Anton Woensam

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Anton Woensam , also Anton von Worms , (* shortly before 1500 in Worms , † 1541 in Cologne ) was a German painter , wood cutter , graphic artist and book illustrator .

Anton Woensam - Large View of Cologne, 1531 (detail)

family

Father Jaspar (or Caspar) Woensam (* in Worms, † between 1547 and 1550 in Cologne) had already lived in Cologne since 1510, since on July 10, 1510, according to the shrine books, he and his wife Elssgyn (“Elschen”, Elisabeth) shared the house “zum Scherfgyn ”An der Sandkaul (“ up der Sandkuylen ”). According to the citizens' registration book of the wine school, he became a citizen of Cologne in 1513. At this point in time, his only son from his first marriage, Anton Woensam, was probably not of age, which is why he must have been born shortly before 1500. Anton Woensam was probably born in Worms and first presented wood carvings for letterpress printing in Cologne in 1517. Anton Woensam married Geyrtgin (Margaretha) Doenwalt from Cologne before 1528, who inherited part of the parents' house at the Drachenpforte on October 20, 1528. The son Jaspar and two daughters emerged from the marriage.

Creative time

Woodcut - Charlemagne and Charles V (1521)

The first work is likely to be 15 sheet-sized woodcuts that Eucharius Cervicornus (Gottfried Hirtzhorn) published by him in Cologne in 1517. He also illustrated the collection "De vita & moribus summorum pontificium historia ..." ("Life, customs and history of the highest clergy ...") from 1518 by Bartholomeo Sacchi de Platina . From 1520 he studied the works of Ambrosius Holbein , Albrecht Dürer and Urs Graf the Elder . In 1520 he designed the Gereon Altar made of oak with the dimensions 134 × 176 cm. Between 1520 and 1540 hardly a book appeared in Cologne without Anton Woensam's illustrations. In 1525 the woodcut “Das Pfingstfest” was published by Hieronymus Fuchs, in the same year the picture of the “wise woman” printed by Wolfgang Resch was attributed to him. A collaboration with the Cologne publisher Arnold Birckman (n) probably began in 1526. In that year Woensam designed publishing signs for his brother and bookseller Franz Birckman (n), and in 1529 for Hieronymus Fuchs. Anton Woensam has only been documented as "pictor Antonius de Vormacia" since 1528. It was a Latin, German and Low German version of the "Pronosticatio" (astrological prediction of the three estates up to 1576) by Johannes Lichtenberger , Anton Woensam with woodcuts, published in 1528 by the Cologne book printer and publisher Peter Quentell (son of the famous Heinrich Quentell ) adorned.

His woodcuts also found their way into biblical works. Hieronymus Emser's Catholic translation of the Bible of the “ Vulgate ” of the New Testament from 1527/1528 was published by Peter Quentell; The Folio Bible Worms Bible , printed by Peter Schöffer the Younger in Worms in 1529, is illustrated with 46 woodcuts by Woensam, most of which can already be found in the Latin and German Bible editions published by Peter Quentell in Cologne in 1527 and 1528. Schöffer borrowed the wooden sticks from Cologne for this, a common practice at that time. Schöffer's edition was the first Protestant full Bible in German - even before the Zurich Bible of 1531 and the Luther Bible of 1534. In 1530 Woensam brought the altar painting "Bishop Severin with the model of the church" with St. Severin of Cologne and the model of the church from St. Severin out.

Cologne city view from 1531

In that year 1530, at the latest, he must have begun preparations for his main work, the Cologne cityscape from 1531 . The "Great View of Cologne" is a monumental, extra-wide and detailed illustration of the buildings in Cologne at that time as a panorama picture on a woodcut , consisting of nine sheets joined together. It provides a vivid idea of ​​the structural form of the late medieval Rhine panorama with its over 16 gates and several defensive towers in Cologne's old town . On January 5, 1531, Woensam's publisher Peter Quentell presented Woensam's Cologne cityscape from 1531 as a gift on the occasion of Ferdinand I's election as Roman-German king in Cologne. Woensam insisted on immortalizing the Quentell publishing house in his cityscape. The monumental dimensions of the work (59.2 × 352.6 cm) and the quality make the panorama the best known and most important of its kind and time. Johann Jakob Merlo made Woensam's work more generally accessible through a replica.

Cooperation with book printers

There was no shortage of printers and publishers in Cologne at that time. With 19 workshops, Cologne advanced to become the largest printing location in Germany in the 16th century. Woensam worked for most of these Cologne book printers. for example for the officers Anton von Aich, Jasper von Gennep , Servatius Kruffter or Johannes Soter. Woensam supplied these print shops with a large number of neat and carefully crafted, calligraphically rounded illustrations and book ornaments. He also worked for Arnold Brinckmann, who in 1530 had taken over the publishing and printing works of his late brother Franz. According to Merlo, Anton Woensam also designed a signet for the Cologne book printer Melchior von Neuss in 1537.

Other works (selection)

  • Anton Woensam - Allegory of the Wise Woman (1525)

  • Anton Woensam - "Bishop Severin with the model of the church" (1530)

  • Anton Woensam - The Cologne Charterhouse in the Cologne City Panorama (1531)

  • Anton Woensam - Dionysius the Carthusian , published in 1532 in Enchiridion Sacerdotum by the Carthusian Prior Peter Blomevenna of Cologne

  • Anton Woensam - devotional picture Peter Blommeveen, Prior (1507 to 1536) of the Cologne Charterhouse (1535)

  • Anton Woensam - Christ on the Cross (1535)

  • Anton Woensam - Members of the Holy Kinship (1540)

In 1531, Woensam published 56 colored woodcuts in the book "Rosarium mysticum animae fidelis". In 1532 he created 26 small and one large woodcut especially for one book. In 1532 he furnished Dionysius Carthusius' work “Opera Minora” with the sheet “The Holy Family”. He produced extensive works between 1532 and 1534 on behalf of the Cologne Charterhouse . In 1533 a series of Woensam's works was published by Peter Quentell. In 1534 he published Johann Dietenberger's translation of the Bible, again adorned with Woensam's woodcuts. The most characteristic picture for Woensam is the "Christ on the Cross" from 1535. One of the last works is probably the oil painting on oak wood "Members of the Holy Kinship" from 1540.

Anton Woensam did not survive his father and probably died relatively young of the plague in 1541; because on October 25, 1541 his inheritance was taken over. His wife lived until 1561 because the daughters inherited their parents' house on July 9, 1561, "zum Scherffgyn up der Sandkulen"; on August 23, 1561 the house at the Drachenpforte passed to the daughters, who also own the house "zum Roessgyn ”On Hohe Straße 86 (then“ Unter Wappensticker ”). Anton Woensam made a total of 549 woodcuts and 39 paintings assigned to him, mostly published by the Cologne book printer Peter Quentell. He was one of the best graphic artists of his time and mainly made woodcuts; his works mostly contained Christian motifs. Typical for Woensam are putti holding garlands on baluster columns , as is the case in the Cologne cityscape.

Honor

Anton Woensam was honored with the naming of a street in the Cologne district of Lindenthal .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Anton Woensam  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Jakob Merlo: Anton Woensam von Worms: His life and his works , 1864, p. 2 ff.
  2. ^ Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, Role Model Dürer , 1978, p. 26
  3. ↑ Georg Kaspar Nagler / Andreas Andresen / C. Claus, Die Monogrammisten , 1858, p. 661
  4. ^ Ernst Arthur Seemann , Journal for Book Lovers , Volume 7, 1903, p. 496
  5. ^ Ernst Ulmann, German painting, graphics, arts and crafts 1470-1550 , 1985, p. 138
  6. ↑ a b Anton Pustet, Studies and Communications on the History of the Benedictine Order and its Branches , 2007, p. 249
  7. ↑ Heike Talkenberger, Deluge: Prophetie und Zeitgeschehen in texts and woodcuts , 1990, p. 59
  8. ^ Ferdinand Wilhelm Emil Roth, Die Buchdruckereien zu Worms am Rhein in the 16th Century , 2013, p. 20
  9. ^ Paul Wietzorek, Das Historische Köln , 2006, p. 66
  10. ↑ Ludwig Röhrscheid, Annalen es Historischen Verein für den Niederrhein , Edition 50, 1890, p. 78
  11. ↑ Hartmut Harthausen, The Cologne book printer Heinrich von Neuss , 1970, p. 31
  12. ↑ Paul Kristeller, Kurpschnitt und Holzschnitt in Vier Jahrhundert, 2012, p. 232
  13. ^ Gustav Ebe, The German Cicerone: Painting German Schools , 1898, p. 207
  14. ↑ the father died between 1547 and 1550, because Bartholomäus Bruyn the Elder replaced Jaspar Woensam in the city council in 1550
  15. ↑ Johann Jakob Merlo: Anton Woensam von Worms: His life and his works , 1864, p. 5
  16. ^ Frank Günter Zehnder, Gothic painting in Cologne: Altkölner Bilder 1300-1550 , 1989, p. 86
  17. ↑ Lutz Philipp Günther, The Pictorial Representation of German Cities: From the Chronicles of the Early Modern Times to the Websites of the Present , 2009, p. 51
  18. ↑ Rosemarie Aulinger, Das Bild des Reichstag in the 16th Century, 1980 , p. 76
  19. ↑ Konrad Adenauer and Volker Gröbe: Streets and squares in Lindenthal , JP Bachem, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7616-1018-1 , p. 168ff.
personal data
SURNAME Woensam, Anton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Woensam von Worms, Anton; from Worms, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, wood cutter, graphic artist and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH before 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Worms
DATE OF DEATH 1541
Place of death Cologne