GERMANY. (LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.) 



435 



ments of their manuscripts, and on the altar-pieces 

 of their churches, painting (see the next division) 

 fixed her first rude but inspired traces. It is uncer- 

 tain how much the early Saxon castles were affected 

 by the Byzantine modification of the Greek and Ro- 

 man architecture, and the ornaments of later periods. 

 It is certain that this bold and living, though often 

 gloomy and severe, style has nowhere else reached 

 the perfection which it attained in the German coun- 

 tries. German painting sprang from the imitation 

 of the Byzantine pictures of saints, but soon rose 

 above the lifeless and dry diligence of that school. 

 From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century was the 

 golden age of German architecture. The German 

 school of painting flourished almost as early, chiefly 

 on the Rhine and in Suabia. The greatest painters, 

 numerous and skilful founders, carvers in wood, 

 wood-engravers, and probably the earliest engravers 

 on copper, and etchers, lived in the fifteenth century, 

 particularly in the south of Germany. The inven- 

 tion of the art of engraving on copper with the burin, 

 is ascribed to a goldsmith in Upper Germany, who 

 lived 1460, and that of etching to Michael Wohlge- 

 rnuth, 1434 1519; but neither opinion is sufficiently 

 established. At this period, Germany displayed a 

 great number of Gothic cathedrals, rising from the 

 midst of dark and narrow buildings, the extent and 

 grandeur of which are visible in the cathedrals of 

 Cologne, Strasburg, Vienna, and many other places, 

 whose altars are ornamented with the works of Van 

 Eyk and Albert Durer, and the gloomy majesty of 

 whose aisles received a dim light through the colours 

 of beautiful glass paintings. Sculpture, though less 

 favoured by Christianity, produced works like the 

 sepulchre of St Sebastian in Nuremberg, and the 

 numerous beautiful representations of the holy sepul- 

 chre. The castles contained drinking horns, fine 

 carvings on the walls, and other curious and rare 

 works, elaborately finished. The houses of the free 

 and wealthy citizens of the Hanseatic or Suabian 

 league, were often richer in works of art than in 

 means of comfort. The monasteries were filled with 

 productions of art of every kind. The religious 

 troubles in the sixteenth century put an end to this 

 flourishing period, and, as the German school of art 

 was entirely religious, prevented its farther deve- 

 lopment. The art of engraving and cutting in wood 

 survived almost alone ; in general, extravagance of 

 ornament usurped the place of beauty. After the 

 storms of the thirty years' war, by which the division 

 of the nation was widened, the Protestant states of 

 Germany were distinguished by the cultivation of 

 learning, particularly of the Latin language, which 

 checked, for a long time, the development of a na- 

 tional character ; but the German character was 

 more injuriously afl'ected by the imitation of the 

 French, in the second half of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury. The academies of art, instituted on the model 

 of the French, could effect little for the creation of a 

 national taste. The galleries of pictures, which were 

 then founded, first awakened the interest of the 

 learned. Lessing, Winckelmann, and Mengs had a 

 decisive influence on the direction of German taste, 

 and excited the enthusiasm of amateurs and artists 

 for classic antiquity. Heyne's archaeological inves- 

 tigations had a similar influence. This enthusiasm 

 became extravagant, and seduced the artists from 

 the imitation of nature, to an excessive imitation of 

 ancient models, under the alluring title of the beau 

 ideal of the Greek form. The events of the times, 

 and the patriotic spirit of Goethe, Schiller, and Her- 

 der, subsequently awakened a zeal for German anti- 

 quity, particularly for the religious period of the 

 middle ages. Wackenroder's Herzensergiessungen 

 pines kunstliebenden Klosterbruders WQT,, the ro- 



mantic writings of Tieck and Novalis, the criticisms 

 of the Schlegels, the revival of the Nibelungenlied, 

 and the collection of the finest old pictures by the 

 brothers Boisseree and others, turned the attention 

 of the young artists towards the romantic. From the 

 beginning of the present century, the German pain- 

 ters in Rome have manifested a tendency to religious 

 and historical subjects in the manner of the old Ger- 

 man and the kindred Italian school. Against this 

 tendency many Hellenists, among whom is Goethe, 

 have raised their voice, forgetting that the art of a 

 country must take root in its native soil, before it 

 can attain a natural and vigorous growth. Among 

 the German painters in Rome, who endeavour to 

 unite the spirit of the old religious schools with the 

 classical perfection of form, is Peter Cornelius, of 

 Dusseldorf (see Cornelius ; also Cartoon, and German 

 School of Painting}. This change has not been con- 

 fined to painting, though modern art seems to prefer 

 the expression of its religious, romantic spirit by 

 light and colours, whilst the ancients preferred the 

 perfect form of the body. German sculpture was, 

 therefore, chiefly confined, in elder times, to subjects 

 taken from sacred pictures, and, in recent times, has 

 devoted itself principally to imitations of the antique 

 style, and, in this manner, the most excellent works 

 have been produced. The art of engraving was 

 naturally the companion of painting, through all its 

 changes of style. (See Engraving.) The principal 

 seats of art in Germany are, Vienna, Munich, Dres- 

 den, Berlin, each of which lias an academy of art. 



German School of Painting. With the decline of 

 the Eastern empire, Byzantine art and science were 

 spread over Europe. In Germany as well as in 

 Italy, and particularly on the Rhine, the gloomy, 

 dry style of the Byzantine school prevailed. Many 

 pictures of this early period have been preserved ; 

 they are distinguished by a gold ground and orna- 

 mented glories made of silver, shaded with brown ; 

 their colours are bright, without harmony, and with- 

 out life ; their outlines are delicate. In Austria, the 

 abbot Reginbald, founder of the monastery of Murr, 

 awakened a taste for the arts about 900. -J-fle was 

 followed by St Thiemo, at Saltzburg, and, in particu- 

 lar, by Gisela, the wife of St Stephen of Hungary. 

 Louis the Debonnaire received costly works or art 

 as presents from the Byzantine emperor. The Sile- 

 sian and Moravian princes kept up a friendly con- 

 nexion with the Greek emperors. St Methodius, the 

 missionary to the Sclavonians (863), is mentioned as a 

 distinguished painter; and the first Silesian bishops 

 who came from Italy, made use of sacred pictures for 

 spreading their religion. In the churches of St Eliza- 

 beth and of St Barbara, at Breslau, there are some re- 

 piarkable pictures of this period. The church of St 

 Bernardine contains the Iledwig's Table, upon which 

 events in the h'fe of St Hedwig are painted, in thirty- 

 two compartments. In Bavaria, Theodore II. endea- 

 voured to propagate Christianity by the instrumenta- 

 lity of St Rupert, whom he called from Worms (696); 

 and here also the introduction of painting followed that 

 of Christianity. The arts were most zealously culti- 

 vated in the monasteries of the Benedictines. Alfred 

 and Ariram, the latter a monk of St Emmeran, were 

 the most distinguished Bavarian artists of this time. 

 In Franconia, we find the first traces of art in the 

 time of St Bruno, who (1042) rebuilt the cathedral at 

 Wurtzburg. The emperor Henry II. and his queen 

 St Cunigund, were patrons of the arts. In the moii 

 astery of Heilsbronn, there are several paintings of 

 the time of St Otho, bishop of Bamberg, who died 

 1139. Nuremberg deserves to be mentioned as u 

 place where painting and carving in wood w*>-e 

 early carried to a high degree of perfection. The 

 churches of the Virgin Mary and St Sebaldus contain 

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