Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad, Vol. 2 (of 3): With Tales and Miscellanies Now First CollectedJameson, Mrs. (Anna)
History
Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad, Vol. 2 (of 3): With Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected
Jameson, Mrs. (Anna)
Germany -- Description and travel
In this Protestant church, even the shrine of St. Sibbald has kept its
place, if not to the honour and glory of the saint, at least to the
honour and glory of the city of Nuremberg; it is considered as the
_chef-d'oeuvre_ of Peter Vischer, a famous sculptor and caster in
bronze, cotemporary with Albert Durer. It was begun in 1506, and
finished in 1519, and is adorned with ninety-six figures, among which
the twelve apostles, all varying in character and attitude, are really
miracles of grace, power, and expression; the base of the shrine rests
upon six gigantic snails, and the whole is cast in bronze, and finished
with exquisite skill and fancy. At one end of this extraordinary
composition the artificer has placed his own figure, not obtrusively,
but retired, in a sort of niche; he is represented in his working dress,
with his cap, leather apron, and tools in his hand. According to
tradition, he was paid for his work by the pound weight, twenty gulden
(or florins) for every hundred weight of metal; and the whole weighs one
hundred and twenty centners, or hundred weight.
The man who showed us this shrine was descended from Peter Vischer,
lived in the same house which he and his sons had formerly inhabited,
and carried on the same trade, that of a smith and brass-founder.
The Moritz-Kapel, near the church, is an old gothic chapel once
dedicated to St. Maurice, now converted into a public gallery of
pictures of the old German school. The collection is exceedingly
curious; there are about one hundred and forty pictures, and besides
specimens of Mabuse, Albert Durer, Van Eyck, Martin Schoen, Lucas
Kranach, and the two Holbeins, I remember some portraits by a certain
Hans Grimmer, which impressed me by their truth and fine painting. It
appears from this collection that for some time after Albert Durer, the
German painters continued to paint on a gold ground. Kulmbach, whose
heads are quite marvellous for finish and expression, generally did so.
This gallery owes its existence to the present king, and has been well
arranged by the architect Heideldoff and professor von Dillis of Munich.
In the market-place of Nuremberg stands the Schönebrunnen, that is,
the beautiful fountain; it bears the date 1355, and in style resembles
the crosses which Edward I. erected to Queen Eleanor, but is of more
elaborate beauty; it is covered with gothic figures, carved by one of
the most ancient of the German sculptors, Schonholfer, who modestly
styles himself a stone-cutter. Here we see, placed amicably close,
Julius Cæsar, Godfrey of Boulogne, Judas Maccabæus, Alexander the Great,
Hector of Troy, Charlemagne, and king David: all old acquaintances,
certainly, but whom we might have supposed that nothing but the day of
judgment could ever have assembled together in company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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