Franz Trac

Schnell des Franz Trac with biblical scenes (after 1560)

Franz Trac (* unknown; † 1579 in Siegburg ), also Franz Meler or Frantz Wappenstecher , was an art potter and form cutter for Siegburg stoneware . He was instrumental in introducing the Renaissance style to stoneware production.

Trac worked as a workman in Anno Knütgen 's workshop between 1559 and 1568 . He and his wife Sybille lived in a house that belonged to the Knütgen family.

The signature FT, which is often found in Siegburger Steinzeug in the 1960s, is attributed to Trac and thus to the Knütgen workshop. In the written form F. Trac, the name is only known from a single Schnell in the Hetjens Museum. A ceramic fragment that has not survived today and was found in Deventer in the Netherlands is said to have been given the first name "Franz".

Franz Trac, presumably from Cologne , is one of the most famous form cutters in the Rhineland, along with Christian Knütgen. He brought the High Renaissance style to the Aulgasse and, based on this style, mainly created patrices for high-walled rapids . Up until now, the Siegburg potters had mainly copied originals from Cologne, but Trac was the first to develop new, own decorative elements. The Cologne School, however, remains unmistakable in his work. Characteristic of the Tracs patrices is the originally Cologne technique of using the entire surface of a vessel as space for a uniform image composition.

In his private life, Trac was a bon vivant who had to sit in prison several times for vandalism after going to bars. Anno Knütgen and his brother Peter vouched for him. He died in a hospital in Siegburg in 1579. The pottery made with the help of Trac's artistry helped the Anno Knütgen workshop to increase sales significantly. From 1569 to 1571, Peter Knütgen continued the Annos workshop and took over a number of templates from Franz Trac.

In Siegburg today the Franz-Trac-Weg commemorates the art potter. The path branches off north of Knütgenstrasse in the Aulgasse district.

literature

• Johann Baptist Dornbusch: The art guild of potters in the abteilichen city of Siegburg and their products. With consideration of other important Rhenish pottery branches, especially Raeren, Titfeld, Nendorf, Merols, Frechen, Höhr and Grenzhausen. A contribution to the history of handicrafts on the Lower Rhine . Rheinlandia-Verlag, Siegburg 1986, ISBN 3-925551-00-X , pp. 1–130 (unchanged reprint of the Heberle edition, Cologne 1873).
• Otto von Falke : The Rhenish stoneware . Zeller Verlag, Osnabrück 1977, ISBN 3-535-02416-1 (unchanged reprint of the two-volume edition Berlin 1908).
• Elsa Hähnel (arrangement): Siegburger Steinzeug, vol. 1: inventory catalog (= guides and writings of the Rheinisches Freilichtmuseum and Landesmuseum für Volkskunde in Kommern ; No. 31). Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7927-0894-9 ; P. 69 ff.
• Karl Koetschau : Rhenish stoneware. From the Rhenish stoneware collection in the Hetjens Museum in Düsseldorf . Wolff, Munich 1924. pp. 25-37.
• Gisela Reineking von Bock (arr.): Stoneware. Decorative Arts Museum of the City of Cologne . 3. Edition. Cologne 1986, DNB 870235346 p. 53 ff.
• Otto Treptow: Miscellen to various personalities of the Siegburg Ulner guild in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In: Andrea Korte-Böger, Gisela Hellenkemper Salies : A Siegburg pottery workshop of the Knütgen family. New archaeological and historical research on the Lower Aulgasse. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7927-1223-7 , pp. 103-110.

Remarks

1. ^ Peter Seewaldt: Rheinisches Steinzeug. Inventory catalog of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier . RLT, Trier 1990, ISBN 3-923319-12-6 .
2. ↑ E.g. Seewaldt 1990, catalog no. 317. (Schnelle around 1560); Bock 1986, p. 199. Cat. No. 189 Schnelle 1570-72.
3. ↑ Treptow 1991, p. 106.