The great bays or compartments arranged between the entrances were filled with open metal-work, the bars whereof at the points of intersection were embellished with ornaments of manifold devices. A marvellous wealth of figures in relief was to be found in every quarter—over the arch of the doorway; on the spandrels of the side gates as well as on both the crowning segmental pediments and the rectangular centre-piece. Even the angles of the cornice were adorned with fantastic beings in whose manifold forms the humour of the Master, known to us already from our study of the Sebaldusgrab, was revealed in full play. Everywhere, and on either side of the railing, the same wealth of fancy and freshness of invention is displayed in these ever varying, never repeated forms. In the spandrels of the arch of the central door were, on the outside, struggling heroes, on the inside, figures of Victory. On the two pediments of the side gates were the four Cardinal Virtues, surrounded by beasts and creations of the fancy. The curved pediments above them exhibited the battles of fantastic creatures of the sea, tritons and nereids, and between them, within and without, the Arms of Nuremberg. The great frieze showed us sporting children making music, and heroic scenes of the battle of the Centaurs distinguished by a bold handling of movement and a masterly freedom of form. Finally, in the pediment of the centre-piece, crowning the whole, the Saviour was portrayed in the act of benediction, holding the globe of the earth and surrounded by angel children. The whole of this work, so far as we can judge from the drawings, adds Lübke, is full of the highest beauty and life, and of such richness in design and execution, that one is forced to reckon this noble creation as the third great masterpiece of Vischer, after the monument at Magdeburg and the tomb of St. Sebald at Nuremberg. In the general design, as well as in the details of the ornament, the complete triumph of the worship of the antique is evident. Only the figures of the Saviour and of the Cardinal Virtues are borrowed from the ideas of Christian art. The rest is sheer paganism. “Without question Vischer’s Rathaus Railing takes the first place among the masterpieces of the distinct and complete Renaissance in Germany.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IX THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF VISCHER THE Rathaus Railing was the last and greatest of the works produced by the combined efforts of the Vischer family. It is vain to attempt to apportion the share of father and sons in it. That each had his share in it we may easily deduce from the history of it given above, and the result was a very perfect whole, the most complete and beautiful achievement of German craftsmen labouring under the overwhelming influence of neo-paganism in art. [Illustration: STEIN PHOTO.] [MUSEUM, NÜRNBERG 26. BOY WITH BAGPIPES]