Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/205

SCULPTURE AND PAINTING 193 Lady of Liibeck ; it was over thirty feet high, and was the joint work of the goldsmith Nicholas Eughesee and the founder Nicholas Gruden, in the year 1479. The innumerable metal tablets in the floors and walls of the churches are interesting in many ways, and give a good idea of the notions of death current in the Middle Ages. The art of bell-founding also reached perfection in the fifteenth century. The largest bells of the Cathedral of Cologne, cast in 1448 and 1449 ; that of St. Mary's Church in Dantzic, cast in 1453 ; that in Erfurt, 1497, excel all bells of earlier or later periods both in work- manship and ornamentation and in their musical beauty of tone. 1 Side by side with metal-work, sculpture and carving in wood and stone made also immense strides at this period. 2 Adam Krafft, the friend of Yischer, was the most celebrated and the most prolific among sculptors in stone ; and by his simplicity, sterling worth, and warmth of heart, he was a good representative of the German character of the day. He may be compared to Albert Diirer in these respects. He surpassed all other German artists in his power of representing the sorrowful Passion of our Lord. Krafit's best works in Nuremberg belong to the years between 1490 and 1507. A story connected with his most famous sculptural achievement, ' The Seven Pictures of the Passion,' affords good evidence of the religious spirit of the time. 1 ' The bells made in far-off antiquity and by the Catholics of the Middle Ages were cast of the best metal,' said Hahn, Campanalofjie (Erfurt, 1822). L. von Ledebnr said : ' With the Eeformation the casting of harmonious bells ceased.' 2 Ivory carving preceded wood carving. Eor evidence of the repu- tation of German ivory carvers in Italy see G. Schafer (Darmstadt, 1872), p. 74. VOL. I. O