Heinrich Lödel

Initial letters
with the dance of death

Heinrich Burkhart Lödel (born December 16, 1798 in Hameln , † November 23, 1861 in Göttingen ) was a German woodcutter and engraver .

There is no information about his apprenticeship years. He settled in Göttingen in 1819, where he worked as a copper engraver at the university . He mostly occupied himself with copying the originals of other artists on woodcut and copperplate. This is how u. a. Copies of "The Christmas Eve" by Heinrich Maria von Hess , "The Nymphs of the Danube" by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and "The Last Unction" by Anton Seitz .

He illustrated the work of Atanazy Raczyński "Histoire de l'art moderne en Allemagne" (Renouard, Paris 1836–1841, 2 vols.), Which was also published in German.

In 1842 he worked in Dresden, where he designed securities ("safe notes") for the Royal Saxon Ministry of Finance.

In 1849 two of his works were published with the initial letters in woodcut after Hans Holbein the Younger's dance of death . In 1856 Lüdel's initials appeared in Paris together with Léon le Maire's copies of Simon Vostre's Dance of Death and Accidens de l'Homme. This book was published in French ("L'alphabet de la mort de Hans Holbein"), in English ("The celebrated Hans Holbein's alphabet of death") and in Italian ("L'alfabeto della morte di Hans Holbein"). Hans Holbein's initial letters were published again in 1911.

Publications

• Hans Holbein's initial letters with the dance of death . Dieterich, Göttingen 1849 ( digitized version ).
• Holbenii pictoris alphabetum mortis: the painter Hans Holbein's death dance alphabet: completely reproduced for the first time in 24 woodcuts based on the Dresden originals . JM Heberle, Cologne 1849.
• Small contributions to art history . JM Heberle, Cologne 1857 ( digitized version ).
• The Strasbourg painter and tailor Johann Wechtlin called Pilgrim woodcuts in Clairobscur, recut in wood by Heinrich Lödel. With comments on the invention of Clairobscur , 13 sheets with text. Leipzig 1863.

literature

• Atanazy Raczyński: History of Modern German Art. Volume II, p. 632, Volume III, p. 147, 241, 242-
• Deutsches Kunstblatt by Fr. Eggers, 1851, p. 230.
• Johannes Heinrich Müller:  Lödel, Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, p. 73.
• Lödel, Heinrich . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 23 : Leitenstorfer – Mander . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1929, p. 315 .

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Lödel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The dance of death
• Heinrich Lödel. Biographical data and works in the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)