Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/197

 SCULPTURE AND PAINTING 185 and formerly professor of theology), went to Utrecht in order to examine altars there. An artist whom they took with them made drawings, assisted by Master Arnt. The best wood was procured from the royal forests and Amsterdam, and immediately on their return a carpenter from Calcar was employed to con- struct the framework of the altar ; the rest of the work was then divided among different sculptors and carvers of Calcar according to their particular qualifications. Thus the groups of Christ's entry into Jerusalem, the feast of the Paschal Lamb, and the washing of the dis- ciples' feet, which adorn the base, were assigned to Jan van Haldern. The fluting and ornamentation were done by Derick Jeger, and the upper portion, repre- senting the sufferings of Christ, was the work of Master Lodewich, the renowned carver. This marvellously beautiful work of art was completed in 1500, and the president of the society handed Master Lodewich the sum of one hundred and seventy-eight gold florins in payment. This same society assigned the execution of the exquisite altar in honour of the Mother of Sorrows to another citizen of Calcar, Master Heinrich Douwer- mann. Between 1505 and 1508 the beautiful choir stalls, which rank among the best specimens of art in the Rhenish Provinces, were built and carved by Heinrich Bernts. For this work the church gave him two hundred gold florins, two quarters of rye, four casks of beer, and, as a compliment to his wife, a mantle and five yards of silk from Ypres, in Flanders. The can- delabrum in the Virgin's chapel, which measured thirteen feet in height and seven in width, and is a marvel of its kind, was also begun by Heinrich Bernts, but, as he died before its completion, it was finished in