ALBERT, descended of an Hungarian family, and born at Nuremberg in 1471, was one of the best engravers and painters of his age. He was at the same time a man of letters and a philosopher; and he was an intimate friend of Erasmus, who revised some of the pieces which he published. He was a man of business also, and for many years the leading magistrate of Nuremberg. Though not the inventor, he was one of the first improvers of the art of engraving; and he bethought himself of working also in wood, for expedition, having an inexhaustible fund of designs. In many of those prints which he executed on copper, the engraving is elegant to a great degree. His Hell-Scene particularly, which was engraved in the year 1513, is as highly finished a print as ever was engraved, and as happily executed. In his wooden prints too we are surprised to see so much meaning in so early a master; the heads so well marked, and every part so well executed.—This artist seems to have understood the principles of design. His composition, too, is often pleasing; and his drawing generally good. But he knows very little of the management of light; and still less of grace: and yet his ideas are purer and more elegant than we could have supposed from the awkward archetypes which his country and education afforded. In a word, he was certainly a man of a very extensive genius; and, as Valari remarks, would have been an extraordinary artist, if he had had an Italian instead of a German education. His prints are very numerous. They were much admired in his own lifetime, and Durer eagerly bought up; which put his wife, who was a tearing woman, upon urging him to spend more time upon engraving than he was inclined to do. He was rich; and chose rather to practice his art as an amusement than as a business. He died in the year 1527.