UNKNOWN GOLDSMITH, German
(active 1500s in Nuremberg)

Schlüsselfelder Ship

1503
Partially gilded silver, height 79 cm
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg

In the 16th century, like nobles, patricians and wealthy merchants commissioned sumptuous cups, dishes and table fountains. Goldsmiths were among the best-paid and most highly esteemed artists of the day, a status rarely accorded to them by modern art historians. In Nuremberg goldsmiths, unlike painters, were vital to the city's economic prosperity.

Goldsmiths' creations could be wonderfully inventive, like the Schlüsselfelder Ship made for a Nuremberg patrician in 1503. The intricate, three-masted sailing ship balances on a siren or mermaid with two tails. Seventy-four surviving figurines enliven the vessel. The amazing detail of this ship is intended to impress the viewer, who might be a dinner guest. It is also a functional wine container with a capacity of 2,33 litre.

The piece, an astonishingly faithful depiction of a type of merchant ship known as a carrack, may be the work of Albrecht Dürer the Elder, father of the famous painter. It is probably based on an engraving.