Panorama of the Market Square

This is one of eight
panels that together provide an all-around view of Nuremberg's Market Square,
seen from an elevated vantage point. Since the subject matter usually overlaps
from one panel to the next, these may be preparatory studies for a panoramic
painting, or simply studies in perspective. Stylistically they can be dated to
the first third of the 19th century. But their vantage point provides more
precise evidence of the date of their origination: the painter must have been
sitting more or less at the top of the Schöner Brunnen – which was possible
only between 1821 and 1824, when the fountain was enclosed in scaffolding.

A conspicuous feature is
the "Colonnades," three rows of permanent market stalls surrounding
the square on three sides. They had been built in 1811 to plans by Carl Haller
von Hallerstein. Managing how to show these structures in perspective is one of
the artist's main concerns. The panels' perspective creates a consistent
impression; the streets and squares are enlivened with a generous assortment of
active figures, and the painter makes an effort to lend atmosphere to the scene
with sunlight streaming in from one side. Nevertheless, everything has a rather
middle-brow, stiff, laid-on quality; the coloring seems pallid and rather
bleached out, as though the panels had been exposed too long to the sun. Some
areas have been pasted over and repainted.