Hans Ulrich Alt

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Hans Ulrich Alt (* shortly after 1557 in Berneck ; † between 1614 and 1627 in Herrenberg ) was a Württemberg painter who lived in Herrenberg but worked a lot in Tübingen .

Hans Burkhard von Anweil (Obervogt von Herrenberg)
Philipp Apian
Anastasius Demler
Johannes King
Georg Liebler
Jakob Andreae
Nikolaus Varnbüler (replica of a portrait by Hans Urlich Alt)

Life

Hans Ulrich Alt was the son of a pastor in Pfalzgrafenweiler . Apparently he lived in Herrenberg quite early because he became a citizen of the city in 1570. On September 4, 1582 he married Margarethe Brenz, the widow of the pastor of Burgstall, Jakob Brenz. From then on, he lived on Tübinger Strasse , where house number 20 is now.

In 1589 Alt received the ducal commission to portray the musicians who had belonged to Duke Ulrich's chapel . Since Duke Ludwig was apparently very satisfied with the execution of the commission, Alt was commissioned by him to paint a series of the professors 'portraits, which were created in the years 1588–1590 at the instigation of Erhard Cellius and which formed the beginning of the Tübingen professors' gallery . Based on a note from Cellius in the booklet Imagines professorum Tubingensium (1598), Alt was held to be the author of all portraits of professors created up to that point into the 20th century. Only after the publication of the diary of Martin Crusius , who in an entry from 1599 named Anton Ramsler as the author of the portraits created at that time, doubts arose. Careful style analysis allowed a group of these portraits to be identified as the work of Alt.

Since Alt stayed in Tübingen for a long time during this period, he lost his citizenship in Herrenberg in 1590 without ever becoming a citizen of Tübingen. Alt also worked as a portraitist in Tübingen in the years that followed, although he no longer received any commissions from the university. The woodcut-like drawing style may no longer have corresponded to the elegant fashion ideal. The then Tübingen painters Jacob Ramsler , Georg Baur , Hans Philipp Greter and Conrad Melperger wrote a complaint against him in 1611 to prevent this. Obviously with success because Alt has not been mentioned in Tübingen since that time. He retired to Herrenberg, where he owned property. We have no idea what portraits Hans Ulrich Alt painted in Herrenberg - except for the portrait of Obervogts Hans Burkhard von Anweil , which was certainly made there. Nothing has been preserved in Herrenberg. Alt appears in the tax books of Herrenberg from 1582 to 1602 and still 1613. After that he must have had enough jobs and lived in modest prosperity.

Like Anton Ramsler, Alt was not an artist of standing, but he was able to faithfully capture the facial expressions, appearance and demeanor of a large number of men who were important for the intellectual and political life of Württemberg at this time. The differences in style between Alt and Ramsler are very small. The style of the two is reminiscent of woodcuts, while Alt's pictures are “more laid out in the surfaces”.

Alt had a son, Ulrich (baptized May 10, 1586), who tried to become a painter like his father. He was handed down as a painter's boy in Tübingen in 1623.

More famous works

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Mentioned for the last time in the tax book of Herrenberg in 1613. It no longer appears in the tax book that was newly created in 1628. Since he was not mentioned in the tax book for several years before 1613, it cannot necessarily be concluded from his non-mention after 1613 that he died immediately afterwards.
  2. ↑ a b c Roman Janssen: Two Renaissance Artists ... , p. 155
  3. ↑ a b Werner Fleischhauer: The beginnings ... , p. 207
  4. ↑ a b Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon , Vol. 2 (1992), p. 657
  5. ↑ a b Werner Fleischhauer: Renaissance ... , p. 180
  6. ↑ Cellius calls him there “Elias Alt”, a mix-up with Alt's brother Elias, who was matriculated in Tübingen in 1582, but was never active as an artist.
  7. ↑ The files of the Academic Senate were also known, where under the date December 1, 1590 there was an entry that “painter Hans Ulrich Alt, citizen of Herrenberg, is to be rewarded for the imagines” ( General Artists Dictionary ). However, the images were not specified there.
  8. ↑ Diarium Martini Crusii , Vol. 2: 1598–1599, ed. by Wilhelm Goez and E. Conrad, Tübingen: Laupp 1931
  9. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: The beginnings ... , especially p. 215
  10. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: Renaissance ... , p. 375

literature

  • Roman Janssen: Two Renaissance artists: Hans Ulrich Alt and Wendel Nufer . In: Roman Janssen; Oliver Auge (ed.): Herrenberg personalities from eight centuries , Herrenberg 1999, ISBN 3-926809-09-4 , pp. 155–158 (= Herrenberger Historische Schriften, Vol. 6)
  • General Artists Lexicon , Vol. 2 (1992), p. 657
  • Werner Fleischhauer : Renaissance in the Duchy of Württemberg , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 1971
  • Hansmartin Decker-Hauff : The Anweiler portrait of the Württemberg State Museum . In: Contributions to Swabian art history. Festschrift for the 60th birthday of Werner Fleischhauer , Konstanz: Jan Thorbecke Verlag 1964, pp. 147–157
  • Werner Fleischhauer: The beginnings of the Tübingen university portrait collection - a contribution to the history of painting of the late Renaissance in the Duchy of Württemberg . In: Werner Fleischhauer u. a .: New contributions to the history of the south-west of Germany. Festschrift for Max Miller , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 1962, pp. 197–216
  • Erhard Cellius: Imagines professorum Tubingensium , Tübingen 1596 [actually 1598] (complete facsimile edition from 1598 + commentary and text in translation, edited by Hansmartin Decker-Hauff, Sigmaringen: Thorbecke 1981, ISBN 3-7995-7014-4 )

Web links

Commons : Hans Ulrich Alt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Alt, Hans Ulrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Altzius, Hans Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Württemberg painter
DATE OF BIRTH after 1557
PLACE OF BIRTH Berneck
DATE OF DEATH between 1614 and 1628
Place of death Herrenberg