PETER VISCHER
requires a moment's comparison to demonstrate
that their figures are mere modifications of those
on the Sebaldusgrab, and they may have been
wrought by any member of the family, therefore,
or even by an assistant. For the craftsmen of
those days were obliged to take a frankly business
view of their handiwork. Michel Wolgemut left
much in each of his pictures to be done by his
pupils and assistants, and Diirer, too, following
his master’s custom was, in too many cases, forced
to adopt the same practice. For a man must live,
and Diirer found that his careful and elaborate
style of painting was simply beggaring him. The
commissions received by the Vischer family were
necessarily executed after something of the same
spirit. The design would be sketched out by the
old man or one of his sons, or, again, by him and
his sons in part and in consultation. Then whilst
the more skilful of them wrought the more im-
portant figures and details of the piece, the sub-
sidiary details and characters would be left to the
prentice hands. In the case of the Tucher monu-
ment the task of supplying the Apostle figures
must have fallen to one of these, and he would
naturally base them upon the famous master-
pieces of the House in that line. But in the
noble figure of the Christ, in the poise and the
moulding of the head, and in that spiritual search-
ing gaze with which the Saviour seems to be
looking into the very heart of Lazarus’ sister and
gauging her faith, we cannot fail to recognize the
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