Magdalene retable
The Magdalenenretabel (also: Münnerstädter Altar) is a retable that was created between 1490 and 1492 by the Würzburg sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider for the altar of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Maria Magdalena in Münnerstadt in the Lower Franconian district of Bad Kissingen .
history
Altar retable by Tilman Riemenschneider
On June 26, 1490, Tilman Riemenschneider received the order from the Münnerstadt council and the church carers in the presence of Nikolaus Molitor von Ebern, Commander of the Teutonic Order , pastor Johann König von Arnstein and two representatives of the Counts of Henneberg, “a work of tables, vff den hoen altare ... in kore, after displaying a visire [elevation drawing] to be made with praise «. The wages were to be 145 guilders and the altar was to be erected at Easter 1492.
Riemenschneider's true-to-scale construction drawing has been lost, but the planned appearance of the retable can be traced back to the implementation regulations that have been preserved.
Inside the central shrine, the middle of three pictures should show Mary Magdalene , who is raised by six angels over a desert landscape with a decorated altar; a seventh angel was to hold a crown over her head. Mary was to be shown completely naked, only covered by her hair; this type is based on a mixture with the legend of Mary of Egypt . On one side of the reredos, St. Elisabeth of Thuringia , on the other side St. Kilian to be seen. In conversation narrow the divine should Trinity in the form of the mercy seat of a picture of Mary and the Evangelist John flanked. John the Baptist should be seen above the Trinity . The predella should contain representations of the four evangelists Matthew , Mark , Luke and John. On the inside of the two wings of the shrine, a total of four reliefs should be seen: on the right wing the anointing of Jesus' feet by Mary Magdalene and the encounter between Mary Magdalene and the risen Christ, and on the left wing the last communion of Mary Magdalene by Bishop Maximinus von Aix and the angels who perform Mary Magdalene's funeral.
The reredos were set up late in the autumn of 1492 and with minor deviations from the drafts; Riemenschneider acknowledged the last down payment on September 30, 1492.
The 15 meter high Magdalene retable for St. Maria Magdalena was possibly Riemenschneider's first high altar . It was one of the first altars of its time whose figures were not provided with the usual color coating, i.e. not framed , but instead were glazed with a glue coating provided with color pigments . Only the star eyes of the sculptures were painted black and the mouths were given a slight red tint. It can no longer be proven whether the decision against the color version and in favor of the glue coating was made by Riemenschneider or his client, and the reasons for this.
Parts of the altar today
original
- Above: Mercy Seat; John the Baptist; John the Evangelist
- Main part: St. Kilian; hl Elizabeth; Relief panels on the right
Copies in Münnerstadt, made by Lothar Bühne (Bad Neustadt)
- Main part: Maria Magdalena surrounded by angels 1976-77 (original in the Bavarian National Museum, Munich); Relief panels on the left 1992 (the upper original panel is also in the National Museum; the lower original panel is also in the Bode Museum , Berlin)
- Below: The Four Evangelists 1978 (original in the Bode Museum, Berlin)
- Everything above the mercy seat, as well as the vegetable decorations, are not historical, but modern additions by Julian Weber ( Vasbühl ).
Angel on the Magdalene figure (detail).
Angel on the Magdalene figure (detail).
Predella of the Magdalene retable with the four evangelists .
Edited by Veit Stoss
In 1497 it was considered for the first time to apply a conventional color version; a painter from Hassfurt applied for this job. The commission for setting and gilding the altar finally went to the Nuremberg sculptor and painter Veit Stoss in 1504 . Shortly before - after he had forged a promissory note and was threatened with trial in Nuremberg - he had fled to his son-in-law Jörg Trummer in Münnerstadt. Veit Stoss received 220 guilders for the execution of the order probably mediated by his son-in-law . The amount of the wage is probably based on the purchase of the required paints and metals.
In addition, Veit Stoss created four panels depicting the Gailana conspiracy that led to the martyrdom of St. Kilian , Kolonat and Totnan led. The pictures are the only surviving paintings by Veit Stoss. A comparison with the corresponding depiction on the Kilian window in St. Maria Magdalena Church suggests that Veit Stoss was inspired by the depiction of the Kilian window in his execution . This is expressed, for example, in the depiction of some figures and the depiction of entire scenes such as the scene of Kilian's murder.
At an unknown point in time, the four panels were trimmed from the side. Today they are on the north wall (left) of the choir.
Demolition and reconstruction
In 1649/53 the Riemenschneider altar was torn down; Individual parts of the altar were sold: Two parts are now in the sculpture collection of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Prussian cultural heritage : the group of figures The Four Evangelists and the relief panel The Appearance of Christ to Maria Magdalena . In the Bavarian National Museum in Munich also are originals. However, the image of Mary from the burst is lost.
As part of the church renovation (1970–1979), the Riemenschneider altar was reconstructed from 1979 to 1981, with the remaining parts of the altar being restored and the sculptor Lothar Bühner making copies of the parts of the middle group that were once sold. Other involved in the reconstruction were the artist Julian Walter from Vasbühl (now part of Werneck ), who was responsible for the cracks, the veil work, the figure plinths and the desert landscape under Magdalena representation, as well as the Munich master carpenter Josef Weiß.
The restored high altar was consecrated in 1981.
literature
- Riemenschneider in Franconia , text by Hanswernfried Muth, updated by Iris-Kalden-Rosenfeld, Karl Robert Langewiesche Successor, Hans Köster Verlagsbuchhandlung AG, Königstein im Taunus, 1977 & 2009, ISBN 978-3-7845-1245-7 , p. 32ff.
- Georg Dehio : Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Bavaria I: Franconia: The administrative districts of Upper Franconia, Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia: BD I , Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich Berlin, 2nd, reviewed and supplemented edition, 1999, pp. 643-646.
- Eva Ulrich, Hartmut Krohm: The Magdalenenkirche in Münnerstadt , Karl Robert Langewiesche successor, Hans Köster Verlagsbuchhandlung KG, Königstein im Taunus, 2004 (5th edition)
- The Riemenschneider altar in the parish church of St. Maria Magdalena Münnerstadt , Verlag Schnell & Steiner GmbH Regensburg, ISBN 978-3-7954-4682-6 , 5th revised edition: 2010
- Iris-Kalden-Rosenfeld: Tilman Riemenschneider and his workshop - With a catalog of the works generally accepted as the works of Riemenschneider and his workshop , Karl Robert Langewiesche successor, Hans Köster Verlagsbuchhandlung AG, Königstein im Taunus, 2015, ISBN 978-3-7845-3226 -4 , pp. 31-42
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Lothar Bühne: Biography. Retrieved July 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Julia Hecht, Christian Hecht: Masterpieces of medieval glass painting in the parish church of St. Maria Magdalena in Münnerstadt (= Henneberg Museum Münnerstadt. Volume 4). Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2001, p. 19
- ^ The Riemenschneider altar in the parish church of St. Maria Magdalena Münnerstadt , Verlag Schnell & Steiner GmbH Regensburg, 5th revised edition: 2010, p. 24
- ^ A b Eva Ulrich, Hartmut Krohm: Die Magdalenenkirche in Münnerstadt , Karl Robert Langewiesche successor, Hans Köster Verlagsbuchhandlung KG, Königstein im Taunus, 2004 (5th edition), p. 38
- ↑ The Four Evangelists from the Münnerstädter Retabel. In: SMB Digital. Retrieved July 12, 2020 .
- ↑ The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene. In: SMB Digital. Retrieved July 12, 2020 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 14 ′ 57.8 " N , 10 ° 11 ′ 44.8" E