Cornelis Floris II.

Cornelis Floris de Vriendt (* 1514 in Antwerp ; † October 20, 1575 there ) was a Flemish sculptor, architect and designer for the ornamental engraving . Together with his brother Frans Floris , he played a key role in the development of the Nordic Renaissance .

life and work

Kontor House of the Hanse in Antwerp

Cornelis Floris became master of the Guild of St. Luke in 1538 . After spending several years in Italy, he brought the grotesque (ornament) back with him as a decorative element, which he popularized through various publications for prints, painting, sculpture and architecture. In 1549 he received his first design commissions, namely for the wall graves of the Duchesses Dorothea and Anna Maria of Prussia in the Königsberg Cathedral . Later he created the wall grave for Duke Albrecht there . In Schleswig Cathedral he made from 1550 to 1552, the cenotaph of King Frederick I of Denmark in strict Renaissance Liegebetfigur and moderate decoration, a masterpiece of the genre free graves. The tomb for King Christian III. of Denmark in Roskilde , with its strictly architectural structure, became the model for the German and Nordic hall graves of the subsequent period. In addition, several tabernacles , in which he combined the multi-story Gothic tower structure with Renaissance elements (e.g. in St. Leonardus in Léau ), and rood screens (e.g. in the cathedral in Tournai ) come from his workshop.

When Antwerp announced a competition for a new town hall in 1560, Cornelis Floris prevailed with a design that composed a Gothic gabled house as a risalit in a Florentine palazzo facade. On the ground floor rusticated , the main floor strict pilasters , over balustrades loggia , wreath cornice and gable roof . The plastic decoration ( herms , obelisks ) is limited to the gable. With this town hall, Floris created the type that is authoritative for the whole of the Netherlands. The house built for his brother Frans has not been preserved, nor is the house of the Osterlinge in Antwerp (burnt down in 1893) that he built for the Flanders drivers of the Hanseatic League under Syndic Heinrich Sudermann as the successor to the Hanseatic Office in Bruges .

Floris style

In the course of the development of Cornelis Floris, the architectural element gains more and more the upper hand over the decorative, and the combination of all existing elements creates a new, universal decorative style that strives for the highest overall and individual effect. The Floris style became a collective term that includes numerous artist names. It is understood to mean all elements of the Dutch High Renaissance in the second half of the 16th century, especially rolling and fittings . Cornelis Floris' "Pupils and successors spread this style not only in the Netherlands, but also to Denmark and over the coastal countries of the Baltic Sea, northern Germany, right into southern Germany." B. also the Edo-Wiemken monument in Jever and the elegant renaissance pavilion of the Cologne town hall on the influence of his workshop as well as the grave monument created by Peter Osten, a nephew of Joris Robijn and Jan Robijn (Robin), for Sebastian Echter von Mespelbrunn im Wurzburg Cathedral .

Works

Tomb of King Christian III. of Denmark in Roskilde Cathedral
Cenotaph of King Frederick I of Denmark in the Schleswig Cathedral
Rood screen of the cathedral in Tournai (Belgium)
The grave of Charles the Bold in the Church of Our Lady in Bruges (Belgium)

literature

Bernd Curt Kreplin : Floris, Cornelis II . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 12 : Fiori-Fyt . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1916, p. 122–123 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
Robert Hedicke: Cornelis Floris and the Floris decoration. Studies of Dutch and German art in the XVI. Century . Bard, Berlin 1913. 2 volumes.

Web links

Commons : Cornelis Floris - collection of images, videos and audio files

Grotesques by Cornelis Floris in the Museumsberg Flensburg

Individual evidence

↑ Bernd Curt Kreplin: Floris, Cornelis II . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 12 : Fiori-Fyt . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1916, p. 123 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
↑ Stefan Kummer : Architecture and fine arts from the beginnings of the Renaissance to the end of the Baroque. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes; Volume 2: From the Peasants' War in 1525 to the transition to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1814. Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1477-8 , pp. 576–678 and 942–952, here: pp. 597–599.

personal data
SURNAME	Floris, Cornelis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Floris de Vriendt, Cornelis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Flemish architect and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH	1514
PLACE OF BIRTH	Antwerp
DATE OF DEATH	October 20, 1575
Place of death	Antwerp

[1] Bernd Curt Kreplin: Floris, Cornelis II . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 12 : Fiori-Fyt . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1916, p. 123 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

[2] Stefan Kummer : Architecture and fine arts from the beginnings of the Renaissance to the end of the Baroque. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes; Volume 2: From the Peasants' War in 1525 to the transition to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1814. Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1477-8 , pp. 576–678 and 942–952, here: pp. 597–599.