Gate of Honor of Maximilian I.

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The honor gate of Emperor Maximilian I.
detail

The Triumphal Arch of Maximilian I was a monumental woodcuts, the Emperor Maximilian to the staging of his imperial and imperial idea was to 1,512 in order. The first edition was published in 1517 while the emperor was still alive, the second edition in 1526, seven years after his death.

The picture is one of the largest prints ever produced. It measures 295 × 357 cm and was intended to be mounted on walls in town halls and princely palaces and, if necessary, hand-colored.

layout

Maximilian had been working on the idea of ​​a gate of honor , based on the ancient triumphal arch of the Caesars, since 1505. Jörg Kölderer provided the preliminary work . A monumental display wall was planned, a giant woodcut that was to be printed from 192 individual printing blocks. In 1512 he gave the order to Albrecht Dürer , who, together with other artists, created the templates for the individual images, which were cut into wood by the Nuremberg form cutter Hieronymus Andreae . The font design is the Nuremberg write master Johann Neudörffer d. Ä. attributed to; it shows for the first time a fracture cut in wood .

publication

The year 1515 can be found on two printing blocks. It dates the completion of the design - except for the 24th printing block, which was supposed to show Maximilian's grave and which remained empty. The printing blocks were cut in wood by Hieronymus Andreae and his assistants from 1515 to 1517. In the first edition, around 700 copies were printed between 1517 and 1518 and distributed as gifts mainly to the cities and princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Copies of this first edition are available in the British Museum , the Albertina in Vienna and museums in Berlin, Copenhagen and Prague.

Archduke Ferdinand , Maximilian's grandson and later successor as Emperor, authorized the printing of a second edition from 1526 to 1528. A third edition was published in 1559 by his son Karl .

meaning

The gigantic decoration program of the Ehrenpforte rounded off Maximilian's idea of ​​staging his imperial dignity with the help of the new art of printing, albeit incomplete. With his two autobiographical publications, the Weißkunig and the Theuerdank , for the editions of which he had hired printers and artists of the highest order, he showed himself to be a decisive promoter of this new art; Unlike the ancient models, he did not see his triumph carved in stone, but in a monumental, printed brochure .

Triumphal procession

In addition to the Ehrenpforte , another monumental print, a 54-meter-long triumphal procession , was designed. 210 woodcuts of around 41 × 37 cm were planned. The cut of the triumphal procession was not continued after Maximilian's death in 1519 and therefore remained unfinished.

The conception of the triumphal procession was made by Johannes Stabius in 1512. Large parts of the work were carried out by Hans Burgkmair the Elder. Ä. who designed 67 printing blocks. Other artists were Albrecht Altdorfer (38 printing blocks), Hans Springinklee (20), Leonhard Beck (7), Hans Schäufelin (2), Wolf Huber (2) and Albrecht Dürer (2). Jost de Negker led a working group of form cutters, including Hieronymus Andreae , Cornelis Liefrinck and Willem Liefrinck . They made 137 wooden sticks between 1516 and 1519.

In 1526, on behalf of Archduke Ferdinand, 200 copies of the 137 completed wooden sticks were printed for the first time. The triumphal procession was intended to serve as a mural, but it could also be bound as a book and copies treated in this way have survived to this day. Second and further editions of the triumphal procession were made from 1777.

Triumphal chariot

As a central element of the triumphal one was chariot conceptualized. In the first drafts that Albrecht Dürer made for this car, it was still relatively small. A watercolor drawing from 1518 shows a much more ornate version of the car. After Maximilian's death, Dürer published the completed triumphal chariot as a separate print in 1522 with an accompanying German text by Willibald Pirckheimer . A second edition from 1523 contains Latin text; further editions followed.

The triumphal chariot measures approximately 46 × 240 cm and consists of 8 printing blocks.

Albrecht Dürer - The Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I (The Great Triumphal Car) (plate 1 of 8) .jpg Albrecht Dürer - The Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I (The Great Triumphal Car) (plate 2 of 8) .jpg Albrecht Dürer - The Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I (The Great Triumphal Car) (plate 3 of 8) .jpg Albrecht Dürer - The Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I (The Great Triumphal Car) (plate 4 of 8) .jpg Albrecht Dürer - The Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I (The Great Triumphal Car) (plate 5 of 8) .jpg Albrecht Dürer - The Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I (The Great Triumphal Car) (plate 6 of 8) .jpg Albrecht Dürer - The Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I (The Great Triumphal Car) (plate 7 of 8) .jpg Albrecht Dürer - The Triumphal Chariot of Maximilian I (The Great Triumphal Car) (plate 8 of 8) .jpg

literature

  • Fritz Funke: Book customer. An overview of the history of books and writing. 3rd, unchanged edition. Verlag Documentation, Munich-Pullach 1969, p. 105.
  • Sven Lüken: Emperor Maximilian I and his gate of honor. In: Journal for Art History . Vol. 61, H. 4, 1998, pp. 449-490, doi : 10.2307 / 1482939 .
  • Thomas Ulrich Schauerte: The gate of honor for Emperor Maximilian I. Dürer and Altdorfer in the service of the ruler (= art studies. Vol. 95). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich et al. 2001, ISBN 3-422-06331-5 .
  • Mathias F. Müller: The Arch of Honor of Emperor Maximilian I. Style and content. In: Our new town. Papers of the Wiener Neustädter Monument Protection Association. Vol. 55, No. 1/2, 2011, ZDB -ID 2526505-2 , pp. 1-11.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Funke: Book customer. 1969, p. 105.
  2. ↑ Graz University Library: Maximilian I's triumphal procession (accessed on April 8, 2018)

Web links

Commons : Ehrenpforte Maximilians I.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files