mon Hayder, a Swabian, in 1470. The altar of the cathedral at Chur
was the work of Jacob Roesch, another Swabian master, who thus labored on
the very boundary of Italy. The school at Augsburg was the second
Swabian school in importance, and much influence went out from that
centre, though its sculptures were not as fine as those of Ulm.

In some cases fine old sculptures still exist in the churches and other
places for which they were intended. Again we find them either whole, or
in parts, in museums to which they have been removed when they were no
longer required for the uses for which they were made, or when they were
replaced by more modern works. So few facts are known concerning them
that it is almost impossible to do more than repeat descriptions of the
subjects they represent; and this is neither profitable nor entertaining
in a book of this kind; therefore I shall now speak only of such artists
as have left some record behind them, and of works whose authorship can
be given.

VEIT STOSS, who flourished about the middle of the fifteenth century,
was an eminent wood-carver. Very little is known about him. His name is
sometimes said to be Wit Stwosz, and Cracow and Nuremberg both claim to
have been his birthplace. But it is now believed that he was born in
Nuremberg, as it is known that in 1477 he gave up his citizenship there
and went to Cracow, and in 1496 he paid a small sum to be again made a
citizen of Nuremberg.

We also know that his reputation as a man was not good. In a Nuremberg
decree he is called a "reckless and graceless citizen, who has caused
much uneasiness to the honorable council and the whole town." He was
convicted of crimes for which he should have suffered death, but the
sentence was changed, and he was branded: both cheeks were pierced with
a hot iron. After this he broke the oath he had taken to the city, and
joined her enemies in plotting against her; he was subsequently
imprisoned, and at his death, in 1533, he was very old and perfectly
blind.

It seems almost like a contradiction to say that this master was one of
the most tender in feeling of all the wood-carvers of his time. He was
especially successful in representing the purity of the Madonna and of
youthful saints. His principal works are in the churches of Cracow and
Nuremberg. In the Frauenkirche at Cracow the high-altar, a part of the
stalls in the choir, and some other sculptures are his. In Nuremberg his
best works are a b