The Limewood Sculptors

of Renaissance Germany

MICHAEL BAXANDALL

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
Copynght ',D 1980 by Yale Um,·er<,ity.

Third prin rmg, 198 >

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Librar)' of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Baxa11dal1 N11chad.
1

The limewood ~culptors of Renamance Germ.1ny

Bibliography · p.
tndudes mdex.
1 5culptun·. Rcnamancc-Gem1any .
2 Sculpture, German. 3. Wood-carvmg,
Rcn:iissance Germany. 4 . Wood-carving-Germany.
I. Title.
N.B1255 .G3B39 730'.943 79-23258
[!) HN
o- 300-02423-1 (cloth)
ISBN 0-300-02829-6 (paper)
The Period Eye VI
It is becoming more difficult to find categones of visual interest within which to
address the forms of th e sculpture: to speak of 'idiosyncrasy' and the 'individual
style' is very abstract and remote. The problem is parcly that our ways of
addressing works of an are quite limited by our own place in the great Franco-
Iralian artistic tradition of the last miUenium, to which the sculpture is reall y no
more than marginal. For instance, we may be disposed to th ink of art as hav~ng
4
'composition' and design '. and much art of our own tradition was made and is
profitably seen with such ideas in mind; these ideas have evolved through a
process of modification and addition over many hundreds of years and fit some
art outside the tradition rather bad]y. yet in the absence of anything else they must
offer themselves. When we look at the rhythmic counter- balanced saints in the
retabk rows, for example, it is easy to settle for label]jng their movement
contrappasto, a High R enaissance concept which they m ay appear to approach, but
amt,apposto does not stand much nearer the figures than, say. the vocabulary of
romantic an stands to El Greco: the similarities are suggestive, perhaps, but
im povensh our sense of El Greco, or of Michel Erhart, if we let them take over
com plccel y.
It would be futile and even self-destructive to try purging our attention co
F]odd sculpture of anachronistic concepts, for composition and design, and
pro bab] y contrappo.sto too, are as proper to us as they are improper to it; but ic is
often useful and enjoyabk to go to works of art exotic to our own tradition with a
few additional ca tegories authentic to them. T here is no question of fully
posses.~ing oneself of another culture's cognitive style, but the profit is rea] : one
tesrs and modifies one's perception of the art. one enriches one's general visual
repertory, and one gets at least some intimation of another culture's visual -
experience and disposi tion. Such excursions into aHen sensibilities are a main
pleasure of arc.
High German Florid sculpture left no authentic critical terms behind it~ there
are no equivalents of Vasad and the other accounts of contemporary terms and
values found in Italy. The one great writer on art living in the sculpEors' worJd
was Albrecht Diirer, who w rote on human proportion and geometry and. more
in passing, on the profession of the an:ist in general. Durcr did see his work as
directed to al] craftsmen of design; he says of his books both on Geometry and on
Proportion that: they will be useful notju:st to painters but to sculptors and ochers
too. 1 Indeed there are reflections from them in such German art theory as was

143
Fig. 84. The 1m2gc of the S11btiJ kt!'ntrt:) Ars memorat,va, Fig 85. Anthmctic, with counters on the Imes (right) and tbe
Augsburg (Amon Sorg, . .ibom J 490. p. 1 2 a algortsm (left). Gregor Reisch, .\larg,mta Phrlosophica, Basle
(Michael Purter .mdJoh:inn \chotc). r508.

published m the mi d-sixtcench century. but thas post-da Les the Florid sculptors and
belongs to a lacer phase of German art. In 1500 Diircr, with his Italianate
intellectual interests and energy, was a nonesuch m G~rm,my, and ll would be
fr:wdulcnt to present his books as the verbal account of the FJorid sculptors'
values; it is only here and there that the Nuremberg craftsman in Diirer shows
1 through rn a paragraph or a sentence that refers to the 1--.ind of formal organization
I found in Veit Stoss. The gulf between the ]imcwood carvers and the still
j rudimentary neo-classical art criticism of the Gc:rman humanist schobrs was even
, more comp1ete.
The largest body of writing about the sculpture to survtve is in such
documentary matter as contracts, not an expansive critical form . In 1500 th e
Srras<;burg sculptor Ven Wagner engaged to make a pulpir for St George's at
Hagen au and the contract2 contained more than the usual number of affirmative
terms; the translanons are no more than approximate:
me,sterhch masterly
.,.. olgescalt well-shaped
 wolgcfurmet wd 1-fashmnt:d
liepl1ch gcschikt pleasantly contri vcd
reht formicrt properly formed
zi..:rlich elegantly dccoraccd
zn:rnblich fair
wolgeschikt weLI-contrived
uBgefurt [well-1 ext"cuted
mbtil .fine
werglich skilful
Only two or three of these have the sort of dearly d1fferenuated reference one
would like. In particular. zierlich rela tes most to ornamentation, and subtil to
physical delicacy and refinement~ the typically s1,1blil activity is needlework or
tapestry (fig. 84),3 a contrary ofthcgrob or peasam crudity. The varied nuances on
the concept of good craftsmanship involved in most of the rest are now too
fugitive to catch, and in general the language of contracts i~ not ql1ite of a kind to
offer tools for our purpose.
So one must look e]sewhere, and the interesting thing left to do is to cast around
for apt terms in the wider vjsua] culture. This is an expedient already resorted to,
in adapting Paracelsus's concept of the chiromancy of matter, and it wil] now
serve a double purpose. One will coin a few categories authentic at least to the
general visual experience of the period, so as to be able to dose a httle more with
tht· ~cu lpture; at the same time one wiU be glancing through and beyond the
sculpture towards one or two areas of pre-Reformation culrur~ that bear on the
arti!:ltic manipulation of visual experience.

1 Shapes

When Durer needed m 152 5 to define the term tetrahedron, wh,ch is to S3Y a four-
faced body and typically a triangular pyramid, one way in which he described it
was as a body having $echs gleyche scharpfe seyten, s1x acute edges. 4 Tlu.s is a quite
orthodox geomctr1cal definition, but it was also one particularly well suited to his
( intended audience of Nuremberg craftsmen. It was a deve1oped High German
\ skill and habit to ~pprehend a body as a pattern of edges or extreme lines, more
l._ than as an arrangement of surfaces delimiting a volume. Cultures differ in how far
they categorize the various areas of sense experiet1ce; our own culture, for
example, 1s imprecise in its categories of seen texture, which is also coarsely
handled in our best art. l n 1500 Germany had not many vernacular terms for
differcntianng between varieties of solid form or vo]umi.:. and this kmd of
1inguisnc pO\'ercy 1s likely to register a softness of conceptual structure: it is
notorious. that Diirer faced a lack of stable vernacular vocabul.iry for even the
most elementary Eudidean forms and was forced to com hl', own terms. For
instance, there was m German no word for the Latin co,ius or com:, m Italy

145
..... generally known as the 'round pyramid'. A German translanon of Robertl15
Anglicus's Tractotm Quadumtis in 1477 had tried out both Knopf (knob) and Ort
(awl), but these had not taken. Oiirer coined the word Kegel (skittle or ninepin),
which eventually became the modern German word for cone. Yet in 1539
another mathematician was using the term runde Feueiform. 'round fire-form', on
the basis of some mixed thinking about the Greek word for fire (pyr), the
Egyptian word pyramid, and Platonic element theory; either he did not know or
he did not like Kegel.5
Trns is a trivial matter but _it points co a bias m German culture which it would
be tactless co ignore in addressing its scu] pture. In 1489 Johannes Widmann, 6 a
professor of mathematics at the University of Leipzig, published a book called the
Rechetumg au.ff allen Kau.ffmannschaft, 'Reckoning for merchants', a pioneer
attempt to introduce German commctcial people to modern mathematics of a
kind the Hali~m merchants had been using for some time. Widmann himself
represents the German bias: while his algebraic method is very advanced, modern
scholars have noted in his geometry errors a.st0nishing in a professional
mathematician. On the other hand, his book for merchants marks the beginning
of a campaign to halianize the vernacular mathematical usage of Germany. which
meant first of all to induce people to move from the medieval .abacus arithmetic
done with counters on a. board to the new arithmetic of the algorism-operations
done with the novel arabicnurnerals much as we do ours. 7 A woodcut from the
encyclopedia Margarita Pliilosoph ica (fig. 8.s) of I 508 dramatizes the conttast. The
n1orose mercantile person on the right is persisting with counters 'on the lines':
on the left the young idea, in a sort of Italianate academic dress, does his sums
algorithmically and with arabic numerals. The tv!argarita Philosophica explains
both systems. ln fact it was some time, certainly after 1530, before the campaign
was s.ubstantia.Hy won, and neither the Florid sculptors nor many of the men they
worked for arc to be thought of as adroit with either the algorism or the concept
of the cone. The High German culture of 1 500 was m:nhematicall y opaque: it had
its formulas and techniques which met practical needs quite well; but it lacked
analytical attack of a generalizable kind that might penetrate into either the
making or seeing of artistic forms:. One emblem of chis opaqueness is the barrel.
The Florentine merchant learned to gauge the content of a barrel by doing a sum
with pi, treating the barrel as either a cylinder (and so height x rrr 2 ), or perhaps
even as two truncated cones joined at their base, with a volume calculable from
dimensions (fig. 86) .8 The Nuremberg merchant with a barrel to gauge called in a
specialise surveyor or Visierer to do it for him : as the Mastersingcr Kunz Has
pointed au t:
ff the merchant wishes t:o know how rnuch might be m the casks, rhe suTveyors come ...
and say how much is in them, by means of the: art of arithmetic.
[Will dann der kaufmann geren wissen,
Wie wil da in den var3en wer,
So komrncn die vjsicrer her .. .
 fgtic un po;o rohdo ! glic 1111:1 botcc cbcil
cbddiamitrndd fon dlamuro dd f"olhtodi
doe } bmma ?i!\11 Ql dricto l. .._ b r .10:1 -r n.;l
en lncqim ;, bmccia QO mc;o <1-.ll cucbHii: c al
(l.lpa-~qtu1n barili da tol ~ bracc1kl_-z: f -r1ldJ.l
cqwa 11.ifar.i drimro re mtrro de! fodo dtnti;i
bindo it brllCdO L)lhl e r br.1cdo -r :l:. et d.1[
' dro f bilrili tunofodo otlairroc J
b,accin:uo f ap.:rt qu.i
rouiuo tcrr.1 ccncdo if
brac1oquadro f b-1~ 1
..__~ =t-1 f
....
I {
lJ ' ~

Fig. 86. Italian ext:rc-isc m gauging barrels with P 1. Fig 87. A German gauger with hi'.'. gear.
Filippo Calandri, De .irimerhrica, Florence, l 49 t, p. Jakob Kobel, Eyn New geordnet Vyszrbuch,
o 3 a. Oppenheim Qakob K obel), about 15r6,
t1 tlepage woodcut.

Die s.agen, wic vi] in ynen s.ei,

Aus dcr kunsc aric;mc:tnca.}9
In N u re1nbc£'g there were courses and public profossionaJ examinations m this
skill , but even the professional gauger might not u~e Italianate analysis of
Eu clidean form but rather the V isiernu e, an elaborate prepared mcasurmg rod
from w h ich h e could read o ff cubic o r cylindric capacity ra ther as from a slide-
rule, without much calculation (fig. 87) . 10 The results were no do ubt as accurate
as chose of the geometrical Italian s and m ay well have been more so, hue the
V isiern Ue stands for a lack of vern acular skill an d disposition t o analyse
geom etrical masses and volumes.
fn a mercantile sociery the elementary education of boys for a business life
throws a great deal of hght on the common visual skilh; it leaves documents, u.
formalizes typical problem , and it represents many people's fonnal intellectual
equipm ent. There was a class ofmen.in the south German towns known as i\rlodist_1.
w ho ran private schools supplementary to the cown schools: they taught the skills
of commercial hfr, reading, w riting, and arithmetic of the transalpine k jnd. 11
This pa ttern of two kinds o f school - the more academic Latin schools w h ich had

147
evolved out of the old church schools, and the more~ practic.J] commercial schools
offering basic techniques for craftsmen and mcn.hants- was common in
Rena1ssanc.e Europe. What disringuis.hes the German commercial schools from .
say. the ltal1:m ones is that the Modists, who first appear in the early fifteenth
century and cook their name from the face that they taught mod, scribendi or
scripts. balanced their curriculum in a quice strange way. Where the haHan
school made a cult and almost an arc-form om of appljed mathematic - the
algonsm, the Rule of Three and techniques of calculating proportion, the
reduction of barrels and other things to compound, of gaugable bodies- the
Mod1scs were as responsible as anyone for the pcrs1stcnct' of the medieval methods
W 1dmann, Diirer and others had to struggle ~gainst: the Modists' v1rrnos1ty lay
1mtead in calligraphy. which they taught with extraordinary complexny and in
many varieties. An advertisement m Lat111 and German by J Francotuan Modist
working 111 Erfurt around i 500 offers to teach:
notu),1 cunens1s/cancelleysch legal curs1 v~
textus quadratus square buok scr1pt
textus rotundus round book scnpt
textu-. a bscisus etc short book \Ctipt
Aontura et illuminatura Aoun~ht•, a11d tlluminadori
Those interested are encouraged to take their lessons from Johann Brune of
Wi.irz.burg. 12 ln face, the details of the Modists' my5t<:ry arc not really unveiled
umiljohann Neudorffer 13 started to pubhsh a sc.:nes of booklets from 1519 on, and
Neudorffer 1s an inconveniently unrepresentauve source, coo ,oph1sucaced, too
late and too open in his last books to rhe kind of gcometncal analysis Diirer had
introduced mto Nuremberg; he also played a kadmg part in the dt"\tgn of the
Frakrnr type-face~ which became standard in C.crmany for some centuries after.
The genl."ra] run of Modiscs may have used a simpler and less refined system than
has.
However, for Ncudortfcr any letter form was thi: object of ·niailw1g. analysis
mto elements that were the different marks made by the st1oke of a pen. 14 The
pt:n can be used m either of two ways: you can use one ~nd of the nib's edge as a
point. or you can use the full breadth of the nib. The first produces a thin even line,
hut the second makes a broader mark which vanes in width according to the angle
of the edge to the line of movement. These broad m~rks constitute a sort of
surface or plane, ein super.fities oder fiech, and can be categorized in this !:>ense.
Fig. 88 show~ some variations; numbers L4 to 27 arc:
q. Raute Lozenge or di:irnond
15 Qua.drat Square
16 Gewundene Ra.ute Wound 1on·nge
J7 Gewundene Quadrat Wound .,quarc
18 Quadrangel Quadrangle
19 Gewundener Quadrangel Wound quadt,mgk
20 Ganntze Zuckelflech ~'h olc c11 t lc-<.u rface
 21 Gewundene Zirckelflech Wound circle-surface
22 Thai] der aufzogen Zirckelfiech Part 0f a regular circle-surface
23 Thail der gewunden Zirckelflech Stretched regular circle-surface
24 Verlenngte :mfzogene Zjrckelflech Part of a wound circle-surface
25 Gedruckte aufzogenc Zirckelflecb Squashed regular cude-surface
20 Verlenngte gewundene ZirckeJRech Srretched wound circle-surface
27 Gt:drnckte gewundem: ZirckdAech Squashed wound cude-surface.

N mnbers 28 to 33 are halves of 20 co 2 I and 24 to 27. On the basis of such elements

the letters of the alphab et were allotted by Neudorffer inm each of three tiers of
dass six Zerstreuungen or Dispersals, six Zerthail1mge,1 or Divisions, and eight
Vergleidumgen or Comparisons-so that, for instance, 1, b, hand k, being letters
beginning with a Quadrangel, are of one Zerstreuurig. At the same time one was to
sustain a particular Modus, and within it there would be varieties of ductus,
including particularly three Verwandlungen or Transformations (fig. 89)-
gema1n ordinary
gewunden wound
gebrochen broken
- and there are other finicalities which we need not pursue.

F,g. 88 Elements of the chanctcrs. Etched plate fromJoh:mn Neudodfer, A11wrys,mg tinl'r gemein hdtmdschrifi, Nuremberg,
1538.

I
a.
o .
~-
o·o
...; ""' o""
,,.too
.. ............ ,,··
'•" , ...
\

r49
Fig. S9. Common, Wound and Broken Ductus. Etched plate from Johann Neudorffcr, Anweymng eirrer gemeirl hanndschr9
Nurembc.:rg, 153&,

h: would not be sensible to transfer such a system of analysis to the forms of

7 r
I
sculpture, but it offers insight mto a peculiar sensibility, alien to us. rich in
categories of visual interest, and ba]anced cowards an exaggerated attention co
~ine The Nurembe1g line is not the geometncian 's poor thing wjth length but no
breadth. It is ambivalent as between two and three dimensions, for the wound or
ll broken superfities assimilates itself to a notional band erole: the path of the nib
broadens and narrows as its angle to the line of progress varies, and it 1s
apprehended partly as a wound ribbon. This can act on the sense of edge in
sculpture, as we shall see later in the case of Veit Stoss. 15 and 1t seems a
constructive element in the High German perception of pattern.
Good period terms for patterns include:
geteilt distributed
gesch1cd sundered
kettenwciB chain[-likcl
cirke1weiB c1rcle[-likc 1
verschrenkt folded or crossed
geflocht intertwined o r plaJtcd
spiegdweis mirror[-hkel
verkert inverted
verset1t displaced
verwart tangled or in tricace

Each of these 16 is the distinguishing name of a Mastcrsinger's Weise or To,i, a

metrical-musical pattern (fig. 70). Every established tune and metrical scheme

15 0
 had a name of the type Ftauet1lob's Long Ton, noting first its originator and then
some such clistinguishing feature as, in chis case, a long strophe. 17 These vary in
kind : some r•e fcr to the origina] words, the Gay Virgins' Ton , some to its general
feeling, 'green' or 's.weet', and! some describe the conformations presented by the
pattern of rhyme and metre, often very complex. The list of good words for
pattern was taken from this last class and they are noticeably more visual than
aural , not incompatible at all with the linear terms of a Modist. But they refer to
larger and freer organjzation, as of a figure or a group in sculpture, describing
connection and disconnectedness (geteilt, geschied, kettenweis) •O r underlying form
(cirkelwris, versthrenkl, geflocht) or balance and repetition within the underlying
form (spiege.lweis, verker,t versetzt), or the total effect (ve,wjri); there are words in
the Hst helpful in corning to terms with, for instance, Plates II, 32; 53 , 85 and 99,
but they also offer a model for one's own adoption of further terms, a:n intimation
of che period sty le ofim posing order on what it met. Just as ·wound lozenge• is a
more promising category for the sculpture than ·cone' or 'cylinder', so too
'intertwined' rings truer than 'composition', at least in the Jacter's Renaissance
sense of an ordered h ierarchy of forms.
However; it is the distinct concept of Fioritur or 'flourish' in Mastersong that is
the most reassuring of aU: we have anticipated it by r~ferring to the limewood
carvers as 'florid'. It is characteristic of the sculpture ro have local passages of
heightened elaboration and skill, and ic is not al ways easy to interpret how far they
are :intended as local accents dr:awing attention co one pan of che figure, whether
they are neutral ornamen ts givjng it a general distinction, sometimes even to what
extent they may carry an expressive intention. In some sculpture these elaborated
pas.sages :ire quite small, in some they expand to take over the whole pattern of the

r figure. Almost always they make much of their effect through denying the
chiromantic scheme of the limewood, suggesting an element of hazard to the
· material. The notion of a localized bravura flourish was ver y much of the penod,
and both Mastersingers and Modists called it Fioritur: the Modist Johann Brune
offered co tea.ch it. and Neudodfer included some in fig. 89; as for the
Mascersingers, they referred co it variously as Fiorirur or ColoralUr or Blume,
'flower'. Mose of their musical treatincnt of a text proceeded on a pattern of one
note for one syllable, a recitative-like line giving the words full and equal value,
and against this was set the distinct sn1all cadenza or Fioritur. rn fig. 70 there is a
Fio1'itur at the beginning ofline 4 of the music (on the word ere), for example, and
another at the end ofline 8 (on resonatir:zen). 1 8
The Mastersong flourishes were n ot often used to accent a particular word for
the sake of the sense: in fact, they tend to be independent of the meaning of words
and a usual position was either ar the beginning or the end of a hne or strophe. It is
noticeable chat Neudorffer too uses his calligraphic flourishes not to dignify or
give prominence to specially significan t words, but to distinguish his page as a
w hole, and chis gives some SUP.port co an impression that m much sculpture
flourishes of drapery may be taken as general ornament without specific narrative
point. But thi:s is not the end of the 1nattcr. There a.re degrees ofRoridness, a. scale

151
between more and less . Veit Stoss, for mstancc, is both habnually more florid than
MKhel Erhart, and himselfson1etimes more florid than at other rin1es; and as with
gesture the floridness takes meaning from tbe context. In his small. grinning
Virgm and Child jn boxwood (PJatc 45) the effect as gay; one can find Yiastersong
using the ~ame com bina ti on of scale. mood and conspicuous flourish :
Oh .. fFio,;tut J
who V\--:ill not from our h,s heart
ex- . . . [Fioriwr]
ult- .. . [Fiorit1u]
ing, and rejoicing,
pay homage to the M;1iden.
ro ...
wer wold n1ch t von herzen do
fro- . . .
lo- .. .
cken, jubilieren,
dcr reinen maid hofien·n .]1 9
In his grieving Virgin (Plate 40), or his St Andrew (fig . 133), a comparable
quantity of flourish, though of a different quality, has .another expressive effect.
Good words, by the way, for the general feeling of a pattern include:
frey free
fein graceful
uberzaTC drhelce
suss swcec
senft mild
blos simple
stark strong
frohch gay
frisch fr<:sh
strcng severe.
They too are descriptions of Mastcrsingcrs · Ton patterns. 20
And this i!) a point at which to pause, !)incc we are being carried back from the
form considered as pure to the form animated with human meaning and crnot10n.
The sculptor'c; flourish may, like the Modises or Masccrsinger's, be expressively
neutral in the first place : it distinguishes a figure or sometimes a rnember, often a
gesturmg .irm. But in the second place, above al1 becau~e we are apt to rationalize
its presence .1s a comequence of movement of body and so also of mind. we arc
likelf to project into lt feeling of a kind appropnate to its gem:ra] circumstance
and character, grinning Mary or pamed Roche. In the third place, though, the
superior craftsman will himself have felt somethmg of the 5amc, and m the course
of mventmg his flourish may have admitted a further c.uc to our response by
patterning it m a way he felt appropriate to the figure\ mood- 'wound' as
opposed to 'broken', perhaps, 'chain-like' as opposed to 'c;undered ', or ·gay· as
opposed t o 'severe'. First-class flourish goe!. with the person

152
2 Persons
The disposiuon to mfer character and feeling from a representation of a human
figure is both strong and deep, and certainly one of rhe few con:i.cancs in the older
European art criticism. Indeed it seems a natural enough transference from our
normaJ sociaJ interest. for character and feeling are dungs we want and need co
know about in persons we address, and we are all very skined in interpreting
visual appearance to this end: posture. gesture, glance, the fixed linc:aments of the
body and the face. In particular we are sensitive to what all these imply of an
attitude towards ourselves. The devotional image is often a special case because
.icts of devotion involve urgent and complicated kinds of expectation and desire;
to pray to an image-even, as. the theory of images would have it, through an
image- wjth a. view to a spiritual or material return, or to meditate on an image as
exemplification of spiriwal quality or as simulacrum of the divine~ is w c11ter an
encounter of a resting kind; interpersonal in its general form but abnormally
asymn1etrica]. For the image this means both that quite small cues of either
appearance or context are open to more than usual attention , and that the
beholder may project into a figure jntim;}tions of character and feeling not so
much initiated as admitted by 1t-thus partly, perhaps, Zwingli)!) perception of
hr,in'g and leuJJplig figures. Luther himself exemplifies th:is d1spos1tion, and in a
traditional sense: 'Christ hangs on the Cro~s with his arms spread as ifco call us in
the words quoted in Matthew XI 28: Come unco me, all lye that labour and are
heavy laden, :md ] will give you rest].' [Expansis manibus pendet in cruce quasj
nos verbis ut Matth. 11 citatis vocaret: Venice ad me omne~.]2 1 The beholder

( DePhyliognomfai 1'i.urium. CaputDtcimum.

A v R· E s ram('IU ad profprdum non uttiiant quibafdtm ,ta;

men parulil!,oblongt, & afinj11£ Cum,& u narurispodu.s~
FJg 90. Significance of smaJJ
:111d of large eau. Joannes ab
lnd,.gine. Clifro,mmria ;
physiogmm,ia . ... Stras:sburg
Uoh31nn Schou), 1531.

maUs rne1iunrur qu.am aliuodit. Auria in momn ~fino:rwn ,ign::auot

Ggn1ficant,&: .itin111is anonbus.Succindi &'minufculis auribus ut ~
mi!,fo(bbll,s & falb.tts.
 indulged in this sore of mterest and the craftsman, ir 1s hkely. accommodated it
(Plate 10).
Relatively little of the basic lore a Renaissance German brought to mterprcdng
human appearance in the sculpture can have been culturally variable. and little of
what was could ever be reconstructed externally, in a flexible enough form to
modify our perception of the images. in an authentic way. Precisely such
apparently converuent keys as Renaissance books on physiognomy are most
destructively academic and rigid, and on the whole to be avoided here, for they
are schematic reductions of the old Aristotelean treatise De physiogriomia rather
than a record of the vernacular beliefs of the timt!.22 A pair of figures in Hans
Leinberger's altarpiece at Moos burg, St John the Baptist and St John Martyr of
Rome (figs. 91- 2), have contrasted heads of great character which are most
important to the figure 'effect. but the character is directly apprehensible and to
look up the shapes of their heads and noses in. say, Joannes ab lndagine's
handbook on physiognomy (fig. 90) only coarsens their quality. A broader
classification of character, rather more of the time and the arc, is the system of the
Four Temperaments 23 -the Sanguine,. Choleric, Phlegmauc and Melancholic
which is less mechanically tJed to particular features of the face or body. A
fifteenth-century broadsheet hke fig. 93 24 represents a current tradition in which
qualities and associations are grouped in fours :

Fig. 91-2. Sc John the Baptist and St John M:myr (derails). Hans Leinberger. Altarpiece, Moosburg, Stiftskircbe. about
1513-1 4 (see Nmc on Plate 91).
Fig. 93. The Temperaments: (left co right) Phlegmatic, Melancholic, Sanguine, Choleric Mid-fifteenth-century woodcut,
Zcntralbibhothek, Zurich.

Sanguine Choleric Melancholic Phlegmatic

Air Fire Earth Water
Spring Summer Autumn Winter
Well-proportioned Slim Gaunt PJump
Rubicund Sallow Dark-skinned Pale
Equable lrascib]e Morose Lethargic
The tradition of the Temperaments is well documented and has been fully
studied, and it must acquire a certain authority for us from its demonstrable
importance for Durer. 25 Diirer spoke of it in relation to the varying proportions
of human bodies and their varying colouration, without however specifying
which proportions correspond to which temperament; he even advised alermess
to the difference of temperaments in ch.oosing and training· apprentices. Even
more to the point is that Johann Neudortfer states that in Durer's painting of the
Four Apostles, for which he had designed calligraphic inscriptions, 'one may
recognize' the four Temperaments. 26 Jt hardly matters whether or not he is
reporting Diirer's intention: mt would indeed be rather more telling ifhe were not,
but rather projecting a scheme upon the picture.
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Ftg. 94. The Snt Animdes. Albrecht Durer, Vil'r Bifrhu 110n mens,hlid,er Prop,mion, Nuremberg (Hieronymu,; Andreae).
1528. pp V I b.-2. :i .

.,.
./
j If Diirer' s Four /\ postles are the Four Tem pcrament,. lt ls only their heads that
arc so charactenzed and the interest of the limewood carven• work lies more
typ1cally in the whole figure, its total pattern and tts suggesccd movement. There
is one point in Diirer's writings at wh1ch he addresses himself especially and
cxphcitly to the sculptors, at the beginning of the fourth book of the Vier Biklier
von met1schlicher Proportion; the matter 1s the proper <lispos1t10n of the limbs of the
human body in complex attitudes by means of an intricate system of proportional
adj ustrnen t w1th in a notional set of cubic boxes, the gefic rtf oder eckette corpl-4S The
method. he says three times, is parcicuJarly useful for sculptors {Dis ist gut den
bildhawcrn, domach zw boss1rn. wy s7 es nennen]. 27 In r~ality it is much coo
Italian and elaborate to have been accessible co many German !>Culptors even m the
J 520s and the pomt is not about their using it at all but that, first, Diirer's mind
turned to the sculptors at this point and, second. that he prefaced hisgefierte corpus
with an invaluable categorization of the print:ipal po,c.) of the figure. This offers
what Italian art theory had never ach1evl.!d or urgcntl) c,ought. a schematic
dass1ficat1on of human posture The six postures are:
 \J
gcbogcn benl
gekruppt curved
gewandt turned
gewunden wow1d
gestreck t/gekrupft screeched/squashed
gc~choben thrust
Diirer's diagrams (fig. 94} exemplify chem jn a linear form. 28 Thi~ sec of terms
meets the need to discriminate about the counterpoised figures in the rctables;
bent, curved. turned, wound, stretched or squashed, and thrust: figures abound in
the Florid sculpture. But, like mnch of Oi.irer's analysis of che human figure, it is a
htcle crisp.
It can be softened by looking to the much vaguer terminology of dancing. ln
many cu ltures dandng is a. useful area of reference for art criticism because its
teach ers verbalize :md discriminate about the expressive movement and posture
of the body. Germany, unlike ltaly and France, provides no developed dance
theory during the Renaissance, nor any defined terminology, but without
attempting too much nuance four impo rtant categories of dancing gait and
movement stand out in late medieval descriptions of dancing :29
)lifen glide, slide
)Wanzen sway, swagger, saunter
z:ipfen trip. mince
winden tum
These terms are not limited to dancing. Swanzen and zipfen, for mstancet had uses
for general bearing, su1auzen partiru1ar1y with connotations of grandeur. rea] or
affected; also, one could siuanzen and! wit1deu on the spot. without actualty
progrc.ssmg across a floor. Working such terms of movement m tandc.:m wuh
Diirer's srnCJc Lypes oflimb arrangement makes for more precision: so one m ight
say chat the movement of the Corpus figures in rhe Erharts' Blaubeuren retab}e
(Plate 19) 1s a bent, swaying one-gehoget1, swanzent-or that Veit Stoss often
tends to wound, tripping figures-gewimden, zipfetit-or that his St Roche
(fig. 122) makes part of 1ts narrative effect by eschewing any clear sauntering o r
tripping resolution ofthe wound arrangement of the limbs, and so on. Witrun this,
the slightest hint of movement towards or away from us may well take on a
disproportionate effect. Again, the asymmetry of the relation between beholder
and image makes us more sensitive to this.
Gesture is a perilous area for the circumsta.ntia] eye: the tern ptation to interpret
1t too specificaJJy in the light of this or that recorded code is very strong. 30 Some
gc5tun:s are directly communicative and self-explanatory. Figures point, for
instance, as Veit Stoss's St Roche points to his sore, and it was a specification jn the
contract for Ricmenschneider's altarpiece at Munnentadt that John chi: Baptist
should be: pointing t o the Paschal Lamb: der sol deu 1tcn mit den, Jm.gei uff das
osterlan,p. 31 lht: aln1ost U11ivcrsal allocurive gesture of the raISed hand is also
common. The difficult1c-s lie in less fonhrighc movements that seem to be
regm:ratiom of [eelmg, representing character or cueing us co emot1ona1 response,

157
 •

Fig. 95. Meditation on the Crowning

wi.th Thorns. Septimania poenalis,
block book, Swiss, about 1 45.S~O.
U niversita<tsbibliothek, Heidelberg.

or both. The body of convention these drew on was certainly mixed and hardly
lends itself to reconstruction. There were liturgical gestures, some of them no
longer in use : the crossing of forearms on che breast, the stretching out of hands,
and of arms in the form of the Cross, hand-wringing, raising of eyes, beating of
br,east, and others, 32 many of which occur in narrative scenes. (Plate 3 5). There
were special dialects of meditative gesture (fig. 95): Dominicans meditated on the
Passion with distinct movements for each of its various Instruments, for instance,
clasping the hands together in remembrance of the Nails. 33 Indeed, the
temptation to interpret the sculpture's gesture too specifically is strong.
The stage-directions of miracle plays offer -a good corrective to over-
interpretation. 34 In the religious plays of Hans Sachs the usual gestures. are five:
pressing the hands together> striking the hands together, raising the hands, raising
the arms, wringing the hands. These are all familiar in sculpture too, and what is
notable about their use by Sachs is that their meaning is not a restricted one, that
they indicate not so much a kind as a degree of emotion. Pressing together and
raising the hands can register various emotions, from sorrow to joy. They are
open gestures to be read in the light of their context, and the gamut of feeling is
not narrowly differentiated:
 trawrig sad
cleglich plaintive
frohlich gay
zorn1g angry
trutzjg proud, defiant
These are the main types of tone prescribed for the actors in Sachs's religious
plays. In both cases, gesture and tone, the limitation derives from medieval
religious drama and bears on religious art; in his secular tales and carnival plays
Sachs mentions other gestures and also more varied feelings, for instance:
senlich longing
senft mild
hoffertig arrogant
ungstum violent
wild furious

This gives us an opportunity to distinguish in a tentative way between a high,

decorous mode of tradition.i] religious dramatic effect with a liinited range of
expressive intention and a more secular, colourful and varied convention.
All this is not only unsatisfactorily vague, and must remain so, but also quite
fails to meet a peculiarly insistent quality ofthe sculpture, an elusive habit of visual
metaphor, a resonance between the comprehensive forms of statues and human
character. An example: there is a small sandstone bust in Strassburg, no more than
eighteen inches high, attributed to Nikolaus Gerhaert and traditionally
considered a self-portrait (P]ate I 2 and figs. 96-7). 35 The head rests on the hand,
an ancient pathos formula used in the art of many periods to register grief or
weariness or thought and in this period the complex of dispositions and talents
involved in the Melancholic temperament :36 indeed the bust belongs not very far
from Di.irer's engraving Melencolia I. But the sculptor has made out of this
formula an individual tautly wound variation: the head is presented as something
supported not so much on shoulders as on a helical coil. The spiral-in Diirer's
terms a Schraubenlinie or screw-line- runs from the right hand, round and up the
right arm, across the shou1ders, down and round and up the ]eft arm, to the
expanding left hand holding the chin. ~articularly in the left quarter-view, a
special hero of the narrative is the~~%fe thumb. The creases on the inner sides
of the sleeves, acting as interpretative hatching, and the cross-accent of fingers
driving into the flesh of the cheek enrich the strong wound pattern It is hard not
to see the conformation of this bust as offering some kind of metaphor of a human
condition. There are three successive tiers of meaning in such an effect. At the base
is a natural physical action, the giving of additional support for the weight of the
head, whether to relieve or prevent physical or spiritual weariness. This had long
been con\'entionalized into a sign of what it is designed to easct so that the natura]
association with fatigue, grief or thought is culturally reinforced. Gerhaert went a
stage further yet and extracted from the conventionalized action a visual pattern,
the potential spiral, which he accented as an organising principle: this has various

159
Figs.1)6-7, Nikolaus Gerhaert, Bmt of .i Man, about 1465. Muscc de: !'Oeuvre Notre-Dame, Strassburg(sec Note on Plate L2)

effects, and one is to enrich by further association our sense of pattern. Gerhaen is
not alone in this quality: from the other end of the period Hans Leinberger, in
vvhom we shall presently see it as quire centra 1, uses the motif of head on hand in a
different sense but an analogous manner for his Christ in Distress (Plate 99), where
the whole pattern of the figure becomes a metaphor of somechjng hke strength,
a clear self-proppmg structu.re of great power. This kind of meaning is not one to
be brusque with, because it is easily repelled or brutalized by verbaljzing: it is
certainly not something to approach with a schedule of terms. However, it is
unequivoca1Iy there in much of the best sculpture and demands at kast a gcncnc
name.
For chis one must go once more to Paracelsus, to his theory of Signs, and as this
is now the second time Paracelsus has been resorted to, it should be said in passing
that his status is ithccurc. He is not a mainstream figure in either the crafo,man's or
the intellectual's culture and he .is besides rather late, the texts one draws on being
of the 15 3os. Alchough he was at pains co point to the breadth of hi~ cultural base
('doctor!l, but also barbers. baitb attendants, learned physicians, women and
magicians who pursue the art of healing ... alchemists, monks, noblemen and
common people') 37 the produce was a penonal nature ph;losophy. The
justification for making use of him is that some of what he says- as was the case

160
\·vith the chiromancy of m~uer-throws a more penetrating light on the
characteristic forms of che sculpture than any dung else av ail able; externally more
eligible texts, for instance the German humamsts' comments on art or even the
masons' treatises on geometry, 38 are relatively quite malapropos. So it is the
~culpture (fig. 99) t hat must be an argument for some elements ofhis exposition
mdeed articulating vulgar beliefs abom: nature, matter and for m.
For Paracelsus external form acts as a Sign-in his terms variously Zefrh<'11,
s;gnwn. signatum, signum signatum, Signatu, 39 -of inner quality:
ature's Maker 1s so skiJJed that he does not frame the- ~oul to fit the fonn, bm: the form 10
fit the soul: that is, the shape of a man 1s formed iiificr the kind of his hearc; and Nature
do~ not practise her art like a painter, who produce!> an image and gives it no Sign, and
indeed can give it none. For there i5 nothing it1 the picture, .md so it has no Sign; it is like a
shadow with no quality in it. However, those rrartsmen who are skilful do something
similar to Nature when they make an image: though ic is without such inner quality, yet
their art does proceed from the Maker of animate images. And the m ore th e craftsm.an
wishes to make accomplished images, the more he must discern t he Sign, for the reason
that Nature's art shows the rnc::ms by which the Sign is discerned-what soul is in a person
... without this no artist, painter or sculptor can mJke images in a well-grounded way.
[also kunstreich 1st der fabncator der natur, da1, er nicht da.s gemiit nach dcr form
sch.m1det, sonder schm1det die form nach dem gemi.it. das ist, die gestalt des mensd1en
wird geformirt narh a.rt des herzen und die natur wirkt mcbt in irec kunst: wic em maJer,
der stdt ein bilt und gibe hn das signatum aber mt, er mag tms auch nit: geben. dan nichts
ist im selbigen hilt, darumb hats auch kein signaturn: es isr gleich wie ein schatten, a11 dcm
kein kraft ist. wiewol dicJcnigen kunscreichcn, so u1 b1icwerken handeln, crwas
gbchformigs machen . wicwoi es one kraft ist, so gehct doch ir k unst aus dem fabncatore
dcr l ebendligen bilder. und le mer ir einer wil perfect sem, ie mer ist im not das signatun1
zu erkennen aus der ursach, das die kunsr dcr natur opcrationes wol praefigunrc, damit
durcb das signamm erkcnc wetde, was gemiit in cinem sochen sei ... on wclchc kcin
ku.nstler im biltwerk malen oder schnizlen griimhchs machen kan.]40

Paracelsus beheved m rhe Light ofNarure, an mtwave sense that is both inherent
in us and developed by experience; pan of th.is intuition is to sec the inner
appearance of things through its outer appearance, transcending our coarse.
baurisch, n ormal vision and penetrating the gross, grob, envelope of the outer
mat erial body. The Sign is the means to this penetration . With relatively simple
objects Jike stones and p lants the Signs are straightforward, and this was the basis
of sympat hetic herba] medicine : the lung-like form of the lung wort (fig. 98) is ai
Sign, and it is good for the lungs. A pjece of wood has Signs. of what it is good for 1

and it .is these the craftsman's chiromancy reads (fig. 14). With higher animals
like men the Signs are much more complex but sttU there:
Similady (as wnh stone'- and flowers) there can be nothmg m Man that is not marked on
lus excenor, through which one may discern what 1s wjthin rhe pers.on bearing the Sign
. . . There are four things through which Nature makes Man manifest ... specifically,
Chiromancy, which comprises the extremities of men, h,mds and feet ... then the ~ccond
part is Physiognomy: . .. this comprises the form of the face :ind the whole head ... Thi rd
fig. 98. (above) Lungwort. Johann von Cube>
Herbarius, Ulm (Conrad Dinckmut), 14-87,
p. r66 b.
Fjg. 99. {right) Hans Leinberger, St Castulus.
from the Altarpiece, Moosburg, Stiftskirche,
about r513- 14 (see Note on Plate91) .

is submmtina, which takes in the form of the body as a whole . . . fourthly there is mos and
usus, that is manner and bearing, how a man shows and holds himself .. . These four
belong together : they make up a complete percept1on of the hidden inner man ...
[also mag nichts irn menschen sein, das nicht auBerba.lb von im bezei chn et werdc, durch
wekhs der mensch erkennen mag. was in dern selbigtan sei, der das sign um signatum ttegt
. .. . vier ding se.ind, durch die die natur den me:nschen offenbar machc ... nemhch ab
durcb cbiromantiam, die sclbig hat in ir die e u Berste teil der est im menschen, als hent und
fiiB .. . weiter der andtr reil ist physionom ia, hat in ir die gestalt des. an ditz und was das
ganz haupt begreift .. . zum dritten ist substancina, hat in ir rue gestalt des ganzen lcibs .. .
und zum vicrten isr mos und usus, das ist, weis und gcberd, wie sich der mensch erzeigt
und stel t ... also die vier ding gehoren zusamcn, das is.t sic machen ein ganze erkantnus des
verborgenen inner:lichen menschen . ..]"' 1

In effect, what Paracelsus offers us is provisional licence to broaden physiognomic

162
perception out into a. more flexible style of discrimination that embraces the
whole figure (fig. 99), and meets the real interest of Gerhaert and Leinberger as
physiognomic treatises do no t. In Leinberger's Christ in Distress (PJace 99) the
detail of head, hands, and perhaps above all feet is of course telling, but it is the
total conformation of the body that carries the main narrative. Similarly
Paracelsus adopts fragments of either Aristotelian or plain folk physiognomic
tradition-the downcast glance for modesty, for instance, or the long neck as
mark of prudence45 -but he does so unsy.scematically and empirically, keeping a
certain distance from the schemes of code-book physiognomy; and the larger
Signs of the body, substantina and manner and bearing, have for him larger
au thority. Sometimes he combines them under the s.ingle category of habitus or
'character', and the types of quality they are apt co signify include :43
tristitia sadness
gaudium JOY
phantasia imagination
vires vigour
animus mind
cor soul
in genium innate talent
liberalitas noble spirit
contraria and their contraries
The list is propcrly heterogeneous. Paracelsus encourages us to exercise our own
Light of Nature within our experience of the general period sense of the Sign.
How necessary this is is best left to work itself out in relation to the particular
works of individual artists.
Refere1u5jo, pa s J ,16

RE ·ED CE fOR CHAPTER VJ

1. 1
••• d1 · maier, bildtznytzer, t mhawer, dy
Ill ct::illgisser, dy seidensticker vnd nder. dy
olchc wcrgk mit der hand treib n' ( (hriftUcher
achlass. ed. H. Ruppri h, lJl, Berlm, 1969,
p. 170) .
.2 Ott. HI, Q .•. p. 172.
J. Ar.s rtrenzorarwa Aug bur ( n n org) , c.
1 90 (Hairi 1 27) and fa nn 11 ed1 10n. Augs-
burg, 1925, p. 12a. In 1 7 the Ele,ues Anna
of Brandenburg was sent ':ain tuchl, daran
unns r fr uen pilldni:iss m1t ubt1ler arbaic
t' !er 1 t' (G. Steinha.usen, De-tdsdre Privat-
brieje des A1ittelafters, 1, B ·rlin, 1899
pp. 14 50) . The term is quite general.
4. Vr1derweys1mg der messurig, Nuremberg, 1525,
. M. L1i b. for Diirer's geometry in general,
M. eek, Diirers Gestaltld1re, Hall , 194 .
S. or cbe development of th word Keg l,
M. urtze, ' Der Tractaru Quadrantl de Ro-
ber! Anglicus in dcutscher Ober e z:ung us
dcm Jahre 1477'. in Fest.schrift .w,n i b:z:igsrett
burmage Mr.mtz Cantors, Letp'Zig, r 899
pp. 41 - 4 ., J. Tropfke, Cesrhichte dtr Elernenrii,-
Ma:h matik, V11, Bedin- Leipz1g, J921,
pp. 30-I .
6 , flor whom, W. Kaunzuer, Uber Johannes
Widmat1tt von Eger (Veroffcntli hungen des
orschungsinscjtuts des Dcut chc1'1 Museums,
7), Munich, 1968, p. 1 fi r his cometricaJ
hm,unons ; also . Kamor. Vorlrnm en uber
Cesch1Chtc de, Ma1hema1ik. n, Le,pzi , 191 ,
pp. 22 - 51.
7. M. K,mlor, op. cit., pp. 215- .. 7 nd 415-.24;
clear account of both method in K. Vogel,
'Ad ru Riese der deutsche Rech nm ister',
Abh,mdlungett 1md Bemhre des DeJlt.schen Mus-
ewns IMiinchen], xxvn. J, 1959, pp. 3-37.

232
8. M. Baxandall, Pa,mmg aml Experience it1
Fif.teemh-Cemury lrary, Oxford, r972, pp. 86---93 .
9- Quoted by S. Gunther, Geschichle des
mathernalischen Unterrfrhls itn deutscheri Mir-
telalter bis zumJ..J-~}re 15:z,5, Berlin, 1887, p. 328
note 2.
Io. for these men and their method, A.
Giimbel, 'Der Rechcnme1ster und Wagrnacher
Ruprecht Kilbergcr m Niimberg 1470-150:5°,
Mitteilu11gt-n dej Vurius for Cesdaichte de, St.adt
Ni.irrwerg, XXVI, 1926, pp. 279-308. For the
Visierrute, M. Kam:or, op. cit., p . 237.
u. For the Mod1m m general, A. Jaeger,
'Stellung und Tat1gkc1t der Schreib- und
Red1enme1stcr (Mod1stc-n) m Ni.imberg', Erlan-
gen, 1925, a Ph. D. dissertation in typescript,
signature in Erlangen University Library
U.25-1826. More easily accessible: S. Gunther,
op. cit., pp. 293-335: A . Kapr, DeuISche Schrifl-
kimst, 2nd ed., Dresden, 1960; K . Leder,
'Niimbergs Schulw~cn an dcr Wende vom
M1ttdalter zur N euzdr', in AU1red1t Diiru.s
Umweli (Nurnberger ForschUIJgen, XV),
Nuremberg, 1971. pp. 29-34
12. W . Brod, Friinkiul,e Schreibmei.srer und
Schrifrkiirrsller, Wiirzbucg, m9o8. pp. 16- q and
Place 1. For Modists' ad.vertisemerrcs in general
see S. Steinberg., 'B1bliogr:iphical Notes- A
hand-list of specimens of medieval wricing-
masters', The Library. XXJll. 1942, p. 191, and
C. Wehmer, 'Schreibmeisterblatter de; spaten
Mittefalt~rs•, Miscellanea Giovamu .r,Aercati, Vt
(Studi e Test1, CXXV1). Vat_ican City. 1946, p.
.i:47.
13. A. Kapr, Jolran,r Nit~ulorjfer dfr Attere,
Leipzig, 1956.
14. A dear summary of the system in W .
Doede, Schor, schreibe,1, eine Kimst, Munich,
1957, pp. 21- 2, lhis book being an excellent
survey.
15. Seep. 195. lt is representative of the social
continuity between artists and modists that
Neudorffer' s teacher, the modist Caspar
Schmidt. was Veit Stoss.'s executor, a daughter
of Schm.idr havmg marned a son of Stoss.
16. AJI from Das Genierlebuclilein dPs Hans Socl1s
( j 555- 6 t ), ed. K Drescher, Halle. l 898.
17. O . Plate, 'Uie Kumtausdriicke der Meister-
singer', Stra$sburger Studie11, HI, 1888,
pp. I 84- 6, reprinted m Der Deutsche A1eister-
sang (Wege der Forschung, CXLVITl), ed.
B. Nagel, Darmstadt, 1967, pp. 233- 5.
18. For Hans Sachs's Mo1genu•e1.s, F. H. Eihs,
Hans Sachs St1~dies, 1, Das Wall ,got : A Meister-
lied (Indiana Un:iversity Public:itions: Hum-
;mities Sl"'ries No. 4), Bloomington, [nd., 1940.
19. Lienhan: Nunnenpeck of Nuremberg, a
Chnscmas song in Sixtus Beckmes,;er\ Golden
Tim (text taken from Meistersmig · Meisterlieder
11nd Sr1tg.sr-lmtzeugnisse (Redam Universa1-
Bibhochek 8977/ 78). ed. B. Nagel, Stuttgart,
1965, p. 9r).
::!O. Again from the lists m Sacl•~•s Gtmerk-
biidtlem, ed. cit.
21. Werke, XLVIU, Weimar, 1927, p. 169.
22 . This problem has been studied by M .
Bower, 'Relations between Art and Physio-
gnom1c:s r400-15.50' (M. Phil. dissertation in
typescript, University of London), London,
1973 i there is some information on Johannes de
h,dagine and !his illustrated book in M. Klein,
' Les Phys1onormstes hauc-rhcnans du XVle
s~eclt:', Atti dd XlV. CongrtSSO lt1tm1a~1onaft di
Storia Jella Medfrinn, Rome-Salerno. 1954, pp.
J- 16.
-+3 • For which, R. Khbansky, E. P,rnofskr a11d
F. Sax I. Stit1m1 am! Mefatu:holy, London, r964 .
24. Op. cit., fig. 78 and p. 288.
2s. Op. cit., pp. 277-373.
26. Op. cit., pp. 367-8.
27. Viet Buchu vcn me,ischlicher Propurtio~,,
Nuremberg, 1:528. p. Viii a .. bur the reference
co sculptors is more emphatic m th" enrly draft
pruned in Diirer, Schriftlidrer Nar-litass, ed. H.
Rupprich. m, Berlin, r969, pp. 136 and 260 .
26 Vii'r Biidrrr von me1:1s.chlicher l'roporhorr, ed.
at,, pp. VI b-V ii a.
29. l depend on A. Harding, An #t111estigatio1J
ir1to tlit Use imd Meaning of Medieval Gentian
DancirJg Terms, Goppingen, 1973, esp!!C,ally
pp. 45 and 253-6.
30. For the limits on interpretacjon, sec E.
Gombrich, 'Action and Expressioh iu Western
Art', in Non-Verbal Comrmmicaticm, ed. R .
Hinde, Cambridge. 1972, pp. 372--93 .
3 r. Text m J. Bier, TilmamJ R1eme,mhrr.erdrr :
D1efml1i•n Werke, Wi.irzburg, 192s. p. 91
32. T. Ohm, Die Gebersgebtirde11 der Volker unJ
d.as Clmste,1trrm, Leiden, 1948, Ch. z .
33. F. Rapp, 'La Priere dans les monastere~ des
D01mmcaines Observantes en Alsace au XVe
siede', m La mystique r1ienane:: Colfoq11e de
Ref~m1ce.. for pages 15-8-72

trosbor1rg 19 1 > P ris., 1963 . pp. 2-07-18.

34. For d,e matter of this par.a gnph, M .
H rrmann, Fom:hungen zur deut.schm Th~atfr-
gescl1ichte de. MinelalJers ,md der Re1raissance
Berlin, 19 4, esp ciailly pp. 169----71 .and 238- 53 .
The 1 large ht rature attempting to relate
theatric I gesture :md ·erring to the visual arts:
c p tticulady A. Rapp S1udien iiber den
Z sa,nme.nl1an des grislliche,1 Theat,e n mil de,
brtder1den Kunst im ausgehet1der1 Mitiel4lter,
Muni h , J936, and for a bibliography, R .
teinbach. Die dc1,tschen Osier- und Pass-
ionssp.ie1 des MiJteltJllers (Koiner GeTmanist-
15 he tudJen, IV), Cologne-V1enna, 1970 1
pp. 277- 79. For thcatdcal gesture as such, A.
o d r, Die ebarde im Drama des Mittelalte,s,
Munich, 1974, especially pp. r8, 45 and 164.
JS , Sc Note on P.late 91. p. 311 below.
J6. . Klibansky, E. Panofsky and F. Saxl. op.
de., pp. 287- 8.
37. Par.acel tu, Samtliche Werke, t bteilung
(Mediz1·msche, nalur111issensrhaftfiche und philo-
sophisehe chr!ften, ed. K. Sudhoff, Munich-
Berlm, 192,2-33}, X, p. 19 (Das erste Huch der
r n Wundarznei, 1536). For an alternative
view of iJarac I us•s interest for the visual arts,
G . H r J ub. '"'Paracelrisclu:s"' in der Kun t dcr
Paracclsuszcit'. ova Amr Par4lulsi a, VU, r9 54.
pp. 3,2 3. For bis view 011 the image pro-
bl m . hioh 1s moderate bur clau:ns that tean
ere counterfoted with oil for the Madonn~ of
the R gen bur pilgrimage (p. 84). see
W r , m, pp. 361-5.
3 8. For che limitations. of the geometry of the
ma ons' fodges; L. helby, 'The Geometrical
Kn wl d e of Medie a] Master Masons',
pemfum, XLVH, pp. 395-421, with bibliog-
raphy for this fie ld, here ignored .
39. Par celsus's formulatiom a.re conveniently
h tcd and summariz ed by F. Weinha.ndl,
Parawl w - ntdien. Vienna, r 970, pp. 60-4.
40. W rke, ed. cit., XII, pp. 92- 3 (Astronomia
M gn , 1537- 8).
41 . Werke, ed. cit., XIl, PP- 175-6.
4.2 . Werke. ed. cit., XI, pp. J81-3 (De natura
r rum, 1537) .
43. W rke, ed. at., Xll, p. o.

234