328 DURER DURESS Italian schools had no influence upon him. From the time of his return to Nuremberg, in 1507, ensued a period of singular artistic activity, and among the great works which he then pro- duced are the paintings of the "Martyrdom of the 10,000 Saints," at Vienna; the " Assump- tion of the Virgin," burned at Munich; the " Adoration of the Trinity," at Vienna ; "Christ taken from the Cross," at Nurem- berg; and the "Adoration of the Magi," at Florence ; the woodcut series of the " Greater 'Passion" and "Lesser Passion," the "Life of the Virgin," and the " Triumphal Arch of the Emperor Maximilian ;" the copperplate en- gravings of "The Knight, Death, and the Devil," " Melancholy," and " St. Jerome;" and portraits of his friends Pirkheimer, Melanch- thon, and Erasmus. The print of " The Knight, Death, and the Devil" suggested to Fouqu6 his tale of " Sintram and his Companions." It is supposed that the woodcuts which pass under Diirer's name were cut by engravers from his drawings on the wood. He was very prosperous, and enjoyed the friendship of many of the most learned men of the day. The people of his native town delighted to honor him, and for many years he was one of its chief burghers. The emperors Maximil- ian I. and Charles V. successively appointed him court painter, and the chief cities of Ger- many were emulous for the possession of his works. In 1520 Durer made a second jour- ney to the Netherlands, and under the influ- ence of this visit his subsequent works exhibit a soberer feeling and a refinement of his ex- uberant fancy. In 1526 were produced his two pictures containing life-size figures of the apostles John and Peter, and Mark and Paul, which were among his last, as they are general- ly esteemed his grandest works, and which he presented to the council of his native city. At this time Diirer had embraced the doctrines of the reformation, and these paintings are sup- posed to have conveyed the artist's exhorta- tion to his countrymen to stand firm in the new faith. As an engraver and a painter Durer was one of the most remarkable men of an age prolific of great artists. In painting, he raised German art to an excellence which passed away with him ; he found engraving in its in- fancy, and carried it to a perfection never since surpassed; he cultivated architecture and sculp- ture, and wrote valuable treatises on geometry and fortification, with a purity of style evin- cing a profound knowledge of the German lan- guage. He was the first German artist who taught the rules of perspective, and insisted on the study of anatomy. He rejected the classic ideal which Raphael and his contemporaries had so successfully realized. Hence his strange attitudes, his fanciful draperies, his over-elabo- rate costumes and accessories, and the Gothic element which seems to pervade all his works. His wonderful creations, nevertheless, sur- prised and delighted the Italians. Raphael had the highest admiration of his genius, and sent him a drawing executed by his own hand. The memory of Diirer is held in great venera- tion by the people of Nuremberg, who preserve his hou^e with religious care. On the 300th anniversary of his birth the corner stone of a monument to his memory was laid there ; and in May, 1840, the work was completed by the addition of a bronze statue of the artist by Rauch. See Charles Narrey, Albert Durer d Venise et dans les Pays-Bas (illustrated, Paris, 1 866) ; A. von Eye, Albert Diirer (Nordlingen, 1867); Mrs. Heaton, "History of the Life of Albert Diirer of Nuremberg " (London, 1869) ; William B. Scott, " Life and Works of Albert Diirer" (London, 1869). A collection of his engravings has been reproduced under the care of Kaulbach (14 numbers, Nuremberg, 1857-'61). DURESS (law Lat. durities ; Fr. duresse), in law, the constraint by means of which a per- son is forced to act against his will. Duress is either of imprisonment, which must be either without lawful process, or by abuse of lawful process for an unlawful purpose ; or it is per minas, where the compulsion is through fear of personal injury. Duress is admitted as a defence to a criminal charge only under several important restrictions. 1. It is not in general a justification for a felony, but only for the lesser offences called misdemeanor. 2. There must be apprehension of danger such as might reasonably be entertained by a person of or- dinary courage; though in determining this, the age, sex, health, temperament, &c., of the person are important elements to be considered. 3. The injury threatened must be such as to endanger life or limb, and not of personal chastisement merely, or of injury to reputation or property. 4. Command by a father or master is not a justification to a child or ser- vant for the commission of a crime ; yet the wife was by the common law held to be in the power of the husband so far that what was done by her in his presence was deemed to be done under duress, and was a justification even for capital offences, except treason and murder. This was upon the legal presumption that if the husband was present the wife acted by his coercion ; still greater would be her claim to exemption if actual coercion could be proved. There was, however, a singular inconsistency in not allowing the same excuse on the ground of coercion, actual or presumed, in respect to mere misdemeanors. It has been plausibly suggested that the reason of this anomaly was that the wife was not entitled to the benefit of clergy, while the husband was so entitled ; and as he could therefore escape from punish- ment for certain offences, but the wife was subject to the penalty, the law humanely in- terposed and relieved her from all legal liabil- ity in cases where husband and wife were jointly chargeable, but in which a claim to benefit of clergy was allowed, and this priv- ilege did not apply to misdemeanors, nor to murder or treason. As a defence to contracts,
