Brothers Abel

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The brothers Abel , Bernhard Abel († 1563 ) and Arnold Abel († 1564 ) as sculptors and stonemasons , plus the brother Florian Abel († 1565 ) as painter and draftsman , were in the middle of the 16th century , the time of the Renaissance and of mannerism , active.

Life

The origin, the dates of birth and the career of the members of this Cologne artist family are not yet known. The painter Florian Abel moved to Prague , his two brothers were in Vienna in 1561 . With the contract concluded there on April 28, 1561 for the execution of the long unfinished tomb of Emperor Maximilian I in the Hofkirche in Innsbruck , they entered the Habsburg service. The order comprised twenty-four marble reliefs , was binding for ten years and was extremely generous.

In May 1561 Bernhard and Arnold Abel moved to Innsbruck. Her brother Florian had the task of making the twenty-four relief drawings. In the meantime, Bernhard Abel went to Salzburg for marble extraction , his brother Arnold to Italy for the same purpose and to study antiquity . In December they both returned to Innsbruck. In the meantime the drawings, which adhered to the German Renaissance painting of the time, had arrived there from Prague. These drawings are no longer preserved.

Their work on the tomb was little and relatively poor, the work progressed only slowly, although the Mechelen sculptor Alexander Colin entered the service of the Abel brothers as early as 1562 , and in 1563 the workshop assistants Franz Willems, Hans Ernhofer and Michael von der Vecken mentioned. At her death, three reliefs were completed, only one of which, without further completion by A. Colin, came from the sole hand of the brothers and was entitled Battle of Vicenza .

The completion of the work was then entrusted to the later court sculptor Alexander Colin, who carried out this task until 1567.

A catalog raisonné has not yet been established.

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