Master of the Tiefenbronn high altar

Master of Tiefenbronner high altar is the notname a medieval, probably Swabian carver , the wood carvings in the central part of the high altar of the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene in Tiefenbronn has created in Pforzheim.

The monumental groups of figures of the Descent from the Cross and Lamentation of Christ by the artist who is not known by name in the shrine are framed by the wings and the predella with the art-historically known and important pictures by the hand of the Ulm painter Hans Schüchlin from the year 1469. The central carving is probably already originated around the year 1430.

The Tiefenbronn high altar is a typical winged altar of the German late Gothic and unites the carved main scene of the Passion in its center iconographically, first with the painted scenes from the life of Mary and then the life of Christ. On the outside of the wings, the beginning of the Christian promise is first shown with the Annunciation and the birth of Christ as well as the adoration of the kings .

Carvings and pictures are then brought together inside by similar architectural frames, as was often the case in the Middle Ages, as part of a tabernacle-like overall work. In the open state, on this feast day page, on the one hand, Christ's way to death is shown, which seems to end in the central carving of the Descent from the Cross and Lamentation. However, hope in the afterlife is still shown through the risen Christ . The painter of the wing paintings has left the carving of the master of the Tiefenbronn high altar as the highlight of the passion for the viewer. However, determined by contemporary thinking, he let it enter into an overall interpretation of salvation history and wanted to show the late medieval observer not mainly misery and misery, but a promising future. The medieval work of the master of the Tiefenbronn high altar , which may have been created first, is brought into a new late medieval pre-Reformation context.

The work of the master of the Tiefenbronn high altar has been preserved as an important example of Swabian carving art of his time and the carvings in Tiefenbronn and their influence were seen early on in art history as an example of how Swabian wood carvers far beyond the national borders the neighboring regions such as Bavaria and Influenced Austria and more distant areas.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alfred Stange : German Gothic painting. Vol. 8: Swabia in the period from 1450 to 1500. Munich / Berlin 1957, p. 13ff.
2. ↑ cf. to James Rorimer : Three Kings from Lichtenthal . In: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin December 1953, pp. 81ff.
3. ↑ s. e.g. C. Erskine: A History of Art for Beginners and Students - Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. New York 1887.

literature

• F. Krauss: In Tiefenbronn . In: The Christian Art . 10 (1913/14) pp. 105ff.
• Emil Lacroix: St. Maria Magdalena in Tiefenbronn (= Schnell art guide No. 214). 1937. 3rd edition Munich 1961.
• M. Kemp, P. Humfrey: The Altarpiece in the Renaissance. Cambridge University Press, New York 1990, ISBN 0-521-36061-7 .
• Franz Heinzmann, Matthias Köhler, Hermann Brommer : Gothic basilica St. Maria Magdalena, Tiefenbronn. Schnell & Steiner, Munich a. a. 1992.
• Ramona Thiede-Seyderhelm: The Tiefenbronn high altar by Hans Schüchlin 1469. Documentation of its restoration history . In: Journal of Art Technology and Conservation. 7 (1993) pp. 323-342.