ch springs a tall column
with two horrible female monsters at the base, and a horned satyr at
the top, holding long garlands.

The marvellous "Triumphal Arch of Maximilian" is composed of
ninety-two blocks, forming an immense woodcut ten and a half feet high
and nine feet wide. It shows three great towers, under which are the
three gates of Praise, Nobility, and Honor and Power, with the six
chained harpies of temptation, and two vigilant Archdukes in armor,
and figures holding garlands and crowns. The great genealogical tree
rises above the figures that represent France, Sycambria, and Troy,
and bears portrait-like half-figures of the twenty-six Christian
princes from whom Maximilian claimed descent, with pictures of himself
and his family. There are also twenty-four minutely delicate cuts,
showing the most remarkable events in the Emperor's life, accompanied
with rugged explanatory rhymes by the poet-laureate. Dr. von Eye says
that "the extent and difficulty of the task appear to have called
forth the powers of the artist to their highest exercise. In no work
of Duerer's do we find more beautiful drawing than there is here. Each
single piece might be taken out and prized as an independent work of
art."

The master drew these very elaborate and intricate designs between
1512 and 1515; and the enormous work of engraving them was devolved
upon Hieronymus Roesch of Nuremberg. During its progress the Emperor
frequently visited Roesch's house in the Fraueengaesslein; and it became
a town saying, that "The Emperor still drives often to Petticoat
Lane." On one of his visits, a number of the artist's pet cats ran
into his presence; whence, it is said, arose the proverb, "A cat may
look at a King."

In 1516 Duerer painted a fine portrait of Wohlgemuth, now at Munich,
showing a wrinkled old face lit up by bright eyes, and inscribed,
"This portrait has Albert Duerer painted after his master Michael
Wohlgemuth, in the year 1516, when he was 82 years old; and he lived
until the year 1519, when he died, on St. Andrew's Day, early, before
the sun had risen." About the same period he designed and partly
executed the Pieta, which is now in the St. Maurice Gallery at
Nuremberg; and carved a Virgin and Child standing on the crescent
moon, similar to the one which he had engraved three years before.

In 1518 Duerer also painted the scene of the death-bed of the Empress
Mary of Burgundy, under the title of "The Death of the Virgin," a