Veit Stoss and the origins of collecting of small-scale sculpture before 1500

According to publications on German small-scale sculpture of about 1500, this class of autonomous modestly sized sculpture emerged only in about 1510 and flourished in the 1520s, heavily influenced by the Italianate style. In the present article, the author argues that in Strasbourg, Ulm and Krakow the production of scaled-down sculpture, acquired for its artistic qualities, seems to have its roots in the second half of the fifteenth century.