Faience tiled stove (Isny im Allgäu)
The faience tiled stove from 1685 is located in the historic meeting room of the town hall of Isny , a former imperial town that is now part of the Ravensburg district of Baden-Württemberg . It is one of the few preserved Winterthur tiled stoves from the 17th and 18th centuries that go back to the stove-building dynasty of the Pfau family . It is also unique because it has remained unchanged in the same place since it was built. In the patrician house - the building was only bought by the city in 1733 and later used as the town hall - he gives insights into the values of a Christian merchant with his motto tiles.
history
Furnace from Winterthur
Inspired by the Italian majolica technique, faience ovens first appeared in South Tyrol in the 16th century and soon also north of the Alps. They were not composed of relief tiles, but of tiles with a smooth surface. A white tin glaze served as the painting base - and enabled visual representations that were no longer tied to tile formats. These painted stoves only experienced their true heyday later: Above all, the Swiss stove builders , also known as Hafner, delivered masterfully painted faience stoves in the 17th and 18th centuries. The famous specimens from Winterthur or Steckborn adorned some of the state rooms in castles and monasteries.
In the years 1682 to 1687, the patrician house , which had existed since the late Middle Ages , was rebuilt by Johannes Albrecht, one of the last great Isny merchants, and decorated in the early Baroque style. The chimney tower stove from Winterthur was installed in the ballroom on the 2nd floor , as Johannes Albrecht had ties to Switzerland and was familiar with these faience tiled stoves. It comes from the Winterthur stoner Abraham Pfau, a descendant of the first famous Winterthur stoner Ludwig Pfau . There in the town hall of Isny it has remained unchanged, because the oven of a rich citizen became the oven in the festival and meeting room of the imperial city citizens .
The furnace was dismantled during the renovation of the town hall
In the 1970s, a town hall renovation had become inevitable. That is why the tiled stove had to be dismantled and stored in individual parts. It was a chance for the stove to be completely overhauled and the missing tiles to be added. These used to be removed from the furnace tower so that the air could circulate better when heating. They were reworked by ceramist Traudl Fleiner based on models from Winterthur, the text tiles were made by Gustl Halter.
Representations of the picture tiles
Emblematic of the baroque period
The tiled stove is an example of the emblematic character of the Baroque period, when this art form of the "emblem" was very popular. Back then, an emblem consisted of three parts:
- An image (Icon, Imago, Pictura) that points beyond what can be seen.
- A quotation (lemma), mostly in Latin, often shortened to the point of mystery,
- A poetic text (Subscriptio), with mostly instructive knowledge.
At the time it was a game of clever, educated people. It was an artificial wave in which many things varied and familiar details were placed in new contexts.
Example: Jacob's blessing stealth
The well-known scene from the Old Testament, Genesis 27, 19–30 is shown in this picture tile .
Above it is the Latin quote (lemma): "Postremus fit primus" (It means: the last will be the first)
Below is the text tile with the five-line liner:
Jacob bequeaths his hands with furs
doing for Esau:
gets the blessing from his father
because Esau wants to kill a game.
God always grants the pious.
The interpretation of the event, which is also given here by the fifth verse, leaves no doubt that Jacob, despite his trickery, is the chosen one who is favored by God. One can assume that the customer of the stove, the Christian merchant Albrecht, had an interest in a message of this kind: "If you are a 'devout', you can take risks."
Image, text and decorative tiles
The stove has a large number of picture and slogan tiles. Each part of the stove is still decorated with decorative tiles, on the stove feet there are men's heads, at the top in the wreath of the tower there are women's faces, there are still fruits of all kinds. In the middle of the stove tower is a large wreath tile with the double coat of arms of the Albrecht couple and the year 1685. A small tile with the badly written inscription “Abraham Pfauw, Haffner zu Windtertur, 1685” is available elsewhere.
The 50 text and picture tiles are emblematically assigned to one another in such a way that their interpretation gives an insight into the values of a Christian merchant of the time. This Albrecht feels equally committed to his conscience and business success, and he flirts with his classical education. Knowledge of the Bible is a prerequisite for all normal Christians at this time.
The focus is on the biblical figure of the Patriarch Jacob , to whom part of the tiles is dedicated. Although he is very tricky, he is still favored by God. Anyone who closely examines the Jacob's pictures and texts, but also the allegorical figures and the associated quatrains on the Isny tiled stove, will recognize the timelessness of the facts presented.
The other side of the stove
The tower of the furnace
Image tile with the lemma "Si Quiescat"
Picture tile with "Jacob's wrestling match with the angel"
Picture tile with squirrel and lemma "Latet abdita" (the hidden is hidden)
Cultural monument
The partly three- and partly four-storey town hall with solid masonry and plastered full storeys, which is located in the corner of Espantorstrasse, has grown together from three former patrician houses. Inside there is a rich interior with paneling and stucco . The northern, higher part of the building was bought by the city in 1733 and set up as a town hall. In it is the Winterthur fireplace.
The building complex, which survived the city fire of 1631, is an important testimony to the history of Isny as a town hall. There is a special public interest in the preservation of the property for scientific, artistic and local history reasons.
It is protected according to § 28 DSchG of Baden-Württemberg, the equipment and thus the furnace are protected accordingly.
literature
- Gerhard Weisgerber, Heinz Bucher (photographer): The faience tiled stove in Isny town hall: pictures on ceramics - wisdom for life. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2013, ISBN 978-3-89870-853-1 .
- Charlotte Pfitzer: The Winterthur tiled stove in Isny. On the iconography and template practice of a baroque faience tiled stove. (Master's thesis, text volume and illustration volume). Tübingen (without publisher) 2005
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bettina Vaupel: Much play about fire. A short cultural history of the tiled stove. In: Monuments, magazine for monument culture in Germany, April 2007.
- ^ Gerhard Weisgerber, Heinz Bucher: The faience tiled stove in Isny town hall. Images on ceramics - wisdom for life. Kunstverlag Josef Fink: Lindenberg im Allgäu. Pp. 10/11
- ↑ Gerhard Weisgerber, Heinz Bucher: The faience tiled stove in the Isny town hall: Images on ceramics - wisdom for life. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2013, pp. 80–83