e over our souls. And her
good works, and the loving compassion that she showed to every one, I
can never sufficiently set forth to her praise. This my good mother
bore and brought up eighteen children; she has often had the
pestilence and many other dangerous and remarkable illnesses; has
suffered great poverty, scoffing, disparagement, spiteful words,
fears, and great reverses: yet she has never been revengeful. A year
after the day on which she was first taken ill ... my pious mother
departed in a Christian manner, with all sacraments, absolved by
Papal power from pain and sin. She gave me her blessing, and desired
for me God's peace, and that I should keep myself from evil. And she
desired also St. John's blessing, which she had, and she said she was
not afraid to come before God. But she died hard; and I perceived that
she saw something terrible, for she kept hold of the holy water, and
did not speak for a long time. I saw also how Death came, and gave her
two great blows on the heart; and how she shut her eyes and mouth, and
departed in great sorrow. I prayed for her, and had such great grief
for her that I can never express. God be gracious to her! Her greatest
joy was always to speak of God, and to do all to his honor and glory.
And she was sixty-three years old when she died, and I buried her
honorably according to my means. God the Lord grant that I also make a
blessed end, and that God with his heavenly hosts, and my father,
mother, and friend, be present at my end, and that the Almighty God
grant us eternal life! Amen. And in her death she looked still more
lovely than she was in her life."

In 1514 the prince of Italian painters and the noblest of German
artists exchanged pleasant civilities by correspondence, accompanied
by specimens of their labors. Duerer sent to Raphael his own portrait,
which was afterwards inherited and dearly prized by Giulio Romano.
Raphael returned several of his own studies and drawings, one of
which, showing two naked men drawn in red crayon, is now preserved in
the Albertina at Vienna. It still bears Duerer's inscription: "Raphael
of Urbino, who is so highly esteemed by the Pope, has drawn this study
from the nude, and has sent it to Albert Duerer at Nuremberg, in order
to show him his hand."

The invention of the art of etching has been generally attributed to
Duerer, though it now seems that he merely improved and perfected the
process. There are but few etchings in existenc