Levin stork

Hildesheim, Magdalenenkirche, Passion Altar "Elffenaltar"

Rethen crucifixion group in the Museum Schloss Gifhorn

Levin Storch , also Lefen Storch (* before 1524, † around 1546, probably in Braunschweig ) was an important sculptor from Lower Saxony . He can be documented from 1524 in Braunschweig, where he created church sculptures out of wood until the introduction of the Reformation in 1528. From 1531 he made stone reliefs and heraldic reliefs in the service of Duke Ernst the Confessor for his castles in Medingen , Gifhorn and Celle . From his first creative period, the winged altars for St. Michael in Hildesheim (today in St. Magdalenen ) and St. Katharinen in Braunschweig (today in the Municipal Museum ) as well as the crucifixion group for St. Nikolai in Rethen (today in Historical Museum Gifhorn). These works are characterized by great liveliness and expressiveness, which, following the example of Tilman Riemenschneider, without colored painting, are achieved solely through the light and shadow effects of the wood.

literature

• Elmar Gruber, Through Finsternis into Licht , Munich 1994, in it: Michael Wolfson: The "Elf Altar" in the St. Magdalenen Church in Hildesheim (p. 67-75), ISBN 3-7698-0781-2
  Wolfson gives a lecture (p. 72 ) the assumption of Gert von der Ostens that the tradition of the nowhere verifiable brothers Elves from the Michaeliskloster as carvers (!) of the altar could be traced back to a corrupt reading of the name Lefen .
• Andreas W. Vetter: Storch, Levin. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 8th to 18th century . Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , p. 680-681 .

Web links

Commons : Elfenaltar (Hildesheim, St. Magdalenen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The Hildesheim “Elffenaltar” in pictures by Raymond Faure