Master of the Bruno legend

A medieval painter who painted several pictures on canvas for the Brunokapelle of the Charterhouse in Cologne is known as the master of the Bruno legend . It is believed that the painter worked in Cologne until around 1500.

Naming

The artist, who is not known by name, got his emergency name from the cycle of pictures, which was possibly painted around 1486 and depicts scenes from the life and legend of Bruno of Cologne . In art history, the pictures were initially ascribed to various other painters, but were then recognized as the work of an independent artist.

Pictures of the legend of the Bruno

The Brunokapelle of the Cologne branch of the Carthusian Order was consecrated in 1489. Cologne was one of the most respected branches of the order that Bruno of Cologne founded in the 11th century. The cycle of the master of the legend of Bruno, presumably consisting of eleven pictures, depicts scenes from the life and legend of the founder of the order and also wants to show the order and its aims and meaning. At the time of writing, Bruno had not yet been canonized .

The pictures were created in large format, and up to three meters high, partly adapted to the round vault shape of the small cloister of the chapel where they were hung. Some pictures and fragments from the cycle of originally eleven paintings have survived;

• The miracle of the speaking corpse and the conversion of Bruno . (Four parts) Wallraf-Richartz-Museum , Cologne, inventory WRM 0155 AD.
• Loyalty oath of Bruno's companions and visit to the hermit . (Two parts) Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt , inventory GK 28A and GK 28B.
• The clothing of St. Bruno and St. Hugo . Musée du Louvre , Paris, inventory MNR 927
• Confirmation of the Carthusian Order by the Pope and two other fragments. Formerly Bonn, Virnich collection, lost.
• The partridge miracle . Formerly the Silesian Museum of Applied Arts and Antiquities, Wroclaw. Lost.

Donor of the pictures of the legend of Bruno

Each of the pictures is donated by a different prominent donor, who is shown kneeling with his coat of arms on the picture in adoration of the scene. In addition to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Friedrich III. and his son Maximilian , who was a Roman king at the time of the portrait, are further kings, dukes and other noble and ecclesiastical persons among the eleven donors.

The list of donors indicates the importance of the Cologne monastery and the foundation was probably the first and for a long time only painted picture in Cologne that was created in such a monumental format.

The work of the master was perhaps the decisive factor in the subsequent painting of other large cycles of saints in Cologne, including the work of the Cologne master of the Ursula legend , which originally consisted of at least 19 canvas paintings and is dedicated to the Ursula legend.

Painting style

The style of the master of the Bruno legend suggests an apprenticeship in the environment of the master of the life of Mary , who worked in Cologne from 1460 to 1490 and whose strong style, which was influenced by the Dutch painting of his time, can also be found in the Bruno cycle.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rolf Wallrath: The Collections of Baron von Hüpsch - A Cologne Art Cabinet around 1800 (exhibition catalog, Schnütgen Museum), Cologne 1964, No. 75.
2. ↑ Ulrike Mader: Adoration of saints as order propaganda. For the interpretation of a cycle of pictures from the Cologne Charterhouse. In: Werner Schäfke (Ed.): The Cologne Charterhouse around 1500. A journey into our past. (Essay volume for the exhibition). Cologne 1991, pp. 275-290.
3. ↑ List after Katja von Baum: Painting on a textile image carrier in the 15th century in Cologne. Paintings inventory - manufacturing techniques. Catalog part. Dissertation Bamberg 2012, p. 186 ( digitized version ).
4. ^ Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud (ed.): Altkölner painting. Inventory catalog of Cologne panel and canvas painting from 1300 to 1550. Cologne 1990, pp. 244–245.
5. ↑ Hugo von Grenoble dresses Bruno and Hugo. at Artigo .
6. ↑ Werner Beutler: The eleven founders of the late medieval Bruno cycle for the Cologne Charterhouse. A search for clues. In: Werner Schäfke: The Cologne Charterhouse around 1500. A journey into our past. Essay volume, p. 307.

literature

• Johann Jakob Merlo : A representation from the legend of Saint Bruno in the city museum in Cologne. In: Organ for Christian Art. Organ of the Christian Art Association for Germany 15, 1865, pp. 100–102.
• Johann Jakob Merlo: arts and crafts in the Carthusian monastery in Cologne. In: Annalen des Historisches Verein für den Niederrhein 45, 1886, pp. 1-52.
• Rolf Wallrath: The collections of the Baron von Hüpsch - A Cologne art cabinet around 1800. Exhibition catalog (Schnütgen Museum), Cologne 1964, no. 75.
• Erich Egg: Saint Bruno with his students. In: Kulturreferat des Landes Tirol (Ed.): Exhibition Maximilian I. Innsbruck. Catalog of the exhibition from October 1969. Innsbruck 1969, p. 150.
• Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud (Ed.): Old Cologne painting. Inventory catalog of Cologne panel and canvas painting from 1300 to 1550. Cologne 1990, pp. 244–245.
• Werner Beutler: The eleven founders of the late medieval Bruno cycle for the Cologne Charterhouse. A search for clues. In: Werner Schäfke (Ed.): The Cologne Charterhouse around 1500. A journey into our past. (Essay volume for the exhibition). Cologne 1991, pp. 291-318.
• Ulrike Mader: Adoration of saints as order propaganda. For the interpretation of a cycle of pictures from the Cologne Charterhouse. In: Werner Schäfke (Ed.): The Cologne Charterhouse around 1500. A journey into our past. (Essay volume for the exhibition). Cologne 1991, pp. 275-290.

Web links

• Master of the Bruno legend in the picture index