Vischer received his training in the casting workshop of his father, Peter Vischer the Elder, who had set up a bronze-casting workshop in Nuremberg after the pattern of the Italian masters. In 1507 he created the first German cast medal, the portrait of his brother Hermann, and in 1509 another with a self-portrait. The influence of Italian Renaissance art was intensified when Vischer travelled to northern Italy around 1512 to 1514. He subsequently worked with members of his father's workshop on the sculptures for the 'Sebaldus Tomb' in Nuremberg. This was followed by commissions for tomb slabs in Lübeck, Würzburg, and Aschaffenburg. In 1527 Vischer was included in the masters list of the city of Nuremberg after producing the tomb of the elector Frederick the Wise in Wittenberg's Schlosskirche. His surviving drawings are mainly preliminary studies for smaller sculptures, also in part text illustrations.
