tness, which allows each person to interpret it to please
himself.

In painting he attempted the same difficult subject of the
temperaments, in his four apostles, St. Paul and Mark, St. John and
Peter. He painted these without charge as a sort of memorial of
himself in his native town. Two saints are painted on each panel. No
figures in art are more beautiful than the leading one on each panel,
the St. Paul on the one and the St. John on the other. If we interpret
these as regards temperament, John is the type of the melancholy,
Peter of the phlegmatic, Paul of the choleric and Mark of the
sanguine.

In 1526, Durer sent these pictures as a gift to the Council of
Nuremberg. It was the artist's wish that they should always remain in
the Council hall. Notwithstanding this, only copies are now to be seen
in Nuremberg, while the originals are in Munich, carried there by the
Elector of Bavaria, who paid a good price for them.

[Illustration: THE KNIGHT, DEATH AND THE DEVIL _Durer_]

One other of Durer's pictures should be spoken of, though it hardly
belongs last in order of time. It is really the summing up of much
that he had done from time to time all through his busy life time.
This picture, called "_The Knight, Death and the Devil_," is an
engraving on copper. The stern, intelligent men of the time, who were
ready to face any danger in order to bear themselves according to
their notions of right, are well represented in this splendid mounted
knight. What though Death reminds him by the uplifted hourglass that
his life is nearly ended? or that Satan himself stands ready to claim
the Knight's soul? There is that in this grand horseman's face that
tells of unflinching purpose and indomitable courage to carry it out
against the odds of earth and the dark regions besides. One of our
greatest art critics says of this work, "I believe I do not exaggerate
when I particularize this point as the most important work which the
fantastic spirit of German Art has produced." A reading of Fouque's
"Sintram" inspires us anew with the true spirit of Durer's great work.

[Illustration: ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON _Durer_]

The gift to his natal city was Durer's last work of note. The sickness
that had been growing upon him, which was none other than consumption,
gradually absorbed his energies and in April, 1528, he died. He was
buried in St. John's Cemetery in the lot belonging to the Frey family.
On the flat gravestone