s and heads
of their figures, but they gave the same attention to imitating every
detail of costume and every personal peculiarity of the model from which
they worked. This tended to weaken and narrow their own designs, and the
whole effect of their work is fantastic and exaggerated--an effect quite
opposed to the noble and harmonious treatment of the whole which the
best Italian masters strove to attain.

The attempt to produce startling effects in German art made such
subjects as the Passion of Christ, the Temptation of St. Anthony, and
the Martyrdoms of the Saints to be constantly repeated, and many reliefs
are overloaded with such details as may very properly be used in
painting, and which belong to _picturesque_ art, but which take away the
dignity and calm grandeur which should make the spirit of sculpture. But
there is one feature of German sculpture at this time which appeals to
our sympathy--that is, the deep, earnest feeling which pervades it, and
which constantly tried new methods of expression.

In Germany there were guilds or trade-associations, and the members of
these guilds were allowed to work in the special branch only of
sculpture which belonged to their company, so that this art was divided
by more fixed lines than in Italy, where, in truth, at the period of
which we speak, the Florentine school was a supreme power, and its
sculptors, as we have seen, worked in as many sorts of sculpture as
pleased them.

The schools of Germany were far more independent of each other, and the
entire organization of art in Germany was very different from that of
Italy.

One of the most prominent effects of the architecture of Germany was to
drive the sculptors to seek for such work as had no relation to
architecture, and an important result from this was the great attention
which they paid to wood-carving; indeed, this was the favorite pursuit
of the German sculptors for many years. About the middle of the
fifteenth century the importance of this art in Germany was far greater
than those of bronze-casting or stone sculpture.

The principal works in wood-carving were the altars, which finally came
to be colossal in size, and with their multitude of reliefs, statuettes,
and ornaments were marvellous monuments to the industry and skill of the
wood-carvers. The reliefs in these works are usually arranged on
landscape backgrounds, and so much resemble pictures in many ways that
the colors and gilding which were freel