PETER VISCHER 
lion and the jawbone of an ass, Perseus with sword 
and shield and in company of a mouse, Hercules 
with a club. Between these heroes, in the centre 
of either side, are female figures emblematic of 
the four cardinal virtues of mankind—>Strength in 
1 coat of mail with a lion, Temperance with a bowl 
and globe, Wisdom with mirror and book, and 
Justice with sword and scales. Inall, besides the 
apostles and prophets, there are seventy-two 
figures, in the presentation of which amidst flowers 
and foliage the joyful, exuberant fancy of the artist 
and his helpers has run riot. But there is, as I 
have suggested, a well-conceived plan and unity 
throughout; an intimate correspondence, 1n spite 
of the variety of groups, between the parts and the 
whole. Everything is subordinated to the two 
central ideas which animate the whole, and every- 
thing executed with a delicacy of feeling and a 
fineness of finish little short of marvellous. The 
whole fabric rests upon twelve large snails, with 
four dolphins at the corners.” 
The bronze is, apparently, just as it left the 
mould. It has not been filed and chiselled and 
smoothed and polished after the modern fashion, 
and it has therefore lost nothing of the vigour 
and character of the lines as they were originally 
shaped by the craftsmen’s hands. The very 
roughnesses are commendable. 
‘Vhen Peter Vischer received the commission 
co produce this great memorial of the municipal 
Saint the lines on which it should be wrought were 
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