Master Michael (cathedral builder)

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Michael's handwriting: The facade crack F from 1370

Master Michael (also Michael of Savoy, * around 1320, † after 1387) was a Cologne cathedral master builder .

His first mention as magister fabricae ecclesiae Coloniensis is, together with his wife Druda, on the occasion of a house purchase in a shrine deed from 1353. The indication of origin of Savoy is only documented for two of his children, but can also be deduced for master Michael. The close family relationship with the Prague cathedral builder Peter Parler, who was also active at the same time, is striking : his son Michael de Colonia Renis was employed as a stonemason at the Prague cathedral building between 1373 and 1384 and married a daughter of Peter Parler, while conversely the younger Heinrich Parler von Gmünd, a nephew Peter Parlers, was married to a daughter of Master Michael, Drutginis, in 1387. Another son, Rotgher Micheelszoon van Colen , who can also be traced back to the building of the Prague cathedral, was employed in 1369 as the builder of the Nikolaikirche and the Church of Our Lady of Kampen. A daughter Lisa and 1365–1368 a son Peter are named as further descendants, for whom Peter Parler was the eponymous godfather. Michael's son-in-law Heinrich Parler took over the office of master builder in Ulm in 1387 . His father-in-law also recommended him in 1391 as a candidate for the prestigious position as master builder of the Milan Cathedral , where Heinrich, however, had little luck.

Descendants of the master Michael find themselves busy building the Salem Minster in the 15th century , first a Michael and later a Hans von Savoyen . In the middle of the 16th century, Kaspar and Hans Saphoy from Salem were master builders for the cathedral of St. Stephan in Vienna. A coat of arms keystone from 1481 in the Salem Minster shows the builder Hans von Savoyen, who shows both the coat of arms of his family as well as the coat of arms of the Parler with the characteristic angled post. Apparently the prevailing belief was that both families were closely related.

Cathedral builder Michael is the creator of Cologne's west facade as we know it today. The young Archbishop Friedrich III took office in 1370 . von Saar Werden asked him to develop a large and imposing new plan for the west facade, the format of which should go well beyond the plan probably drawn by Peter Parler around 1350 . Michael then developed the facade plan F , which is one of the most famous medieval plans. The construction project turned out to be so ambitious that it could only be completed in the 19th century. Under Michael, as a coin find in the excavation pit of the south tower shows, the foundation of the south-west tower was completed around 1360 and the construction of the rising masonry began. The southern St. Peter's portal with its archivolt figures was completed around 1375, and by 1389 at the latest, the lower tower hall can be expected to be completed.

His successor as Cologne cathedral builder was Jakob von Metz .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Kletzl: Savoy . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 29 : Rosa – Scheffauer . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1935, p. 514 .
  2. ^ Andreas Huppertz: The artist family of the Parler and the Cologne Cathedral. In: Hans Vogts (Ed.): The Cologne Cathedral. Festschrift for the Seven Centuries 1248–1948, Cologne 1948, p. 142.
  3. ^ Johann Josef Böker: Michael of Savoy and the facade plan of Cologne Cathedral. Cologne 2015, p. 106.
  4. ^ Johann Josef Böker: Michael of Savoy and the facade plan of Cologne Cathedral. Cologne 2015, p. 110.
  5. ^ Johann Josef Böker: Michael of Savoy and the facade plan of Cologne Cathedral. Cologne 2015, p. 110 f.
  6. ^ Johann Josef Böker: Michael of Savoy and the facade plan of Cologne Cathedral. Cologne 2015, p. 141 ff.
  7. ^ Johann Josef Böker u. a .: The architecture of the Gothic. The Rhineland. An inventory catalog of medieval architectural drawings. Müry & Salzmann, Salzburg, 2013, No. 129. ISBN 978-3-99014-064-2 . Different dating of the plan around 1270/80 by Marc Steinmann: The west facade of Cologne Cathedral. The medieval facade plan F (= research on Cologne Cathedral. 1), Cologne, Verlag Kölner Dom, 2004. ISBN 978-3-922442-50-9 .
  8. ^ Johann Josef Böker: Michael of Savoy and the facade plan of Cologne Cathedral. Cologne 2015, p. 108.
personal data
SURNAME Master Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German craftsman, fifth Cologne cathedral builder
DATE OF BIRTH 14th Century
DATE OF DEATH after 1387