The pictorial decoration of the reliquary of St. Ursula, at Bruges— remarkable, also, on account of its architectural elements—is as tenderly conceived as it is delicate and minute in execution. The subjects are taken from the life of the saint and her virgins. Shc made a pilgrimage from England to Rome, and died, a martyr, at Cologne, on her homeward journey. Our illustration (pl. 34, fig. 7), taken from one of the compart ments of the side of the reliquary, represents her arrival in Rome. At the entrance of the church is the kneeling 5/. Ursula recciz.iv the• he diction el the Pope ; her escort and attending priests form an appropriate setting for the principal figures. In the vestibule of the church youths are being baptized; in the background St. Ursula is receiving the blessed sacrament; on the left a view is opened up of one of the streets of Rome and of the distant mountains.
The school of Flanders influenced Southern Germany in the latter half of the fifteenth century, and here we must distinguish the Fran conian School, with its powerful characterization and its fondness even for hard forms treated with technical thoroughness and fidelity to nature, from the Swabian School, which rather strives for expressions of emotional moods in a milder style. Nuremberg and Augsburg- are the centres for the first, and Ulm and Colmar for the second, of these schools.
.1/frhae/ 11 th. —The chief master of this period was Michael Wohlgemuth (1434-1519), the predecessor and instructor of Albrecht Diirer. His pictures show great power and clearness of coloring, though they sometimes verge on exaggerated realism and are wanting in harmony of composition and equality of tone. His best works are at Nuremberg-. We present a Cruet:Arlon (fijr. S). The whole event is represented as if it had just occurred in Germany. It is, indeed, not intended to represent an incident in foreign history, because religious truth is everywhere and at all times the same. The picture is well composed. The swoon of Mary is as distinct as are the movements of the men; the forms, however, are thin and devoid of beauty, and the folds of the garments are crumpled instead of flowing.
Albrecht Diirer, the father of German painting, stands at the head of the Franconian School. In 13;111 the style of art already existing attained its most unique and highest perfection. He excelled alike in painting, engraving, sculpture, and wood-carving. Diirer was born in 1471, of Hungarian ancestry, and died in 1528, at Nuremberg-, the city of his nativity. I lis father, a goldsmith, intended him to follow his own profes sion, but Albrecht's love for drawing prevailed, and in 1486 he was appren ticed for three years to Michael Wohlg-emuth. The years 1490 to 1494 he spent in travel, and visited Venice, where he remained for some time.
After 1505, Darer produced many of his masterpieces in painting and engraving. In 1520 he made a tour through the Netherlands, visiting the principal cities, and in 1521 returned to Nuremberg, where he re mained until his death. (See pp. 119, 121.) ,Ifar/in a Swabian master—commonly called Martin SchOn—was by far the greatest German painter of this school; he united the tender sense of beauty possessed by the older school of Cologne with the thoroughness of execution and the fidelity to life and nature which came as au influence from the Netherlands. Ilc was born at Colmar, and began life as an engraver. He heads the list of German masters who for the lack of spacious monumental fresco-painting found a compensation in the multiplied reproduction of their compositions, which were widely disseminated. Schongauer engraved in copper his illustrations of the Gospels and of legends; he even applied himself to the representation in genre style of scenes from daily life. The copper plate engraving of St. Catherine of Alexandria (pl. 34, fig-. 9) acquaints us with his slender forms and the contemplative cast which characterizes his figures. The wheel by which the saint was put to death lies at her feet. What we know of Schongauer as a painter is very slight. He studied under Roger van der Weyden and adopted something of his master's realistic style. The I Yrgin in Me Bower of Roses (fig. Jo), the magnificent oil-painting which he completed in St. Martin's Church in Colmar, is his most important picture. The Virgin, with the divine Child in her arms, appears as a loving mother; angels hold a crown above her, and the bower of roses with nestling birds completes the cheerful picture.
Hans HoMein the younger was born in Augsburg in 1498. In him the German school of realism attained its highest development, and he may be unreservedly pronounced one of its greatest masters. He was skilled in various styles of painting, but chiefly in fresco and oil-color. He early acquired a mastery over all the elements of design, as is proved by the remains of a series of frescos executed for the town-hall of Basle in 1521-22. In 1526 lie first visited England, where he re mained until 1528. He returned to England in 1532, and died in London in 1543. The royal and private collections of England contain many authentic works of his brush, and to his influence the British school of painting owes more than to that of any other master. He excelled in portrait-painting, but the greatest number of his compositions are seen in woodcuts, which were executed by highly skilful hands, and, with few exceptions, before his removal to England. (See pp. I'S, 121.)