German sculptors were not favored with the advan- tages secured to their Italian compeers by the posses- sion of the models of antiquity ; but their works never- theless attained to a degree of perfection during this period which renders them not unworthy to be placed by the side of the products of Italian art. Various monuments of stone erected to the dead in the cathe- dral at Mayence and other Rhenish churches exhibit a depth and ingenuity of conception and a beauty of form in the sculptures executed by unknown hands in the 15th and 16tli centuries which are worthy of spe- cial note. The principal work of German sculptors, however, was done in bronze. The Nuremberg artist family, of which Peter Vischer (died 1529) was the most celebrated member, is especially prominent. The best works of the latter artist (especially those in St. Sebald's Church at Nuremberg) will bear comparison with those of the Italian masters, and they even indi- cate a higher stage in the development of art in Ger- many than is apparent in the paintings of such masters as Diirer and Holbein, since the works of these artists fail to show that ideality of physical shape and formal beauty which art imperatively re(iuires. But Vischer and a few colleagues stanil almost alone, and the height upon which they stood was not maintained by their successors. A rapid decline took place, and by the mid- dle of the 16th century German art. both sculpture and painting, had degenerated into a bare imitation of the Italian masters.
This point marks the transition to the fourth peri- od in the history of Christian art, (Jreat convulsions in the political and religious world gave rise to new impulses, but they affected sculpture less than paint- ing. The products of the early part of this period dis- play warmth of feeling and passion combined with a de- cidedly naturalistic treatment, in both of which quali- ties they violate not only the Christian ideal, but the spirit and nature of plastic art itself; and as these qual- ities show that sculpture and architecture (q. v.) were similarly affected by causes then at work, so the prog- ress of events involved them in a similar degradation. In Italy, Lorenzo Bernini (15!t8-168()), celebrated both as a sculptor and an architect, an imitator of the style
of Michael Angelo, introduced the same forced style into sculpture which he had given to his buildings, and it became the fashion to affect the imposing and osten- tatious, and by the use of all manner of curves and crooks to secure the idea of movement. France at once adopted the new style and added to it the feature of theatrical display. Spain, the Netherlands, and (Jer- many clung to purer methods for a time, but in the 18th century likewise gave way to French taste and the Ro- coco style, which, from that point, increased in affected adornment, coquettish elegancies, and frivolous licen- tiousness.
A better spirit was aroused by Winckelmann's writings and a growing familiaritj' with the relics of antitiuity. The painter Asmus Jacob Carstens (1754-98) was the first to gain a true conception of the beautiful, and left a number of drawings which are thoroughly penetrated by the spirit of antiquity. With his younger contem- porary, Antonio Canova (1757-1822), that spirit entered again into the domain of sculpture, though as yet impure and showing traces of the French style. It is purer in the (ierman Johaim Heinrich von Dannecker (1758-1841), and best of all in the gifted Bertel Thorwaldsen (1770- 1844). All that has been done, however, though much of it is excellent, serves only to afford further proof that the Christian ideal and the Greek style are irreconcilable with each other; and fot this reason some sculptors (of ]\Iunich) have gone back to the position occupied by the great masters at the beginning of the 16th century. Nothing definite has been accomplished, and it remains for the future to determine whether Christian sculpture can be carried forward from that point to a higher per- fection.
The only modern work dealing specially with the history of Christian sculpture that need be mentioned is Cicognara, Storia delta Sculiur-a, dal sno Risoi-yimenio in I/alia sino al Secolo di Ncipoleone (Venice, 1813, 3 vols.), much of whose matter is, however, already an- tiquated.— Herzog. Real-EncyMoji. s. v.
Scultet(us), (Schul/z), Abraham, was born at Grumljorg, in Silesia, Aug. 24, 1556, and went to Breslau in 1582. Obliged to leave on account of his father's loss of fortune, he took a situation as tutor in Freistadt, where he enjoyed the opportunity of hearing the ser- mons of Mclancthon and of Abraham Bucholtzer. In 1584 he made a journey to Poland, and the year follow- ing to Gorlitz, in Lusatia, where he remained two years, attending public lectures and reading private lectures to others. In the same manner he employed himself in the University of Wittenberg and Ileiiielberg, till he was admitted into the Church in 1594. OiKciating in a village church for a few months, he was sent for by the elector to be one of his preachers. In 1598 he was appointed pastor of the Church of St. Francis, Heidel- berg, and two years after became a member of the Ec- clesiastical Senate. He was appointed court preacher about 1615, which position he retained until he accept- ed the professorship of divinity in 1618. After the bat- tle of Prague he resolved to return to Heidelberg ; but the fury of war had dispersed the students, and he retired to Iwiden in August, 1622, where he died, Oct. 24, 1625. His principal works are, Confutatio Disputa- iionis Baronii de Baptismo Constantini (Neost. 1607, 4to) : — Annales Ecangelii per Europam 15. Sfccnli Rerwrali (Ileiiielb. 1618, 8vo): — Axioniiita Comiimtmdi (Han. 1619, 8vo) : — Obserraliones in Pauli Epistolns ml Timo- (hcuni, Titiim, ct Philemon: — Medulla Patrum ( 1 634, 4to).