Ambitious of greater things, Durer became apprentice to Michael Wolgemuth, the principal painter of his age and country; and, after having served his time, traveled, married unhappily, and died ere he reached old age, but not before he obtained world-wide, and time-defying renown, as a great painter, as more than a great copperplate-engraver--for it is only the greatest of the present day who are capable of producing fac-similes of his works--and, what most concerns us, as a great patron and promoter of wood-engraving. That he was no wood-engraver himself, is we consider certainly proved, although by proofs negative. They are briefly these. The designs of the wood-cuts ascribed to Albert are in all respects equal to the designs of copper-engravings, known to be both designed and engraved by himself. The execution and handling on his copperplates is superior to those of any other artist of his day. Of his wood-cuts, while the designs are transcendent, the execution is ordinary; nor is there any perceptible variation between the execution of the cuts attributed to him, and those known to have been cut by Resch, from his designs. The style of Durer’s drawing on wood shows the hand of a man used to copper; and is not that the best calculated for producing effects on wood. Now it is scarcely credible, or even to be imagined, that an artist, who should have attained, himself almost untaught--for whoever they were, he manifestly surpasses all his teachers--such wonderful power and facility in _engraving_ on one substance, should not, with equal practice on a different substance, have evinced the same--or at least _some_--superiority in handling it.