Jörg Syrlin (the elder)

Bust of Virgil in the choir stalls of Ulm Minster, around 1470, possibly a self-portrait of Syrlin

Jörg Syrlin the Elder (* around 1425 in Ulm ; † 1491 ibid) was a German carpenter and sculptor. He is counted at the Ulm school . His son Jörg Syrlin the Younger continued to run the workshop.

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The sculptor personality of Syrlin awoke in the 17th and 18th centuries. Century great interest from broad sections of the population and he was transfigured as a prototype of a sculptor in the late Gothic. Historical research on Dehio put this into perspective and interpreted Syrlin as a carpenter architect. It was not until later research that the works were subjected to a detailed iconographic analysis, which no longer called the identity of the busts of Syrlin into question. Syrlin's sculptures on the Ulm choir stalls are divided into four levels, into poets and thinkers of antiquity, sibyls , figures from the New and Old Testaments and in the canopy zone in Christ and the Mother of God Mary. The personalities carved by him show psychologically impressive characters.

His best-known works are the so-called Dreisitz (1468 to 1469) and the choir stalls of the Ulm Minster (1469-75), originally with 91 and today (2008) with 89 seats. The price for the choir stalls was 1188 guilders. Two sculptures are no longer preserved, the so-called Kaiserstuhl for visiting the same in 1473 and a predella with figures for an altar panel, which was paid for with 400 guilders. His shrine on the high altar (1473–1480) in Ulm Minster was destroyed in the iconoclasm in 1531 .
Only later did he become involved in stone carving. The stone “Fischkasten-Brunnen” (1482) on the town hall square in Ulm testifies to this.

Other works

• Prayer desk carried by evangelists (dated and signed 1458) in the Museum Ulm
• Upper cabinet (dated and signed 1465) in the Museum Ulm
• Three statues on the sacrament house in Ulm Minster (around 1470)
• Chandelier women in the Museum Ulm
• Reliquary bust in the Ulm Museum
• Box tree statuette of a nasty old woman in the Castle Museum in Frankfurt am Main
• Statue of St. Helena in the Castle Museum in Frankfurt am Main
• Panel in the front altar in Lorch Abbey and the crucifix by the abbot's chair in the chapter house (both not preserved)

Life

Jörg Syrlin is the son of the carpenter Heinz (1412–1447), who came from Söflingen near Ulm and moved to Ulm. Other family members of the family that had two branches, that of Jörg and that of Lienhardt. The family probably branched out to Basel, Altenstadt and Geislingen. The two Jörg Syrlin were important. Jörg Syrlin the Elder initially worked as a carpenter and created the first work of art, the wooden prayer chair, as early as 1458. He was married, and this is evidenced by the fact that after his death in 1491, like his wife in 1498, he left a skirt to the Ulm Minster. It is assumed that the nameless bust on the choir stalls Syrlin and the one opposite the Sibylle von Erythä represent the individual facial features of his wife.

A car of the Ulm tram is named Jörg Syrlin .

Illustrations

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  Choir stalls on the north side of Ulm Minster

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  Bust of Cicero

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  Hellespontic Sibyl

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  Tiburtine Sibyl

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  Canopy in the middle of the north side

literature

• Alfred Klemm :  Sürlin . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, pp. 166-169. (Family item)
• Michel Erhart and Jörg Syrlin d.Ä. Late Gothic in Ulm . Catalog of the exhibition in the Ulmer Museum. Ulm 2002.
• David Gropp: The Ulm Choir Stalls and Jörg Syrlin the Elder. Studies on architecture and sculptures (= New Research on German Art, Vol. 4). Berlin 1999.
• Franz Härle: The choir stalls in Ulm Minster. History of Faith carved in oak . Langenau 2000, ISBN 3-88360-115-2
• Gerhard Weilandt, Was the elder Sürlin a sculptor ?, in: Yearbook of the State Art Collections in Baden-Württemberg 28 (1991), pp. 37–54.
• Gerhard Weilandt, A new archival find on the version of the high altar retable in Ulm Minster, in: Ulm and Oberschwaben 49 (1994), pp. 51–60.
• Gerhard Weilandt, The rediscovered contract of Jörg Syrlin the Elder on the high altar retable of the Ulm Minster. On the appearance of the earliest wood-sighted retable, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 59 (1996), pp. 437-460.
• Wolfgang Lipp: Guide through the Ulm Minster . Langenau 1999, ISBN 3-88360-011-3
• Wilhelm Vöge : Jörg Syrlin the Elder and his sculptures, Vol. II: Circle of material and design . Publisher: Dt. Association f. Kunstwiss., Berlin 1950, without ISBN
• Eduard Mauch: Georg Sürlin, father, and Georg Sürlin, son, sculptors in stone and wood . In: Württembergischer Bildersaal . First volume. Schaber, Stuttgart 1859, pp. 75–77 ( digitized version )

Web links

• Literature by and about Jörg Syrlin in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie: p. 167 (see literature)