Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/204

This page needs to be proofread.

192 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE remarkable are the tombs of the bishop of Bamberg and of Margaret Tucher in the Cathedral of Ratisbon, representing the raising of Lazarus. For the grand sepulchral monument that Maximilian ordered at Inns- bruck, Vischer executed the statue of the Enaiish Kino- Arthur, which is remarkable for its dignified calm and the beauty of its finish. According to Neudorfer, Vischer's best works in bronze, which were scattered throughout Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary, and were in the possession of many of the princes of the Holy Eoman Empire, are entirely unknown at the present day. The works of his friend Sebastian Lindenast, who could make statues, drinking-vessels, buckles and other ornaments out of copper which looked as beautiful as if made of gold and silver, are likewise lost. Between the years 1506 and 1509 Lindenast embellished the artistic clock of the Frauenkirche at Nuremberg with a statue of the Emperor Charles IV. on his throne, and a herald standing before him. This clock is a most ingenious specimen of artistic mechanism. The hours are struck by a figure of Death, and at the sound two horn-blowers near the throne blow their instruments, the electoral princes walk out of a door, pass before the Emperor, salute him, and then disappear through an opposite door. 1 In Northern Germany, the principal brass foundries were in Brunswick, Dortmund, Erfurt, Leipsic, Mag- deburg, and Zwickau. One of the best examples of bronze work was the tabernacle in the Church of Our 1 See Otte, pp. 264, 719 ; Baader, i. 73, 99-111. Most of the figures were sold as old copper, only the Emperor and his heralds bein^ r spared.