f Germany. Here also is the
controverted picture of "Calvary," dated 1505, displaying on one small
canvas all the scenes of the Passion, with an astonishing number of
figures finished in miniature.

"The Satyr's Family" is an engraving on copper, showing the
goat-footed father cheerily playing on a pipe, to the evident
amusement of his human wife and child. "The Great Horse" and "The
Little Horse" are similar productions of this period, in which the
commentators vainly strive to find some recondite meaning. Sixteen
engravings on copper were made between 1500 and 1506.

Duerer has been called "The Chaucer of Painting," by reason of the
marvellous quaintness of his conceptions; and Ruskin speaks of him as
"intense in trifles, gloomily minute." His details, minute as they
were, received the most careful study, and were all thought out before
the pictures were begun, so that he neither erased nor altered his
lines, nor made preliminary sketches. He was essentially a thinker who
drew, rather than a drawer who thought.

CHAPTER III.

The Journey to Venice.--Bellini's Friendship.--Letters to
Pirkheimer.--"The Feast of Rose Garlands."--Bologna.--"Adam and
Eve."--"The Coronation of the Virgin."

Late in 1505 Duerer made a journey to Venice, probably with a view to
recover his health, enlarge his circle of friends and patrons, and
study the famous Venetian paintings. He was worn down by continuous
hard work, and weary of the dull uneventfulness of his life, and
hailed an opportunity to rest in sunny Italy. He borrowed money from
Pirkheimer for his journey, and left a small sum for family expenses
during his absence. Between Nuremberg and her rich Southern rival
there was a large commerce, with a weekly post; and many German
merchants and artists were then residing in Venice. Duerer rode down on
horseback; and suffered an attack of illness at Stein, near Laibach,
where he rewarded the artist who had nursed him by painting a picture
on the wall of his house. On arriving at Venice, the master was
cordially received, and highly honored by the chief artists and
literati of the city. The heads of Venetian art at that time were
Giovanni Bellini and Carpaccio, both of whom were advanced in years;
and Giorgione and Titian, who were not mentioned by our traveller,
though they were both at work for the Fondaco de' Tedeschi at the same
time as himself.

During his residence in Venice he wrote nine long letters to "the
honora