Peter Fuchs

In 1855 Peter Fuchs returned to Cologne, where he created such large sandstone reliefs and statue groups as the Four Prophets (1858) for the Mariensäule in the Gereonsdriesch and the life-size figures of SS Dionysius and Reinold (1866–1871) for the west front of St. Mauritius.

From 1865 to 1881 he produced some 700 life-size and slightly over-life-size sculptures for Cologne Cathedral, mostly reliefs and seated and standing figures depicting scenes from the Bible and lives of the saints.

Influenced by the Nazarenes, after 1870 Peter Fuchs lengthened his figures and encased them in garments with sharp-edged, graphic folds.

The reliefs and statues of Old and New Testament prophets (1895–1898) from the tympanum and the bronze doors of the west front of Bremen Cathedral, with their attenuated stances and pronounced folds of drapery, show his debt to the figures in Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise (Florence, Mus.

Opera Duomo) and to the sculptures of the Beuron Art School of the last third of the 19th century.