I'OMB OF ELECTOR FREDERICK 
executed his masterpieces in strict accordance 
with the prescribed rules. As to the artist him- 
self, he was apparently disgusted by this second 
failure, and he gave up trying to become a Master 
in this Guild on the merits of his work. For we 
read that “ Peter Vischer’s son of the same name 
was received as Master of the Guild of Thimble- 
Makers in the year 152%. This Guild and that 
of the Coppersmiths were at that period still 
united, though later they separated.” 
But whether the monument won the young 
Peter Vischer the Mastership or not, it is un. 
doubtedly a masterpiece of German Renaissance. 
[t is by document and signature his as it is his in 
design and execution. There are, indeed, still a 
few traces of the earlier influences of his house 
visible. The background, for instance, is decor- 
ated in the Gothic style, and the fantastic figures 
in the two corners formed by the arch remind us 
of those on the tomb-plate of the Duchess Helene 
von Mecklenburg, for whose father, Elector Philip 
of the Palatinate, his father had worked in Heidel- 
berg thirty-three years before. But in spite of 
the beauty of the rich details of the elaborate 
architecture, arms and pilasters, that form the 
setting of this work, it is the central commanding 
figure of the whole which rightly rivets our atten. 
tion. In this strong and thoughtful man of action 
and man of mind, who is a Christian and a fighter, 
A warrior, but none the less a theologian, whose 
watchword recorded on the monument was (in 
105