Jonathan Sauter

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Jonathan Sauter (* 1549 in Ulm ; † 1612 in Stuttgart ) was a Württemberg milliner , typist and arithmetic master who was also artistically active as a draftsman , painter and engraver or etcher . His copperplate engravings with views of Stuttgart are particularly valuable.

View of Stuttgart (etching by Jonathan Sauter, 1610, detail)

life and work

Jonathan Sauter grew up in Ulm and got married there too - his father-in-law was the Ulm superintendent Ludwig Rabus . There he also began his professional work as a milliner. But he was multi-talented and this job did not fill him. He also drew and painted. He also wrote a tragedy that was performed at the Ulm Mastersingers' Games in 1569. As early as 1570 he made an etched view of Ulm.

When Jonathan Sauter came to Stuttgart in 1572 at the latest, he initially worked primarily as a portrait painter. In that year he made four portraits of Duke Ludwig . In 1574 his wife died. Until the 1590s he manufactured a. a. numerous portraits of the ducal family and their ancestors, once even a full-length portrait of Duke Ludwig. None of these portraits have survived; we only know about them from the traditional invoices. The epitaph of Johannes Brenz has been preserved , the bust of the reformer shows “large, concise, almost graphic forms”, while “the skeleton in the essay that shoots at the viewer, an illusionistic artifice, is a typical typist's trick”. In 1586/87 Sauter was again active as a milliner in Ulm. At Candlemas (February 2nd) 1588 he was again taken over in Stuttgart in the ducal service, this time as court registrar and archivist. His tasks presumably also included the graphic design of certificates, diplomas, etc. During this time (until 1591) he made numerous portraits of the ducal family.

Since 1590, Sauter was also taking city views again. The woodcut with a view of Tübingen is “quite rough”. In contrast, the very large etching with a view of Stuttgart from 1592, made up of many plates, is “a real scribe's feat”. The first reliable view of Stuttgart is characterized by a very high goldsmith-like accuracy, abundance of details and reliability down to the smallest detail. It is still very cleverly composed, unlike the previous views: although the distinctive ducal buildings were on the outskirts, they appear in the center of the picture and do not cover the city as they used to. The city wall, drawn with countless details, delimits the city center and at the same time lifts it out, the finely drawn chain of hills forms an additional frame. The picture has a decoration at the top that takes up the entire width of the leaf. It consists “of a medallion with the ducal coat of arms in a delicate scrollwork frame, with multiple intertwined volumes of script and two tablets”. On the far left and right in a scroll frame there are three Latin distiches and six rhyming German verses in praise of Stuttgart, which Jonathan Sauter probably wrote himself. Sauter's work so impressed his contemporaries that it was copied twice immediately after it was written: in 1593, by Francesco Valegio, clearly coarsened in his town book, and in 1595 more finely, by Dominicus Custos on behalf of Antonio Albizzi for his work on the genealogies of European rulers. The original by Sauter, which was only published in a small edition, was considered lost for a long time and was only found again by Max Bach at the end of the 19th century .

and display information about the image
Jonathan Sauter: View of Stuttgart (etching, 1592). In the middle you can see the castle , on the left the city with the collegiate church , on the right the New Lusthaus .

In 1594, Sauter made a similar style view of Ulm, which he dedicated as an etching to the Ulm Council and presented it with 42 prints, illuminated and framed by hand. A few months later the council decided to reward him with 100 fl and to deliver this money together with a letter of thanks to his brother-in-law, the Ulmer Eisenzoller Peter Stamler. In 1596/97, Sauter made descriptions of the copperplate engravings by Wendel Dietterlin with the depictions of the princely ancestors, which he made on behalf of the duke, and received 20 fl.

Sauter was still active as a portrait painter. In 1596/97 he painted seven portraits of the fugitive alchemist Georg Honauer , which should serve to capture him. At this time he also painted portraits of Duke Friedrich with one of his daughters.

Sauter's topographical depictions of cities stand out from other works of this time due to their realistic conception and the exactness of observation - especially the view of Stuttgart from 1592 - and they can be regarded as the highlight of the city vedutas.

Sauter's son Hans Konrad († before 1623/24), who died early, was a chancellor, but like his father he was also an artist. In 1611/12 he etched the gilded inscriptions in the new princely crypt.

Received works

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ a b c Werner Fleischhauer: Renaissance ... , p. 176.
  2. ↑ a b Werner Fleischhauer: Renaissance ... , pp. 182/83.
  3. ↑ a b c The Renaissance in the German Southwest , p. 944
  4. ↑ Compare also: Th. Musper: Did the Jesuits burn the picture of Brenz? In: Schwäbisches Heimatbuch , 1935, pp. 23-25.
  5. ↑ Hans Rott: Sources and Research ... , p. 294.
  6. ↑ four-part iamb with pair rhyme. The Latin and German text have essentially the same content, but the sequence of the statements is e.g. Sometimes different, the direction of view of the city from the south is already given in the first line in the Latin text and in the fifth line in the German text.
  7. ^ Hansmartin Decker-Hauff: The Stuttgart cityscape by Jonathan Sauter from 1592 .
  8. ↑ cf. Max Bach: Pictures from old Stuttgart , collected and provided with text by Max Bach and Carl Lotter, Stuttgart: Lutz 1896 (unchanged reprint: DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 1983, ISBN 3-87181-234-X ).
  9. ^ Description of the individual buildings, etc. in Hagel J (1992) Official Journal of the State Capital Stuttgart 48/1992, pp. 14-15
  10. ↑ Hans Rott: Sources and Research ... , p. 42.
  11. ↑ Hans Rott: Sources and Research ... , p. 290.
  12. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: Renaissance ... , p. 374.
  13. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: Renaissance ... , p. 387.
  14. ↑ Illustration: Gustav Wais : Die Stuttgarter Stiftskirche, with a building history by Adolf Diehl , Stuttgart 1952, plates 70 and 71.
  15. ↑ Illustration: Max Schefold: Tübinger old city views , 1953, Fig. 1.
  16. ↑ Illustration: Max Schefold: Old Views from Württemberg , 1956/57, Fig. 293.

literature

  • The Renaissance in the German Southwest , catalog of the exhibition “The Renaissance in the German Southwest between the Reformation and the Thirty Years War” in the Heidelberg Castle June 21 - October 19, 1986, 2 volumes, Karlsruhe: Badisches Landesmuseum 1986, ISBN 3-923132-08-5 , P. 944 (contribution by Otto Pannewitz)
  • Werner Fleischhauer : Renaissance in the Duchy of Württemberg , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 1971
  • Hansmartin Decker-Hauff : The Stuttgart cityscape by Jonathan Sauter from 1592 , anniversary gift for the 50th anniversary of the Städtische Girokasse Stuttgart, Stuttgart undated (1966)
  • Hansmartin Decker-Hauff: History of the City of Stuttgart , Vol. 1, Stuttgart 1966
  • Walther Pfeilsticker: New Württembergisches Dienerbuch , Vol. 1: Court, Government, Administration , Stuttgart: Cotta 1957
  • Hans Rott : Sources and research on southwest German and Swiss art history in the XV. and XVI. Century. II, Old Swabia and Imperial Cities , Stuttgart: Strecker and Schröder 1934
  • Max Bach : Jonathan Sautter, milliner and arithmetic master in Ulm . In: “Württembergische Vierteljahreshefte für Landesgeschichte” 3, 1880, pp. 130–131

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Sauter, Jonathan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sautter, Jonathan; Sauter, Jonatan; Sautter, Jonathan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Württemberg milliner, typist and arithmetic master, as well as draftsman and engraver
DATE OF BIRTH 1549
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulm
DATE OF DEATH 1612
Place of death Stuttgart