer Family.--Early Years of
 Albert.--His Studies with Wohlgemuth.--The _Wander-Jahre_          7


 CHAPTER II.

 1494-1505.

 Duerer marries Agnes Frey.--