Hans Winter (sculptor)

Epitaph for Detmar Kenkel († 1584) in St. Ansgarii, Bremen

Hans Winter , traceable in Bremen from 1585 to around 1600 , was a North German stone sculptor of the late Renaissance , of whom today almost exclusively epitaphs are known.

life and work

Winter came from an old family in Bremen. There is no archival record of an artist name for any of the Renaissance epitaphs in Bremen churches, but stylistic observations have probably indicated that Hans Winter worked for a long time, perhaps from around 1580, in the workshop of the stone carver Karsten Hussmann. Winter must have had the right to citizenship in Bremen in 1589 and entered the office of stone carver before 1594 , when he presumably took over Hussmann's workshop after his death in the early 1590s. Before that, Winter had worked as a freelancer for a while, in 1594 Winter was commissioned to create a large, three-axis epitaph for Duke Wilhelm the Elder. J. von Braunschweig-Lüneburg and his wife in the town church of Celle . This is now documented and thus the starting point for the other attributions to his workshop. The epitaph for Count Otto VIII von Hoya († 1582) in the Church of St. Martin zu Nienburg has a similar handwriting . Further epitaphs from the Hussmann / Winter workshop can be found in the Bremen Cathedral , only two in the Martinikirche in Bremen , five (partly fragmentary) in the new building of the St. Ansgarii Church in Bremen .

style

Of the approximately 20 works that are attributed to the Hussmann / Winterschen workshop and form a dense series of wall monuments, not all of them survived the destruction of World War II undamaged. What they have in common is a close reference to the decorative art of the Dutch scrollwork style , as spread by Cornelis Bos and Cornelis Floris in their ornamental template sheets, and the use of fittings motifs , as they are also known from the Weser Renaissance . Usually, in a frame of architectural set pieces (gables, consoles, cornices, columns, herms and caryatids ), reliefs of biblical scenes and heraldic fields are inserted on up to three floors. Towards the end of the century, the architectural motifs and plastic elements gain depth and volume, suggesting a development towards the early Baroque.

Individual evidence

↑ Active in Bremen 1541–1592, z. B. 1565 East gable of the Schütting from 1565 (Dettmann, p. 110 and 166; Boehn, p. 20; Dehio: Bremen, Niedersachsen , 1992, pp. 17, 35, 60).
↑ Dettmann, p. 111; von Boehn, p. 20. The extensive amount of non-artistic stone carving work on the epitaphs, which would suggest that journeymen do the work that the master craftsmen were not allowed to do, speaks against it.
↑ Otto von Boehn: Adam Liquier Beaumont and Hans Winter. Two sculptors from the late 16th century. (= Bremische Weihnachtsblätter 12), Bremen 1952, pp. 19–23, figs. 9 and 10.

literature

Gerd Dettmann : The stone epitaphs in the Bremen churches and the Bremen sculpture of the late Renaissance and Baroque. In: Annual journal of the Focke Museum 1939, pp. 97–168, with illustrations.
Otto von Boehn : Adam Liquier Beaumont and Hans Winter. Two sculptors from the end of the 16th century (= Bremen Christmas leaves 12). Schünemann, Bremen 1952, pp. 19–23, Figs. 9 and 10.

personal data
SURNAME	Winter, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	North German stone sculptor of the late Renaissance
DATE OF BIRTH	16th Century
DATE OF DEATH	16th century or 17th century
Place of death	Bremen verifiable

[1] Active in Bremen 1541–1592, z. B. 1565 East gable of the Schütting from 1565 (Dettmann, p. 110 and 166; Boehn, p. 20; Dehio: Bremen, Niedersachsen , 1992, pp. 17, 35, 60).

[2] Dettmann, p. 111; von Boehn, p. 20. The extensive amount of non-artistic stone carving work on the epitaphs, which would suggest that journeymen do the work that the master craftsmen were not allowed to do, speaks against it.

[3] Otto von Boehn: Adam Liquier Beaumont and Hans Winter. Two sculptors from the late 16th century. (= Bremische Weihnachtsblätter 12), Bremen 1952, pp. 19–23, figs. 9 and 10.