The Behni ere, a villa which Ferdinand I. commenced at Prague, is the work of the Italian master Paolo della Stella. It consists of a ground floor surrounded by vaulted arches on Ionic columns, and a great hall on the first floor with an open gallery around it above the arcades. The grandeur and nobility of the proportions of this edifice, particularly of the porticoes, make it appear worthy of mention by the side of the noblest Italian works of the fifteenth century. The details, particularly the mouldings and roofs of the upper windows, are to some extent original, to some extent founded on Bramante's architecture, and prove that the master took that artist in a degree as his model. The structure must have been discontinued in 1541, and could not have been resumed until 1556; it was roofed in 1568. The interior decoration was finished about 1589, though probably what now remains is not of that date, since in its orig inal condition it appeared unsatisfactory to the art-loving Rudolf II.
Some charming works date from the years 1534-1537, particularly the open staircase, with its portal, and the court of the town-hall at Gorlitz. The older portions of the town-hall at Heilbronn date from 1535, and the works at the Castle Trausnitz, near Landshut, are of the same date; also the castle at Tfibingen, which the duke Ulrich had commenced in the old style in 1507. During the troubles of his reign the works were discon tinued, but in 1535 were resumed and zealously prosecuted; so that by 154o over sixty-four thousand florins had been expended, and yet the suc ceeding dukes found sufficient work to do.
Albrecht of Brandenburg (1536) erected the majestic baldachin over the tomb of St. Margaret in the collegiate church at Aschaffenburg, one of the most prominent works of Peter Vischer's foundry. The palace at Landshut was erected by Italian masters (1536-1543) in the Italian Renais sance verging on which was then current in Italy. The pilasters • run through two storeys, and the rustications of the ground-floor, with the alternating curved and straight-lined gables, are such as were employed by Raphael and Giulio Romano, from whose schools the masters had come. A corner house on the principal street of Old Colmar bears the date 1538; it has an oriel on the angle, a widely-projecting woodwork gallery in front of the uppermost storey, and paintings on the façade, with many medimval traces among the Renaissance forms. The castle at Neu burg, on the Danube, bears on different parts the dates 1538, 1541, and 1545, which thus show the time of their erection. The town-hall at
Leitmeritz dates from 1539.
This series of the oldest Renaissance buildings of Germany is not com plete, but even the complete series is not large, since so many purely dec orative works must be enumerated to show the naturalization of the Renaissance. Though some larger castles are included, these are devoid of the importance of the French works of that date. It is to be noticed that many works were executed directly by Italians, and, above all, it must not be forgotten that the Gothic style held its sway almost unchanged and unretrenched. The imperial court and the artists favored by it, some cathedral chapters and ecclesiastical dignitaries, some secular princes. whose policy and religious views were leagued with Italy, were the chief supporters of the new style; some commercial cities having direct rela tions with Italy followed next; but it was with difficulty that it found entrance among the circles which were distinguished as supporters of the truly German genius.
The that time, also,• the great struggle had broken out which placed Germany and the German burgher-spirit in opposition to Italy—namely, the Reformation, to which the development of Italian art had indirectly given the impetus. German money procured from the sale of indulgences helped to build St. Peter's at Rome. Albert of Bran denburg, archbishop of Alavence, was the principal collector; he sent out Tetzel, who roused Luther's anger and provoked him to the contest. The greater gayety of the Italians, which was shared even by the highest dig nitaries of the Church, the ideas bordering on frivolity which were cur rent in these circles, were what first brought discord into Germany and occasioned the earnest, inwardly-pious Germans to clamor for a complete reform of the Church from head to members. The clamor rang unheard in the ears of those church dignitaries for whom religion was an empty outward form, whose scepticism had led them to adopt the views of clas sical paganism. Against them and their world rose the German spirit, which strove to preserve and to purify Christianity and longed to extirpate as corruption the external pagan forms which the Renaissance had estab lished in the guiding circles of the Church. The spirit that longed to do all this could not accept the series of farms that seemed to be the most vivid expression of that against which it fought.