Wood-engraving was also carried on in Wohlgemuth's studio, and it is probable that Dürer here learned the rudiments of this branch of art, which he afterwards carried to so high a perfection. Some writers maintain that his earliest works in this line were done for the famous "Nuremberg Chronicle," which was published in 1493 by Wohlgemuth and Pleydenwurf.
The three years which were spent in Wohlgemuth's studio were probably devoted to apprentice-work on compositions designed by the master, who was then about fifty years old, and at the summit of his fame. But few of Dürer's drawings now existing date from this epoch, one of which represents a group of horsemen, and another the three Swiss leaders, Fürst, Melchthal, and Staufacher. The beautiful portrait of Dürer's father, which is now at Florence, was executed by the young artist in 1490, probably to carry with him as a souvenir of home. Mündler says, "For beauty and delicacy of modelling, this portrait has scarcely been surpassed afterwards by the master, perhaps not equalled."
It was claimed by certain old biographers that the eminent Martin Schongauer of Colmar was Dürer's first master; but this is now contested, although it is evident that his pictures had a powerful effect on the youth. Schongauer was the greatest artist and engraver that Germany had as yet produced, and exerted a profound influence on the art of the Rhineland. He renewed the fantastic conceits and grotesque vagaries which the Papal artists of Cologne had suppressed as heathenish, and prepared the way for, or perhaps even suggested, the weird elements of Dürer's conceptions. At the same time he passed back of his Netherland art-education, and studied a mystic benignity and dreamy spirituality suggestive of the Umbrian painters, with whose chief, the great Perugino, Martin was acquainted. Herein Dürer's works were in strong contrast with Schongauer's, and showed the new spirit that was stirring in the world.
Next to Schongauer, the great Italian artist Mantegna exercised the strongest influence upon Dürer, who studied his bold and austere engravings with earnest admiration, showing his traits in many subsequent works. Probably he met the famous Mantuan painter during the _Wander-jahre_, in Italy; and at the close of his Venetian journey he was about to pay a visit of homage to him, when he heard of his death.