KRAFT, k riift, ADAM (c.1440-1507). A cele brated German sculptor, born probably at Nurem berg. Very little is known of his life beyond the fact that the year 1490 found hint aetively en gaged in Nuremberg, a contemporary and friend of the famous founder Peter Viseher. From his works, in which architecture and sculpture are treated with equal mastery and in closest con nection, it may be inferred that he started as a simple handicraftsman. and by his own efforts worked his way to the perfection apparent in his mature creations. The earliest of his more elabo rate works in Nuremberg is the series known as "The Seven Stations." completed about 1490, for merly on the road to the Cemetery of Saint John and now in the Germanic Museum. They arc carved in somewhat coarse sandstone, in high relief, and show the mixture of pictorial and plastic elements in the composition. and the real istic hardness in the individual figures and in the drapery. as they prevailed in the fifteenth cen tury. Of the same date is the "Calvary," a group of size, in the Cemetery of Saint John. In 1492 was executed the magnificent "Tomb of the Schreyer Family," outside the Church of Saint SeimIdus, representing the prin cipal three scenes in the Passion of Christ. Of three other sepulchral monuments, dating prob ably from between 1498 and 1501, the "Epi taphium of the Pergerstorff Family," in the Frau enkirclie, a large high relief representing the Virgin with the infant Christ crowned by angels, with groups of figures kneeling at her feet, is the finest. Similar in subject, but different in treat
ment. is the "Landauer Tomb," in the Tetzel Chapel of Saint ...Egidins's Church. and more simply, yet most happily conceived, is the "Tomb of the ilebeck Family." in the Frauenkirche. Kraft's most elaborate work, and his most widely admired masterpiece, however, is the "Taber nacle" in the Church of Saint Lawrence, erected in 1493-1500. It is a towering pyramid of ele gant proportions, reaching a height of sixty-four feet, and terminating with a bold curve at the top, of amazing richness in architectural forms and plastic ornamentation, the smallest details being executed with delicacy. Consult: Wanderer, A(7(rm Kraft and seine Schale ( Nuremberg, 1869) ; Ilergau, "Adam Kraft." in Dolime. Kunst and Kunstler (Leipzig, 1877) ; Bode, Gesehichte der deutschen Plastik (Berlin. 1887) ; and Dann, Adorn Kraft and die Kunstler seiner Zcit (ib., 1S97).