Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/207

SCULPTURE AND PAINTING 195 artist and two of his apprentices served as models. Supported by three life-sized kneeling figures, it rises up like a beautiful flowery tree, whose branches and leaves grow out of the stone and end in a beautifully carved, crozier-like blossom. The pillars are adorned with carved figures of saints, and the door is guarded by two angels. The Blessed Sacrament being instituted as a commemoration of the sufferings of Christ, several scenes from the Passion are represented by the artist, which, with the Eesurrection as the fruit of the Last Supper, completes the believer's hope. This work is surpassed in beauty by a ' Sacraments-Haus ' in the Cathedral of Ulm, which was executed between 1461 and 1469 by the ' Meister ' von Weingarten at the order of Angelica Zaehringer. The latter is one of the best specimens dating from the Middle Ages. The carving is so delicate that it resembles lacework. In former decades the old tradition referring to the often truly filagree-like work of the stonecutters and sculptors, viz. that the work consisted of cast stone, has been regarded as a myth, and the art of casting stone has been num- bered nowadays among lost arts. But the researches of more recent times have shown the correctness of that supposition. As to height, the ' Sacraments-Haus ' of Ulm exceeds that of Nuremberg by one-half. Dill Eiemenschneider carried on a kindred style of art to that of Krafft, and had large workshops in Wiirtzburg. His principal works are a * Descent from the Cross ' for the monastery at Maidbrunn, the monuments of the bishops Eudolph von Scherenberg and Lawrence von Bibra in the Cathedral at Wiirtzburg, and that erected in 1499-1513 to the emperor Henry II. and his wife Kunigunde in the Cathedral at Bamberg. On this o 2