So potent was the saint on whose shrine Peter Vischer was now at work—that shrine to which, says Eobanus Hessus in his poem on Nuremberg, no words can do justice and with which not even the greatest artists of antiquity could have found fault;
“Musa nec ulla queat tanto satis esse labori
Nec verbis æquare opus immortale futurum;
Quod neque Praxiteles, nec Myron nec Polycletus,
Nemo Cares, nemo Scopas reprehendere posset.”
STEIN PHOTO.] [RELIEF FROM SEBALDUSGRAB, ST. SEBALD’S CHURCH, NÜRNBERG
11. ST. SEBALD HEALING THE BLIND MAN
Now in the style of the reliefs which record the miracles we have related, there is a marked divergence. Even the figure of the saint is not uniformly conceived. We may conclude that we have on the one hand in the “Punishment of the Unbeliever” undoubtedly the work of Peter Vischer, the father. The craftsman was still clearly under the influence of Adam Krafft and his school. For the personages of the little drama which he wished to depict are presented to us as simple Nurembergers of every day, and they are portrayed in a spirit of very homely realism. Similar in style is the treatment of the miracle of the “Wine in the Bowl,” where, equally with the above, the handling of the drapery is thoroughly in the manner of the old Founder. On the other hand, the relief which represents the “Miracle of the Icicles” is probably by Peter Vischer the younger. For the modelling of the female figures there distinctly reminds us, in drapery and in pose of the head and body, of the Eurydice in his “Orpheus and Eurydice,” of the Vita in his inkstands, and of the flute-player in the Sebaldusgrab. And by him, also, is the “Healing of the Blind Man,” which is by far the finest of the four reliefs. There is a movement in the whole and a unity in the composition quite admirable, whilst the cautious, tentative gait of the suddenly blinded man, not yet accustomed to the eternal darkness which has come upon him, is indicated with a delicacy and sureness of touch which proclaim a truly great and original artist. In the treatment of the drapery on the moving figures we read the result of his study of the antique. It is used to indicate and to explain the movement that is taking place. And very noticeable is the seizing of the dramatic moment, which is a conspicuous characteristic of the artist of “Orpheus and Eurydice.”
In the portrayal of the apostles on the Sebaldusgrab Vischer and his sons have attained the perfect expression of the ideal after which the father had vainly striven in the monument at Magdeburg.
