Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/496

488 which falls on her figure, a small plate, than which it would not be possible to find any thing of the kind more beautiful.

In another of his works Albert Dürer represented a Woman in the Flemish costume on horseback, with a footboy in attendance on her; and on a large plate of copper he engraved a Nymph borne away by a sea monster, while other nymphs are seen bathing. Of the same size and executed with the most masterly perfection, is a work wherein the master has attained to the very perfection and ultimate term of this art; the subject is Diana inflicting punishment on one of her nymphs who is flying for shelter to the bosom of a Satyr: in this plate Albert designed to show that he understood the treatment of the nude form.

But although these masters were at that time highly prized and commended in those countries, their works are valued among us for the diligence and care to be remarked in the engraving only. I am nevertheless willing to believe that if Albert Dürer has not done better, that has perhaps been because for want of better models he took one or other of his disciples when he had to design the nude form, and these must have had ill-formed figures, as indeed the Germans for the most part have when undressed, although one sees many in those countries who when dressed appear to be very fine men. Albert likewise executed numerous small plates exhibiting figures of peasants and countrywomen in the Flemish costume, some dancing or playing on the bagpipes, others selling poultry or other wares, and some engaged in other occupations.

This master also engraved a plate representing a Man Sleeping in a Bath-room, while Venus is behind him inspiring his dreams with Temptation, and Love, mounted on stilts, capers and sports around him, while the Devil blows into his ear with a pair of bellows. He also twice designed St.