Dodgson, Campbell: Catalogue of early German and Flemish woodcuts: preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (Band 1): [German and Flemish woodcuts of the XV century] (London, 1903)

312

Ecirly German and Flemish Woodeuts.—Part II.

busts of emperors and kings on the left; (5) the Emperor’s kinsmen on
the right; (6) the round towers at either end ; (7) the ornaments.

This classification corresponds imperfectly to the actual structure of
the arch. It is advisable first to grasp the plan on which the building
is constructed, to observe the relation of the architectural members to
one another, and then to note the distribution of the subjects over the
several members.

Looking at the arcli itself, or, for more convenient reference, at the
reduced facsimile of the whole work which accompanies the latest edition,
we shall see that the great wall which forms the front of the arch is divided
vertically into five sections, all on the same plane. The central and widest
sectionis pierced by the gateof Honour £ind Might; the sections adjoining
it, slightly narrower, are pierced by the gates of Praise and of Nobility;
while the mucli narrower sections to 1. and r. of these are solid wall from
top to bottom. The divisions between these five sections of the wall are
marked by four bolclly projecting members, each consisting of a pair of
columns, one in front of the other, resting on and supporting solicl
rectangular masses of masonry. In the spaces between these great
projections are three smaller pairs of projecting columns, flanking the
three gateways. At the extremities of the whole building, lastly, stand
two rouncl towers, which advance from the plane of the facade to about
the same extent as the bases of the smaller pairs of columns. These rouncl
towers were perhaps aclded as an afterthought, owing to the extension
of the subject-matter, for which room had to be found. They have no
place in the original conception of a triple arch suggested by the antique
xamples still existing at Rome. The platform on which the whole eclifice
stands is approached by two flights of steps 1. and r. Near the top of
the steps r. are three escutcheons.1

(1) Through the three gates we see the interior of the building, an
empty hall pavecl with squares of black and white marble; through the
open portals on the farther side we see three roads converging on the arch
across an uninhabitecl country.

(2) The middle section of the great wall rises far above the rest, and
forms in its extension the front wall of a central tower sunnounted by a
cupola. This section is occupied by the pedigree of Maximilian, framed
between two panels of coats of arms; the fifty-seven shields 1. contain the
arms of the possessions of the house of Habsburg inlierited or acquired
by conquest down to the Bavarian war of 1504, while the fifty-one shields
r. contain the arms of territories acquired through the Burgundian
marriage of Maximilian and the Spanish marriage of Philip. Tliis
heraldic decoration was suggested by the “ Wappenthurm ” at Innsbruck,
reconstructed in 1496 and painted in 1499 by Jorg Kolderer, with a
series of fifty-four coats of arms in two panels, each containing nine rows
of three.2 The pedigree starts with three female figures, Troia, Sycambria,
and Prancia, who typify the legendary descent of the Merovingians from
ITector ancl the migration of the race through Hungary to Gaul. The

1 See p. 317.

2 See the engraviug of tlie Innsbruck tower (now incorporated with the E. front of
the Hofburg) by S. Kleiner, in Herrgott. “ Monumenta Aug. Domus Austriacm,” Yienna,
1750, i, 86. Its resemblance to the central part of the Ehrenpforte, which must not be
prcssed too far, wns pointed out by Prof. F. v. Wieser in Zeitsclir. cles Ferdinandeums,
Innsbruck, 1897, Heft II. p. 307. On Kolderer, see below, p. 317.