Grave monument for Duke Albrecht

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Grave monument for Duke Albrecht in Königsberg Cathedral, late 19th century.

The grave monument for Duke Albrecht is a grave monument of the state founder Duke Albrecht of Prussia in the Königsberg Cathedral .

location

It is located in a reconstructed form on the entire east wall of the Königsberg Cathedral.

history

The work of art was started in Antwerp while the duke was still alive and completed two years after his death. Duke Albrecht died in 1568. The work of art bears the inscription "1570". It was erected between 1571 and 1572. The memorial survived the Second World War “almost undamaged”. But all the figures, coats of arms, and columns were lost in the post-war period. The grave monument has since been reconstructed.

description

The grave monument is divided into a main floor and an upper floor. The figures are made of white alabaster. Belgian limestone architecture.

Main floor

Middle part

A large arched niche forms the central part, in which there is a large sarcophagus. Various caryatids adorn the sarcophagus : allegories of faith, love and hope. Between the caryatids there are two grieving genii with lowered torches, above the Brandenburg eagle.

The base shows a large inscription plaque:

Invicta virtute potens belloque togaque

Hac jacet Albertus Marchio tectus humo
Teutonico Pater illius prognatus Achille
Regis Casmiri filia, mater erat
Pro Marianorum, titulo cessante, Magistro
Agnovit primum Prussia culta Ducem
Prima illi conjunx Danorum Regibus orta,
Altera erat, Gvelphos,
Sacra monstratante
Struxit & egregiae culta Lycea Scholae,
Pacificus, justus prudens, pius atque benignus
Doctorumque fuit, doctus & ipse Pater
Hoc Duce creverunt & opes & publica terrae
Commoda, quae Patria juvit & auxit ope.
Quinquaginta & sex his terris praefuit annis,
Undecies septem vivere fata dabant.
Ergo Patris Patriae memor esse Borussia debes,
Proque salutari Principe grata DEO.

Albertus Moritur The Guberti.
Here is the translation by Ernst August Hagen :
Of invincible strength in peace and in war

Here Margraf Albrecht rests, covered with earth.
The father of the one who was the
child of King Casimir, who gave birth to him in the light, was related to the German Achilles .
Instead of naming him, Grand Master of the Order (the title expired).
First honor him as Duke of Prussia's enlightened land.
Denmark's rulers owed the origin to the first-married couple,
ancestors of Guelphic tribe had his second husband.
Cleansing the sanctuary, he faithfully did what Luther recommended, and
put on lycees as an adornment of learning.
Peace-loving, righteous, wise, devout and benevolent
In the wise number he was wise and father himself.
When he ruled, wealth and common welfare grew,
which the fatherland promotes and multiplied with power.
Six and fifty a year, Albrecht rules the country,

Eleven times seven gave him his lot to spend. 

The Duke kneels on the sarcophagus. The duke is dressed in a duke's cloak and has no headgear ("bareheaded"). His iron gloves are in front of him, his helmet rests behind the knee. The Duke prays in front of a square prayer desk with the Gospel on it. On closer inspection, the prayer stand is an altar because it shows protruding ram heads at the corners. A circular relief is located above the duke in the upper half of the arched niche. A female, veiled figure is shown, an allegory of religion ("how the Romans depicted the Pietàs "). The woman is sitting in a coffin and holding an unclothed corpse. With her arms she and the corpse surround the small figures of the crucified and risen Jesus as conquerors of death and the devil, who sit as figures at the feet of the Pietà.

In the arch spandrels , the areas between the round arch and its rectangular frame ( alfiz ), two winged girlish geniuses are depicted as a relief. One figure is holding a palm branch, the other figure is holding a wreath.

Side panels

The large arched niche is adorned on the sides by four smaller arched niches with Corinthian columns with entablature. Four kings stand in the small niches, including King Solomon and King David with a harp. The crowning of the side parts are circular shields with the coat of arms of the duke, which are the same in both. There are urns on the signs above.

First floor

On the upper floor is the relief The Last Judgment . There are caryatids on either side, representing justice and prudence. Above the gable triangle, adorned with masks and with the inscription 1570, there is a winged skull next to an hourglass and scales. At the top there is a figure, the feet on the globe. The figure holds two attributes, the sword and lily, as symbols of condemnation and pardon.

Art historical significance

According to Baldur Köster and Georg Dehio / Ernst Gall, the monument is one of the main works by Cornelis Floris . According to Dehio, the funerary monument was modeled on Roman and Venetian tombs of the High Renaissance. Anton Ulbrich sees it as "Italian Renaissance forms in Dutch translation". The epitaph ordered in Antwerp was set up in Königsberg; its design was then "of decisive influence on the development of the East Prussian altar and epitaph type up to the second half of the 17th century".

Eugen von Czihak doubts the authorship of Floris. A. Hagen and Karl Faber are of the opinion that Jakob Binck from Cologne created the design for the epitaph. Adolf Boetticher doubts Binck's authorship with reference to his death before the epitaph was made.

literature

  • Georg Dehio; Ernst Gall; Bernhard Schmid: Handbook of German art monuments. [7], Teutonic Order Prussia . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich; Berlin 1952, OCLC 878777190 .
  • Baldur Köster: Königsberg: Architecture from German times. In the appendix: The Kneiphof . Booklet VII. The architectural and art monuments in Königsberg. Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2000, OCLC 237377396 .
  • Markus Podehl: Architektura Kaliningrada: how Königsberg became Kaliningrad. Materials on the art, culture and history of East Central Europe, 1 . Herder Institute, Marburg 2012, OCLC 816472756 .
  • Karl Faber: The capital and residence city of Königsberg in Prussia. The strangest thing in history. Description and chronicle of the city . Graefe and Unzer, Königsberg 1840, OCLC 15210624 ( reprinted 1971).
  • Adolf Boetticher (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments of the province of East Prussia. On behalf of the East Prussian Provincial Parliament . Booklet VII: The architectural and art monuments in Königsberg . Bernhardt Teichert, Königsberg 1897, OCLC 312871065 , p. 327 f .
  • The Königsberg group and the liberation from the ties to the Renaissance. Wall tombs in the Königsberg Cathedral. In: Anton Ulbrich: History of sculpture in East Prussia from the end of the 16th century to around 1870. 2 volumes, Königsberg 1926–1929, pp. 81–85.
  • Similar style wall tombs in the cathedral to Königsberg…. In: Anton Ulbrich: History of sculpture in East Prussia from the end of the 16th century to around 1870. 2 volumes, Königsberg 1926–1929, pp. 86–92.
  • Ernst August Hagen : The description of the cathedral church to Königsberg and the works of art contained in it. Königsberg 1833 (together with AR Gebser).
  • Anton Ulbrich: History of sculpture in East Prussia from the end of the 16th century to around 1870. 2 volumes, Königsberg 1926.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Adolf Boetticher (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments of the province of East Prussia. On behalf of the East Prussian Provincial Parliament . Booklet VII: The architectural and art monuments in Königsberg , p. 327 .
  2. ↑ a b Köster, p. 54.
  3. ↑ cf. Hagen, p. 179 Marble monument by Albrecht I.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Ernst August Hagen: The description of the cathedral church to Königsberg and the works of art contained in it. P. 184.
  5. ↑ Ernst August Hagen: The description of the cathedral church to Königsberg and the works of art contained in it. P. 262 ( books.google.de ).
  6. ↑ Ernst August Hagen: The description of the cathedral church to Königsberg and the works of art contained in it. P. 187.
  7. ↑ Ernst August Hagen: The description of the cathedral church to Königsberg and the works of art contained in it. P. 186.
  8. ↑ cf. Boetticher, p. 328.
  9. ↑ Ernst August Hagen: The description of the cathedral church to Königsberg and the works of art contained in it. Pp. 186-187.
  10. ↑ Dehio / Gall, p. 376
  11. ↑ cf. Ulbrich, p. 81 and p. 92.
  12. ↑ Anton Ulbrich: History of sculpture in East Prussia from the end of the 16th century to around 1870. 2 volumes, Königsberg 1926, p. 20.
  13. ↑ Dehio / Gall, p. 376
  14. ↑ cf. Anton Ulbrich: History of sculpture in East Prussia from the end of the 16th century to around 1870. 2 volumes, Königsberg 1926, p. 22.
  15. ↑ Faber p. 67.
  16. ↑ Boetticher, p. 327: "That Jakob Binck is supposed to have been his maker, as A. Hagen assumes, is improbable because of the master's death around 1569".