- PAINTING. 125 
far the most considerable. It was formed about the same time with that 
of Cologne, and is characterized by great vigor and variety of conception 
and representation, great liveliness of coloring, and careful execution, but 
all accompanied by hardness of drawing and to some extent a want of taste 
in character and drapery. The most distinguished master of the first period 
of this school is Michael Wohlgemuth, in whom the striving after sharply 
defined characteristics exhibits itself in a very one-sided manner; but who 
admirably succeeded in giving to figures possessing an ideal significance a 
character of lofty dignity combined with a certain beauty. To his chief 
works belong the altar-paintings in St. Mary’s church at Zwickau, a few 
pictures in the church of St. Sebaldus at Niirnberg, and the panels of the 
high altar at Schwabach (1507). The second and more brilliant period of 
the Frankish school opened at the commencement of the 16th century with 
Albert Diirer, a pupil of Wohlgemuth, who to the rational principles of 
his master added an uncommonly fine eye for the forms of life and a keen 
perception of even the slightest changeful manifestations of feeling. To 
extraordinary fertility he joined cleverness of invention and the endeavor to 
found drawing and perspective on a scientific basis; besides which he 
manifested uncommon skill and dexterity in the use of the different 
technical materials. He is equally great as a painter and as an engraver 
on wood and copper, and his productions in the last named branches form 
the most considerable part of his works. He painted almost altogether on 
wood, but also on canvas: thus his Hercules shooting at the Harpies (now 
in the Landauer Briiderhaus at Nurnberg) is executed in distemper on fine 
canvas. At this period the old German art of painting attained its most 
flourishing condition ; and it is a characteristic fact that at the close of the 
middle ages the German artists quitted more and more the pious region of 
an extremely one-sided ideality in which they had formerly delighted, for 
the bright and living domain of reality. The ideal in the heads almost 
wholly disappears, and a living and natural expression takes its place. 
The compositions become rich, the heads are often portraits ; the figures 
acquire a correct expression ; the draperies appear in small, interrupted, 
skilfully designed folds; and the use of gold gradually disappears alto- 
gether. Only the figures of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Apostles 
are draped in the ancient manner; all else appear in the costume of the 
time of the master. The pictures are on wood, mostly linden-wood, with a 
chalk ground, sometimes laid on canvas glued to the panel; but they are 
also painted on canvas without any ground. 
Contemporary with Durer flourished Nikolaus Manuel of Bern, who 
bears the surname of “the German,” and is distinguished for correct and 
sharp drawing, an extremely dexterous management of the brush, and often 
an elegant arrangement of the figures of his pieces. His invention is rich, 
and his glowing humor often seizes upon and embodies the fantastically 
comic elements of the time with magnificent hardihood. In Basel there are 
several works by him; his chef d’ceuvre was a Dance of Death on the 
eburchyard-wall in Bern; but it now exists only in a drawing in that city, 
the original having been destroyed in 1560. Hans Holbein the younger is 
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