242

THE FOUNTAINS.

at one freak of masonic decoration after another, at last I fairly stood still and laughed at a groupe of six houses forming the curve of a street. Here, one huge broad Gable, prodigal of ornament as any old maid, repudiates the adjoining Oriels and Dormers, who, not to be left behind, jostles the Weathercocks and Gloriettes of the next into the background; while this in turn, flaring away with painted Dome and gilded Minaret, blockades with ignominious shadow the fourth, and so on, until, I fancy, with the sixth it was mere oblivion.”. Væ victis! was the word, and the unhappy mass of barbaric sculptures, like some overdressed city madam repulsed from Willis's, had fairly slunk into a side street!

66

The Fountains in Nuremberg are numerous, and among its many beauties most beautiful. The naked Triton, large as life, in the Grove of the Maximilian Platz, would dignify the finest Piazza in Rome. The Schöner Brunnen, in the Market-place, to which Christianity, Hebraism, and Heathenry, have each contributed their Champions, is an exquisite specimen of that spiral tabernacle-work, which embellished the Twelfth Century; while the Cinque Cento is excellently represented in that bronze groupe of the Seven Cardinal Virtues, &c. which flanks the western front of Saint Lorens. As for Labenwolf's Peasant with his two Geese spouting water, from beneath his arms, it is of "all hours," a gem which it is scarcely a crime to covet for one's cabinet; and

THE DOMKIRCH.

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to secure which many an antiquary would hazard a limb.

The Domkirch is a glorious Creature, and its proportion and detail would win more homage, were it not for that prodigy of boldness and beauty, the Oriel of the Parsonage House; whose grand dimensions and superb lineaments, its decorated column, its florid moulding, and its pannels of alti relievi, impictured with Saintly Legends, defy the most romantic flights of Fancy.

The Mansion which boasts this inestimable jewel, is, among the many in Nuremberg, to this day in the possession of the Family, whose ancestors bestowed upon its Penates so enchanting a Recess.*

Of the Domkirch itself perhaps the most striking feature is, that Zone of soaring Columns which encircle its unrivalled Apsis. Inconceivably lofty, and connected by narrow Lanceolate Arches, their symmetry is transcendent: and in that acme of sublimity and simplicity combined, one seems to recognize a second Consecration of the Temple they adorn.

But it is the Font, the Shrine, and the Lamp of the Domkirch, which principally monopolize its attractions. Master magicians they, to conjure spirits withal! The Font, exquisitely beautiful in its form, graceful in its decorations, and next to Silver in its material, Bronze,—was the Laver

* The Pfinzing Family.

244 VENETIAN TRAITS OF NUREMBERG.

which admitted the Imperial voluptuary Wenceslaus into the holy Catholic Church. The Shrine of the same costly metal, and still more precious workmanship, reminds us of Peter Vischer's patient labour of years, which arose entirely, as the Inscription tells us, from his love of Almighty God. And the Lamp, more wonderful than that of Aladdin, proclaims the immortality of that Family Affection which has hitherto bequeathed its silver Urn unquenched,-a Vestal Fire, to the custody of Three Centuries and a half.

October 20, 1844.

AFTER all, how very Venetian is Nuremberg. Only substitute the Saracenic eccentricity of outline, the Gothic prodigality of ornament, and the grave magnificence of Palladio, for the wilderness of exuberant fancies, originating in the barbaric caprices of the Medieval Prince-merchant: only command the waters of the Pegnitz to overflood these Bavarian streets, and you have Venice before you: the same huge Portals, the same Pillared Vestibules, the same succession of melancholy courts, the same solemn melody of the Belfroy, the same multitude of Bridges, the same picturesque variety of Costume; and if they neither have nor need the storm-shutters of Venice, to protect their chambers from the tempests of that unquiet Gulf, they have at least their

THE SACRAMENTS HAUSLEIN.

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own double lattices to fence out the blasts of the Schwartzburg, and the snows that sweep the far Thuringian Hills. The Gondola, the sable, the silent, the gracefully gliding Gondola alone is wanting!

If ever Labour lived in Stone, if ever Art was Immortality, a palm-branch shall be thine, thou Adam Kraft! a palm-branch in the choir of St. Lorenz.

Scarcely have we recovered from our eulogies of the luxuriant sculptures of the decorated Western Gateway, and the starry petals of the great Marigold Window above it, before we become breathless with admiration of that marvellous Tabernacle, thy Sacraments Hauslein. Elaborated into so much delicacy of sculpture, that it might be the fusion of a Silesian forge,this towering Ark claims to be the Child of the Quarry, not of the Mine, the creation of thy patient genius, not of a steam engine of one hundred horse power. Glory to Nuremberg, which, rejecting the bigot tyranny of the Roman Idolator, fettered likewise the insane brutality of Iconoclasm! Glory to Nuremberg, who having bearded her Domestic Tyrant, the Burg Graaf, endured not the profanation of a foreign rapacity! Glory to Nuremberg! from whose undaunted public spirit it has resulted, not only that she has

246 PAINTED WINDOWS OF ST. LORENZ.

preserved inviolate her ancient Municipal and Ecclesiastic Monuments; but further, that the chief of her old Families do, to this day, maintain the Mansions which, centuries ago, their forefathers embellished with such laboured prodigality of Art.

I have just been reading a passage from Ranke's Reformation in Germany which comes in here so well, that I must be permitted to insert it.

"How admirably did Nürnberg defend herself! For every injury she sustained she carried her vengeance home to the territory of the aggressor, and her mounted bands frequently made rich captures. Woe to the nobles who fell into their hands! No intercession either of kinsmen or of neighbouring princes availed to save them; the Council was armed with the ever-ready excuse that the Citizens absolutely demanded the punishment of the offender.

"In vain did he look out from the bars of his prison towards the forest, watching whether his friends and allies were not coming to his rescue. Berlichengen's story sufficiently shews us with how intense a dread even those of her neighbours, who delighted the most in wild and daring exploits, regarded the Towers of Nürnberg. Noble blood was no security either from the horrors of the Question or the Axe of the Executioner."

The Painted Glass at Saint Lorenz exhibits a signal eminence in that magic art, and might almost make one rave about Monastic Legends,