Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/225

SCULPTURE AND PAINTING 213 missal, the pictures of which were remarkable for their technique and colouring. The large and beautiful pictures in the breviary of the Benedictines of St. Stephen are the work of Brother John Esswurm .(1515). These are only a few of the names of the many who practised miniature painting in the monasteries, but they serve to show us that this modest branch was still cherished in the quiet cell at a time when more pre- tentious art was spread over the world. 1 All branches of art seem to go hand in hand, from architecture and sculpture to painting and embroidery. Exquisite specimens of carpets, vestments, and other ornaments, dating from the close of the fifteenth century, may still be seen in the Imperial Treasury at Vienna, in the Church at Eisleben, in the Cathedral and City-Hall at Eatisbon, in the Cathedrals of Spires and Halberstadt, in the Churches of St. Lawrence and St. Sebald at Nuremberg, and in several churches in Cologne and elsewhere. Not only the vestments, but the carpets, the dresses of the nobles, the flags, and the trappings of the horses, were adorned with graceful and ingenious pictures or figures, which were designed by the de- corator or the first masters of the day. Those who did this work were called ' silk sewers,' and their great number shows in what request this kind of decoration was held. After speaking of a silk embroiderer who had be- come so deft in the art that ' out of pieces of silk he could imitate the human figure,' Neudorfer writes : ' As women took part in this art, I must not omit to bear witness to a proof of their perseverance. For years, 1 There are very few ancient miniatures extant.