Nürnberg Als Kunstzentrum Des Heiligen Römischen Reiches

In 3 , Emperor Charles IV called Nuremberg the "noblest city in the empire", having long since chosen the free imperial city as his second residence after Prague, capital of Bohemia. He had successfully integrated the city's elites into his plans and made use of their economic ambitions. Members of the great Nuremberg families had dependencies in Prague or held ecclesiastical benefices and court offices. Jirí Fajt delves into this web of relationships to explore the imperial influence on Nuremberg's artistic production. Charles IV employed Sebald Weinschröter, a court painter whose workshop also supplied the needs of those families who saw themselves as close to the emperor and sought to express this affinity by means of artistic representation. The extensive trade contacts of the people of Nuremberg are indirectly reflected in the city's influential artistic style, which reveals Italian and Franco-Flemish influences. Reading this study, it can be concluded that Nuremberg under Charles IV can no longer be regarded as a Bohemian province of art.