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HANDBOOKS OF THE GREAT
CRAFTSMEN. EDITED BY
G. C. WILLIAMSON, LITT.D.

PETER VISCHER


------------------------------------------------------------------------

                   Handbooks of the Great Craftsmen.

                             --------------

    Illustrated Monographs, Biographical and Critical, on the Great
           Craftsmen and Workers of Ancient and Modern Times.

                  Edited by G. C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D.

       Imperial 16mo, with numerous Illustrations, 5s. net each.

                      First Volumes of the Series

THE PAVEMENT MASTERS OF SIENA. Workers in Graffito. By R. H. HOBART
    CUST, M.A.

PETER VISCHER. Bronze Founder. By CECIL HEADLAM, B.A.

THE IVORY WORKERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. By A. M. CUST.

                           Others to follow.

                             --------------

                      LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS
                      NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Illustration: STEIN PHOTO.] [FROM A DRAWING IN POSSESSION OF T. A.
STEIN, NÜRNBERG

1. PORTRAIT OF PETER VISCHER]


PETER VISCHER

by

CECIL HEADLAM, B.A.

Formerly Demy of Magdalen College, Oxford; Author of
“The Story of Nuremberg,” etc.



[Illustration: Publisher’s Logo]






London
George Bell and Sons
1901

Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham and Co.
Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London.




------------------------------------------------------------------------




                                PREFACE


THE Germans have by nature the gift of working in metal, and, among
them, in the realms of bronze, Peter Vischer stands easily first. His
position as a craftsman may, in fact, be compared with that held by his
contemporary and fellow citizen, Albert Dürer, as an artist. The history
of his works and of those of his house, have a peculiar interest to the
student of art, inasmuch as they illustrate the gradual but easily
traceable passage of the German craftsmen from the style of late Gothic
to that of complete neo-paganism, and, from the school of the Northern
painters and sculptors to that of the great Italian masters
successively.

I speak of the works of Peter Vischer “and his house,” because, in
tracing this development, we have to take into consideration not only
his works but also those of his father Hermann and of his sons, Hermann
and Peter and Hans. The pendulum of criticism has indeed swung more than
once since the Emperor Maximilian used to visit Peter Vischer’s foundry
in Nuremberg, and the questions as to what are actually the works of the
Master and what position is to be assigned to him in the world of art,
have been answered in more ways than one. For many years, owing partly
to the ignorance of most people, and partly no doubt to the greed of the
few, the tendency was to attribute to this one famous craftsman the
works of many. At one time almost any work of art in bronze to be found
throughout the length and breadth of Germany was attributed to Peter
Vischer, just as a Talleyrand or a Sydney Smith has had witticisms of
every date and every quality fathered upon him.

From unreasoning praise, again, men passed to equally undiscriminating
disparagement. Heidel