Gusmin from Cologne

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Gusmin from Cologne (* 14th century), probably Goswin , was the name of a sculptor and goldsmith from Cologne or the surrounding area at the end of the 14th century. None of his works have survived; his biography can be found around 1447 in Lorenzo Ghiberti's Third Book I Commentarii , a reflection on Italian art of the 14th century.

Ghiberti calls the master from Cologne a very experienced sculptor whose art would not be inferior to that of ancient Greece . Ghiberti further writes that Gusmin was living at the time of Pope Martin V and that his employer was the Duke of Anjou, which is probably Ludwig III. , Titular King of Naples and Duke of Anjou is meant. The original manuscript of I Commentarii has been lost, and the only surviving copy does not mention the name Gusmin. Why Ghiberti describes the life of the sculptor from Cologne cannot be precisely determined. The name Gusmin was first associated with the Cologne master one hundred years later, in the 1540s, in the Anonimo Magliabechiano . The author of Anonimo Magliabechiano , who refers to Ghiberti in various places, perhaps made use of the now lost original manuscript of the Commentarii or knew the name of the Cologne master from oral traditions.

In 1833, Adelbert von Chamisso honored Gusmin in his poem A Cologne Master at the end of the 14th century (after Ghiberti) .

An attempt was made to see in Gusmin the creator of the Crucifixion Altar of Rimini, made of alabaster around 1430. This altar came into the possession of the municipal sculpture collection in Frankfurt from Italy in 1913 , but the thesis at the time that it could be a work of Gusmin was not recognized.

literature

  • About the unknown master from Cologne at Ghiberti . In: Ludwig Schorn (Ed.): Kunstblatt 1839, N. 21
  • Julius Schlosser (Ed.) Lorenzo Ghiberti's Memories (I COMMENTARII) Based on the manuscript of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence . Berlin 1912
  • Georg Swarzenski: Salve Crux laudabilis! For the exhibition of the crucifixion altar in the municipal sculpture collection in Frankfurt . In: German monthly books Die Rheinlande 14, 1914, p. 379ff.
  • Max Creutz : The Frankfurt crucifixion altar . In: Journal for Christian Art Vol. 28 (1915) pp. 11-13
  • Guido Schoenberger : Alabaster sculpture . In: Otto Schmitt (Ed.): Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte. Volume 1. Stuttgart 1934, Col. 294ff.
  • Richard Krautheimer: Ghiberti and Master Gusmin . In: Art Bulletin 29 (1947). H1., Pp. 25–25 (English)
  • Constance Lowenthal: Lorenzo Ghiberti . In: Encyclopædia Britannica Online. (Accessed December 2011)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adelbert von Chamisso's works. Third volume - poems. Leipzig 1836
  2. ↑ Georg Swarzenski: Salve Crux laudabilis! For the exhibition of the crucifixion altar in the municipal sculpture collection in Frankfurt . In: German monthly books Die Rheinlande 14, 1914, p. 379ff.
  3. ^ Crucifixion Altar by Rimini, Liebieghaus, Inv. No. 400-418
personal data
SURNAME Gusmin from Cologne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goswin from Cologne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sculptor, goldsmith and painter
DATE OF BIRTH 14th Century
DATE OF DEATH 14th Century