PETER VISCHER 
nothing. Peter Vischer was certainly back again 
in Nuremberg in 1496. For in that year he gave 
a full release (“aller Dinge quitt, ledig und los”) 
to his friend Peter Harsdorffer the younger, in 
whose hands he had left the management of all 
his affairs during his absence. He returned, per- 
haps, to execute the important commissions he 
had received from the North. In the following 
year he completed the first great work of his life, 
in which his own individuality is for the first time 
apparent. For the tomb of Archbishop Ernst in 
the Cathedral at Magdeburg, is the first of Peter 
Vischer's masterpieces, and it affords the most 
important illustration of the early influences under 
which he worked. The statue of the Archbishop, 
who was a brother of John the Stable and Fred- 
erick the Wise, lies in high relief beneath a Gothic 
Canopy, which strongly recalls the famous Pyx 
then just completed by the artist's friend, Adam 
Krafft. The figure, which is represented in cope 
and mitre, rests on a stone Gothic base, as upon 
a bed of state, and holds in its hands a crosier and 
a Pontifical Cross. A’ pleasing Latin inscription 
round the monument informs us that *‘ with what- 
ever art the hands of the craftsman have wrought 
me, yet am I but dust, and contain the dust and 
all the earthly remains” of the great Archbishop, 
and it concludes with thg prayer that his soul 
may rest in the consolation of light and peace. 
(Ills. 3 and 4.) | oo 
[pse me vivus posuit, it is added. And indeed 
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