An important Nuremberg mortar
Golden brown cast bronze with shimmering natural patina. Cylindrical form with thick moulded base and rounded stepped rim. The handles finely chased and decorated with animal heads. The centre engraved with a later owner's monogram "H - I - K". H 18.2, D 16.1 cm. Weight c. 6 kg.
Attributed to the Vischer workshop, first half 16th century.
Like the Löffler workshop in Tirol, the Vischer family workshop also cast guns. The Nuremberg based family firm was the largest producer of cast metal products for almost 100 years, with an active career spanning from the mid-15th to the mid-16th century. The most famous member of the family, Peter Vischer, began his career as an apprentice under his father Hermann Vischer in around 1453. He became an independent master in 1489. He is thought to be the first metal caster from whom a contemporary self-portrait exists. The life-sized full-length bronze portrait can be found in a niche of the tomb of St. Sebald in St. Sebald's church in Nuremberg. The work testifies both to his status as a high-ranking citizen of Nuremberg as well as to his position as an outstanding artist and craftsman. This mortar fulfils all the quality criteria allowing it to be attributed to this workshop.
Literature
Cf. Jantzen, Bronzemörser, in: Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, Nuremberg 1968, p. 27 - 34, p. 28 illus. 8.