Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/221

 SCULPTUI1E AND PAINTING 209 The culminating period of his activity extended to the outbreak of the religious controversies. By far the most important of his works in different branches of art belong to the time before these schisms. Even the studies for his most famous work, ' The Four Tempera- ments,' were begun before the year 1518. From the universality of his works, Diirer may be looked on as a light to the whole world of art. 1 Even Eaphael borrowed from him. Conspicuous among his German pupils and followers are Hans Schauffelin, Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Baldung, Mathaus Griinwald, and Lucas Cranach. Among the various branches of pictorial art which flourished in Germany at the close of the fifteenth cen- tury, glass- staining reached great perfection. Wher- ever it was not compelled to put on a monumental or purely decorative character, it stands uppermost in the production of easel pictures. With the simplest means and appliances the most brilliant effects were produced. The ' cabinet glass-staining ' of the fifteenth century — to judge from the specimens in heraldic shields — may be considered as unsurpassable. The guild system entered into this department of art also. Painters and glass-stainers generally formed a brotherhood amongst each other, and went in company on stated davs to the service of God, to masses for the dead, and to social gatherings. Glass-staining was practised with great success in many of the monas- teries. The Dominican Jacob Griesinger, of Ulm (1491 ), gained great renown in Bologna by his method of burn- ing in the colours, and he founded a school of his own. 1 See Waagen, i. 199 ; Sighart, p. 619. Diirer always took a catholic view of life (Kaufmann, pp. 83-89). VOL. I. P