Georg Hoefnagel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Garden with two nymphs, 1579

Georg Hoefnagel ( Dutch also Joris Hoefnagel , * 1542 in Antwerp , † September 9, 1600 in Vienna ) was a Flemish miniature painter and illuminator or illuminator .

Life

Georg (Joris) Hoefnagel was the son of the diamond dealer Jacob Hoefnagel and his wife Elisabeth Vezelaer, daughter of the Antwerp mint master Joris Vezelaer. He received a comprehensive humanistic education from his wealthy parents , spoke several languages ​​such as German, Latin, Italian, French and Spanish in addition to his mother tongue, Flemish, and attended the universities of Bourges and Orléans . In his youth he mainly worked as a businessman for the family business and made trips to France (1561), to Spain (1563 to 1567) - there he made his first landscape drawings, to England (1568–1571). In one of his works he described himself as autodidact, although he received his first artistic lessons from Hans Bol , probably during his time in Antwerp (1570 to 1576), where in 1572 Hans Bol fled from the Spanish. In 1571 Joris Hoefnagel married Susanne van Oncken, who gave birth to his son Jacob in 1573. He completed an apprenticeship as a painter in Antwerp, met the famous copper engraver Raphael Sa (e) deler (Sadeleer) the Elder (1560/61 to around 1628) and later went to Frankfurt am Main to work closely with his father on his drawings in copper to prick ( Archetypa studiaque patris Georgii Hoefnageli ( Archetypes and studies of the father Georg Hoefnagel ) 1592).

After the capture of Antwerp by the Spanish troops as a result of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) in 1576, in which the entire family fortune fell victim to the looting, Georg Hoefnagel left his hometown and traveled along the Rhine in 1577, accompanied by the cartographer Abraham Ortelius Augsburg and Munich to Venice and Rome . From then on I only worked as an artist. On this trip he made a drawing of the Rhine Valley, rediscovered only a few years ago, with a view from Andernach to Leutesdorf and Hammerstein with the castle of the same name, which also shows the Andernach Rhine crane, almost twenty years old in 1577, still with a bell-shaped roof (title: Prospectus Aldernachÿ secondo Rheno / 1577 / , signature lower right: "Georg Hoefnagl" - view from Andernach downstream). Hans Fugger , whom he met in Augsburg, recommended him to Albert V , Duke of Bavaria , who was impressed by Hoefnagel's miniatures and promised him a position as court painter. In Rome he was introduced to the circle of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese . Thanks to his special ability to paint miniatures, the cardinal offered him the vacant position of the late miniaturist Giulio Clovio in 1578 , but Hoefnagel preferred to take up the position at the ducal court in Munich. For about eight years Hoefnagel lived and worked there at the court of the Bavarian dukes Albert V and Wilhelm V. At times he worked in Innsbruck at the court of Archduke Ferdinand II. As a devout Calvinist , he had to leave Munich in 1590. He then went to Prague to the imperial court of Rudolf II , for whom he carried out various works, some of which have survived illuminated books and miniatures. In 1591 he moved to the free imperial city of Frankfurt a. M. and was associated with a circle of Flemish humanists , merchants, artists and publishers. In 1594 he was undesirable there for reasons of faith and worked in the last years of his life in Prague, Hungary and Vienna , where he died on September 9, 1600. His sister was Susanna Hoefnagel, the mother and grandmother of Constantijn Huygens and Christiaan Huygens .

Act

Georg Hoefnagel stood artistically in the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, mastered various drawing and cartography techniques as well as painting such as gouache and oil painting. He was the first painter to create detailed, true-to-life colored drawings of animals and plants (natura mortua - dead nature). To do this, he used a magnifying glass to work out the subtleties. In addition to the fine arts, he played various musical instruments.

Hoefnagel's most important work in Prague is considered to be one that shows more than 1300 images from the three realms of nature (earth, air, water) in four small quarto volumes on 227 sheets. This miniature is still characterized today by its true nature and color appeal.

Even more splendid is the Roman Missal (in the court library in Vienna ) painted for Archduke Ferdinand II , which he was busy with for eight years. Another masterpiece is the richly framed miniature “View of Seville” in the Royal Library in Brussels. Hoefnagel also played a major role as an illustrator for Georg Braun's City Views and Abraham Ortelius ' Welttheater .

Works (selection)

  • Garden with two nymphs. 1579, parchment, 240 × 180 mm.
  • Granata (Granada). 1565, parchment, 360 × 500 mm. Vienna, Albertina Graphic Collection.
  • Grotesque with a bat. 1595, parchment, 180 × 520 mm. Vienna, Albertina Graphic Collection.
  • Grotesque with a sword herm. Parchment, 170 × 130 mm. Vienna, Albertina Graphic Collection.
  • Roman Missal. 1581–90, miniatures, each 395 × 281 mm. Vienna, Austrian National Library. (Cod. 1784).
  • Typeface book of Georg Bocskay. (119 sheets of parchment), 1591–1594, parchment.

literature

Web links

Commons : Joris Hoefnagel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short biography of Joris Hoefnagels
  2. ^ Th. Wilberg Vignau-Schuurman: The emblematic elements in the work of Joris Hoefnagels. Volume 1, Leiden 1969, p. 5 with annotations. Year of death 1600, ibid., P. 10 with notes.
  3. ^ Inge Keil: Augustanus Opticus: Johann Wiesel (1583–1662) and 200 years of optical craft in Augsburg. Oldenbourg Akademieverlag, Munich 2000, p. 308.
personal data
SURNAME Hoefnagel, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hufnagel, Georg; Hufnagl, Georg; Hufnagel, Joris; Hufnagel, Jirí; Hofnagel, Jirí; Hoefnagelius, Georgius; Hoefnaghel, George; Hofnagel, George; Hoefnaghel, Joris; Hufnagel, George; Hoefnagels, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Flemish painter
DATE OF BIRTH 1542
PLACE OF BIRTH Antwerp
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1600
Place of death Vienna