better than a common scold, who
imbittered his life by her termagancy, is the creation of the ill
temper of one of the testy friends of Duerer, Willibald Pirkheimer,
who, in the spirit of spitefulness, besmirched her character in a
letter which unfortunately survives to this day, and in which he
accuses her of having led her husband a mad and weary dance by her
temper. The reason for this ebullition on the part of Pirkheimer
appears to have been that, after Duerer's death, she refused to give
him a pair of antlers which had belonged to her husband, and which
Pirkheimer had set his heart upon having.

[Illustration: Albert Duerer's Wedding.]

The first eleven years of the married life of Duerer were spent in
Nuremberg, where he devoted himself with unremitting assiduity to the
prosecution of his art. During these years his powers unfolded
rapidly, and there are extant two notable pictures, which were
undoubtedly produced at this time, the triptych in the Dresden
Gallery, and an altar-piece which is in the palace of the Archbishop
of Vienna, at Ober St. Veit. These compositions, while remarkable in
many respects, still reveal the influence of his master, Wohlgemuth,
and give evidence of having been in part executed with the assistance
of apprentices. In fact, the peak-gabled house at the foot of the
castle-mound in Nuremberg was a picture factory like that of
Wohlgemuth, in which, however, work of a higher order than any
hitherto produced in Germany was being turned out. We know the names
of four or five of those who served as apprentices under Duerer at
this time and they are stars of lesser magnitude in the
constellation of German art. But Duerer was not contented simply to
employ his talents in the production of painted altar-pieces, and we
find him turning out a number of engravings, the most noticeable among
which are his sixteen great wood-cuts illustrating the Apocalypse,
which were published in 1498. The theme was one which had peculiar
fascinations for all classes at the time. The breaking up of all
pre-existing systems, the wonderful stirrings of a new life which were
beginning to be felt everywhere with the close of the Middle Age and
the dawning of the Renaissance, had filled the minds of men with
wonder, and caused them to turn to the writings of the Apocalyptic
Seer with keenest interest. A recent critic, commenting upon his work
as represented in these engravings, says: "The energy and undismayed
simpli