Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/701

* STORY. 605 STOSS. law at Harvard College, and under his father's direction, he was admitted to the bar, and prac- ticed his profession in Boston. He published several- legal books, among them: Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in. the Circuit Court of the United States (1842-47) ; a Treatise on the Law of Contracts (1844) ; and a Treatise on the Law of Sales of Personal Property ( 1847). In 1848 he gave up law and went to Italy, where he made his home, residing principally at Rome, and died at Vallombrosa. The list of his works as a sculptor includes monuments, statues, ideal figures, and portrait busts. In the Metropolitan Museum, New York City, are the statues of Cleopatra (1864) and Scmiramis (1874); other works by him include a statue of his father (Mount Auburn Cemetery) ; Edward Everett (Boston Public Gardens) ; a bronze statue of G«orge Peabody, erected in London (replica, Baltimore, 1888) ; and the monument of Francis Scott Key in the Golden Gate Park. San Fran- cisco. His last work was the "Angel of Grief," a monument erected to his wife, whom he sur- vived but a year. His work is done in the classical style, showing, however, some slight tendency toward realism. Story was prolific in literature as well as in art. He published The American Question (1862); Roha di Roma (1862); Proportions of the Human Figure (1866) ; araffiti d'ltalia (1869) ; five volumes of his poems; and the Life and Letters of Joseph Stori/ (1851). Story was United States com- missioner on fine arts to the World's Fair at Paris (1879), and received decorations from France and Italy. An admirable Life of Story by Henry James appeared in 1903 (London and New York). — His son, .Juua:;^ Stoky, a portrait painter, was a student of Duveneck, Boulanger, and Lefebvre. He received a gold medal in Ber- lin in 1891, was elected a member of the Society of American Artists in 1892, and won a silver medal at the Paris Expositicn of 1900. Among his sitters were King Edward VII. and Emma Fames, whom he married. STOSCH, stosh, Albrecht von (1818-96). A German genei'al and naval administrator, born at Coblenz. He received a militar}' education and ■was commissioned lieutenant in 1835. He en- tered the general staff in 1855, and became chief of staff of the Fourth Army Corps in 1801 and major-general in 1866. In the Seven Weeks' War he was quartermaster-general of the Second Army. In the same year he was appointed di- rector of the commissary department with the rank of lieutenant-general, and was chief of staff with the army left in France after the conclu- sion of peace. In 1872 he was appointed chief of the admiralty, and in 1876 received the title of admiral. While holding these offices he greatly increased the power and efficiency of the German navy. He retired in 1883 and died Feb- ruary 29th, 1896. STOSS, st?is, Veit (c.1440-1533). A celebrated German .sculptor and engraver, the chief master of wood-carving in Germany. Beyond the fact that Nuremberg was his birthplace, nothing cer- tain is known of his parentage, his youth and apprenticeship, but very probably he was reared in the school of Michel Wohlgemuth. The first definite mention of him dates from 1477, when he removed to Cracow, where he was held in great esteem and whence he returned in 1496, a well-to-do man, since in 1409 he bought a stately mansion at Nuremberg and made other invest- ments besides. As to his subsccjuent life, we are informed that he caused much distress to the honorable council of Nuremberg, involved tlie city in litigation, and forged an obligatory bill, a crime which was then punishable by death. The council, however, by a special act of mercy, commuted the sentence to having him branded (1503), both his cheeks being pierced with a hot iron by the executioner. For breaking his oath not to leave the city, he subsequently had to suffer imprisonment, and in 1533 died, it is said, totally blind, at the age of ninety-three. Tliis restless and graceless citizen, this forger and perjurer was nevertheless an artist of the most tender and feeling conception, whose works dis- play the youthful purity of the Madonna and other saints as few of the masters of his time have done. His earliest work on record is the "High Altar," in Saint Mary's at Cracow, executed in 1477-89, with the "Death of the Virgin" and the "Assumption" in the middle shrine, a work praised as a wonder of art by the master's con- temporaries and to this day reckoned among the most perfect creations of its kind, exhibiting the artist's chief characteristics: vivid description, varied and animated figures, and rich drapery. Next followed, in 1492, the "Monument of King Casimir IV.," in the Cross Chapel of the Cathe- dral, a work of solemn splendor and withal of dignified simplicity. The earliest of his sculp- tures executed at Nuremberg are the three stone reliefs of the "Last Supper," "Christ on the Mount of Olives," and "Taking of Christ" (1409). in the ambulatory of Saint Sebaldus; over the high altar in the same church rises the "Crucifix and Figures of IMary and Saint .John," designated as his last work (1526). Of the main altar in the Frauenkirche, only the heroic size statue of the "Madonna" (1504) is preserved, besides two re- liefs. The taper-bearing angels in the choir of this church are also by Stoss. In the Germanic Museum may be .seen the noble high-relief of the "Crowning of the Virgin by God and Christ," clear in composition and executed with masterly perfection ; and the wooden paneling known as the "Rose Garland," in the centre reliefs of the Last Judgment and of the Heavenly Host grouped around a cross of Saint Anthony within a garland of roses, the whole framed by twenty-three mi- nute reliefs of scenes from biblical history. Seveu more reliefs, which formed part of this work, are now in the Berlin iluseum. Noteworthy is the large "Pietft" in the Jacobskirche, which also contains several smaller but very able works of the master, but his best-known and chief work in carved wood is "The Angel's Salutation" (1518), in the Church of Saint Lawrence, the central group of heroic size surrounded by a chaplet of roses in which are set seven medallions with the Joys of the Virgin in bas-relief, a work unique in beauty and conception. He executed the superbly carved altar-pieces in the parish church at Schwabach (1506) and in the upper parish church at Bamberg (1523). His engrav- ings, scenes from the Passion, severe in style and dating from his early period, are now very rare. Consult: Bergau, Der Bildschnitzer Veit