Hans Blum (architectural theorist)

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Hans Blum (first mentioned in 1549 in Zurich, last time in 1552 in Basel) was an architectural theorist who came from Lohr am Main ( Lower Franconia ) and trained as a carpenter .

Life

Hans Blum from Lohr am Main is first mentioned when he married the local Rägali (Regula) Kuchymeister in Zurich on July 18, 1549 . On May 26, 1550 and January 21, 1552, his two sons Christoffel and Hans were baptized here. In March 1552 he acquired the citizenship of Basel and in September of the same year the guild rights of the local spinning weather guild . On this occasion he is referred to as a table maker . This also clearly clarifies the question of Blum's occupation raised in older literature. Since Blum no longer appears in the sources after buying the guild rights and his younger son grew up with the Zurich printer Christoph Froschauer , it is reasonable to assume that he died shortly after moving to Basel - for example from the plague that was rampant at the time. His wife and older son were possibly already dead when Hans Blum - perhaps attracted by the printing press - settled in Basel.

The tradition cited in the older literature that Hans Blum was in Rome cannot be confirmed.

meaning

Hans Blums published Qvinqve Colvmnarvm Exacta descriptio atque deliniatio in 1550 with Christoph Froschauer in Zurich , which was also published in German in the same year and by the same publisher and is illustrated with woodcuts , experienced numerous new editions and translations into Dutch, French and English up to 1662. Blum is thus considered the most influential architectural writer of the Renaissance north of the Alps. He is the creator of the genus "column book", which is characterized by the fact that the column theory is isolated. Blum's column theory is not an independent achievement, it is rather identical to that in the fourth of the Sette Libri d'architettura by the Italian Sebastiano Serlio ; Its particular success is based on the fact that Serlio uses a mechanical procedure to develop ratios that allow the absolute dimensions to be achieved immediately for any given height in any order, including the pedestals.

Fonts

  • Qvinqve Colvmnarvm Exacta descriptio atque deliniatio, cum symmetrica earum distributione. Froschauer, Zurich 1550 ( [1] ).
  • Of the five columns / thorough report / and their actual contrafeyung / according to the symmetrical division of the architecture. Froschauer, Zurich 1550 (German edition by Qvinqve Colvmnarvm Exacta descriptio ) [2] .
  • An artful book of all the antiquities so belonging to the mind of the five pillars of architecture. Froschauer, around 1560 [3] .

literature

  • Erik Forssman : Column and Ornament. Studies on the problem of mannerism in the Nordic column books and master sheets of the 16th and 17th centuries. Stockholm 1956, pp. 75-79.
  • Hubertus Günther: German architectural theory between Gothic and Renaissance. Düsseldorf 1988, pp. 140-145.
  • Stefan Hess , Wolfgang Loescher : Furniture in Basel. Art and craft of the carpenters until 1798. Basel 2012. ISBN 978-3-85616-545-1 .
  • Ernst von May: Hans Blum von Lohr am Main. A building theorist of the German Renaissance. Strasbourg 1910.
  • Yves Pauwels: Les éditions françaises du traité de Hans Blum aux Pays-Bas (XVIe et XVIIe siècles). In: Monte Artium. Revue de la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique. 1, 2008, pp. 123-134.
  • Yves Pauwels: Hans Blum et les Français, 1550–1650 . In: Scholion. Bulletin of the Werner Oechslin Library Foundation 6, 2010, pp. 77–88.
  • Kurt Pilz:  Blum, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 324 ( digitized version ).
  • Hans Rott : Ottheinrich und die Kunst, in: Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Heidelberger Schlosses , Vol. 5, 1905, p. 156.
  • Alfons Ruf (Hrsg.): The column books of the master Hans Blum from Lohr am Main 1550-1560. Lohr a. M. 2006, ISBN 978-3-934128-20-0 .
  • David Thomson: Hans Blum. In: Dora Wiebenson (Ed.): Architectural Theory and Practice from Alberti to Ledoux. University of Chicago Press, 1982.

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Stefan Hess: Blum, Hans. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 2020. Ernst von May, Hans Blum von Lohr am Main. A building theorist of the German Renaissance , Strasbourg 1910, p. 27, calculated a year of birth between 1520 and 1527 based on the first mention on the occasion of the marriage. In the literature there are also different statements such as "around 1515" or "around 1520/1530".
  2. ^ Alfons Ruf: The column books of the master Hans Blum from Lohr am Main 1550-1560. Lohr a. M. 2006, Commentary, p. 65.
  3. ^ Stefan Hess, Wolfgang Loescher: Furniture in Basel. Art and craft of carpenters until 1798. Basel 2012, pp. 87, 300.
  4. ↑ Since May it was usually assumed that Blum was working as a master builder.
  5. ^ Stefan Hess, Wolfgang Loescher: Furniture in Basel. Art and craft of carpenters until 1798. Basel 2012, p. 87.
  6. ^ Alfons Ruf: The column books of the master Hans Blum from Lohr am Main 1550-1560. Lohr a. M. 2006, Commentary, p. 69 f.
  7. ^ Hanno-Walter Kruft: History of the architectural theory. Munich 1985, p. 188.
personal data
SURNAME Blum, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Swiss architectural theorist
DATE OF BIRTH between 1520 and 1527
DATE OF DEATH after 1552