Mrs. Stuckhatorin

Scagliola- Antependium of a certain woman Stuckhatorin in the castulus altar .

Below the octagonal dome are the Scagliola works.		The dorsal of the choir stalls and the corner pilasters (here on the left) carry Scagliola.

Ms. Stuckhatorin is the makeshift designation for a woman whose name is not known with certainty, who was responsible for the unsigned Scagliola work on the rear walls of the choir stalls (dorsal), the castulus altar and on six corner pilasters of the St. Lorenz Abbey and Parish Church in Kempten , which was built from 1652 to 1748 . This unanswered question about the masters has occupied numerous historians for decades. The craftsman is one of the few plasterers in the 17th century and one of the few women who were involved in the design of the church. She worked in a time when men and women were not equal and women were not allowed to be members of guilds ; they were only involved in textile guilds ( weavers and other textile guilds) to a minor extent.

The Munich master Barbara Hackl is usually suggested to identify the historical person behind the makeshift designation , but Maria Salome Freismich has also been named.

Sources of the makeshift name "Mrs. Stuckhatorin"

The interior of the collegiate church began in 1660. In measurements from the year 1666 by the builder Johann Serro , the designation "Stuckhatorin" appears for the first time in this context, a name is not mentioned. In October 1669 a woman Stuckhatorin sued the accounting officer of the court chamber of the prince monastery of Kempten . In January 1670 she asked for eight guilders a month as a fee for her work from April to December 1669 and asked if they would like to continue to employ her in her craft, since the necessary materials such as plaster of paris, paints and alabaster , apart from a mountain blue , are still available be. In particular, the choir stool of Cardinal Bernhard Gustav von Baden-Durlach was not yet ready. At first no agreement was reached. Soon the court chamber gave in to the demands. Later, the stucco worker , who was still unknown by name, submitted a list of the works she had made between 1668 and February 4, 1670. She did not receive any further orders because the construction costs were already very high and the prince monastery with the large construction site, consisting of the new church and the residence , was heavily in debt. The panels for the choir stalls were completed due to their importance for the exclusively noble clergy .

Master question

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  Flower composition with coat of arms of the prince monastery

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  Architectural representation, here a church

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  Architectural representation with a view of a landscape

The art historian Norbert Lieb (1907–1994) was the first to attribute the Scagliola work to a Barbara Fistulator in the art magazine Das Münster in 1957 . Lieb points out that in southern Germany, Scagliola art was closely linked to the Munich court and the Fistulator family, who were paid by the court and mainly engaged in work for the Munich residence . Since 1613 the Bavarian Court had the monopoly on Scagliola work, and the Scagliola technique was subject to secrecy, so that no unskilled person could practice this technique. So not many women were eligible for this job. In the Kempten archives a woman Stuckhatorin with the first name Barbara is mentioned several times, another reference to Barbara Fistulator. It was the master plasterer Barbara Hackl from Munich . From 1624 Hackl had learned the Scaliogla technique, privileged by Duke Maximilian I, from Blasius Pfeiffer, who was also known as the Blasius Fistulator (around 1585 – June 1622), as a journeyman at the Munich court . Fistulator is the Latinization of the name Pfeiffer . In 1621, Barbara Hackl married his son Wilhelm Pfeiffer (Wilhelm Fistulator; † January 10, 1669), whereupon she was also called Barbara Fistulator . With Wilhelm Pfeiffer, she had three children with their sons Franciscus (1626–1660) and Ferdinand (1640–1679) and their daughter Maria Theresia (1634–1707). Maria Theresa is said to have later helped with her husband Andreas Römer with the Scagliola work. The two sons worked at least temporarily as plasterers for the fistulator family in Munich. Barbara Hackl is said to have come to Kempten around 1665 and created the Scagliola works on the choir stalls and the corner pilasters in the octagon-shaped choir in the new St. Lorenz Abbey and Parish Church in Kempten (Allgäu) . The fruit pendants and flower tendrils in the heart cabinet of the Munich residence show similarities with the Kempten works and also with the wall paneling of the grotto room, compared to the oval scagliola panels in the cartouches in the top of the choir stalls.

In 1958/59 the work was attributed to Maria Salome Freismich († February 10, 1695), who can be proven in Kempten from 1652 onwards, and occasionally the variation of the surname Friday and Freutmich appears in the church records. Maria Salome Freismich was the wife of the lesser-known sculptor Georg Schmölz (Schmelz), with whom she later had three children. It is possible that Barbara Hackl taught her this craftsmanship, which is considered to be costly, and Freismich only created the medallions in wooden attachments, which were of lesser quality and different formats. Because a medallion frame contains the carved number 1678 on the back , which indicates that the medallions were later placed on the stalls. But it is also possible that the medallions were stored.

Ms. Freismich is only considered by one author and is no longer mentioned in further research. Barbara Hackl is always named as a very likely originator. She carried out her last work in Kempten in 1670. According to the parish registry , Hackl was buried on May 4, 1674. In the area of St. John's Church in Kempten- hood lock a traffic route was named Barbara Hackl-street in a residential area ⊙ .

Works

Orientation plan:
• Location of the choir stalls until 1844 or 1848 (red)
• Location since 1848 at the latest (green)
• Corner pilasters (blue)
• Castulus altar (brown)

The castulus altar, two corner pilasters with scagliola fillings on the side.

One of the two panels in the castulus altar from the former pulpit.

Ms. Stuckhatorin worked in the Scagliola mischia ( Italian for "mixed stucco marble") process. This technique makes use of the art of stucco marble , in which layers of different materials (organic and inorganic) and the grinding of the surface create a multicolor simulating stone ( pietra dura ). The art historian Norbert Lieb described these Scagliola works as unique.

• Dorsal in the choir stalls (until 1670; 35 of 40 preserved)
• Six wall panels in the corner pilasters of the choir (c. 1666)
• Antependium (before 1668) and two depictions of flower vases (1669/70) in the castulus altar

Dorsal in the choir stalls

What is striking about the Scagliola works in the dorsals of the choir stalls of the collegiate church of St. Lorenz is that they do not show any religious or Christian motifs. In terms of motif, the works can be categorized into landscape depictions, architectural depictions (with a view of the landscape) and flower compositions. People are often recognizable in the “bizarre fantasy landscapes”: a fisherman with a fishing rod on the bank , two people on a raft or a boat, two monks in frocks or a hiker with a dog. There are ruins, castles, bridges and churches shown. Silhouettes of settlements can be seen in the background.

Sometimes these designs are surrounded by quasi-architectural ornamental frames. A few works show the coat of arms of the Princely Monastery of Kempten with the head of the founder Hildegard , the wife of Charlemagne . Two other plates bear the coats of arms of the prince abbots Roman Giel von Gielsberg and Bernhard Gustav von Baden-Durlach , his coadjutor .

The choir stalls originally consisted of 40 seats, which were completely dismantled and divided up in 1844 or 1848. Until then, the two rows of 19 seats each stood in a slightly oval shape in front of the high altar ( Marienaltar ). The chair of the prince abbot and his deputy, the prior, was separate .

By 1848 at the latest, only 28 seats - alienated from their original purpose - were placed behind the four pillars of the octagon on the sloping walls, four stables with scagliola were initially distributed in the church. Since the church was restored in 1994, the four stables have been in the gallery of the choir dome. Three individual plates are in museum use, five have been lost.

In 2010, Sybe Wartena hypothesized that some of the panels that had been used as the rear walls of the chairs (dorsals) since 1848 were not originally dorsals, as had previously been assumed, but were attached as vertical panels in the front row below the desk. If one were to proceed from the previous assumption, the view in the second row would be blocked or this row would have to have stood on a high platform with steep stairs, which, according to Wartena, is incomprehensible.

Castulus altar

The Scagliola works in the Kastulus Altar are by “Frau Stuckhatorin”, as the comparison of styles shows: In the antependium with the Marian monogram in the middle, flowers and leaves entwine on a black background. It originally belonged to an earlier main altar erected in 1668. This was later replaced. The antependium was built into the new altar in 1684. The Scagliola inlays to the side show amphora-like vessels with plant tendrils on a black background. These two inlays come from the pulpit from 1670, which was replaced in 1685 .

Wall fillings in corner pilasters

The six high, pilaster- like panels in the corner pilasters on the side of the three choir arms (north, east, south choir arm), one of which was inserted in 1666, follow the design concept in the castulus altar. A tendril of flowers and leaves rises from vases on a black background.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ the back wall in the choir stalls
2. ^ Alexander Duke of Württemberg: City of Kempten (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume VII.85 ). Schnell & Steiner publishing house, Munich / Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-7954-1003-7 , p. 102 .
3. ↑ Margret Wensky: Woman - C. The woman in medieval society - III. The woman in urban society . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 4, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7608-8904-2 , column 864 f.
4. ↑ Martha Roediger: The collegiate church St. Lorenz in Kempten: A contribution to the history of the southern German baroque architecture. August Hopfer, Burg bei Magdeburg 1938, pp. 74–76.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Norbert Lieb: "The woman Stuckhatorin" of the collegiate church in Kempten. In: The Minster . 10th year, issue 3/4. Schnell and Steiner, Munich 1957, p. 124 f.
6. ↑ Elena Agnini, Anne-Marie Haagh-Christensen, Gabi Schmidt, Ingrid Stümmer: Production, technology and restoration of stucco marble work. The Scagliola plates in the choir stalls of St. Lorenz in Kempten. In: Restauro, magazine for art techniques, restoration and museum issues. 102nd year, issue 2. Callwey Verlag, Munich 1996, ISSN  0933-4017 , p. 102.
7. ^ ^{A b} Michaela Liebhardt: The Munich Scagliola works of the 17th and 18th centuries. Dissertation. Munich 1987, p. 160.
8. ↑ Rudolf Schmid: Forgotten employees report. In: Heimatverein Kempten (Ed.): Allgäuer Geschichtsfreund. Kempten 1958/1959, pp. 51-53.
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Sybe Wartena: The South German choir stalls from the Renaissance to Classicism. Dissertation at the LMU Munich. Munich 2008, Chapter 15.1: “Kempten”, pp. 349–369 (904 pp., Deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de ( memento of the original from March 14, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet Checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. [PDF; 600 kB; accessed on March 13, 2018]). 
10. ↑ Erwin Emmerling: On the furnishing of the former Benedictine monastery and parish church, today's parish church of St. Lorenz in Kempten. In: The restoration of the St. Lorenz Basilica in Kempten (=  workbooks of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation. Volume 72.) Edition Lipp, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-87490-542-X , p. 97.
11. ↑ Note: In certain publications it is again claimed that Hackl moved to Vienna at his own request in 1678 ( "Bürgerfleiß und Fürstenglanz." Reichsstadt and Fürstenglanz. Kempten. House of Bavarian History , Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-927233-60-9 , p. 284).
12. ↑ Wanja Wedekind: Scagliola: On the trail of possible origins and spreads of a European art technique. In: ICOMOS - booklets of the German National Committee . Vol. 50, Munich 2010, ISSN  2365-5623 , pp. 213-221.
13. ↑ Josef Focht: The Gloria of the Angels in the Prince Abbey of Kempten. Kunstverlag Peda, Passau 1998, ISBN 3-89643-098-X , p. 32.
14. ^ Hugo Naumann: Kempten Basilica of St. Lorenz . Kunstverlag Peda, Passau 2011, ISBN 978-3-89643-836-2 , p. 17th f .
15. ^ Michaela Liebhardt: The Munich Scagliola works of the 17th and 18th centuries. Dissertation. Munich 1987, p. 149 f.
16. ^ Michael Petzet : City and district of Kempten. (= Bavarian art monuments. Vol. 5), 1st edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1959, DNB 453751636 , pp. 10, 15 f.

literature

• Wanja Wedekind: Scagliola: On the trail of possible origins and spreads of a European art technique. In: ICOMOS - booklets of the German National Committee . Volume 50. Munich 2010, ISSN  2365-5623 , pp. 213-221.
• Sybe Wartena: The South German choir stalls from the Renaissance to Classicism. Dissertation at the LMU Munich. Munich 2008, Chapter 15.1: “Kempten”, pp. 349–369 (904 pp., Deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de [PDF; 600 kB; accessed on March 13, 2018]).
• Michaela Liebhardt: The Munich Scagliola works of the 17th and 18th centuries. Dissertation. Munich 1987.
• Elena Agnini, Anne-Marie Haagh-Christensen, Gabi Schmidt, Ingrid Stümmer: Production, technology and restoration of stucco marble work. The Scagliola plates in the choir stalls of St. Lorenz in Kempten. In: Restauro, magazine for art techniques, restoration and museum issues. 102. Vol. 2. Callwey Verlag, Munich 1996, ISSN  0933-4017 , pp. 100-107.

Web links

Commons : Choir stalls in the St. Lorenz Basilica in Kempten  - collection of pictures

This article was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 4, 2018 in this version .