Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/216

 204 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE great personal interest, but they give a vivid insight into the ancient customs of the citizen class, from which most of the German artists have sprung. Dtirer's father, who was a goldsmith by trade, was the son of a German family settled in Hungary. Thence he went to Holland, where he remained a long time among ' the great artists,' and finally settled at Nuremberg, where he married. Here Albert, one of eighteen children, was born on May 21, 1471. The honest goldsmith was a thorough adept at his trade — in the words of his son Albert, ' a true artist and a pure-minded man.' He found it difficult, however, to support his large family. He underwent many trials, contradictions, and disappointments, but he was respected by all who knew him, for he was a patient Christian man, kind to all, and grateful to God. 1 These characteristics are all apparent in the portrait of him painted by his son Albert in 1497, and which is now in the Pinakothek at Munich. It represents a tall, somewhat haggard figure ; the face is expressive of deep gravity, softened by piety and peace of mind. This serenity of disposition he always sought to culti- vate in his children. ' My dear father took great pains to bring them up (his children) in the fear of the Lord. His highest wish was so to educate them that they might be pleasing to God and respected by men. His daily advice to us was to honour God and love our neighbour.' Of his mother, Dtirer says : ' Her chief delight was in goins? to church : she scolded me well when I did wrong, and she was constantly solicitous to preserve me and my brothers from sin. When I went out or 1 Thausing, Diircr's Briefe unci Tagebucher, p. 73.