The works that belong to the second period of the Vischer foundry show a pure, plastic sense of form and rhythm emerging from the overwhelming dominion of late Gothic extravagance. The childish things of that style have been put away by the mature artist, and, in obedience to the teaching of the drawings of Jacopo de’ Barbari, whom Dürer called “a lovable, good painter,” and of the drawings of early Renaissance work in North Italy, which Peter the younger had made in his Wanderjahre there, the great masterpiece of the house, the Sebaldusgrab, takes shape in a style that is a curious mixture of the Mediæval and Renaissance manners. Finally, when Hermann Vischer, Peter’s eldest son, had made a journey to Rome and returned thence laden with drawings, father and sons gave themselves up to a whole-hearted worship of the beauty of form and an eager copying of the antique which resulted in the most beautiful piece of pure Renaissance work which ever issued from a German workshop—the Rathaus Railing, destined to be sold in the fulness of years and melted down for the value of its metal! The life of Peter Vischer was simple and domestic, but very full of toil and trouble and private grief made bearable perhaps by his absorbing enthusiasm for his work. A few years before his father’s death, probably in 1485, he married Margaretha, daughter of Hans Gross. A document, dated October 4th, 1490, gives us a slight glimpse of her character. Therein her father records that he makes a present to his daughter of the green mantle and veil with which he had provided her on her wedding day, but at the same time he binds Peter Vischer with all the paraphernalia of judges, witnesses and solemn pledges not to allow her to sell or pawn the said articles. The date of this document led to the erroneous conclusion that the marriage only took place in 1489, but Dr. Seeger has recently pointed out that on a medallion by Peter Vischer the younger he expressly states that he was twenty-two years of age when he wrought it, and this in the year 1509. Since Neudörffer, the Nuremberg Vasari, refers to Hermann as “the famous Peter Vischer’s _eldest_ son,” the marriage must have occurred somewhere about 1485. There was also a third son by this union, known afterwards as Hans der Giesser. Margaretha died shortly after the birth of this last son, and in 1493 we find Peter married again to Dorothea von Gericht. She died soon afterwards, leaving him a daughter, Margaretha, and then he took to himself another Margaretha. Meantime he worked like his father at the town Foundry in the White Tower, and lived in the house he had inherited, “Am Sande.” But in 1505 he moved to a house behind the Convent of St. Catherine, which had fallen to him by inheritance. On July 26th of that year he was chosen “Street Captain” (Gassenhauptman) of the Barfüsser or Franciscan quarter of the town, and in the following year he and Margaretha signed a legal document declaring that they had