VISCHER, PETER, the Elder (c.1455-1529). A German sculptor and brass-founder, one of the greatest matters of the Renaissance. Born at Nuremberg, son of the brazier Dermann Vischer the Elder, who acquired citizenship there in 1453, and died in 1487, Peter was his father's pupil and assistant, and was admitted to the guild as a master in 1489. His produetions in creased the reputation of the foundry which he had inherited from his father to such a degree that for half a century it was praetically with out competition in Germany, and also received important orders front other countries. Five sons assisted Peter in his extensive productions HERMANN the Younger ( c.1490-1516 ) ; PETER the Younger (e.1494-15281 ; HANs, who inherited the foundry, but removed to Eichstiidt in 1549; PAUL, who died at Mainz in 1531; and JAKOB, about whom information is lacking. While records of his outward life are wanting, we hate a picture of the master's artistic development in his nu merous works, all marked with his monogram and dated, with the exception of his earliest known work. the statue of "Count Otto von Hen neberg" in the church at Palmhild (e.1480-00). 1)f 1490 unquestionably is the statue of a "Kneel ing in the National Sluseum at Munich, probably the fragment of some monument. Of several sepulchral slabs in the cathedrals of Bamberg, Wiirzburg. and Meis.sen, that of "Duchess Sidonie," at Meissen, deserves especial mention. Two characteristic works are the state ly monuments of "Archbishop Ernst of Saxony" (1495, Magdeburg Cathedral), and of "Bishop Johann Both" (1490. Breslau Cathedral), in which the master has already abandoned the con ventional forms of his father's productions, and yielded to the realism of the Nuremberg school.
During the ten years following the completion of these important works, a in Vischer's artistic views seems to have freed him from the trammels of the prevailing style and led him to a more elaborate mode of conception, exemplified in beauty in his master creation, the "Tomb of Saint Sebaldus" (1505-1), in the church of that saint, at Nuremherg, the most popular plastic monument of German art. Destined as
a shrine for the silver sarcophagus (of 1397) containing the remains of the patron saint of his native city, this superb work, in which he was assisted by his five sons, has perhaps only one counterpart among all the plastic productions of the Christian Era, in Ghiberti's bronze gate at Florence. Other prominent works outside of Nuremberg, are the "Alonument to Cardinal Frederick" (1510, Cracow Cathedral) ; the statues of "King Arthur" and "King Theodoric" (both 1513). in the famous monument of "Ern peror aximilian," at Innsbruck ; and the "Epitaph of Margaretha Tusher" (1521, Regensburg Cathe dral), representing the meeting of Christ with the sisters of Lazarus and of which there is a faithful reproduction (1543) by Hans Viseher in the National Museum at Munich; finally there are to he noted as highly important the monu ments of "Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg" (1525. Stiftskirche, AschniTenburg), and of the "Elector Frederick the Wise" (1527, Schloss kirche, Wittenberg), the last of which, distin guished for its especially delicate and tasteful treatment of detail, is for the greater part to be attributed to Peter the Younger.
After the elder Vischer's death, on January 7. 1529, his foundry continued to receive abun dant commissions for about a decade longer, with the execution of which Hans Vischer must be credited. The most noteworthy of these are the double monument of the "Electors Johann Cicero and Joachim 1." 11530. Berlin Cathedral), and the monument of "John the Constant" (1534, Schlosskirche, Wit t enberg). Consult : Bergau, in Dohme, Kunst and K Unstler, vol i. (Leipzig, 187S) ; Bauer, Petri rischcr uml dos alts berg (Berlin, 1550) ; Bode, Ucsehichte der deu sehe Plast (ib., 1557); Wei:sticker, "Peter Vischer, Vater and Sohn." in Rcpertoriunt Kunst irissrnsehaft, vol. xxiii. 1 ib.. 19011) ; and Bee. in At/yen/eine deutsche Biographic, vol. xl. (Leipzig. 1890).