DITRER, ALBERT, the father of the German school of painting, "the prince of artists," as his countrymen loved to call him, was born at Ntirnberg in 1471, according to an entry in his father's day-book, on the day of St. Prudentius, on a Friday of the holy week." His father was a humble pious goldsmith, of whom the great painter " His daily speech to us was, that we should abound in love to God, and act faithfully towards our neighbor." D. was carefully educated and instructed by his father in the goldsmith trade, and at 15 executed a piece of work in chased silver repre senting the seven "falls of Christ"—in reference to the tradition that Christ fell seven times while bearing his cross to Mt. Calvary. Even as a child, drawing was his delight, and he was wont to astonish by the exactness with which he drew parts of the human body, and even whole figures, also lines and circles at the first stroke, without ruler or compass. His father therefore bound him apprentice, in 1486, to Michael Wohlgemuth, the chief Nurnberg artist, with whom he served three years. From 1490 to 1494 he traveled in Germany and the Venetian states; and on his return, his father " bargained" with Haus Frei, a skillful mechanic of Nurnberg to give him to wife his daughter Agnes, who turned out a perfect Xantippe, with nothing to recommend her but beauty and 200 florins, who embittered the whole course of his life, and, as his life-long friend Pirk hemmer asserts. hastened his death. After receiving his diploma with all the honors and rights of a master, obtained for his famous drawing of Orpheus, lie went to Venice in 1505, where he painted a picture of the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, and one of Adam and Eve, afterwards bought for the gallery at Prague. He also visited Bologna, where it is said that lie met with Raphael, who esteemed him highly, and that each painted for the other his portrait. After this journey, his fanhe spread widely, and the Emperor Maximilian appointed him court painter, with an annuity of 100 florins; and Charles V. confirmed the same in a document still to be seen in the Nurnberg archives. In 1520, lie visited the Netherlands with his wife and their maid-servant; and they were splendidly entertained at Antwerp and Bruges by the painters, a costly dinner being served on vessels of silver, the whole party conducting them home late in the night by the light of many torches. His expenses were often defrayed at the inns, and lie was escorted free from city to city. He says in his journal - "The people did obeisance unto me as if they were leading some great lord." D. warmly embraced the doctrines of the Reformation; and his journal contains a long lamentation and prayer on hearing that Luther had been carried off to the castle of Wartburg. At Antwerp he records: " I
was now overcome by a strange sickness, of Which I never yet heard from any man." 'This was in 1521, and the "strange sickness"—no other than consumption—took yet seven years to. consume his strong frame; he d. in his native city, 6th April, 1528, in his 57th year.
D's facility was almost incredible. He thought out his works, and then executed them 'without sketch, and never altered a line. Of his coloring, Fuson says: " Duer excelled Raphael in juice and breadth of coloring as much as Raphael excelled him in every other quality." His drawing was perfect. So quaint were the presentments of his genius, he may be called the Chaucer of painting. In his portraits, lie not only caught the expression, but delineated character and passion. D. was the. inventor of the art of etching. He found wood-engraving in its infancy, and raised it to be a pattern for all times; he also discovered the method of bringing out wood-cuts in two colors. Histor ical and other paintings by D. are to be seen at Vienna, Munich, Prague, Dresden, and The oldest of his pictures extant is the portrait of himself of the year 1498, in the Florentine gallery. His engravings and wood-cuts are so numerous, that all his surpassing diligence it is known that for many of them he only gave the designs: ,M wood-cuts are known marked with his name, the most famous of which are the " Great Passion," the "Little Passion, " his favorite work, the " Revelation of St. John," •and the series called the " Triumph of Maximilian," a copy of which is in the Advo cates' Library in Edinburgh. In the British museum, there is a volume with more than 200 original drawings by D., formerly in the collection of sir Hans Sloane, also an exquisite carving in hone-stone, of the birth of St. John, and a number of engravings, .bequeathed by Mr. Nollekens. His own list of his works enumerates 1,254 pieces.
In the last three years of his life he published works on perspective and measure ment, on fortification, and on human proportion, of which last lie only lived to correct the first volume. His life has been written by Heller, Roth, Campo, and others; in English by W. B. Scott and Mrs. Heaton. Deeply religious and reverent, he was also of a cheerful temperament, and was long chief magistrate of his native t., where there is a brass statue of him, designed by the famous sculptor Rauch, and his house is still to be seen at the corner of a street called by his name.