Durer derived most of his fame from his engravings, and he is allowed to
have surpassed every artist of his time in this branch of art. Born in
the infancy of the art, he carried engraving to a perfection that has
hardly been surpassed. When we consider that, without any models worthy
of imitation, he brought engraving to such great perfection, we are
astonished at his genius, and his own resources. Although engraving has
had the advantage and experience of more than three centuries, it would
perhaps be difficult to select a specimen of executive excellence
surpassing his print of St. Jerome, engraved in 1514. He had a perfect
command of the graver, and his works are executed with remarkable
neatness and clearness of stroke; if we do not find in his plates that
boldness and freedom desirable in large historical works, we find in
them everything that can be wished in works more minute and finished, as
were his. To him is attributed the invention of etching; and if he was
not the inventor, he was the first who excelled in the art. He also
invented the method of printing wood-cuts in chiaro-scuro, or with two
blocks. His great mathematical knowledge enabled him to form a regular
system of rules for drawing and painting with geometrical precision. He
had the power of catching the exact expression of the features, and of
delineating all the passions. Although he was well acquainted with the
anatomy of the human figure, and occasionally designed it correctly, his
contours are neither graceful nor pleasing, and his prints are never
entirely divested of the stiff and formal taste that prevailed at the
time, both in his figures and drapery. Such was his reputation, both at
home and abroad, that Marc' Antonio Raimondi counterfeited his Passion
of Christ, and the Life of the Virgin at Venice, and sold them for the
genuine works of Durer. The latter, hearing of the fraud, was so
exasperated that he set out for Venice, where he complained to the
government of the wrong that had been done him by the plagiarist, but he
could obtain no other satisfaction than a decree prohibiting Raimondi
from affixing Durer's monogram or signatures to these copies in future.
Vasari says that when the prints of Durer were first brought into Italy,
they incited the painters there to elevate themselves in that branch of
art, and to make his works their models.