STEIN PHOTO.] [ST. SEBALD’S CHURCH, NÜRNBERG
12. ST. PAUL
In every way the advance made by the artist since he wrought that early masterpiece is noticeable. The apostles here, unlike those in the original design, and unlike, also, those on the tomb of Archbishop Ernst, are not standing gazing straight in front of them in holy, unconscious calm, but a certain relation has been established between some of the pairs. That relation has not been established indeed with mathematical precision, but with an art that succeeds in producing the effect of nature. Take, for instance, the figures of Paul and Philip, which are represented in the act of earnest conversation, or those of Thomas and James the Less, which suggest men who are busy with their own thoughts, but are composed so as to be in complete harmony with those of the neighbouring apostles. The figures are skilfully arranged also so as to produce a harmonious contrast with the twelve patriarchs above them.
We noticed in the apostles of the Magdeburg monument a distinct lack of variety in pose, especially of arms and hands. The figures there were stiff and lacking in grace, but these are full of fire and movement. The figures there were over short. They were the types of Adam Krafft and the Nuremberg school. But these, in greater or less degree, are Renaissance types of comparative litheness, and inspired with life and intelligence.
In breaking away from the traditions of Veit Stoss and Adam Krafft the artist has advanced to a notable extent beyond them, and even beyond Dürer in most cases, in the quality of spirituality which he has learnt to impress upon his work.
STEIN PHOTO.] [ST. SEBALD’S CHURCH, Nürnberg
13. ST. BARTHOLOMEW
A similar development is noticeable in the drapery. The apostles at Magdeburg are clad in the heavy, wooden garments of the old school, whilst those of the Sebaldusgrab are draped in fine folds which fall in soft curves over bodies anatomically correct.
We cannot, perhaps, determine with certainty which of the Vischer family is responsible for each figure. But where we find one recalling in pose and drapery the motives of the Magdeburg tomb we may safely attribute it to the father. He was fond of horizontal folds and much affected that motive of a mantle which consists in its being thrown over and falling from the right arm and resting on the left shoulder. His handling of hair is also distinctive. He preferred to provide his statues with masses of luxuriant hair and beard and moustaches. His noblest achievement is the figure of the Apostle Andrew.
To Peter Vischer the younger we may attribute the representation of his patron saint. This, as Dr. Seeger has pointed out, is based on a recollection or a drawing of the figure of that Apostle on the façade of the Certosa di Pavia, modified by the individuality of the present artist and adapted to the exigencies of this shrine. It is an absolutely different type from that on the Magdeburg tomb, which had more in common with the St. Peter of old Hermann on the Font at Wittenberg. There the head, to take one point, is larger and adorned with a heavy mass of luxuriant curling hair and beard. But the head of this Apostle is small and fine; the eyes deep set, the neck sinewy. The loose and admirable fall of the drapery is in the new manner. And with that nervous grasp of the key, that searching gaze, those wrinkled and contracted brows, the youthful craftsman has nobly represented his patron Saint, Peter the bald, intellectual Keeper of the Gates of Heaven.
Completely different again in type and treatment is the figure of the Apostle Bartholomew. (Ill. [13].) It smacks of Rome, and Roman too is Simon. These, we should naturally hazard, were the work of Hermann the eldest son, after his return from his Rom-reise in 1516. And in this theory we are confirmed by a passage in a manuscript in the Nuremberg Town Library, which tells us that “Hermann Vischer alone made the Apostle Bartholomew and several tabernacles,” as, for instance, without doubt that Roman triumphal arch above the statue of St. Paul.