Winged altar of Tyrol Castle

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Front view of the winged altar of Tyrol Castle

The winged altar of Tyrol Castle is considered to be the oldest almost completely preserved winged altar in the Alpine region . It was created in 1370/72 for the St. Pankratius upper chapel of the princely residence Schloss Tirol near Merano . The altar is the work of the Viennese court painter Master Konrad. Its height is 2.49 meters. When the wings are open, it is 2.79 meters wide.

Until 1809 the winged altar was in Tirol Castle. The altar has been in the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck since 1942 . As a masterpiece of Gothic art and a document of Tyrolean regional history, the winged altar of Tyrol Castle has been presented in the Ferdinandeum as a comprehensive research project in a separate exhibition room since February 2017. In the upper chapel of Tyrol Castle, a true-to-original replica created by the artist group Unika from Val Gardena replaces the historic winged altar.

History of the altar

Left outer side of the wing: Austrian coat of arms and founder Leopold III. kneeling with his wife
Right outside of the wing: Tyrolean eagle and founder Albrecht III. kneeling with his wife

Artist and production time

The altar was created in the years 1370/72. The court painter Meister Konrad from Vienna, who lived and worked in Meran at the time, is considered to be its creator. He was first mentioned in documents from 1379 to 1406, mostly as "Konrad in the Tiergarten".

The reason for the order was the end of a conflict between the rulers of Bavaria and Austria at the time. In 1369 Margarete von Tirol , known as "Maultasch", died. As a result, the duchies of Bavaria and Austria ended their dispute over sovereignty over Tyrol in the Treaty of Schärding . Thus the claim of the House of Habsburg was secured. The two Habsburg brothers, Duke Albrecht III. and Duke Leopold III. went on a joint homage trip to Tyrol in 1370 and donated an altar as a gift of thanks. The location of the altar was symbolic: the chapel of Tyrol Castle, the ancestral seat and residence of the Counts of Tyrol . There it served as a house altar and was possibly also carried as a field altar on military campaigns.

19th century

During a visit to Tyrol Castle in 1804, the then castle administration manager Johann Georg von Goldrainer presented the two wings of the altar to Archduke Johann . The Archduke took a liking to the biblical depictions. The heraldic back was then painted red and was only exposed later. In 1809, when Tyrol was part of Bavaria, Goldrainer left the paintings to the High Commissioner von Hormayr in Merano as a present to Archduke Johann, as proof of his “attachment to the Austrian imperial family”. Due to political turmoil, the box with the altar wings could not be sent to Vienna , but was held back by Bavaria . Archduke Johann did not receive the paintings from the painter Johann Anton Klapeer until 1813. On August 4, 1814, Archduke Johann thanked Johann Georg von Goldrainer and announced a restoration.

In October 1826, the Mayor of Merano, Joseph Valentin Haller, had the remaining parts of the winged altar transferred to the new Tyrolean National Museum, the Ferdinandeum, in Innsbruck. He noted that the altar had so far been neglected. The two altar wings came from Vienna in 1827 as a gift from the Archduke to the Ferdinandeum. The altar was probably presented for a short time in what was then the museum in the kk Lyzealgebäude (today Universitätsstrasse).

In 1828 the board of directors of the museum sold him to Wilten Abbey . He subsequently decorated the Church of St. Bartlmä. It was not returned to the Ferdinandeum until 1938. For conservation reasons, Abbot Heinrich Schuler left the "main item of the monastery art collections" to the museum. In the art history collections of the Tyrolean Provincial Museum Ferdinandeum, the altar is now on loan from Wilten Abbey.

Replica of the altar in the chapel of Tyrol Castle

20th century

Under the direction of the conservator Gregor Hurst, the altar was restored from 1939 in the restoration facility of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich . Up until then, the inside had been painted over with oil paintings from the 19th century. The outsides were exposed for the first time. When the restoration work was completed in May 1942, there was fear of heavy air raids on Munich . The conservator Hurst insured the winged altar with the Aachener und Münchener Feuer-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft , Directorate for the Ostmark, regional branch Innsbruck, for 200,000 Reichsmarks for the transport. The return transport should have taken place on May 30, 1942.

In 1978 the altar was to be borrowed from Tyrol Castle for an exhibition on Emperor Charles IV at Nuremberg Castle . However, the restorer of the Bavarian National Museum recommended that the Abbot von Wilten refrain from transporting them because of conservation concerns. According to the new version of the loan agreement between the Premonstratensian Foundation and the museum, further changes of location were also out of the question. The altar remained in Innsbruck after the Tyrolean commemorative year 1984, when Governor Eduard Wallnöfer had a handover to the State of South Tyrol checked. The director of the Ferdinandeum announced:

“The importance of the altar arises from the fact that it was donated by the Habsburgs in 1370/72 as thanks for the acquisition of the whole of Tyrol - not just South Tyrol. It is a historical and artistic document of the first order. The simultaneous document of the acquisition of Tyrol is finally also in the Tyrolean state archive. [...] It is inconceivable that the Federal Monuments Office , which has these works of art and prohibits the export of minor works of art, would approve the export of this central object, as it would lose its credibility. "

The abbot of the monastery also let the South Tyrolean cultural councilor Anton Zelger know that he was not ready to give the altar over the state border to Italy .

After a loan of the altar at Tyrol Castle for the joint Tyrolean state exhibition in 1995 failed again, the Südtiroler Sparkasse Foundation financed a copy of the altar for the castle chapel from 1998 onwards.

description

Left wing of the altar
Right wing of the altar

When open, the altar shows a cycle of the Virgin Mary , beginning with the Annunciation on the upper left wing. The cycle continues on the niche wings with scenes of the Visitation and the birth of Christ , then with the Adoration of the Kings again on the left wing and finally on the right wing with the death and the coronation of Our Lady . There are a total of six altarpieces that tell the life of Mary. In the eyelashes there are busts of Saints Catherine , Ursula , Margarete and Elisabeth . In the empty central niche there was originally a sculpture that has been lost. It formed the center of the winged altar. It is believed that it was a seated Madonna and Child.

Cultural and historical details are also striking, such as an apostle who holds riveted glasses in front of his eyes while reading a book . The representation of this visual aid is one of the oldest in Europe. The decorations on the scenes are also interesting. In the image of the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel floats down with a certificate and seal and announces the birth of her son to Mary, Jesus is already visible as a little boy floating behind a white dove. The pictures tell of the profane life of the people around 1370 in great detail. For example, the patterns of the bed linen from that time are visible, after the birth of Jesus Mary rests on a bed and leans her head on a pillow with a blue and white checkered color pattern. The upper body of Mary is bare, St. Joseph takes a nap at the end of the bed. With the wings closed, the altar shows Mary and John, whose lamenting gestures refer to a three-dimensional crucifix originally hung over the joint . In addition, the donors and their coats of arms as well as donor figures are shown on the outside of the wing. The Habsburg dukes Leopold III. and Albrecht III. with her wives are evidence of the origin of the altar in connection with the connection between Tyrol and the House of Habsburg, which has existed since 1363. The Tyrolean eagle on the right outside of the wing is one of the oldest colored representations of the Tyrolean coat of arms . It served as a model for the coat of arms of South Tyrol, introduced in 1983 .

The research project

Annunciation
Visitation of the Virgin Mary

Basics

In April 2016, the Tyrolean State Museums initiated the "Wing Altar Research Project at Tyrol Castle ". In cooperation with the Austrian Federal Monuments Office , modern art-technological research methods are to be used to gain new insights into the material composition and history of the altar. A good basis for the scientific work on and about the winged altar is the only comprehensive monograph on the altar so far , which was written in 1948 by Vinzenz Oberhammer , the former curator of the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum. Up until 2010, research focused primarily on the biblical and liturgical aspects of the altar, its pictorial program and the eventful history of its provenance . The exploration of the altar takes place in interdisciplinary collaboration between historians, art historians, art technologists and natural scientists.

Goals of the research project

At the beginning of the research project, there was an inventory of the altar in spring 2016. The scientists wanted to find out how the altar was created and what its constructive elements are. X-rays of the object were taken for this purpose . In the next step, a 3D model of the altar was created. It turned out that the whole structure consists of a simple nailed box without structural wooden connections and that the lower profile strips on both sides of the altar shrine were added later. In the next phase, the surface should be examined using UV and high-resolution infrared images in order to learn something about the master's specific painting technique. The scientists use a stereo microscope to examine layers of paint, gilding , silvering and hallmarks . One of the main concerns is to find out what the altar originally looked like. As a conclusion, a concept for the conservation of the sacred work of art is planned, according to which the altar is to be restored and preserved. The experts want to take time for this project phase until 2022. Until then, the Tyrolean State Museum wants to allow visitors, but also interested scientists, to participate in the project. The altar and the work on it are presented in a newly created darkened room. The winged altar stands free in the room and is illuminated so that it can be viewed from all sides.

literature

  • Franz Daxecker : Representations of glasses in Tyrol. In: das Fenster , 58, 1995, pp. 5601-5603
  • Gert Ammann: On the history of the provenance of the altar of Tyrol Castle. In: Publications of the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum. 80/2000, Innsbruck 2000, pp. 57-66 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • Edith Frauscher: The altar of Tyrol Castle. Diploma thesis at the Institute for Art History at the University of Vienna, Vienna 2005.
  • Julia Hörmann-Thurn und Taxis, Wolfgang Meighörner, Mark Mersiowsky: The altar of Tyrol Castle and its back. A mix of new research aspects. In: Wissenschaftliches Jahrbuch der Tiroler Landesmuseen 2011. StudienVerlag, Innsbruck / Wien / Bozen 2011, ISBN 978-3-7065-5135-9 , pp. 72–83 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • Helga Reichart: The altar of Tyrol Castle. Main evidence of late Trecento painting in the Alpine region. In: The Sciliar . 86th year, issue 1, Athesia, Bozen 2012, pp. 42–55.

Web links

Commons : Altar of Tirol Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Highlights of the regional museums: Altar of Tyrol Castle. (No longer available online.) State museums of Austria, archived from the original on March 9, 2016 ; accessed on July 23, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.landesmuseen.at
  2. ↑ Helga Reichart: The Altar of Tyrol Castle , p. 42.
  3. ↑ a b c Altar of Tyrol Castle, around 1370/73. Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, accessed on July 24, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b Helga Reichart: The Altar of Tyrol Castle , p. 45.
  5. ↑ Julia Hörmann-Thurn and Taxis, Wolfgang Meighörner, Mark Mersiowsky: The Altar of Tyrol Castle and its back , p. 73.
  6. ↑ Gert Ammann: On the history of the provenance of the altar of Tyrol Castle , p. 58.
  7. ↑ a b Gert Ammann: On the history of the provenance of the altar in Tyrol Castle , p. 59.
  8. ↑ Gert Ammann: On the history of the provenance of the altar of Tyrol Castle , p. 61.
  9. ↑ Gert Ammann: On the history of the provenance of the altar of Tyrol Castle , p. 64.
  10. ↑ Gert Ammann: On the history of the provenance of the altar of Tyrol Castle , p. 62.
  11. ↑ a b Gert Ammann: On the history of the provenance of the altar of Tyrol Castle , p. 63.
  12. ↑ Gert Ammann: On the history of the provenance of the altar of Tyrol Castle , p. 64/65.
  13. ↑ Gert Ammann: On the history of the provenance of the altar of Tyrol Castle , p. 66.
  14. ↑ Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol: the coat of arms
  15. ^ Altar of Tirol Castle, the project. tiroler-landesmuseen.at, accessed on July 24, 2017 .
  16. ^ Vinzenz Oberhammer: The altar from Castle Tyrol . Tyroliaverlag, Innsbruck, Vienna 1948.
  17. ↑ Altar of Tyrol Castle can be seen again in the Ferdinandeum. findART, accessed on July 24, 2017 .