The second specimen of the large cuts of Durer’s Life of the Virgin, given on the next page, represents the Sojourn of the Holy Family in Egypt. In the fore-ground St. Joseph is seen working at his business as a carpenter; while a number of little figures, like so many Cupids, are busily employed in collecting the chips which he makes and in putting them into a basket. Two little winged figures, of the same family as the chip-collectors, are seen running hand-in-hand, a little more in the distance to the left, and one of them holds in his hand a plaything like those which are called “windmills” in England, and are cried about as “toys for girls and boys,” and sold for a halfpenny each, or exchanged for old pewter spoons, doctors’ bottles, or broken flint-glass. To the right the Virgin, a matronly-looking figure, is seen sitting spinning, and at the same time rocking with her foot the cradle in which the infant Christ is asleep. Near the Virgin are St. Elizabeth and her young son, the future Baptist. At the head of the cradle is an angel bending as if in the act of adoration; while another, immediately behind St. Elizabeth, holds a pot containing flowers. In the sky there is a representation of the Deity, with the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove. The artist has not thought it necessary to mark the locality of the scene by the introduction of pyramids and temples in the back-ground, for the architectural parts of his subject, as well as the human figures, have evidently been supplied by his own country, Durer’s mark is at the bottom of the cut on the right. [Illustration] Christ’s Passion, consisting of a series of eleven large wood-cuts and a vignette, designed by Albert Durer, appeared about the same time as his History of the Virgin.[V-25] The descriptive matter was compiled by Chelidonius; and, in the same manner as in the History of the Virgin, a certain number of impressions were printed without any explanatory text.[V-26] The large subjects are about fifteen inches and a half high, by eleven inches and an eighth wide. The following cut is a reduced copy of the vignette on the title-page. [Footnote V-25: The cuts of these two works appear to have been in the hands of the engraver at the same time. Of those in the History of the Virgin one is dated 1509; and two bear the date 1510; and in the Passion of Christ four are dated 1510.] [Footnote V-26: The Latin title of the work is as follows: “Passio Domini nostri Jesu, ex Hieronymo Paduano, Dominico Mancino, Sedulio, et Baptista Mantuana, per fratrem Chelidonium collecta, cum figuris Alberti Dureri Norici Pictoris.”] [Illustration]