afflictions, trials and adversities. But he won just praise from all who knew him for he lived an honourable Christian life, was a man patient of spirit, mild and peaceable to all and very thankful to God. For himself he had little need of company and worldly pleasures; he was also of few words, and was a God-fearing man." He was born Albrecht Ajtósi in 1427 in Ajtós, near the village of Gyula in the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1455 had moved to Nuremberg and changed his name to Dürer to adapt to the local Nuremberg dialect. He took up an apprenticeship as a goldsmith under the tutelage of Hieronymus Holfer. In 1467, the year his apprenticeship ended, he married Barbara, Holfer's 15-year-old daughter. The couple had 18 children, only two of whom survived into adulthood. Albrecht traveled a great deal, and came into contact with the Netherlandish painters while in Flanders. While there he was exposed to the work of both Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, and developed a strong appreciation for them which he passed on to his son, whose art displays a large debt to these painters. From his father, Dürer learned to appreciate the fine, almost forensic, attention to realistic detail favoured by the northern painters, as well as their use of brilliant colour. These lessons were key to the young artist's development, and set him apart from his fellow German artists whose work can often feel crude and heavy-handed by comparison. Albrecht apprenticed his son to Michael Wolgemut, a painter also aware of the northern artists, when he was 14. Already the young artist was showing such potential that his father believed he should be trained by the best local master available. Description Albrecht the elder is shown, aged 70, in half view against a flat reddish background. He is wearing a black Hungarian hat and long brown robe with a black undergarment. He has an intelligent piercing gaze, although it may be interpreted as hostile glance towards the viewer. The toll of age wears heavily on the old man's gaunt features. His fleshy cheeks are heavily folded, his lips thin and his hair wispy and in disarray. His skin is heavily wrinkled, and his eyes are narrow and give a weary appearance. By comparison to the 1490 Albrecht Dürer the Elder with a Rosary, his hands, though visible, are inactive, possibly