on: FIG. 98.--JOHN. _By Peter Vischer._]

PANKRAZ LABENWOLF was one of Vischer's pupils, and completed the
splendid lattice-work over the Town-hall which the master left
unfinished; Labenwolf added some ornaments and coats-of-arms to it. In
1550 he cast the fountain in the court-yard of the same building, which
is a graceful and creditable work; but another fountain in the vegetable
market, behind the Frauenkirche, is truly original; the water flows from
the mouths of two geese held under the arms of a peasant; the whole
effect is droll and unique (Fig. 99).

[Illustration: FIG. 99.--MAN AND GEESE. _By Labenwolf._]

You will remember how, about 1390, Claux Sluter, by his works in Dijon,
had a great influence upon French sculpture. A century and more later
this art in France was largely under the influence of Italian masters,
who had been called into France by Francis I. and other patrons of art.
Splendid works of sculpture were also imported from Italy, and the
effect of the Italian Renaissance, which was so plainly seen upon the
painting of France, was also at work upon its sculpture.

Where the sculptures were a part of an architectural decoration, as in
the case of the choir screen in the cathedral at Amiens, and other like
works, the change was not as complete as in cases where the work was one
of independent sculpture, as in monuments and statues to commemorate the
dead, or in portrait sculpture.

The wealth and power of the nobility of France at this period enabled
them to gratify their desire to leave fine monuments of themselves, in
order to keep their names in memory in future centuries. In these the
Italian manner was adopted, and the works when completed were far more
splendid and elegant than were the corresponding works in Germany. But
they have a grave fault, which makes them much less interesting than are
the German sculptures: they are more conventional, less expressive, and
far less artistic in spirit. They impress one as if the soft, luxurious
court atmosphere had passed over them, and taking away their strong
points, had left them only a general air of being well-bred and
well-kept persons, of little importance to the real life of the world.

In the Louvre, in the Museum of Modern Sculpture, all this change can be
traced, and the traveller in France may see such monuments as we refer
to in all the cathedrals and most of the churches all over the country.
Many of them cannot be traced to any one m