Excerpt from The Life of Albrecht Durer of Nurnberg, 1881: With a Translation of His Letters and Journal and an Account of His Works
It appears at first sight somewhat strange that a separate life of the greatest of German artists should never before have been published in England; for the works - at any rate the engraved works - of Albrecht Durer have for many years been held in high estimation in this country by a certain class of thoughtful students of art and literature. But the rapid development of art education and the growth of true feeling in art which the last few years have witnessed, were both necessary before such a work could, with any chance of success, be addressed to general readers. For Albrecht Durer is by no means an artist who appeals to all the world. The beauty and holiness of Raphael, the grace of Correggio, the glorious colour of Titian and Rubens - even the power and majesty of Michael Angelo - can be appreciated to some extent by all but the most ignorant or insensible; but the secret of Durer's strength lies further from the surface and requires more of intellectual and imaginative effort in its study than that of any of the Italian masters. His work is always transcendently good, but that it is also most beautiful will only be perceived by those whose eyes have been trained to seek out that high and subtle beauty which lies outside the region of the sensuous.
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