Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/217

SCULPTURE AND PAINTING 205 came in her words were ever, " Go in the name of Christ." She gave us much good advice, and was ever watchful for our salvation. I cannot speak too highly of her good deeds, of her charity to all, and of the reverence in which she was held.' With regard to his own education, he continues : ' As soon as I could read and write my father took me away from school and taught me the goldsmith's trade. As time went on, my inclination turned more towards painting than to the work of a goldsmith. I represented this to my father, but he was not at all pleased, for he lamented that the time already spent in learning his trade should be wasted. In time, however, he relented, and on St. Andrew's Day, November 30, 1486, he apprenticed me to Michael Wolgemuth, to work for him for three years. During those three years God granted me great industry, and I learned well ; but I had much to suffer from the other apprentices.' Wolgemuth was one of the chief painters of Nuremberg, and did much for the progress of art. ' When I had completed my term of apprenticeship, father sent me abroad, and I travelled for four years until he called me back again.' ' During his " Wan- derjahre," writes a friend, 'he met at Colmar the goldsmiths Caspar and Paul and the painter Ludewig, and at Baisle the goldsmith George, all four of them brothers of Martin Schongauer, by whom he was most cordially entertained.' ' In 1490 (after Whitsuntide) I returned to Nurem- berg. And after I came home Hans Frey consulted with my father and gave me his daughter Agnes for my wife, and with her two hundred gulden, and we were married.