was less practised by him than other
arts; yet the few works of his which remain are much valued.

Duerer probably executed his carvings about 1510-1520. In the British
Museum there is a relief of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, which was
purchased in the Netherlands more than eighty years since for $2500. It
is cut in a block of cream-colored stone, seven and one half by five and
one half inches in size, and is a wonderful work. The companion piece,
which represents the same saint Preaching in the Wilderness, is in the
Brunswick Museum, where there is also an "Ecce Homo" carved in wood.

Duerer executed many little carvings in stone, ivory, and boxwood, and
the existing ones are seen in various collections in Germany. It is
quite probable that others are in private hands.

There are in Nuremberg many most excellent wood-carvings by unknown
masters; one who cares for this art is well repaid for a visit to this
old city, and, indeed, this is true of other old German towns. Bamberg,
Marburg, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Dortmund, Halle, and many other towns
have riches in this kind of art.

The stone sculpture of Germany in the fifteenth century was of less
importance than the wood-carving until toward the close of the period.
The exteriors of the churches and other edifices erected at this time
had but little sculptural ornament, and that consisted principally of
traceries and figures in geometric designs. Some small detached works,
such as fonts, pulpits, or fountains, were made in stone, but the chief
use of stone sculpture was for monuments to the dead.

ADAM KRAFFT (about 1430-1507), of whose early history almost nothing is
known, is a very important master of this time, and his principal works
add another charm to the city of Nuremberg. A remarkable series of works
by Krafft are the Seven Stages, or seven bas-reliefs placed on the way
to the Johannis Cemetery, the designs representing the seven falls of
Christ on his way to Golgotha.

These reliefs are much crowded, and the only part that is at all
idealized is the figure of Christ; that is noble and calm in effect, and
the drapery is simple and dignified. The other figures are coarse and
dressed like the Nurembergers of the time in which Krafft lived.

In the churches of St. Sebald and St. Laurence and in the Frauenkirche
there are other splendid works of Krafft, and in some dwelling-houses of
Nuremberg there are sculptures of his. A Madonna on the houses, 1306