CHAPTER III 
THE EARLY WORKS OF PETER VISCHER 
ETER VISCHER was admitted as a Master 
P of his Guild in 14809, shortly after his father's 
death. If, as is generally admitted, the monument 
of Count Otto IV. von Henneberg at Romhild is 
from his hand, we have in that rather limp, life- 
size picture of a knight in armour, holding an 
heraldic banner in his right hand and a sword in 
his left, the earliest example of Peter Vischer's 
work. And this figure, it is noticeable, 1s sup- 
ported by a stone plate to which the arms and the 
inscription, in letters separately cast, are affixed. 
It is, then, a relic of those days when, just as 
painting was a parasite of carving and sculpture, 
bronze also was a handmaid of stone. It may be 
added that the demand for the products of Vis- 
cher’s foundry was fated to be destroyed in the 
years to come by the new fashion for tombs in 
stone. 
But the monument of Count Otto assuredly 
did not qualify Peter Vischer as a Meister in his 
craft. What his ‘ masterpiece” was we cannot 
say with certainty, but it was very likely the 
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