“Arms with the Skull,” for instance, we see there no mere suggestion of shadow, every line tells. The outline swells and accents the form, the shading-strokes curve and bend to accent the rounding, the modeling of the figure; the quality, strength, tonality of the line varies with every texture which is to be expressed, such as the metal of the helmet, the feathers on the crest, the cloth, the leather, the wood, the hair. The modest means of black lines and white paper, which at first had seemed barely sufficient for suggestive outline and indications of the rounding of form, are now becoming a medium fit for the presentation of all the infinite phenomena of visible nature. From the large, predominant figures massed in the immediate foreground of early woodcut series like the Apocalypse, or the large Passion, Dürer progresses to a deepening of the scene in the serene woodcut illustrations of the “Life of the Virgin.” We are led along the pleasant, peaceful paths of life, we are spared the anguish and suffering of the previous series. In this illustration, for instance, we see the Holy Family at rest in Egypt; Joseph is working at his trade, while the Mother watches her sleeping Babe, and angels busy themselves or gambol about the Holy group. The scene is laid in a pleasing German landscape, among low hills, which carry out the serenity of the composition. [Illustration: APOCALYPSE: THE FOUR HORSEMEN Woodcut. Albrecht Dürer] [Illustration: ARMS WITH THE SKULL Albrecht Dürer] [Illustration: LIFE OF THE VIRGIN: REST IN EGYPT Woodcut. Albrecht Dürer] The fullness of Dürer’s powers as an engraver is manifested in the three plates which typify man’s attitude toward life. First comes the good, steadfast knight, the champion of righteousness, unmindful of his weird escort of death and a hellish monster as he wends his way through a dark defile to his home on a distant sunlit hill. We then see despondent, bitter Melancholy, vainly demanding of science the answer to life’s riddle. Finally, we come to St. Jerome, serene in his chosen solitude: a mind resigned, at peace with the world which has been left behind. These engravings take a very high rank, indeed, in German art. Such technique of engraving as that here found had never before been even approached: broad gleams of sunlight brighten the room, striking the walls and floor; in the silvery half-light every texture, every substance is expressed by differentiations of the graver-stroke. Yet with all the infinite detail which abounds in the plate, the tonality is so sustained and detail so discreetly introduced, that the general feeling, after all, is one of simplicity. [Illustration: ST. JEROME IN HIS STUDY Albrecht Dürer]