I reit Stoss.—To no one more than to Veit Stoss of Cracow is due the introduction of tender grace and beauty. This is especially evident in his masterpiece, the Angelic Salutation, in the Church of St. Lawrence at Nuremberg. The centre in high relief figures the Madonna and the Angel. Surrounding them is a carved wreath with seven medallions representing the Seven Joys of Mary. Figure 6 (fl. 22) is the Mary of the Annunciation; Figure 7 is the Mary of the Coronation.
Adam lirclf1.—Two typical artists of the German school are Adam Kraft and Peter Vischer, both thoroughly national in their style, but dif fering very decidedly in their artistic expression. Kraft is more of a " bourgeois;" he disdains elegance and grace and his figures are rough and sometimes rather coarse, but they manifest a rugged power and an earnestness that somewhat compensate for the lack of idealism. His work extends from about 1462 to his death in 1507.
The earliest of his known dated works is also one of his most famous: it is the series of the Seven Stations of the Cross along the road from St. Sebald's Church to the Cemetery of St. John, in Nuremberg. Kraft excelled in, and reproduced with pathos and dramatic effect, the incidents of the Passion—a subject which lie often selected. A very different effect is produced by the genre piece 8) called the City Scales of Nurem berg. The scale-master, his assistant, and the merchant are all well arranged in characteristic postures true to life.
Peter Vischer.—Passing by other important masters of this time, like Tilman Riemenschneider of \Viirzburg, we reach the greatest master of the German Renaissance, Peter Vischer (died 1529). He was famous as a bronze-caster, and his great work was the Tomb of St. Sebald, at Nurem berg. In him more than in any other German sculptor we see the influ ence of the classic art of Italy, whose beauty and symmetry he was able to engraft on the German style.
The Shrine of SI. Sebald (fig. 9), is certainly a chef-anam?re from an architectural, a decorative, and a sculptural point of view. The sym metry of its proportions and the elegance of its details arc remarkable. The statues of the apostles that decorate its piers are the most classic part of the monument. The artist placed the sarcophagus on a base which he decorated with reliefs from the life of the saint. At one end stands a statuette of St. Sebald in pilgrim's dress, and below a figure of Fischer himself (p1. 22, fie. I 0) in a leathern apron and cap. This portrait of
the artist exhibits his plain and sterling character and at the same time typifies the German burgher class. The reliefs on the base are more characteristically German and less classic than the statuettes of the apos tles, in which Fischer broke loose from the usual realistic treatment.
A bronze structure encloses the sarcophagus. In front of each of the two long sides rise four shafts connected by pointed arches. Above these three miniature domes with charming canopies crown the whole. The style of the Renaissance is here blended with the Gothic in a way that offends less than usual. The entire mass rests upon fishes and snails.
At the four corners sit conquerors of Sin and Death—the lion- and dragon-slayers, Samson and Hercules, Nimrod and Theseus. Between them, on the basement, figures from pagan mythology, tritons and nymphs, disport themselves among animals and plants. Among these the virtues Strength, Moderation, Prudence, and Justice are keeping watch, and above are groups of children at play, who appear at first childishly helpless, then more free and assured, finally with musical instruments, like a heavenly choir. On the very summit stands the Christ-child. At the corner of the columns there are graceful mermaids and harpies serving as candelabra (As. 12, t3). Halfway up the columns are placed the famous apostles (A r. t t).
cenotaph of the most magnificent production of bronze-casting of this entire period is the series of colossal bronze statues that surround the immense marble sarcophagus of the emperor 7,Iaximilian I. in the Church at Innsbruck. The entire work was planned under the emperor's supervision by Gilg Sesselschreiber of Augsburg. Many artists had a share in it, and especially Peter Fischer, who is thought to have executed the statues of King Arthur and Theodoric the Goth. The twenty-eight bronze statues represent famous heroes, kings, and princesses—ancestors or connections of the imperial house of Austria. Twenty-three half-size statues were arranged to surround the monument more immediately. The large statues arc of very unequal merit, though all are imposing. Iii some cases too much attention is given to minutke of costume, to the detriment of the general effect, but in others great elegance is shown. The statue of Tlieodoric (fig. 14) is one of the most graceful of these figures.