Hans Kels the Elder

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Signature of Hans Kel's sculptor, 1507

Hans Kels ( Kehls, Khels, Kelchs, Keltz, Käls ) the Elder (* around 1480 to 1485 in Kaufbeuren ; † around 1559 in Kaufbeuren) was a German sculptor , carver and medalist .

Life

Hans Kels the Elder was probably born as the son of Hans Kels “the old”, who was mentioned in the Kaufbeurer tax books as early as 1479-1500. Hans Kels the Elder was recorded for the first time in 1507 when he was accepted into the Kaufbeurer Kramer Guild, in which the local sculptors and painters were also organized, with his name before that of Jörg Lederer , who was also registered there that year . The fact that there was no corresponding application for membership in the citizens' association in the council minutes from the previous period also suggests that he was a native of Kaufbeer. On December 22nd, 1507 he acknowledged a payment of 5 guilders and 2 shillings received in the name of Maximilian I for a number of pictures . Around 1508 he married Anna, née Müller, with whom he had five children:

  • Hans Kels the Younger , carver and medalist, later in Augsburg (* around 1508 to 1510)
  • Georg Kels, shoemaker, later in Waalhaupten and Breslau (* around 1511/12)
  • Veit Kels , carver and medalist, later in Augsburg (* around 1513/14)
  • Anna Kels, married to the shoemaker and guild chairman Jörg Mimmeler, Kaufbeuren
  • Ursula Kels, married to master bricklayer Jörg Allgewer, Augsburg.

His sons Hans Kels the Younger and Veit Kels received their first craft training in their father's workshop.

Hans Kels can be traced back to 1514 as the landowner on the upper Bleiche and in 1531 as the house owner in the Gayssengässelin (today: Kaisergäßchen). After the death of his wife Anna (between 1546 and 1550), he married a second time around 1550. The last time it appears in a document was on November 5, 1558, on the occasion of the termination of a nursing activity (guardianship).

On November 20 and December 4, 1559, Jörg Mimmeler and Anna Kels, with the power of attorney from the Kels siblings, but without naming the widow and eldest son Hans Kels, sold two houses of Hans Kels the Elder in Gayssengässelin, and raised them on December 8, 1559 the city council from the heirs after tax. This makes the year of death 1559 likely for Hans Kels the Elder.

plant

Features of his work

In a first creative period from around 1500 to 1520, Hans Kels the Elder produced carved figures in the Gothic spirit and with a predominantly sacred purpose.

What is striking is the lack of works of art ascribed to him in the period from 1520 to 1530. During this time, there must have been a drastic development from the sculptor of medium-sized sculptures to the mannerist carver of small-format profane relief art in the spirit of the Renaissance . It is conceivable that religious and socio-economic changes in Kaufbeuren made the “conventional” artist Kels superfluous or at least disoriented and only the renewed artistic self-discovery, possibly supported by impulses from the neighboring “Renaissance city” Augsburg, led to his artistic rebirth. Remarkably, the latter coincided with the beginning of the Augsburg phase of Hans Kels the Younger.

The board game for the "Long Pouf" from 1537 is regularly accepted as the highlight of Hans Kels the Elder's oeuvre, to which Baumann states in a rather undifferentiated and generalized manner that it "belongs to the most beautiful thing that the Renaissance produced." It is signed with "HANS KELS ZV KAVFBEIREN". Theodor Hampe emphasizes that he considers Hans Kels the Elder to be the "undoubted creator of the world-famous Viennese game board". In the previous art-historical discussion, however, besides Kels' necessary development to become a mannerist miniature carver, it was not discussed whether the artist still had the necessary visual acuity and sure hand for such carvings in the year of his creation in 1537. A collaboration with his sons Hans Kels the Younger and Veit Kels, which Hampe only regards as a possibility given the stylistic and handcrafted homogeneity of the work, would be a realistic assumption that would make the idea of ​​a "Hans Kels brand" more consistent with an in-house system Division of labor and mutual quality control suggests.

Sabine Haag summarizes the current state of research in the following words:

"The delimitation of the works of father and son Hans Kels is not always certain and needs to be critically examined."

- Sabine Haag

Individual works

  • Illustrations

  • Pietà, around 1515, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf

  • St. Nikolaus, around 1515–1520, Bernbeuren parish church

  • Maria Rain high altar (detail), 1519, Mittelberg

  • St. Koloman, Our Lady and St. Apollonia, around 1520, St. Coloman Church, Schwangau

  • Game stone with the portrait of King Ferdinand I, around 1530, Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart

  • Game stone with the portrait of Louise of Savoy, around 1530, Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart

  • Electroplating of a wooden medallion with the portrait of Melchior von Ow, around 1540, Württemberg State Museum, Stuttgart

literature

  • Erika Bosl: Hels (Kelchs, Keltz), Hans d. Ä. In: Karl Bosl (Hrsg.): Bosl's Bavarian biography: 8000 personalities from 15 centuries. Pustet, Regensburg 1983. ISBN 3-7917-0792-2 , p. 411. ( digitized version ).
  • Albert Ilg: The game board by Hans Kels. In: KK Oberstkämmer-Amt, Head Ferdinand Graf zu Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the Art History Collections of the Very Highest Imperial House . Adolf Holzhausen, Vienna 1885, pp. 53–78. ( Digitized version ).
  • Theodor Hampe: Allgäuer studies on art and culture of the Renaissance - II. On the genealogy of the Kels family of artists . In: Germanisches Nationalmuseum (ed.): Festschrift for Gustav von Bezold. Messages from the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Nuremberg 1918/1919, pp. 42–49. ( Digitized version ).
  • Fritz Schmitt: Hans Kels dead four hundred years. In: Heimatverein Kaufbeuren e. V. (Ed.): Kaufbeurer history sheets . Volume 3, No. 1/2, March 1959, pp. 1-3.
  • Ulrich Kirstein: Kels . In: Stadtlexikon Augsburg, Wißner-Verlag. ( Online dictionary ).

Web links

Commons : Hans Kels the Elder  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rudolf Schmid: Where do Jörg Lederer and Hans Kels come from? In: Heimatverein Kempten eV (Hrsg.): Allgäuer Geschichtsfreund: Sheets for Heimatforschung and Heimatpflege . tape 54 , 1954, pp. 23 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Fritz Schmitt: Hans Kels dead four hundred years . In: Heimatverein Kaufbeuren e. V. (Ed.): Kaufbeurer history sheets . tape 3 , no. 1/2 , March 1959, p. 1-3 .
  3. ^ Theodor Hampe: Allgäuer studies on art and culture of the Renaissance - II. On the genealogy of the Kels family of artists . In: Germanic National Museum (Hrsg.): Festschrift for Gustav von Bezold. Messages from the Germanisches Nationalmuseum . Nuremberg 1918, p. 42–44 ( uni-heidelberg.de ).
  4. ↑ a b c Ulrich Kirstein: Kels. In: https://www.wissner.com/stadtlexikon-augsburg/startseite . Wißner-Verlag, Augsburg, accessed on July 4, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c Thodor Hampe: Allgäuer studies on art and culture of the Renaissance. - II. On the genealogy of the Kels family of artists . In: Germanisches Nationalmuseum (ed.): Festschrift for Gustav von Bezold. Messages from the Germanisches Nationalmuseum . Nuremberg 1918, p. 46 f .
  6. ^ Albert Ilg: The game board by Hans Kels. In: KK Oberstkämmer-Amt, Head Ferdinand Graf zu Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the Art History Collections of the Very Highest Imperial House . Adolf Holzhausen, Vienna 1885, p. 74 .
  7. ^ Franz Ludwig Baumann: History of the Allgäu: from the oldest times to the beginning of the nineteenth century . tape 1 . Kösel, Kempten, S. 602 ( Digitale-sammlungen.de ).
  8. ^ Albert Ilg: The game board by Hans Kels . In: KK Oberstkämmer-Amt, Head Ferdinand Graf zu Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the Art History Collections of the Very Highest Imperial House . tape 3 . Adolf Holzhausen, Vienna 1885, p. 58 .
  9. ↑ Volker Ertel: One-sided wooden model 1537 by Hans Kels. In: https://www.coingallery.de/ . Retrieved July 4, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Lukas Madersbacher; Herta Arnold-Öttl; Gert Ammann; Franz Caramelle; Eleonore Gürtler; Meinrad Pizzinini: Tyrolean Exhibition Streets : The Gothic . 2nd Edition. Museum Without Borders, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902966-01-8 ( google.de ).
  11. ↑ Kaiser Maximilian I. Retrieved on July 4, 2020 .
  12. ^ Pietà. 1515, accessed July 4, 2020 .
  13. ↑ St. Nicholas. Retrieved July 4, 2020 .
  14. ^ Sculpture by Hans Kels the Elder Ä. In: https://www.b4bschwaben.de/ . Retrieved July 4, 2020 .
  15. ↑ St. Coloman, Our Lady and St. Apollonia. In: https://www.bildindex.de/ . Philipps-Universität Marburg - German Documentation Center for Art History - Photo Archive Photo Marburg, accessed on July 4, 2020 .
  16. ^ Game stone with the portrait of King Ferdinand I, around 1530. 1530, accessed on July 6, 2020 .
  17. ^ Game stone with the portrait of Louise of Savoy, around 1530. 1530, accessed on July 6, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Board game for the "Long Puff". 1537, accessed July 4, 2020 .
  19. ^ Galvanoplastic imitation of a wooden model of a medal from 1540 on Melchior von Ow. 1540, accessed July 6, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Meerweibchen (relief made of boxwood). In: https://www.gnm.de/ . 1540, accessed July 4, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Kels, Hans the Elder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kehls, Hans; Khels, Hans; Kelchs, Hans; Keltz, Hans; Käls, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German carver and medalist
DATE OF BIRTH between 1480 and 1485
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaufbeuren
DATE OF DEATH around 1559
Place of death Kaufbeuren