CHAPTER V 
THE TOMB OF MAXIMILIAN 
RT has been always, more or less, dependent 
A upon the patronage of the rich and great. 
And the warm interest evinced in the Arts and 
Crafts by the Emperor Maximilian, the “last of 
the Knights,” did not a little to provoke that out- 
burst of artistic excellence which distinguished 
Nuremberg at this time; where the names of 
Diirer, Vischer, and Krafft shine out pre-eminent 
among many lesser lights. Maximilian was in 
many ways the epitome of his age, the personifica- 
tion of the Renaissance. Soldier and man of 
letters, administrator and theologian, athlete and 
scholar, he yet found time to encourage artists and 
to devise and commission innumerable works of 
art. He was, in fact, as Albert Diirer found to 
his cost, more ready to give commissions than to 
pay for them when performed. At Nuremberg he 
frequently employed Veit Stoss; he had a con- 
siderable share in the production of the Weisskunig 
and the Z/euerdant, a poem describing allegoric- 
ally the private life and ideals of the Emperor, 
which was polished and completed by his secretary 
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