It may indeed be the case that the lessons which they thus taught were sterilizing: that the very enthusiasm for Italian art which they showed and generated was destined to destroy the flower of native German art. Certain it is that the Vischers founded no school and that individuality in German art was, from this time forth, blighted and crushed. But there are a dozen other causes to which this same decay of the native art may with as much probability be attributed. It is quite as likely to be due to the material facts of German domestic history as to the exotic influence of a foreign nation. But for us it remains only to take the work of these craftsmen as they gave it to the world, and to apportion to them the praise they have deserved. They aimed, with the most elaborate care and anxious perseverance, at perfection of detail, and this perfection they did frequently attain without prejudice to the proportionment and simplicity of the whole. The artist who pays great attention to the minute is too often afflicted with a kind of æsthetic myopia which prevents him from perceiving the defects of his complete design. His work becomes too curious or else florid and ineffective. This is the besetting sin of Teutonic art, and it is a danger to which metal-workers of all times and in all countries are especially liable. The Vischers in their best work succeeded in avoiding it, for there we find a repose, a dignity, a simplicity and a spirituality which raises it to the level of the very best ever executed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATALOGUE OF THE CHIEF WORKS BY OR ATTRIBUTED TO HERMANN VISCHER, HIS SON PETER VISCHER AND PETER VISCHER’S SONS, HERMANN, PETER, AND JOHANN KNOWN AS HANS DER GIESSER. HERMANN VISCHER. Died, 1487. FONT. Signed, “DO MAN ZALT VON CRISTI GEPURT MCCCC UND DARNACH IM LVII JAR AN SANCT MICHAELS TAG DO WARD DIS WERK VOLBRACHT VON MEISTER HERMAN VISCHER ZU NU[˜R]BE[~G].” Wittenberg, 1457. TOMB-PLATES. At Meissen and Bamberg. LÖFFELHOLZ CRUCIFIX. St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg. PETER VISCHER. 145(?)-1529. MONUMENT OF COUNT OTTO IV. von Henneberg. Stiftskirche, Römhild, 1487 (?). FIRST DESIGN FOR A SEBALDUSGRAB. Signed with initials on either side of Cross with hook emblem. Vienna, 1488. TOMB OF BISHOP HEINRICH III., Gross von Trockau. Probably after a design by W. Katzheimer. Cathedral, Bamberg, 1492. MONUMENT OF BISHOP GEORG II., Marshal von Ebenet. From a design by W. Katzheimer. Cathedral, Bamberg, 1492(?). TOMB OF BISHOP JOHN IV. (Johann Roth). Figures of six Apostles. Signed, “GEMACHT ZU NUREMBERG FON MIR PETER FISCHER IM 1496 JAR.”