attracted great crowds to the church, and
quickly enriched the monastery. Singularly enough, the most famous
part of the picture was the sole of the foot of one of the kneeling
Apostles, which was esteemed such a marvellous work that great sums
were offered to have it cut out of the canvas. The Emperor Rudolph II.
offered the immense amount of 10,000 florins for the painting, in
vain; but in 1613 it passed into the possession of Maximilian of
Bavaria, and was destroyed in the burning of the palace at Munich,
sixty years later. So the renowned picture, which Duerer said gave him
"more joy and satisfaction than any other he ever undertook," passed
away, leaving no engraving or other memorial, save a copy by Paul
Juvenal. This excellent reproduction is now at Nuremberg, and is
provided with the original wings, beautifully painted by Duerer,
showing on one the portrait of Jacob Heller and the death of St.
James, and on the other Heller's wife, and the martyrdom of St.
Catherine.

In 1501 the burgher Schiltkrot and the pious copper-smith Matthaeus
Landaeuer founded the House of the Twelve Brothers, an alms-house for
poor old men of Nuremberg; and eight years later, Landaeuer ordered
Duerer to paint an altar-piece of "The Adoration of the Trinity," for
its chapel. Much of the master's time for the next two years was
devoted to this great work.

CHAPTER IV.

Duerer's House.--His Poetry.--Sculptures.--The Great and Little
Passions.--Life of the Virgin.--Plagiarists.--Works for the Emperor
Maximilian.

Some time after his marriage with Agnes Frey, Duerer moved into the new
house near the Thiergaertner Gate, which had perhaps been bought with
the dowry of his bride. Here he labored until his death, and executed
his most famous works. It is a spacious house, with a lower story of
stone, wide portals, a paved interior court, and pleasant upper rooms
between thick half-timber walls, whose mullioned windows look out on
lines of quaint Gothic buildings and towers, and on the broad paved
square at the foot of the Zisselgasse (now Albrecht-Duerer-Strasse).
Just across the square was the so-called "Pilate's House," whose
owner, Martin Koetzel, had made two pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and
brought back measurements of the Dolorous Way. The artist's house is
now carefully preserved as public property, and contains the gallery
of the Duerer Art-Union. In 1828, on the third centennial of his death,
the people erected a bronze