Joseph Weiß (painter)
Joseph Weiß , also Joseph Weiß painter of Balingen (* 1487 or 1488 in Balingen , † after 1565 in Balingen) was a German Renaissance painter .
He comes from a family of painters from Balingen. His father Marx Weiss the Elder († after 1518) and his brother Marx Weiss the Younger (* before 1518 in Balingen; † February 25, 1580 in Überlingen ) were also painters. His brother Samson was court procurator in Rottweil. The latest research by Anna Moraht-Fromm and Hans Westhoff bring him into connection with the master of Messkirch . The corresponding reasoning follows below.
Life
A sample list from the city of Balingen from 1523 names Joseph, a painter, 35 years old , which means that his year of birth can be narrowed down to 1487 or 1488.
The Sebastian Brotherhood, a society that was dedicated to the organization of festive worship services for the plague saint Sebastian and used the income received ( votive candles , alms, etc.) for poor relief , recorded a Joseph painter in 1521 . Between 1522 and 1525 he was named as the brotherhood's keeper.
From 1527 to 1532 he was also an honorary mayor, i.e. responsible for the administration of the city's income and assets as well as the keeping of the city seal .
Between 1502 and 1565 he was regularly named in Balingen in stock books and sample lists. In a Turkish tax list from 1542, the name Marx Maler is immediately behind Joseph Maler, so that it can be assumed that they lived together and probably also worked at that time. According to Urbar from 1543, the house is described as a corner house near the parish churches, according to Balinger Secular Stock Book No. 45 from 1560 as follows: “Interest is set annually outside its corner house between the kirchgaßen and Balthas Mangmaisters, located in the back house, pushes up the gaßen and behind uff ain lere hofstat, eight heller interest ”, d. H. near today's Obere Kirchgasse. In addition, he owned several gardens and meadows as well as a vineyard on the Gallenhalde in the Engelestäle. Due to the low Hofstatt interest of only eight Hellern, the house cannot have been very big.
With one exception, nothing is known of his artistic activities in Balingen. During the renovation of the ball at the top of the church tower in 1743, a document from 1541 that was lost in the meantime and which was still in the deanery archive in 1914 was found. In the city archive, however, the copy was neatly kept. It says: “Ouch has repaid Joseph Weiß Maler zu Balingen for the stars and the moon on them”. This is also the only document that explicitly mentions the name Weiß.
On the question of identity with the master von Meßkirch
The key is a posthumous portrait of Count Eitelfriedrich III. from Zollern . First, this is identified as the work of the master von Messkirch based on stylistic similarities. Particular attention is drawn to the correspondence between the artistic design of the gold background and the altar wing of the Messkirchen high altar: “After the engraving with a partly floral (lilies) partly figurative pattern (putti heads and vases), the spaces in between were filled with hallmarks of the same size. This type of pattern cannot be found anywhere else in the Swabian region. "
Dendrochronological investigations have shown that the fir wood used was felled in 1557, so if the painting was stored for a minimum of two years, the painting should have been created from 1559. A panel painting from 1520 was chosen as the template for the portrait, the dimensions of which were adopted in a ratio of 1: 3. The reason for the creation of such a representative portrait is assumed to be the enfeoffment of Karl I von Zollern with the counties of Sigmaringen and Veringen on March 23, 1561, as “legitimation in image” in a restored ancestral gallery.
Moraht-Fromm / Westhoff now link this picture with a Hohenzollern rentmeister calculation from 1561: “Item uf the 7th day Augusti were given to master Joseph, the painter of Balingen, by my gracious. Count Carl's father Itelfriderichen seliger Gedechtnus uf a hülzin table 4 Schuch high on the hard work pays, according to the slip of paper 24 fl. 4 resp. " With this you establish the identity between the master of Messkirch and the Balingen painter Joseph (Weiß).
How clear is this link now?
- In the absence of signatures, the link between the portrait of Eitelfriedrich III. with the Messkirchen altar wing on professional expertise.
- The documents quoted are exclusively tax and sample lists in which a Joseph painter is mentioned. Our current naming convention did not apply back then. A first name and a job title are sufficient for a clear, current assignment of a person. But in the long period between 1502 and 1565 there could also have been several Josephs with the profession of painters. B. father and son, uncle and nephew, yes, with the calculated date of birth of 1488 even grandfather and grandson.
- Joseph Maler stayed in Balingen all his life. In 1534, if we assume one person, he experienced the Reformation at the age of 46 . As a good Catholic, as shown by his pictures, if we assume an identity, it is difficult to assume that he was allowed to go about his work in Balingen with impunity. The Augsburg interim in 1548 should have given him another breather, but by 1552 at the latest, Duke Christoph's church discipline was again in force . His brother Marx Weiss d. J. left Balingen in 1543, first to Rottweil and after 1550 to Überlingen .
- Even the modesty of his place of residence does not necessarily indicate a successful, supra-regional artistic activity.
- The fact that Samson Weiß, the brother who does not paint, is mentioned in the Zimmerische Chronik, but not the painting brothers, does not necessarily support the assumption that one of the painting brothers Weiß is associated with the rooms and thus with the master of Messkirch although on the other hand it is noticeable that in the detailed description of the structural activities of his uncle Gottfried Werners, the chronicler did not mention the artistic design of the many altars, in contrast to the epitaphs, for example. Moraht-Fromm / Westhoff, on the other hand, point out that Froben Christoph expresses himself in great detail against disproportionately high ecclesiastical foundations that would have ruined many a noble family. So he could have considered the ample furnishing of the parish church in Messkirchen, with a dozen altars and the associated benefices, to be a waste of property that would be better covered in a cloak of silence.
The working title “Meister von Meßkirch” thus continues to have its raison d'etre, even if some indications point to Joseph Weiß, the painter from Balingen.
literature
- Heidrun Bucher-Schlichtenberger: Traces of artists in Balingen . In: 750 Jahre Stadt Balingen , Balingen 2005, pp. 454–455
- Eckart Hannmann: The Balingen painters family white (15th / 16th century) . In: Der Zollernalbkreis , 2nd revised edition, Stuttgart 1989, pp. 218–219
- Anna Moraht-Fromm and Hans Westhoff: The Master of Messkirch. Research on Southwest German painting of the 16th century . Ulm 1997
- Hans Rott: Sources and research on southwest German and Swiss art history in the 15th and 16th centuries. I. Lake Constance area , 2 vols., Stuttgart 1833 (adapted from Moraht-Fromm / Westhoff)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Master of Messkirch
- ↑ Anna Moraht-Fromm and Hans Westhoff: "Der Meister von Meßkirch", Research on Southwest German Painting of the 16th Century, Ulm, 1997, p. 12
- ↑ Anna Moraht-Fromm and Hans Westhoff: "Der Meister von Meßkirch", Research on Southwest German Painting of the 16th Century, Ulm, 1997, p. 220
- ↑ Zimmerische Chronik, Volume 4, page 40
- ↑ Zimmerische Chronik, Volume 1, page 49
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | White, Joseph |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Painter from Balingen; Joseph von Balingen; Master of Messkirch? |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Renaissance painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1487 or 1488 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Balingen |
| DATE OF DEATH | after 1565 |
| Place of death | Balingen |