[Footnote V-14: It has been stated, though erroneously, that Albert Durer was a pupil of Martin Schongauer, or Schön, as the surname was spelled by some writers, one of the most eminent painters and copper-plate engravers of his day. It has been generally supposed that he died in 1486; but, if an old memorandum at the back of his portrait in the collection of Count de Fries can be depended on, his death did not take place till the 2d of February 1499. An account of this memorandum will be found in Ottley’s Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving, vol. ii. p. 640.] [Footnote V-15: On a passage, in which Durer alludes to his wife, in one of his letters from Venice, 1506, to his friend Bilibald Pirkheimer, Von Murr makes the following remark: “This Xantippe must even at that time have vexed him much; and he was obliged to drag on his life with her for twenty-two years longer, till she fairly plagued him to death.”--Journal, 10er Theil, S. 32.] It has not been ascertained from whom Albert Durer learnt the art of engraving on copper; for there seems but little reason to believe that his master Michael Wolgemuth ever practised that branch of art, though several copper-plates, marked with a W, have been ascribed to him by some authors.[V-16] As most of the early copper-plate engravers were also goldsmiths, it is probable that Durer might acquire some knowledge of the former art during the time that he continued with his father; and, as he was endowed with a versatile genius, it is not unlikely that he owed his future improvement entirely to himself. The earliest date that is to be found on his copper-plates is 1494. The subject in which this date occurs represents a group of four naked women with a globe suspended above them, in the manner of a lamp, on which are inscribed the letters O. G. H. which have been supposed to signify the words “O Gott helf!”--Help, O Lord!--as if the spectator on beholding the naked beauties were exceedingly liable to fall into temptation.[V-17] [Footnote V-16: Bartsch is decidedly of opinion that Michael Wolgemuth was not an engraver; and he ascribes all the plates marked with a W, which others have supposed to be Wolgemuth’s, to Wenceslaus of Olmutz, an artist of whom nothing is positively known.] [Footnote V-17: This subject has also been engraved by Israel Von Mecken, and by an artist supposed to be Wenceslaus of Olmutz. It is probable that those artists have copied Durer’s engraving. On the globe in Israel Von Mecken’s plate the letters are O. G. B.]