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HANDBOOKS OF THE GREAT
CRAFTSMEN. EDITED BY
G. C. WILLIAMSON, LITT.D.
PETER VISCHER
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Handbooks of the Great Craftsmen.
--------------
Illustrated Monographs, Biographical and Critical, on the Great
Craftsmen and Workers of Ancient and Modern Times.
Edited by G. C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D.
Imperial 16mo, with numerous Illustrations, 5s. net each.
First Volumes of the Series
THE PAVEMENT MASTERS OF SIENA. Workers in Graffito. By R. H. HOBART
CUST, M.A.
PETER VISCHER. Bronze Founder. By CECIL HEADLAM, B.A.
THE IVORY WORKERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. By A. M. CUST.
Others to follow.
--------------
LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: STEIN PHOTO.] [FROM A DRAWING IN POSSESSION OF T. A.
STEIN, NÜRNBERG
1. PORTRAIT OF PETER VISCHER]
PETER VISCHER
by
CECIL HEADLAM, B.A.
Formerly Demy of Magdalen College, Oxford; Author of
“The Story of Nuremberg,” etc.
[Illustration: Publisher’s Logo]
London
George Bell and Sons
1901
Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham and Co.
Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE
THE Germans have by nature the gift of working in metal, and, among
them, in the realms of bronze, Peter Vischer stands easily first. His
position as a craftsman may, in fact, be compared with that held by his
contemporary and fellow citizen, Albert Dürer, as an artist. The history
of his works and of those of his house, have a peculiar interest to the
student of art, inasmuch as they illustrate the gradual but easily
traceable passage of the German craftsmen from the style of late Gothic
to that of complete neo-paganism, and, from the school of the Northern
painters and sculptors to that of the great Italian masters
successively.
I speak of the works of Peter Vischer “and his house,” because, in
tracing this development, we have to take into consideration not only
his works but also those of his father Hermann and of his sons, Hermann
and Peter and Hans. The pendulum of criticism has indeed swung more than
once since the Emperor Maximilian used to visit Peter Vischer’s foundry
in Nuremberg, and the questions as to what are actually the works of the
Master and what position is to be assigned to him in the world of art,
have been answered in more ways than one. For many years, owing partly
to the ignorance of most people, and partly no doubt to the greed of the
few, the tendency was to attribute to this one famous craftsman the
works of many. At one time almost any work of art in bronze to be found
throughout the length and breadth of Germany was attributed to Peter
Vischer, just as a Talleyrand or a Sydney Smith has had witticisms of
every date and every quality fathered upon him.
From unreasoning praise, again, men passed to equally undiscriminating
disparagement. Heideloff arose and wished the world to see in Peter
Vischer nothing but the mere craftsman who put into bronze the designs
and models of Adam Krafft or another. The admirable labours of Retberg,
however, and of Dr. Lübke have shown how little foundation there is for
this view, and, more recently, by the application of the principles of
more exact art-criticism, Dr. Seeger, in his minute and loving study of
Peter Vischer the younger, has vindicated the claim of the great
craftsman’s son to rank with, or even above, his father as the first and
greatest exponent of Renaissance plastic-work in Germany.
To the two latter authors I have been continually and especially
indebted whilst writing the present monograph. For the use of very many
of the illustrations forming the volume to which Dr. Lübke contributed
the text, my best thanks and acknowledgements are due to the publisher,
Herr Stein, of Nuremberg.
C. H.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
BIBLIOGRAPHY xi
I. HERMANN VISCHER AND THE EARLY GERMAN 1
BRONZE-WORK
II. PETER VISCHER: HIS LIFE 9
III. THE EARLY WORKS OF PETER VISCHER 20
IV. THE SHRINE OF ST. SEBALD 36
V. THE TOMB OF MAXIMILIAN 64
VI. THE TUCHER MONUMENT AND THE NUREMBERG 72
MADONNA
VII. THE MINOR WORKS OF PETER VISCHER THE 86
YOUNGER
VIII. THE TOMB OF ELECTOR FREDERICK THE WISE, 101
AND THE RATHAUS RAILING
IX. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF VISCHER 119
X. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WORKS OF THE 130
VISCHERS
CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF THE VISCHERS 133
Index 142
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE PAGE
1. PORTRAIT OF PETER VISCHER Frontispiece
2. PETER VISCHER, THE CRAFTSMAN St. Sebald, 13
Nürnberg
3. TOMB OF ARCHBISHOP ERNST Cathedral, 23
Magdeburg
4. TOMB OF ARCHBISHOP ERNST Cathedral, 27
Magdeburg
5. ST. MAURICE Krafft House, Nürnberg 29
6. MONUMENT OF COUNT HERMANN VIII. Church, 31
Römhild
7. TOMB OF ST. SEBALD St. Sebald, Nürnberg 43
8. ST. PETER St. Sebald, Nürnberg 46
9. ST. SEBALD St. Sebald, Nürnberg 47
10. ST. SEBALD PUNISHES AN UNBELIEVER St. 55
Sebald, Nürnberg
11. ST. SEBALD HEALING THE BLIND MAN St. 57
Sebald, Nürnberg
12. ST. PAUL St. Sebald, Nürnberg 59
13. ST. BARTHOLOMEW St. Sebald, Nürnberg 61
14. THEODORIC, KING OF THE GOTHS Tomb of 68
Maximilian, Innsbruck
15. KING ARTHUR Tomb of Maximilian, 69
Innsbruck
16. MEETING OF CHRIST WITH THE SISTERS OF 75
LAZARUS Cathedral, Ratisbon
17. BEWEINUNG CHRISTI St. Ægidius, Nürnberg 79
18. THE NUREMBERG MADONNA Museum, Nürnberg 81
19. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE Collection of M. 90
Dreyfus, Paris
20. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE Museum, Berlin 93
21. EARTHLY LIFE (INKSTAND) Ashmolean 96
Museum, Oxford
22. HEAVENLY LIFE (INKSTAND) Ashmolean 97
Museum, Oxford
23. ELECTOR FREDERICK THE WISE 103
Schlosskirche, Wittenberg
24. THE RATHAUS RAILING Formerly at Nürnberg 109
25. THE RATHAUS RAILING Formerly at Nürnberg 113
26. BOY WITH BAGPIPES Museum, Nürnberg 120
27. TOMB-PLATE OF DUCHESS HELENE VON 121
MECKLENBURG Cathedral, Schwerin
28. THE APOLLO FOUNTAIN Rathaus Court, 126
Nürnberg
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baader. Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte Nürnbergs.
Bauer (Robert). Peter Vischer und das alte Nürnberg.
Bergau (R). Peter Vischer, in Dohme’s Kunst und Künstler des
Mittelalters, vol. ii.
Bode. Geschichte der deutschen Plastik.
Daun (Berthold). Adam Krafft und die Künstler seiner Zeit.
Döbner (A. W.). Peter-Vischer-Studien.
Edelberg (R. von E. von). Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte.
Ephrussi (Charles). Albert Dürer et ses Dessins.
Heideloff. Die Ornamente des Mittelalters.
Jannsen. Geschichte des deutschen Volks.
Lübke (Wilhelm). Peter Vischer und seine Werke.
Lübke (Wilhelm). Renaissance in Deutschland.
Mummenhoff (R. von). Das Rathaus in Nürnberg.
Neudörffer. Nachrichten über Künstlern und Werkleuten Nürnbergs.
Reicke (Emil). Geschichte der Reichstadt Nürnberg.
Retberg (R. von). Nürnbergs Kunstleben in seinem Denkmalen
dargestellt.
Schönherr (David Ritter von). Geschichte des Grabmals Kaisers
Maximilian I.
Seeger (Georg). Peter Vischer der Jüngere.
Sieghart. Geschichte der bildenden Künste in Baiern.
Springer (Anton). Albrecht Dürer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“A man of amiable conversation and, among
natural arts (to speak as a layman), finely skilled
in casting.”
JOHANN NEUDÖRFFER.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PETER VISCHER
CHAPTER I
HERMANN VISCHER AND THE EARLY GERMAN BRONZE WORK
IT was in the middle of the fifteenth century, a little before the year
1450, to be precise, that there wandered into the streets of Nuremberg a
working man, a common coppersmith, one Hermann Vischer by name. He came
no one knows whence. He came one can easily imagine why. Like the father
of Albert Dürer, and in the same decade, he was attracted to that
beautiful, busy old town by the greed of gain, as Shakespeare was drawn
to London, and many another worker in other arts and crafts has been
drawn to many another town. For Nuremberg at this time was the shining
jewel of the Holy Roman Empire, the centre of trade and the meeting
place of the Arts. Her geographical position and the business energy of
her sons had combined to throw into her lap all the commerce of the east
and south, of Italy and the Levant, with the northern nations.
The days were near at hand when this proud, free city of the Empire,
this trading staple of the German world, was to win the still nobler
title of “Albert Dürer’s and Hans Sachs’ City.” For the merchant princes
of the place, the Patricians as they called themselves, whilst they grew
in wealth and power, waxed also in enthusiasm for the sciences and arts.
They strove to make their town a German Florence, and by their lavish
expenditure upon the adornment of public and private buildings, both
attracted foreign genius and encouraged native talent. Regiomontanus on
the one hand, the great mathematician, chose Nuremberg for his place of
residence because he found there all the peculiar instruments necessary
for astronomy, and because the “perpetual journeyings of her merchants”
enabled him to keep in touch with the learned of all countries. These
perpetual journeyings of the merchant princes and great explorers, like
Behaim, reacted also upon the artists of the town; they contributed to
give them a wider outlook upon life, and brought within their reach the
wonderful works of Italy.
The broad culture of a Pirkheimer exercised an undoubted influence upon
the many-sided genius of Dürer, whilst the liberal atmosphere engendered
by travel made the citizens of Nuremberg ready to welcome in their midst
foreign artists like the elder Dürer, the elder Vischer and Veit Stoss,
and rendered the local artists themselves susceptible to the excellence
of foreign art. Not that the Nuremberg artists lack the local note. But
they readily accepted the ideas of Flemish realism and again of the
Italian Renaissance, and translated them into the terms of their own
speech. Albert Dürer, for instance, in spite of his wide experience,
always speaks in his art like his master Wolgemut, in the Nuremberg
dialect. The intense patriotism and the deep religious feeling which
formed so intimate a part of the lives of the citizens are reproduced in
their art and literature, giving the greatest examples of them the added
charm of locality. The religious spirit in which they worked lent a
great humility to these craftsmen. Sculpture and painting had indeed
been applied with splendid results to the adornment of domestic and
public life, results so splendid that the traveller Æneas Sylvius was
obliged to confess that the mansions of the burgesses seemed to have
been built for princes, and that the kings of Scotland would gladly be
housed as luxuriously as the ordinary citizen of Nuremberg. But the
chief work of men like Adam Krafft and Peter Vischer was given to the
beautifying of the churches. And, working as they did in a deeply
religious spirit, it is noticeable that when they represent themselves
in paint, bronze, wood or stone, they give themselves the humble pose of
suppliants, choosing always the lowliest place, and often, like Krafft
in the tabernacle in the Church of St. Lorenz, or Vischer in the
Sebaldusgrab in the Church of St. Sebald, they appear in their working
clothes, tools in hand, in the attitude of servants.
There, in a niche of the beautiful shrine he had wrought, with his
workman’s cap on his head and a large leather apron round his waist, and
in his hand hammer and chisel, the signs of his calling, stands
thick-set and full-bearded Peter Vischer, the modest, pious labourer,
whose reputation had spread beyond the limits of Germany, and whose
bronze work, the chronicler tells us, once filled Poland, Bohemia,
Hungary, and the palaces of princes throughout the Holy Roman Empire.
(Ill. 2.)
When Hermann Vischer came to Nuremberg the bronze industry had long been
pursued in Germany, and it had been pursued with some success. The
individuality of this indigenous art had been in early times
uninfluenced by foreign inspiration. While Venice had to go to
Constantinople for the bronze gates of St. Mark’s, and Rome was
acknowledging the supremacy of Byzantine ideals in the presence of the
gates of S. Paolo, in Germany, as Lübke points out, such works as the
doors of the Cathedrals of Hildesheim and Augsburg, the tomb-plates at
Magdeburg and Merseburg, or the great altar at Goslar, prove the
existence, albeit in a very crude and undeveloped state, of a native art
in bronze. The twelfth century saw the German foundries supplying many
an important font or cathedral door. The work of Lambert Patras von
Dinant (1112), the fonts in the cathedral at Osnabrück, the lions at
Brunswick and the doors of St. Sophia at Novgorod, exhibit indeed a very
considerable advance both in execution and design. The increasing use of
bronze for the sacred vessels and ornaments of the Church extended the
scope of the craftsmen, and the hey-day of the early Gothic period saw
no lack of tomb-plates, candelabra, and fonts from the German foundries.
The workmanship of these is good but undistinguished as it is
uninspired. It seldom even approaches in artistic merit the splendid
tomb of Konrad von Hochstaden in Cologne Cathedral, or the later,
vigorous equestrian statue of St. George in the cathedral at Prague,
wrought by Georg and Martin von Clussenbach in 1373.
Nuremberg, in spite of her wealth and commercial importance, had not, at
the time of the coming of Hermann Vischer, given birth as yet to any
great work of art in bronze. Almost the only old piece of bronze of any
importance to be seen in the churches there is the font in St. Sebald’s
Church. And its importance lies rather in the richness with which it is
wrought than in its artistic excellence (1350). This is the font in
which the Emperor Wenzel was baptized—a baptism which cost the town the
beautiful old parsonage, burnt down by the fires used to heat the water
for the imperial infant. The four squat apostolic figures represented
here in their straight, heavy mantles bear witness already to that
striving after a realistic representation of the great protagonists in
the sacred drama which was beginning to betray itself at this time in
the works of the nameless Nuremberg painters on the one hand, and, on
the other, of the Nuremberg sculptors, such as Hans Decker, the
forerunner of Adam Krafft. It was a tendency which the Nuremberg
artists, like their brethren of the Swabian school and the school of
Cologne owed to the influence of Flemish art. But this was a return to
Nature not without its faults. The German artist, in his eager endeavour
to reproduce the exact form of his models, of those, that is, whom he
saw around him every day, was badly served by the figures of his
countrymen. They could not give him the slim and graceful forms of the
Italians to copy, and he had not yet learnt from Italy those theories of
beauty, based on a study of the antique, which were one day to help an
Albert Dürer to perform the true function of an artist by improving upon
Nature.
Of Hermann Vischer himself and his doings we know very little. Very
little also of his work survives. We know that he became a Burgher of
his adopted town and, in 1453, rose to be a Master in the Guild of
Rotschmieds. That he gained some reputation in his day, and not at home
only, is shown by the fact that four years later he cast the Font for
the parish church at Wittenberg. Several tomb-plates at Meissen and
Bamberg are also attributed to him. These confirm us in the impression
that he had no great individuality. He was an excellent workman without
being endowed with the superlative excellence of the artist. For the
Font at Wittenberg, which is cast in the Gothic manner with small,
undistinguished figures of the apostles, is a work of very little
importance. In Nuremberg, where he lived in a house “Am Sand” in the
Schiessgraben, there is one work which is generally attributed to
Hermann, although it is quite possibly from the hand of one Eberhard
Vischer who became a master in 1459 and died in 1488, just one year
later than Hermann. The work to which we refer is the large bronze
Crucifix outside the central window of the Löffelholz chapel of the
church of St. Sebald, which was presented by the Starck family in 1482.
It was remodelled in 1625, and on that occasion the Nurembergers earned
the nick-name of Herrgottschwärzer or Blackeners of the Lord. For the
story ran that the cross was made of silver, and that the Council of the
town resolved that it should be painted black in order to preserve it
from the roving bands of soldiers that passed through the town during
the Thirty Years’ War. The figure on the cross is that of a Hercules
rather than of a Christ. The feet are each nailed separately after the
ancient manner.
Hermann Vischer was twice married. By his first wife, Felicitas, he had
one daughter, Martha, and one son, Peter, the date of whose birth is not
known. By his second wife he had three sons of no importance, and he
died in 1487, in the year which saw the birth of his second grandson,
Peter Vischer the younger, to whom, it will be shown in the succeeding
chapters, many of the finest works usually attributed to the elder Peter
must now probably be credited.
------------------------------------------------------------------------