intrusted their works to wood-engraving, and with him it was a favorite art. [Illustration: FIG. 40.--St. John and the Virgin. Vignette to Dürer’s “Apocalypse.”] [Illustration: FIG. 41.--Christ Suffering. Vignette to Dürer’s “Larger Passion.”] The first of the four famous series of designs by which his skill in wood-engraving is best known was published in 1498, but it was probably finished before that time. It consisted of fifteen large cuts in illustration of the Apocalypse of St. John, to which a vignette (Fig. 40) of wonderful nobility and simplicity was prefixed. The theme must have been peculiarly attractive to him, because of the opportunities it afforded for grandeur of conception and for the symbolism in which his genius delighted; it was supernatural and religious; it dealt with images and thoughts on which the laws of this world imposed no restraint, and revealed visionary scenes through types of awe, terror, and mystery, the impressiveness of which had almost no human relation. In attempting to bring such a theme within the compass of the powers of expression which art possesses, he strove to give speech to the unutterable, and to imprison the unsubstantial, so that it is no wonder if, although the fertility of invention and power of drawing which he displayed, and the variety and richness of effect which he obtained, made his work a masterpiece of art, yet much of what he intended to express is not readily comprehended. [Illustration: FIG. 42.--Christ Mocked. Vignette to Dürer’s “Smaller Passion.”]