Jörg Breu the elder
Jörg Breu (the elder) (* around 1475/1480 in Augsburg ; † 1537 in Augsburg) was a painter and draftsman for glass painting and woodcut as well as an illuminator .
Life
After his journeyman migration in Austria, which he undertook after his training with Ulrich Apt the Elder , Breu worked in Augsburg from 1502 until his death in 1536. He is the father of Jörg Breu the younger . The frescoes on the old town hall in Augsburg were created in 1516. They are no longer there, as the town hall was replaced by a new building by Elias Holl . On behalf of the patrician family Hoechstetter, Breu produced pane cracks (for glass pictures), which later served as a template for most of the motifs of the magnificent " Augsburg Monthly Pictures ". These four large-format paintings on canvas are now in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin and most likely also come from his workshop. In addition to Emperor Maximilian I , Wilhelm IV of Bavaria and the Fuggers were among his clients.
Breu wrote a short chronicle, which is the oldest Augsburg chronicle written by a craftsman and covers the years 1512 to 1537. There is hardly any mention of his professional activity in the text; Breu offers a personal report with a diary-like character about the events in his city and it partly suggests that he might have viewed the Reformation events positively.
Works
His paintings are characterized by their clear coloring and graceful forms.
- Prayer of St. Bernhard for a good harvest (from the "Bernhard Altar"), wood, 71 × 73 cm, unsigned, 1500, Zwettl Abbey , Lower Austria
- Aggsbacher Altar, wing III, front side: Circumcision of Christ, wood, 80 × 127 cm, 1501
- Aggsbacher Altar, wing IV, back: carrying the cross, wood, 91 × 129 cm, 1501
- Aggsbacher Altar, wing IV, front side: Adoration of the Magi, wood, 91 × 129 cm, 1501
- Aggsbacher Altar, part: Flight into Egypt, wood, 92 × 128 cm, 1501
- The Melker Altar, Breu and pupil, not signed a. dated, around 1500–1502, Museum Stift Melk , Lower Austria
- Scipio's victory over Hannibal at Zama, Munich Pinakothek
- The Apostles' Farewell, signed, 1514, Städtische Kunstsammlungen Augsburg
- Madonna in the hall, attributed to around 1515, Aufhausen pilgrimage church , Upper Palatinate
- Adoration of the Magi 1518, Koblenz, Hospital Church (today Middle Rhine Museum )
- Madonna, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Ambras collection
- Adoration of the Magi, wood, 160 × 80 cm, 1518
- Hell, wood, 116 × 34 cm
- Crowning of thorns (from the »Passion Altar«), wood, 134 × 95 cm, 1502
- The Mocking of Christ, not signed a. dated, around 1522, Municipal Art Collections Augsburg
- The Apostles' Farewell, signed, 1514, Städtische Kunstsammlungen Augsburg
- Ursula Altar, 1522/27, Old Masters Picture Gallery, Dresden State Art Collections
- The story of Lucretia, signed a. dated, 1528, Alte Pinakothek Munich
- The Battle of Zama, signed and lettered dated, 1530, Alte Pinakothek Munich
- Saint Lucia, undated, Alte Pinakothek Munich
- Last Judgment, undated, on permanent loan from the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen at Trausnitz Castle, Landshut
- The four "Augsburg Monthly Pictures", presumably from Breu's workshop, around 1531, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
- Meiting's epitaph, inscribed on the decorative frame, around 1534, St. Anna Church , Augsburg
literature
- Wolfgang Wegner : Breu, Jörg the elder. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 604 f. ( Digitized version ).
- The chronicles of the German cities , vol. 29: The chronicle of the Augsburg painter Georg Preu the Elder 1512-1537 , Leipzig 1906.
- Sigrid Adam: The so-called Aggsbacher Altar from the oeuvre of Jörg Breu d. Ä. in its historical and art-historical context. . Diploma thesis at the Faculty of History and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna in 2008.
- Mathias F. Müller: Jörg Breu the Elder and the miracles of Maria Zell. Augsburg print for Styria from around 1520/25. In: Blätter für Heimatkunde (Historischer Verein für Steiermark) 83/4 (2009) pp. 110-131.
- Mathias F. Müller: Jörg Breu the Elder and the panel with Christ's Man of Sorrows. In: Annual report of the historical association for Straubing and the surrounding area 114 (2013) pp. 99-105 ( ISSN 0179-5805 ).
- Melanie Kraft: "So you got martyrdom". Reflections on the dating, iconography and narrative structure of the Ursula Altar by Jörg Breu in the Dresden gallery. In: Journal of the German Association for Art Research, Vol. 67 (2013), pp. 64–91.
- Andrew Morrall: Jörg Breu the Elder. Art, Culture and Belief in Reformation Augsburg (= Histories of vision), Aldershot 2001.
- Melanie Kraft: historia, narratio, exemplum: Jörg Breu d. Ä. and the history pictures for the Herzoghaus Munich , Heidelberg 2020.
Web links
- Chronicle of the Fugger city of Augsburg
- Entry on Jörg Breu the Elder in the database of the state's memory for the history of the state of Lower Austria ( Museum Niederösterreich )
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Breu, Jörg the elder |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Breu, Jörg; Breu, Georg; Preu, Jörg (the elder); Prew, Jörg (the elder); Breü, Jörg (the elder); Jörg Breu the Elder; Breu the Elder, Joerg |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter |
DATE OF BIRTH | 1475 or 1480 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | augsburg |
DATE OF DEATH | 1537 |
Place of death | augsburg |