39.--Kitchen in Duerer's House.]

Nuernberg contains fewer of Duerer's works than a stranger might be led to
expect.[215-*] The print-room of our British Museum, with its great
number of engravings and drawings, and its wonderful sculpture in
hone-stone by him, is a far better place to study the works of this
artist. There is, however, one work of singular interest preserved in
the old city, which is worth a long journey to see. It is the portrait
of the old Nuernberg patrician--Jerome Holzschuher, the friend and patron
of the artist. It represents a cheerful, healthy man over whose head
fifty-seven years have passed without diminishing his freshness and
buoyancy of spirit; the clear complexion, searching eye, and general
vigour which characterise the features, almost seem to contradict the
white hair that falls in thick masses over the forehead. For freshness,
power, and truth, this portrait may challenge comparison with any of its
age. Time has also dealt leniently with the picture, for it is as clear
and bright as the day it was painted, and is carefully preserved in its
original frame, into which a sliding wooden panel is made to fit and
cover it: the outside being emblazoned with the _armes parlantes_ of the
family of Holzschuher--a _wooden shoe_, raised from the ground in the
manner of the Venetian _chopine_. The picture was painted in 1526, and
"combines," says Kuegler, "the most perfect modelling with the freest
handling of the colours; and is certainly the most beautiful of all this
master's portraits, since it plainly shows how well he could seize
nature in her happiest moments, and represent her with irresistible
power." It still remains in the possession of the Holzschuher family,
and is located in their mansion at the back of the Egidienkirche, where
it is politely shown to strangers on proper application; and should the
visitor have the advantage accorded to the writer, of the attendance of
the last representative of the family, he will see that the same clear
eye and expressive features have also descended as a heir-loom in the
house.

It is at Florence, Vienna, and Munich, that Duerer's paintings are
principally located. The Castle at Nuernberg possesses his portraits of
the Emperors Charlemagne and Sigismund. In the Moritzkapelle is the
picture which he painted for the church of St. Sebald in Nuernberg, by
the order of Holzschuher. It represents the dead Saviour just removed
from the cross, and mourned