pes and dancing, some selling fowls and suchlike
things, and others in many other attitudes. He also drew a man sleeping
in a bathroom who has Venus near him, leading him into temptation in a
dream, while Love is diverting himself by mounting on stilts, and the
Devil blows into his ears with a pair of bellows. And he engraved two
different figures of S. Christopher carrying the Infant Christ, both
very beautiful, and executed with much diligence in the close detail of
the hair and in every other respect.

[Illustration: CHRIST TAKING LEAVE OF HIS MOTHER

(_After the woodcut by =Albrecht Duerer=. London: British Museum, B. 92_)

_M.S._]

After these works, perceiving how much time he consumed in engraving on
copper, and happening to have in his possession a great abundance of
subjects drawn in various ways, he set himself to making woodcuts, a
method of working in which those who have the greatest powers of design
find the widest field wherein to display their ability in its
perfection. And in the year 1510 he published two little prints in this
manner, in one of which is the Beheading of S. John, and in the other
the scene of the head of the same S. John being presented in a charger
to Herod, who is seated at table; with other sheets of S. Christopher,
S. Sixtus the Pope, S. Stephen, and S. Laurence. Then, having seen that
this method of working was much easier than engraving on copper, he
pursued it and executed a S. Gregory chanting the Mass, accompanied by
the deacon and sub-deacon. And, growing in courage, in the year 1510 he
represented on a sheet of royal folio part of the Passion of
Christ--that is, he executed four pieces, with the intention of
afterwards finishing the whole, these four being the Last Supper, the
Taking of Christ by Night in the Garden, His Descent into the Limbo of
Hell in order to deliver the Holy Fathers, and His glorious
Resurrection. That second piece he also painted in a very beautiful
little picture in oils, which is now at Florence, in the possession of
Signor Bernardetto de' Medici. As for the eight other parts, although
they were afterwards executed and printed with the signature of
Albrecht, to us it does not seem probable that they are the work of his
hand, seeing that they are poor stuff, and bear no resemblance to his
manner, either in the heads, or in the draperies, or in any other
respect. Wherefore it is believed that they were executed after his
death, for the sake of gain,