Stark & Lengenfelder, Institute for Christian Art
The Nuremberg Sculpture Workshop Stark & Lengenfelder, Institution for Christian Art was founded on September 24th, 1880 by Josef Stark and Martin Lengenfelder and registered in the Nuremberg Trade Register with headquarters in Nunnenbeckstr. 18 registered. From 1890 the company was continued under the name “Josef Stark” and at that time moved to Radbrunnengasse 8. At the end of the 19th century, the workshop developed into an important South German workshop for Christian art, primarily through the sculptural works of Josef Stark. It was dissolved in the early 1940s.
history
In July 1871 Josef Stark (born November 5, 1853 in Saulgau ; † March 21, 1935 in Nuremberg ) finished an apprenticeship with the sculptor and altar maker Wilhelm Mayer in Saulgau. After a two-year apprenticeship in the same company, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1873 to 1876 as a student of Joseph Knabl . In 1876 he went to Nuremberg, where he studied Gothic interior design, modeling and wood carving at the School of Applied Arts. In 1880, the founding of their own sculpture workshop, Stark & Lengenfelder, institute for Christian art, together with Martin Lengenfelder († 1889), a friend from Ellwangen. In 1884 Josef Stark took his brother Hermann Josef Stark (born March 30, 1862 in Saulgau; † March 28, 1936 in Nuremberg) into the workshop. When his employee and partner Martin Lengenfelder fell ill in 1889 and died soon afterwards, both brothers continued to run the company as sole owners. In 1890 the workshop moved to Radbrunnengasse 8 under the name “Josef Stark”, where it existed until the early 1940s.
Josef Stark received his first major order in 1881 from the then director of the Germanic Museum August Essenwein as part of the renovation and renewal of the Nuremberg Church of Our Lady . This order included the new manufacture of a high altar, a Gothic canopy and a predella for the cloth altar . The high altar made for the new construction of the Church of St. Maria in Schnaitheim in 1882 was awarded a silver medal on the occasion of the trade exhibition in Nuremberg in 1882. With the high altar for the Eichstätt Cathedral and the other neo-Gothic interior fittings from 1883, the company gained national reputation and was recommended for further work by the diocese management of the Eichstätt diocese. With the production of a Gothic altar for Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate , the company won a gold medal at the Nuremberg State Trade Exhibition in 1896 for its overall performance in building the altar. That year an altar was also delivered to Ascot, Berkshire .
From 1899 to 1902 Josef Stark was involved in the new building (1899 to 1905) of the Sacred Heart Church in Nuremberg- Lichtenhof with several works. After the complete destruction of the church on January 2, 1945, only the St. Mary's altar with the Madonna's protective cloak remained. In 1929, Josef Stark made a tabernacle for the Capuchin monastery in Wesemlin in Lucerne. This work has been called a masterpiece of sculpture.
In the opinion of Johann Raab, Stark and his complete works were among the most important altar builders in southern Germany of his time for neo-Gothic church furnishings . His entire work has remained largely unnoticed to this day.
Works (selection)
| year | place | plant | comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1881 | Nuremberg - Church of Our Lady | * Neo-Gothic high altar with reliefs Birth of Jesus and Adoration of St. Three Kings * Gothic baldachin * Predella for the cloth altar | All works were destroyed in World War 1939/45 |
| 1882 | Schnaitheim - St. Maria | High altar | Awarded the silver medal on the occasion of the state trade exhibition in Nuremberg in 1882 |
| 1883 ff. | Eichstätt - Cathedral of Eichstätt | * High altar designed as a winged altar * Work for the further neo-Gothic interior | - |
| 1891 | Dinkelsbühl - St. Georg | Renewal of the high altar | - |
| 1893/94 | Neumarkt / Opf. - Court Church | neo-Gothic winged altar | Awarded the gold medal for overall performance in the altar building on the occasion of the state trade exhibition in Nuremberg in 1896 |
| 1896 | Ascot (Berkshire) (England) | Order for a neo-Gothic altar (replica of the Neumarkt high altar) and delivery | - |
| 1898/99 | Affaltrach - St. Johann Baptist | High altar and two side altars | - |
| 1904 | Bamberg - Bamberg Cathedral | Parish altar - tabernacle in Romanesque style | - |
| 1909 | Engelberg am Main - Engelberg Monastery | High altar: St. Michael leads a poor soul to heaven | - |
| 1911 | Nuremberg - Herz-Jesu-Kirche | Marienaltar (protective cloak Madonna) | The church was almost completely destroyed by the heavy air raid on Nuremberg's old town on January 2, 1945, the Marien Altar was preserved. |
| 1912 | Heilsberg , East Prussia | Large cross altar with Mary and John | - |
| 1912/14 | Breslau - Wroclaw Cathedral | 6 larger-than-life stone figures depicting: St. Michael, St. John, St. Petrus, St. Paulus, St. Hedwig and? | - |
| 1916 | Nuremberg - St. Martin (Notkirche) | Altars and pulpit made of painted art panels based on designs by Prof. Hailmayer | - |
| 1923 | Fulda - city parish church | Larger than life statue of St. Anthony, gilded | - |
| 1928/29 | Lucerne (Switzerland) - Wesemlin Monastery Church | Richly carved baroque tabernacle in hardwood; Easter candlestick depicting St. Lawrence | Commissioned by the Capuchin Father Ignatius |
literature
- Sculptor Josef Stark . In: Bad Saulgauer Hefte zur Stadtgeschichte und Heimatkunde 16, 2002, pp. 14–26.
- Johann Raab: strengh, Hermann; Stark, Josef In: Manfred H. Grieb (Ed.): Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon - visual artists, artisans, scholars, collectors, cultural workers and patrons from the 12th to the middle of the 20th century . Volume 3. KG Saur, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-598-11763-9 , pp. 1468-1469.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry of the matriculation database .
- ^ From 1884 student at the Art Academy in Munich; Entry in the matriculation database .
- ↑ illustrations .