A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, ArchitectureWaters, Clara Erskine Clement
History
A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture
Waters, Clara Erskine Clement
Art -- History
Another remarkable work of his is a panel of roses, now in the
Burgkapelle. The panel is seven feet high by five wide; more than half
of this is covered by a wreath of roses; there are besides four rows of
small half-length figures arranged round a cross of St. Anthony, a
representation of the Last Judgment, scenes in the history of man from
the creation to the death of the Virgin, and many other saints and like
subjects in bits of reliefs, which fill up all spare spaces. The style
is very distinct, and the draperies better in this work than in others
from his hand.
There are other works in Nuremberg and elsewhere which are attributed
to Veit Stoss, but these that are known to be his are quite enough to
establish his fame as a gifted artist and a remarkable sculptor for his
time.
Though Stoss is among the early masters of Nuremberg, it is yet true
that others had been at work while he was in Cracow, and the way had
been prepared for him and his work when he returned to his native city
in 1496. Among the most active artists in Nuremberg was MICHAEL
WOHLGEMUTH (1434-1519), who is generally considered as a painter only;
but we know that he made contracts for entire works in which sculpture
and painting are combined, and must have had the oversight of the whole;
and in this view it is proper to mention this master's name. The altars
at Haller Cross Chapel, Nuremberg, one at Zwickau, another at Schwabach,
and that of the Heilsbronn Monastery, near Nuremberg, are all ascribed
to Wohlgemuth.
ALBRECHT DUeRER (1471-1528), who was one of the great masters of the
world, was an architect, painter, and sculptor. He was a pupil of
Michael Wohlgemuth, and sculpture was less practised by him than other
arts; yet the few works of his which remain are much valued.
Duerer probably executed his carvings about 1510-1520. In the British
Museum there is a relief of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, which was
purchased in the Netherlands more than eighty years since for $2500. It
is cut in a block of cream-colored stone, seven and one half by five and
one half inches in size, and is a wonderful work. The companion piece,
which represents the same saint Preaching in the Wilderness, is in the
Brunswick Museum, where there is also an "Ecce Homo" carved in wood.
Duerer executed many little carvings in stone, ivory, and boxwood, and
the existing ones are seen in various collections in Germany. It is
quite probable that others are in private hands.
There are in Nuremberg many most excellent wood-carvings by unknown
masters; one who cares for this art is well repaid for a visit to this
old city, and, indeed, this is true of other old German towns. Bamberg,
Marburg, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Dortmund, Halle, and many other towns
have riches in this kind of art.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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