Stoss, Veit, << shtohs, fyt >> (1440?-1533), was a German sculptor. His works have a rich, complex appearance. Stoss and the German sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider used a late Gothic style. Both represented Christian themes almost entirely, but Stoss’s sculpture is more dramatic and expressive than Riemenschneider’s quiet, lyrical sculpture.
Stoss was born in Germany. He went to Krakow, Poland, in 1477. There, he worked for 12 years on what is probably his masterpiece, the huge altar for the Church of St. Mary. The stagelike altarpiece is filled with larger than life-sized figures representing episodes from the life of the Virgin Mary. Stoss later settled in Nuremberg, Germany.
