Hans Mair (artist)

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The painting "Crucifixion", painted around 1500
The bridge (copper engraving) re. 1499
Simpson with the gates of Gaza Mair von Landshut (copper engraving)

Hans Mair , also Mayr or Mair von Landshut , was a painter and engraver who probably came from Augsburg and worked in Landshut around 1480 and later in Bamberg and Freising .

Live and act

Hans Mair probably came from a family from Ausburg and was trained as a painter there around 1470/75. Around 1480 he entered a painter's workshop, which may have been that of Jörg Breu in Landshut, who is also known as the master of Bavarian St. Wolfgang. The Seidensticker and publisher Hans Wurm, who works in Landshut, created a picture of Anna Selbdritt based on Mair's designs and copied it. This suggests that Mair actually worked in Landshut. Wurm also created the printing forms for Mair's woodcuts. When Breus died around 1485/90, Mair moved to Bamberg to work in Wolfgang Katzheimer 's workshop. Later he probably worked in Freising. The Augsburg city ​​court book names him in 1497. According to this entry, Anna Holbein, the mother of Hans Holbein the Elder , is said to have been his sister. Allegedly he was a copper engraver named Mair, whose first name is not known and who made the engraving "The Hour of Death", in which the city arms of Landshut can be seen. In literature he is therefore called "Mair von Landshut", although he cannot be found in the Landshut archives.

There are three indications for the assumption that Mair worked as a painter in Freising:

  • A passion tablet from the Freising Cathedral sacristy from 1495 has colored engravings that could have been designed by a painter. The painted architecture, on the other hand, resembles the engravings and wooden panels that Mair created.
  • From around 1492 Jan Polack designed a high altar for St. Peter's Church . Two panels on the altar are reminiscent of Mair's style.
  • The Freising painter Mair from 1490 did not work independently and therefore did not have to pay taxes.

While the panels in Freising and two wing paintings in Munich differ stylistically from one another, architectural reproductions in Mair's style can be found in the surrounding area of ​​Freising and Landshut, e.g. in the Sankt Wolfgang Church and in Regensburg paintings.

Works

Today there are 22 copper engravings by Mair, 21 of which mention the name “Mair” and three woodcuts that bear his signature. There are also several drawings, two of which are signed. The paintings in which he is considered the creator due to the motifs are all unsigned, as is a limestone slab showing a passion of Christ depicted in brown tones. Nine of his engravings and two woodcuts date from 1499. Of the drawings ascribed to him, the year 1495 is given for the panel from Freising, for Simon Zelotes the year 1496 and for a drawing by Johannes the year 1498. There is also the Drawing of a standing Mary from 1504, the attribution of which has been correctly revoked.

Mair was probably the first engraver in Old Bavaria to become important. It could be that he was inspired by Albrecht Dürer , who started making copperplate engravings in 1495. It can be clearly seen that he took up the copper engraving tradition of the Upper and Middle Rhine. In many of his works he adopted the style of Meister ES. He reproduced rooms in a bulky perspective projection and worked on the relaxed design of components with small, lively figures.

In his engraving "Young Woman and Young Man" Mair was inspired by the master of the house book . Many of his engravings are characterized by the color treatment of the paper, which was based on hand drawing techniques. He colored the paper heavily and added light heightening to the plate imprint, the positions of which he already planned in the printing plate. This led to the fact that each engraving was unique. As watermarks show, prints of the plates on unpainted paper were sometimes made later.

Mair created three notable images depicting scenes from the Old Testament. "David and Goliath", "Samson and the city gates of Gaza" and "Simson and Dalila" are the only engraved depictions of the 15th century that still exist today. In addition, critics have long praised the engraving "The Shot on the Dead Father", which goes back to the Gesta Romanorum .

literature

Web links

Commons : Mair von Landshut  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gammel 2011, p. 312.
  2. ^ Friedrich Kobler:  Mair, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 563 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Gammel 2011, p. 311.
  4. ^ Friedrich Kobler:  Mair, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 563 ( digitized version ).
  5. ^ Friedrich Kobler:  Mair, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 563 ( digitized version ).
  6. ^ Friedrich Kobler:  Mair, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 563 ( digitized version ).
  7. ^ Friedrich Kobler:  Mair, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 563 ( digitized version ).
  8. ^ Friedrich Kobler:  Mair, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 563 ( digitized version ).
  9. ^ Friedrich Kobler:  Mair, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 563 ( digitized version ).
  10. ^ Friedrich Kobler:  Mair, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 563 ( digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Mair, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mayr, Hans; Mair from Landshut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Painter and engraver
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
DATE OF DEATH 15th century or 16th century