The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian CourtLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian Court
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Crystal Palace (Sydenham, London, England)
Passing through the Nuremberg doorway, in the centre, we see immediately
before us, and over the arches leading to the nave, eight dancing
mummers, from the Town-hall at Munich; they are represented as
exhibiting before an audience, probably at some civic festival, and are
full of grotesque drollery. Beneath the mummers are placed consoles or
brackets, from the hall of Gurzenich, at Cologne, remarkable for the
humour displayed in their conception. On the wall to the right are three
large reliefs, from the church of St. Sebald, at Nuremberg. They are the
work of Adam Krafft, and represent:--1. The Betrayal of our Saviour; 2.
The Mount of Olives; 3. The Last Supper;--and in their execution show
great power and much less stiffness than is generally found in Mediæval
works. Adam Krafft was an excellent sculptor, who flourished at the
close of the 15th century. His works, which are chiefly to be found at
Nuremberg, possess great merit both in their search after truth and the
unusual manual ability they display. Immediately beneath these reliefs
is another by the same artist, taken from the Frauen-Kirche, or Church
of our Lady, at Nuremberg. It represents an Adoration of the Virgin, and
shows even more vigorous handling than the other three. On the other
side of the adjoining doorway, from the Monastery of Denkendorf, in
Wurtemburgh, is another piece, representing the “Coronation of the
Virgin,” also by Krafft. The monument beneath is from Munich, and is of
the 16th century. On the left-hand wall, next to the Nuremberg door, is
a bas-relief of “Justice with the Rich and Poor,” by Veit Stoss, from
the Town-hall at Nuremberg. Above and below this are others by Krafft.
The upper, the “Meeting of Christ and St. Veronica,” from the Via
Crucis, Nuremberg; the lower, another “Coronation of the Virgin,” from
the Frauen-Kirche, Nuremberg. Under this last are two ascribed to Albert
Durer--a “Circumcision,” and “Christ teaching in the Temple;” and on the
other side of the doorway, leading into the English Mediæval Court, is
the celebrated garland representing the triumph of the Church, by Veit
Stoss, from the church of St. Lawrence, at Nuremberg, which deserves
especial examination as one of the master-pieces of that sculptor, and
on account of its very peculiar arrangement. Other subjects in this
Court present excellent examples of German Mediæval Art down to the time
of Peter Vischer, whose works evince an evident influence derived from
the Renaissance School of Italy, at the close of the 15th and at the
commencement of the 16th centuries.
We now emerge into the Nave, and turning to the left, find ourselves in
front of
THE ENGLISH MEDIÆVAL COURT.[14]
It will have been remarked in the German Mediæval Court, that
architecture has undergone another change. No sooner had the Lombard or
Romanesque style become systematised, than features arose which
contained the germs of yet more important changes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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