Michel Erhart
Michel Erhart , also: Michael Erhart (* around 1440/45 presumably Constance; † after 1522 in Ulm) was a sculptor and carver of the late Gothic period and worked particularly in Ulm and around Ulm . He belongs to the Ulm school . The exact biographical data are so far unclear.
Life
After years of traveling, which took him to Constance and Strasbourg , but also presumably to the Netherlands , Erhart came to the free imperial city of Ulm, where he worked from 1469.
Erhart initially worked in the workshop of Jörg Syrlin the Elder in Ulm . Ä. on the choir equipment of the Ulm Minster. He was then commissioned to create “quite a few pictures” for the (lost) high altar of Ulm Minster and probably had his own workshop with several journeymen in Ulm from 1474 at the latest. Later his sons Gregor Erhart and Bernhard Erhart continued his work.
Michel Erhart was artistically shaped by the new, spacious and realistic style of the then famous Dutch sculptor Niclas Gerhaert van Leyden , whose work he had studied in Strasbourg, among other places, and in whose Strasbourg workshop he may even have worked. Influences can also be seen from the painter Rogier van der Weyden .
Works (selection)
Erhart's most famous works today include the cheek busts in the choir stalls in Ulm Minster , which were formerly Jörg Syrlin the Elder . Ä. were attributed.
- Collaboration on the choir stalls of the Ulm Minster, 1469–1474
- Collaboration on the high altar of Ulm Minster, which fell victim to the iconoclasm
- Bust of a young woman in the costume of the Burgundian court , u. a. also known as the beautiful Ulmerin , around 1475
- Collaboration on the Fischkastenbrunnen in Ulm, especially the knights are attributed to him, 1482
- Crucifix in the Besserer Chapel of the Ulm Minster, after 1490
- Shrine figures of the Blaubeuren high altar in the Blaubeuren monastery, 1493
- Crucifix in St. Michaelis Church in Schwäbisch Hall , 1494 (signed by name, considered to be secured)
- Choir arch crucifix in Martinskirche in Landshut , 1495
- Marien Altar in Lautern , 1509
- Ravensburger Schutzmantelmadonna , around 1480–1490
Largely lost:
- Equipment in the Salem Minster
The Blaubeurer high altar
The Blaubeuren high altar, created between 1493 and 1494, is located in the choir of the church of the former Benedictine monastery of Blaubeuren . It is almost twelve meters high and was made by the Ulm sculptor Michel Erhart and his son Gregor Erhart, who moved to Augsburg in 1494, where he probably died in 1540. Before that he worked in his father's workshop in Ulm. The main sculptural work on the altar has recently been attributed to his father Michel.
The Blaubeurer Altar is a convertible altar with two pairs of hinged wings and a predella . The outer wings, the outer sides of the inner wings and the predelle wings are painted. The three-dimensional features only come into their own when all the wings are opened. In the predella, Christ and the apostles are depicted in carved half-figures, while in the center of the shrine the mother of God with the child in her arm is fully sculpted on the crescent moon. To the right of her are John the Baptist and Benedict, the founder of the order, on the left, John the Evangelist and Saint Scholastica, the founder of the female branch of the Benedictine order. The right wing of the altar shows the relief of the Nativity, while the left wing shows the adoration of the kings. In the middle part of the burst stands Christ as the Man of Sorrows, next to him on each side an angel with the instruments of suffering. Mary and John and three busts of saints under each of them are placed in the lateral bursts. The two excerpts above the open inner wings show the bishop and former abbot Heinrich Fabri on the left and the portrait bust of Count Eberhard from Württemberg in a beard on the right .
The Blaubeurer Altar combines sculpture, relief and painting and thus shows the characteristics of the German carved altar around 1500.
Shrine and predella of the altar
Mother of God with baby Jesus
John the Baptist (right) and Saint Benedict
John the Evangelist (left) and Holy Scholastica
Individual evidence
- ↑ Since 1977, art historical research has for the most part assumed that Erhart was the author of most of the cheek busts on the choir stalls (Deutsch 1977, Gropp 1999 and exhibition catalog 2002).
- ↑ Baumgartner, Mathias; Schömann, Bernhard; Stahleder, Erich: collegiate and parish church St. Martin Landshut (spiritual church leader). Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2003. 2nd, updated edition 2010; P. 22. ISBN 978-3-7954-1578-5 .
- ^ Uwe Geese: Gothic sculptures in France, Italy, Germany and England . In: Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Gothic, architecture - sculpture - painting. Könemann, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-89508-313-5 , pp. 300–371, here p. 351.
- ^ Uwe Geese: Gothic sculptures in France, Italy, Germany and England . In: Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Gothic, architecture - sculpture - painting. Könemann, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-89508-313-5 , pp. 300–371, here pp. 359–361.
- ^ Volker Gebhardt: crash course art history: German art . DuMont, Cologne 2002.
- ^ Werner Schäfke : Crash Course Gothic . DuMont, Cologne 2007.
literature
- Brigitte Reinhardt (eds.): Michel Erhart & Jörg Syrlin d. Ä. Late Gothic in Ulm . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1718-1 . (basic overview with older literature)
- Barbara Maier-Lörcher: Masterpieces Ulm Art . Süddeutsche Verlags-Gesellschaft Ulm in Thorbecke-Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 .
- David Gropp: The Ulm Choir Stalls and Jörg Syrlin the Elder. Studies on architecture and sculptures (= New Research on German Art, Vol. 4). Berlin 1999 (also on the question of Erhart's authorship of the cheek busts).
- Wolfgang Deutsch: The former high altar and the choir stalls. On the Syrlin and the sculptor question , In: 600 years Ulm Minster, ed. by Hans Eugen Specker and Reinhard Wortmann. Ulm 1977, pp. 242-322.
- Gertrud Otto : Erhart, Michel. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 583 f. ( Digitized version ).
Web links
- Literature by and about Michel Erhart in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Erhart, Michel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Sculptor and carver of the late Gothic |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1440 |
| DATE OF DEATH | after 1522 |
| Place of death | uncertain: Ulm |