Bremen Town Hall (Rathaus): The spiral staircase depicts good and evil.
Of particular impressiveness is the artistic fashioning of the freestanding staircase. Its centre post is crowned by Hercules,depicted at the end of the steeper climb (on the inner edges of the the steps) as a paragon of virtue, while the less strenuous outer route ends with an image of Voluptas. The railing exhibits not only soldiers after the series by Jacques de Gheyn, but also allegorical depictions of the planet gods, the senses and the virtues.The visitor’s gaze is attracted no less by the magnificent ornamental portal, whose focal centre is the alabaster depiction of
the Roman knight Marcus Curtius’ sacrificial death, a subject with which the city calls for selfless devotion to one’s fatherland.Warriors flank this chief element of the portal, whose frame is crowned by a coat of arms displaying a key and borne by lions as well as, over it, like a Madonna victrix, the figure of Justice.The work is framed by extremely sumptuous ornamentation
featuring “gnarled” forms in the style of Wendel Dietterlin.