PAINTING. ; 121 
« Wall-painting never flourished in Germany to the same extent as in 
Italy, for the reason that in the German style of building the masses of wall 
are diminished as much as possible, and cupolas are replaced by cross- 
vaults. Still there were always places to be found for the application of 
fresco-painting ; but we have only scattered instances of what German art 
has been able to accomplish in this respect, for not long ago there was such 
a fondness for white that even painted walls and vaults of churches were 
whitewashed over. Ofgreat importance here are the newly discovered paint- 
ings formerly hid by tapestry in the cathedral of Cologne, representing the 
legends of the three holy Kings and pope Sylvester. These pictures, which 
date from the 14th century, show already a very decided effort in an artistic 
direction. The first German fresco-painters whose names have been 
handed down to us were Nikolaus Wurmser and his brother Kunzel of 
Strasburg, who painted in the cathedral in Prague and in the church of 
the Theatinians on the Karlstein. Along with them worked Theodoric 
of Prague, who surpassed them in drawing. Master Wilhelm of Cologne 
painted in St. Severin a large picture, which unfortunately has been a good 
deal painted over again; he also painted a Cruczfiaion in a church in Cob- 
lentz. Ulrich of Maulbronn executed in the 15th century several wall- 
paintings in the church of that place; there are also some secular paintings 
on the walls of the Ehinger Hof in Ulm. Important for this branch 
of art are the Dances of Death executed in this and the following 
century, which were often painted on the churchyard walls and some- 
times in the churches themselves, and which are replete with satire against 
the priestcraft of that time. Unhappily the most considerable works 
of the kind, the Dance of Death in the Klingenthal convent in Kleinbasel, 
and that of the younger Holbein on the churchyard wall of the former 
church of the Dominicans in Basel, are no longer in existence. That how- 
ever in theinner church at Strasburg has been saved, as it lay under a 
coating of plaster, which has been cautiously removed. There are five 
pictures with figures above the size of life; the heads are characteristic, 
and the colors (original or restored ?) are tolerably lively. Holbein’s Dance 
of Death was copied in 1806, shortly before the wall was pulled down, by 
Rudolf Feierabend ; he executed his task better than Emanuel Biichel, a 
baker, who had copied it in 1773, after executing a colored copy of. the 
Klingenthal Dance of Death in 1768. Both drawings are now in the 
library of Basle. Fresco-painting has recently been revived with much 
success in Bavaria and also in Prussia; and the works of Cornelius, Kaul- 
bach, Heydegger, Hess, Zimmerman, ati others, show to what a high 
eich of perfection it has again been rawake 
We have here used the term jfresco-painting in the sense in which it is 
commonly adopted, namely to designate the art of decorating fresh-made 
walls with paintings, which, becoming dry together with the plastering of 
the walls, acquire a certain degree of durability. This art is the result of 
the endeavors to imitate the Egyptian wall-paintings, whose durability 
amounts almost to perpetuity. The chemical process by which the Egyp- 
tians succeeded in handing down their wall-paintings through thousands 
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