Master of Bronnweiler

As a master of Bronnweiler in is art history an unnamed known woodcarver from Swabia of the Middle Ages called. The artist created a crucifixion group and figures of the Visitation of Mary . These Gothic- style works were probably carved around 1415 for the refurbishment of the choir of the Marienkirche in Bronnweiler, southwest of the city of Reutlingen on the edge of the Swabian Alb. The surviving remains of the groups of figures are now being kept in the Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart and gave the master of Bronnweiler his emergency name after their place of origin .

In his work, the master von Bronnweiler has already moved on from the high Gothic, often still formulaic imagery of sculpture in the late 14th century in Swabia. For example, he begins to make the lines in the drapery of the clothes of his figures flowing and realistic and thus shows the first approaches of a soft style . The typical drapery of the high-quality figures of the Virgin Mary of the Visitation Group has led to suspicions that the master von Bronnweiler may have worked in Ulm in the workshop of the sculptor Master Hartmann .

However, according to experts , the Master von Bronnweiler has not yet achieved the vivid representation that another sculptor in Swabia created at almost the same time, the Master von Eriskirch , whose work already indicates the beginning of the late Gothic in the Lake Constance area. Comparisons of the carving works of different masters in Swabia at the beginning of the 15th century show that the stylistic innovations from the Upper Rhine or Burgundy at the end of the High Gothic period spread at different speeds in Swabia. They also show that artists at that time moved more slowly away from traditional religious imagery and traditional notions of art.

The carving of the master von Bronnweiler is one of the few surviving examples of Gothic sculptures in the region around Reutlingen, the area joined the Protestant beliefs early on, which rejected the Gothic images and their importance for the representation of a 'salvation' and many of the sculptures that adorned the region's churches until the Reformation at the beginning of the 16th century, were removed and then lost.

literature

• Julius Baum : Gothic sculptures from Swabia. Filser, Stuttgart et al. 1921.
• City of Reutlingen (ed.): Figures of salvation. Gothic art from Reutlingen. Stadtverwaltung, Reutlingen 2009, ISBN 978-393-97751-1-9 (booklet accompanying the exhibition of the same name in the Reutlingen Museum of Local History).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Uschi Kurz: Magnificent Gothic show surprises with new findings. Tagblatt online, from November 20, 2009.
2. ↑ Julius Baum: Gothic sculptures from Swabia. 1921, p. 122.