Duerer's health was not good, and his continual work proved more than he could bear. His father died in 1502, and this loss was a deep grief to the artist. So little money was left for his mother and younger brother that their support came upon him. At length, in 1505, he made a journey to Venice, partly for his health, and in order to study Venetian painting. He was well received by the painters of Venice. Giovanni Bellini and Carpaccio were the leading painters of that time. They were both quite old, but Giorgione and Titian were already coming into notice and preparing to fill the places of the older men. Bellini was especially delighted with the exquisite manner in which Duerer painted hair, and asked the German to give him the brush he used for that purpose. Duerer gave him all his brushes, but Bellini insisted upon having _the one_ for painting hair. Duerer took a common brush, and painted a long tress of fine hair: Bellini declared that had he not seen this done he could not have believed it. While in Venice Duerer received an order to paint a picture for the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, or German Exchange. It is believed that this work was the famous "Feast of Rose Garlands," now in the Monastery at Strahow, in Bohemia. The Emperor Rudolph II. bought it, and had it carried from Venice to Prague on men's shoulders. In 1782 it was purchased for the Abbey of Strahow, and was almost lost to the world for many years. It is a beautiful picture, and the praise it received was a great pleasure to Duerer, because heretofore many painters had said that he was a good engraver, but could not use colors. Duerer wrote to Pirkheimer: "There is no better picture of the Virgin Mary in the land, because all the artists praise it, as well as the nobility. They say they have never seen a more sublime, a more charming painting." The Venetian Government offered Duerer a handsome pension if he would remain in Venice, and he declined many orders for the sake of returning to Germany, which he believed to be his duty. From the time of his return, in 1507, to 1520, there is very little to tell of the personal history of this artist. Almost all that can be said is that he labored with great industry; it was the golden period of his art; he had many young men in his studio, which was the centre of art to Nuremburg. At this time he probably executed the best carvings which he ever did. During seven years he made forty-eight engravings and etchings and more than a hundred wood-cuts. The large demand for these works was a source of good income to Duerer, and gave him a position of comfort. The Reformation was at hand, and Duerer's Virgins and Saints and his pictures of the sufferings of Christ were very well suited to the religious excitement of that period.