Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/475

 In Franc onia. 445 Refusing, however, a liberal offer from the Venetian government, who wished him to remain in their city, he returned to his native Nuremberg, and in the following years produced many of his masterpieces in painting and engraving. In 1520 he started on a tour through the Netherlands, and visited amongst other cities, Antwerp, Brussels, Cologne, Bruges and Ghent : refusing in Antwerp, as he had previously done in Venice, an offer to stay in that city, he returned home in the following year ; he died in Nuremberg in 1528. Diirer was, without doubt, a master-spirit, and had he met with the same recognition in his native land which he would have received had he been born in Italy, he would probably have taken rank with the men we have named as the greatest painters of any age ; but, whilst gaining yet another finished master, we might perhaps have lost a teacher of spiritual truth whose works are, in their way, unique. Albrecht Diirer was among the first to bring the laws of science to bear upon art, and to demonstrate the practical value of perspective. He was a man of rare energy, versatility, and power of work ; he excelled alike in painting, engraving, sculpture and wood-carving ; and in the latter part of his life published works on perspective, fortification, and other abstruse subjects. The chief characteristics of his painting are forcible drawing, breadth of colouring, individuality of character, vitality of expression and highness of finish — combined, unfortunately, with a certain harshness of out- line, an occasional stiffness in the treatment of drapery, and a want of feeling for physical grace and beauty. His works bear the impress of his own earnest yet mystic spirit, and are moreover a fitting expression of the complex