D CHER, ALBRECHT, or ALBERT, born at Nurnberg on the 20th of May 1471, was the son of a skilful goldsmith, and received that sound education which the wealthy burghers of the free towns of Germany were accustomed to give to their children. In all branches of instruction Albrecht made great progress, and showed also much ingenuity in the profession for which he was Intended; but hie genius being bent towards a nobler art, to the great vexation of his father, he gave up the working of gold, cud planed himself under the most able painter of his native country, Michael Wohlgemuth (1486). After finishing his apprenticeship lie set ont on his travels, and in 1490 went through Germany. On hisjourney he painted portraits and other pictures, which were highly admired. Improved by expe rience, and with increased reputation, he returned home in 1494, and soon after executed his masterpiece, as it was tolled, a drawing of Orpheus. It was the custom of those times for a painter in Germany, in order to be received and acknowledged as a master, to exhibit a piece which merited the approbation of his teacher and of the other masters of his craft, When this was accomplished, the candidate received a kind of diploma, and was entitled to the honours and rights of a master.
After obtaining the mastership Diirer visited Holland and Italy, where he executed some of his best pictures, such as the 'Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew' for the church of St. Mark, and 'Adam and Eve' for the German church in Venice, which was afterwards bought for the Gallery of Prague. In Bologna he became acquainted with Raffaelle, who esteemed him highly. In token of their friendship, each presented the other with his portrait. He returned home in 1507, with the reputation of being the first painter of his country.
" Certainly," says \rased (' Vito de' Pittori '), "if this diligent, Indus trious, universal man had been a native of Tuscany, and if he could have studied as we have done in Rome, be would have been the best painter in our country, as he was the most celebrated that Germany over had."
Ills productions were indeed so highly valued as to attract the notice of the most powerful sovereigns of his time, Maximilian L and Charles V., who appointed him their painter, and bestowed upon him riches and honours.
To please his father, Diirer had married, against his inclination, the daughter of a wealthy neighbour; but the match turned out so unfor tunate that it embittered his life, and his countrymen attributed his premature death to his domestic misfortune. He died in 1523, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. The senate of Niirnberg, to honour the memory of their illustrious citizen, decreed him a public funeral, which was celebrated with great pomp and solemnity.
Drirer was the first man in Germany who taught the rules of per spective and the proportions of the human body according to mathe matical and anatomical principles. In fact, his works were in this respect so classical, that even his prints and wood-cuts were purchased by the Italian painters for their improvement in those branches.
His paintings are admired for the vivid and fertile imagination, the sublime conception and the wonderful union of boldness and correct ness of deaiga which they display. Some critics have found fault with the unnecessary, or, as it has been termed, ostentatious correct ness of drawing and the exuberance of his imagination ; but the only fault that can be really objected to in him is his total neglect of costume. Yet the censure of this fault arises from his adopting a conventional costume, which is contrary in its character to that of the great Italian masters, rather than from the costume being untrue. His costume certainly appears faulty enough, but the fault is that it is over-elaborate rather than neglected. His pictures, in spite of this 'violation of the rules of taste, produce lasting impressions of the snblime and beautiful ; and impartial judges must always honour in Lim tho greatest master of the old German achool.