Cologne city view from 1531

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Cologne city view from 1531, detail from the center

The Cologne cityscape from 1531 is one of Anton Woensam originating woodcut , the careful and detailed full-size and shape of the profile view , the late medieval Cologne shows.

prehistory

Anton Woensam, actually not a cartographer like Arnold Mercator later , dealt with painting, woodcut and book illustrations, especially with Christian motifs. That is why he did not choose the topographically necessary bird's eye view with streets for his work , but opted for a city panorama. Here he brings together the sacred and profane buildings of that time, as they were presented as the Rhine front with a view from east to west. It was considered the first city drawing in Germany after Jacopo de 'Barbari 's depiction of Venice from 1500. Since the view of the city was planned as a gift for the coronation of Ferdinand I in Cologne in January 1531 , it can be assumed that Woensam began work in 1529 at the latest. More precise information about the cartographic preparation and the possible inspection of the buildings have not been handed down. In any case, Woensam drew up individual site sketches along the banks of the Rhine and put them together to form an overall view.

Iconographic interpretation

The city view provides a vivid idea of ​​the structural shape of the late medieval Cologne Rhine panorama with its over 16 gates and several defensive towers of Cologne's old town . The woodcut represents the most beautiful view of the Cologne river front, in which Woensam reproduces Cologne, which is also reinforced by the wall on the river side, with the greatest attention to detail. Apart from a few inconsistencies, Woensam's drawing is the most detailed representation of Cologne. From a cartographic point of view, it is a panoramic side view, a parallel perspective composed, wide-angled horizontal projection , central perspective on the vertical image plane with a horizontal angle of about 140 °. The foreground of the picture is dominated by water and ships to show the flourishing trading metropolis, the upper half symbolizes “holy Cologne” through the abundance of sacred buildings; Both characteristics can be realized through the profile representation. Woensam was only able to incorporate the buildings in the city center using perspective tricks such as the superimposition of several facades, even if the comprehensive view of the city center was not in the foreground for him. The difficulty was to include structures further to the west, although they were covered by higher buildings in front of them. That is why he placed buildings further to the west higher inland so that they would not be covered by the ones in front of them.

buildings

Anton Woensam - Detail: The Gürzenich ("Gortzenich") next to St. Mauritius

Woensam looked across the Rhine from the east and showed Cologne on the left bank of the Rhine in profile. He gave the Rhine front of Cologne in all its breadth and the city profile in the depth and completeness imaginable. His detailed woodcut even shows the window and facade design of the buildings. Due to the perspective view, only higher structures are visible, which in turn cover lower structures further west. In particular , he provided sacred buildings with name tags, but profane buildings only rarely ( Bayenturm = "Beyen torn", Frankenturm = "Francke torn", Kunibertsturm = "Cuniberts torn" and Gürzenich = "Gortzenich"). In addition, the tower of the Richmodis House rises as “C. Pallacivs “(Caesaris Pallacius, Imperial Court, in which the expected emperor would descend) in front of St. Apostles in the Cologne sky. Of the twelve Romanesque churches today, the following are named: St. Severin , St. Maria in Lyskirchen, here referred to as "XES-Kerche" and still with Romanesque choir, St. Georg , St. Pantaleon , St. Maria in the Capitol still with westwork - Towers, St. Cäcilien in the background, St. Aposteln (“ad aplös”), Great St. Martin , St. Gereon with its octagon , St. Ursula with a twisted “S” and finally St. Kunibert . Of the Romanesque parish churches are St. Johann Baptist (TSO SĀT JAN), the Romanesque tower of St. Peter of the double church complex with St. Cäcilien, St. Alban and St. Kolumba . The still unfinished Cologne Cathedral ("Templū St. Petri et St. Trium Regum" (with a line above the "ū" for the "m"); St. Peter's Church and the Three Kings) is flanked by St. Gereon in the south (and further in perspective in the background) and the former collegiate church Maria ad Gradus (AD MA BEGRADUS) in the north. A named chapel is St. Nicolai ("Capellanicolai"). The southernmost former parish church of St. Maria Magdalena with the Severinstorburg, which is in the immediate vicinity of St. Severin and named by Schild, is included as well as the former St. Johanniter Church of St. Johann and Cordula (S. JAN CORDE) in the north. The northernmost church is the former St. Lupus Church. The Frankenturm at its height is part of the Rhine wall like the fish gate ("Fich porce") at the height of the fish market in front of Groß St. Martin. The tower of the Cologne city hall (Do [mus] Senato [rum]) was 10 meters higher than the stump of the cathedral tower and formed an important component in the cityscape, which a few years before the city hall tower 1393-1411 by the 45 meter high west tower of St. Severin had received a prominent accent in the south. In particular, the south tower of the cathedral seems strangely alienated. You can also see the former Herrenleichnam monastery ("T [emplum] Corporis christi") on the Klingelpütz , although a building in front of it only leaves the roof and a remnant of the wall crown visible. The sign "SEYEN" indicates the former Sion monastery on Seyengasse. A few meters from the Frankenturm there is a building that rises from the escape of the city ​​wall in the manner of a risalit . It was the tower of the three- story Trankgassentores , which had a round arched doorway and ended with a tent roof . The Cologne Charterhouse (“ad cartusianos”) is also clearly highlighted.

Ships and port facilities

Anton Woensam - Dutch Ships or Aaken (detail)
Anton Woensam - Oberland ships (detail)

Woensam's panorama shows brisk shipping traffic on the Rhine . The view clearly shows that the Cologne harbor stretched along the entire Rhine wall of the city and was heavily frequented. There was no port basin yet, port traffic was handled by ship piers. Since the Rhine and ships are in the foreground in perspective, they can be analyzed precisely. Woensam shows two different types of ships on the Rhine , the limit of which was exactly in Cologne. Due to the flow conditions at the transition between the Middle and Lower Rhine , the so-called Dutch actually traveled the Lower Rhine to the north of the church Groß St. Martin, while the Oberlanders traveled south of Cologne. Woensam provides information about the appearance of the Oberland and Dutch ship types at that time. At the level of Salzgasse and Groß St. Martin, a sloping wooden frame probably marked the dividing line for the Oberland ships and the Dutch Aaken; this was also the port of transshipment from one ship to another. Today's Cologne street names Niederländer Ufer and Oberländer Ufer reflect these different types of ships. In addition, are Lauer Tannen (built of pine one-way ships from the Upper Rhine) moored that transported Coming less valuable bulk commodities from the Upper Rhine and were dismantled at their destination and sold as timber. Woensam also shows the process of towing the Dutch Aaken. They left the Cologne port and returned with goods such as coffee, tea, rice, tobacco, sugar and spices. The cityscape immortalized a total of four cranes , one of which was over 20 meters high. Two large floating cranes are depicted in the Rhine , which are set in motion by pedal drums. In addition, this attention to detail provided precise insights into the shipbuilding of the time , the mill technology and views of the Rhine mills . He correctly depicted the eight ship mills near the Werthchen . Woensam also shows two washing ships .

Detailed representations

  • Sheet 1: Bayenturm, southern part of Werthchen and ship mills (1531)

  • Church of St. Severin and Severinstorburg; in the foreground shipbuilding on the Werthchen

  • Groß St. Martin, in the foreground the sloping wooden frame as the dividing line between the Oberland and Dutch ship types (1531)

  • Detail of the cathedral area (1531)

  • Machabäerkirche to Eigelsteintorburg (1531)

  • Sheet 9: St. Kunibert, Kunibertstor and Thürmchen (1531)

  • Washboat 1: Two women wring out a bed sheet

  • Washboat 2: Four women washing, the one on the left washes the laundry, the two in the middle exchange messages, the one on the right listens

Print design

Text field of printing block 1: Depiction of the Emperor Charles V and his brother Ferdinand, the newly elected King of Rome; Representation of the people as figures standing in niches, in between a dedication text (1531)

Woensam's "Great View of Cologne" is a monumental, extra-wide illustration using the woodcut technique, consisting of 9 sheets joined together, which he probably had commissioned by the city council. Sheet 1 begins in the south of the city, sheet 9 ends in the north. The monumental view of the city of Cologne occupies a prominent position because he created one of the largest European city brochures. Due to its dimensions of 59.2 × 352.6 cm and its quality, the panorama is one of the best known and most important of its kind and time. Other formats (62 × 343 cm, 51.5 × 343.2 cm or 59 × 351 cm) do not match the original.

The Cologne book printer and publisher Peter Quentell, son of one of the most famous book printers in Germany at the time, Heinrich Quentell , made the print. As a book publisher, Quentell was responsible for the selection of images and accompanying texts; he further adorned the work. Various saints float in the clouds, Agrippa and Marsilius can be seen on the right and left, each with one of the two city coats of arms. Angels hold a ribbon with the inscription "COLONIA". He equipped the view with a dedication for Emperor Charles V and the majesties and electors expected in Cologne. The greatly shortened poem of praise for the city of Cologne in the form of the "Flora" by Hermann von dem Busche (1508) adorns the work; The author had recited the detailed poem of praise to members of the old University of Cologne and the city ​​council in 1508 at a spring festival . This is followed by the monogram of Woensam. The title signature "O felix agrippina nobilis romanorum Colonia" (Oh happy Agrippina, you noble Colonia (/ colony) of the Romans (inside)) rounds off the woodcut.

publication

This work was intended as a present for Emperor Ferdinand I and was presented to him when he was elected Roman-German King on January 5, 1531 in the still unfinished Cologne Cathedral. Quentell handed over the work to both Charles V and Ferdinand I personally. The recipient should keep the Free Imperial City of Cologne in good memory. At that time Cologne was the second largest city in the Holy Roman Empire after Nuremberg with 30,000 inhabitants , which was illustrated by Woensam's monumental work. The panorama surpassed the previously published city views of Cologne in format and topographical accuracy and is Woensam's main work. On February 1, 1531, a second print with full text followed. After Woensam's death, a second edition was published in 1557. In 1864, Johann Jakob Merlo made Woensam's work more accessible through a replica. The original is on display in the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin . A photographic reproduction by the Cologne lithographic institute Th. Fuhrmann from 1898 is kept in the Cologne City Museum and the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne .

Frans Hogenberg / Georg Braun - Colonia 1572

The following city views of Cologne

Woensam's illustration can be found in almost every topographic literature about Cologne since then. This was followed by the Cologne city view from 1570 by Arnold Mercator ( Rheinisches Bildarchiv 56350) as well as city views by Frans Hogenberg (1572; RhBA 37591), Matthäus Merian (1620; RhBA 5747), the same (1632; RhBA 76944), the same (1646; RhBA 4477) ) or Wenzel Hollar (1656; RhBA 153292), who stayed in Cologne between 1632 and 1636. Hollar created a 16-part copperplate engraving on behalf of Abraham Hogenberg in 1633 or shortly thereafter , which, however, was not published by Gerhard Altzenbach until 1656 . The Cologne city map from 1752 finally showed the largely unchanged medieval Cologne before the start of the Wilhelminian era .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Lutz Philipp Günther, The pictorial representation of German cities: From the chronicles of the early modern times to the websites of the present , 2009, p. 42.
  2. ↑ Daniel Friedrich Sotzmann , About des Antonius von Worms illustration of the city of Cologne from 1531 , 1819, p. 50.
  3. ↑ a b Horst Kranz, Die Kölner Rheinmühlen , 1991, p. 310
  4. ^ Revue suisse d'art et d'archéologie, volumes 42–43, 1985, p. 258
  5. ↑ Lutz Philipp Günther, The Pictorial Representation of German Cities: From the Chronicles of the Early Modern Times to the Websites of the Present , 2009, p. 51.
  6. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sotzmann, Über des Antonius von Worms' illustration of the city of Cologne from 1531 , 1819, p. 22.
  7. ↑ Otto Dann, Religion, Art, Fatherland: The Cologne Cathedral in the 19th Century , 1983, p. 15
  8. ^ Hugo Borger, The Cologne Cathedral in the Century of Its Completion , 1980, p. 92
  9. ↑ Klaus Gereon Beuckers, Cologne - The Churches in Gothic Time , 1998, p. 356
  10. ↑ flat-bottomed, 25 meter long and 4 meter wide cargo ships, called “Aar” or “ Aaken ” in Cologne .
  11. ↑ a b Christoph Ohlig, Ten Years of Water History Research and Reports , Volume 1, 2012, p. 201 f.
  12. ↑ Claus Rost, 2000 Years of Shipping on the Rhine , 1991, p. 78
  13. ↑ Richard Deiss, As far as the rivers carry , 2011, p. 35.
  14. ^ After Max Geisberg , The German single-leaf woodcut in the first half of the 16th century , 1923–1930.
  15. ^ Paul Wietzorek, Das Historische Köln , 2006, p. 66.
  16. ^ Hugo Borger / Frank Günter Zehnder , Cologne: The city as a work of art - city views from the 15th to 20th centuries , 1982, p. 72.
  17. ^ A b Carl Dietmar / Gérald Chaix, Chronik Köln , 1997, p. 160 f.
  18. ↑ Heinz-Dieter Heimann, city ideal and city patriotism in the "old town" using the example of the "laudationes Coloniae" of the Middle Ages and the early modern times , in: Historisches Jahrbuch der Görres-Gesellschaft, Volume 111, 1991, p. 25.
  19. ↑ Ludwig Röhrscheid, Annalen es Historischen Verein für den Niederrhein , Edition 50, 1890, p. 78.
  20. ↑ Messages from the Cologne City Archives, Volume 12, 1902, p. 3.
  21. ↑ Heinz-Dieter Heimann, city ideal and city patriotism in the "old town" using the example of the "laudationes Coloniae" of the Middle Ages and the early modern times , in: Historisches Jahrbuch der Görres-Gesellschaft, Volume 111, 1991, p. 9.
  22. ^ Hugo Borger, The Cologne Cathedral in the Century of Its Completion , 1980, p. 94.

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