The engravings of Albert Dürer, even those produced in the full force of his talents, for a long time obtained but little favour in France and England. They now possess zealous admirers, and modern painting now and then shows signs of being affected by this enthusiasm; it is in the new German school, of which Cornelius and Kaulbach were the chiefs, that the Nuremberg master seems to have exerted the most important influence, and one which is, even in some respects, to be regretted. It would, however, be unjust to Dürer to saddle him with the burden of errors of which he was but the involuntary cause. However exaggerated may have been the reaction produced by his followers three centuries after his death, considered separately and apart from them, he remains, nevertheless, an eminent artist and the greatest of all his countrymen. Vasari considers that, as a painter and sculptor, "he would have equalled the great masters of Italy, if he had been born in Tuscany, and if the study of the antique had helped him to impart to his figures as much beauty and elegance as they have truth and delicacy;" as a mathematician he ranked among the first of his time in Germany; as an engraver--and it is as such only that we can look upon him here--he enormously advanced the progress of the art. No one before him ever handled the burin with the same skill and vigour; no one ever cut outlines on the metal with such absolute certainty, or so carefully reproduced every detail of modelling. [Illustration: FIG. 40.--ALBERT DÜRER. Willibald Pirkheimer.] [Illustration: FIG. 41.--ALBERT DÜRER. The Holy Face.] [Illustration: FIG. 42.--ALBERT DÜRER. The Standard Bearer.] [Illustration: FIG. 43.--ALBERT DÜRER. The Ride.] [Illustration: FIG. 44.--ALBERT DÜRER. The Pommel of Maximilian's Sword.]