PETER VISCHER 
a realistic representation of the great protagonists 
in the sacred drama which was beginning to betray 
itself at this time in the works of the nameless 
Nuremberg painters on the one hand, and, on the 
other, of the Nuremberg sculptors, such as Hans 
Decker, the forerunner of Adam Krafft. It was 
a tendency which the Nuremberg artists, like their 
brethren of the Swabian school and the school of 
Cologne owed to the influence of Flemish art. But 
this was a return to Nature not without its faults. 
I'he German artist, in his eager endeavour to 
reproduce the exact form of his models, of those, 
that is, whom he saw around him every day, was 
badly served by the figures of his countrymen. 
I'hey could not give him the slim and graceful 
forms of the Italians to copy, and he had not 
yet learnt from Italy those theories of beauty, 
based on a study of the antique, which were one 
day to help an Albert Diirer to perform the true 
function of an artist by improving upon Nature. 
Of Hermann Vischer himself and his doings we 
know very little. Very little also of his work sur- 
vives, We know that he became a Burgher of his 
adopted town and, in 1453, rose to be a Master in 
the Guild of Rotschmieds. That he gained some 
reputation in his day, and not at home only, is 
shown by the fact that four years later he cast the 
[ont for the parish church at Wittenberg. Several 
tomb-plates at Meissen and Bamberg are also 
attributed to him. These confirm us in the im- 
pression that he had no great individuality. He 
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