Niklaus Weckmann

Birth of Christ and Adoration of the Magi, wing reliefs from the former high altar of the parish church Attenhofen, Ulm around 1515, linden wood, remains of the original and a newer version; Ulm Museum

Niklaus Weckmann (reading of the first name also Nikolaus ) was a German sculptor in Ulm from 1481 to 1526 . He initially worked for orders from Jörg Syrlin the Younger and over time developed his workshop in Ulm into the leading South German carving workshop. He is assigned to the Ulm School . More precise dates of life are not known.

Rediscovery

The name Niklaus Weckmann was no longer known to art historical research in southern Germany or in the city of Ulm until well into the 20th century. So it came about that many of his sculptures were attributed to Jörg Syrlin the Younger . Since the authoritative study by the art historian Wolfgang Deutsch in 1966 and subsequent investigations, particularly in the context of a major state exhibition in Stuttgart dedicated to Weckmann's work in 1993, it has been known that many of the sculptures that were once attributed to Syrlin actually come from Niklaus Weckmann's workshop.

Niklaus Weckmann founded his successful sculpture workshop in Ulm at the end of the 15th century, on the eve of the local Reformation . It can be traced there until 1528. We now know of 600 preserved sculptures; an unknown number was lost, some are mentioned in written documents.

The scientific supervisors of the Stuttgart exhibition assume in the catalog that only ten percent of the medieval works of art have survived, so Weckmann's workshop produced 6,000. This means that this workshop has created at least 70 jobs a year.

Weckmann is considered to be Jörg Syrlin's subcontractor. While Syrlin, as a carpenter, was carving and carving the boxes and molds of an altar, he commissioned Weckmann and his workshop staff to do the sculpting and the setting, and Ulm painters with the panel paintings.

The "Weckmann workshop"

Assignment problems

Because personal assignment to master Niklaus Weckmann is difficult in such a large company and under such production conditions, some museums (e.g. the Landesmuseum Württemberg and the Museum Ulm ) label some of their corresponding exhibits with comments such as: “From the workshop of Nikolaus Weckmann " Or " attributed to Weckmann's workshop " . Many art historians (e.g. Barbara Maier-Lörcher) assume that Weckmann had the largest carving of his time in Ulm. Modern research on Niklaus Weckmann got underway when a corresponding note was found both in the Ulm tax books of the time and on individual works of art. Different spellings are also visible: "byldschnytzer, mayster Nyklas" (Ulm tax book) and "niclaus weckman, bildhawer" (discovered in 1964 on the "Ritter Stefan von Gundelfingen" in the parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Neufra on the Danube near Riedlingen ) . In any case, it must be assumed that there was both the artist Niklaus Weckmann with his own personal style and a "Werkstatt Weckmann" that produced Weckmann works of art with the master's signature even after his death. It is difficult to tell these different "hands" on specific works of art apart.

Foster son Erhart

For art history it is interesting that Niklaus Weckmann also appears in 1506 as the guardian of one of Michel Erhart's children . From this it is deduced that the climate among the Ulm artists was rather friendly at this time; where competition was to be expected, there was a climate of mutual support.

The stepson

After Weckmann's death, the workshop was continued for some time by Weckmann's stepson of the same name, Niklaus Weckmann the Younger.

Important works by Weckmann

St. Katharina, Ulm, around 1510, limewood, formerly colored; Ulm Museum

Early works

• 1490/1495: Saint Sebastian, formerly probably imperial monastery Roggenburg , today Museum Ulm
• 1492: Sebastian altar in Ulm Minster
• 1496–1499: Peter (Apostle) and Paulus of Tarsus in the Church of St. Blaise of Bellamont
• 1498/1519: Marienretable in Reutti near Neu-Ulm , created together with Jörg Syrlin the Younger
• before 1500: various figures made of wood, stone-colored (gray) in the west portal of the Ulm Minster

The 17 figures of the west portal at Ulm Minster can easily be assigned to Weckmann and his workshop, because they contain all standardized, typical building blocks and motifs that appear again and again in other Weckmann pictorial works in ever new variations and compositions.

• before 1500: Remains of a crucifixion group in the Wengen Church in Ulm.

Middle phase

• around 1500: Marienretable in Schwendi
• 1500: Maria with children in the Erbacher Schlosskirche St. Martin
• 1503–1505: Bingen Altar with five sculptures (Mary with the Child, Apostles Peter and Paul, John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene)
• around 1510: Saint Catherine of Alexandria , limewood, old version removed; comes from the Heggbach monastery , now the Ulm Museum
• 1511: High altar in Adelberg Monastery near Göppingen
• 1513: Rother Altar, formerly Sauldorf parish church , then chapel in Roth near Meßkirch, since 1909 in the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums Mannheim
• around 1515: Birth of Christ and Adoration of the Magi, formerly Attenhofen parish church (Weißenhorn) , now exhibited in the Ulm Museum

Late phase

The capture of Christ , Niklaus Weckmann workshop, around 1520, with a version from the 17th century (part of a group of reliefs on the Passion of Jesus from the Zwiefalten monastery , today in the Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart)

• 1520: Marientod in Böttingen , relief originally conceived without a frame, so wood-sighted; Bought in 1818 by the Teutonic Order Church in Ulm, now in a private chapel, built especially for the relief.
• 1520: Mary's death in Ulm- Eggingen ; The motif here is the sinking Maria (originally wood-sighted, now version from the 19th century)
• 1521: Hutzaltar in Ulm Minster
• after 1521: Lamentation group in Merklingen
• 1524: Coronation of Mary in the monastery church of Wettenhausen Monastery

Lost Works

No large high altars by Niklaus Weckmann have survived. Examples would have been:

• High altar for the church in Biberach an der Riss , lost during the iconoclasm in 1531
• High altar for the monastery church in Ochsenhausen , remains in the church of St. Blasius in Bellamont
• Larger altar carvings in the Church of St. Michael zu den Wengen (Ulm)

Many of Weckmann's works have also been dismantled and have survived the centuries as individual works.

literature

• Wolfgang Deutsch: Jörg Syrlin the Younger and the sculptor Niklaus Weckmann , Schwäbisch Hall 1966 (typewritten).
• Wolfgang Deutsch: Jörg Syrlin the Younger and the sculptor Niklaus Weckmann , in: Zeitschrift für Württembergische Landesgeschichte 27 (1968), ISSN  0044-3786 , pp. 39-82.
• Erwin Treu (Ed.): Ulmer Museum, Catalog I: Sculpture and Painting from the 13th Century to 1600 , Ulm 1981.
• Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart (ed.) / Heribert Meurer (conception) / Hans Westhoff (conception): Lots of masterpieces - Niklaus Weckmann's sculpture workshop and painting in Ulm around 1500 ; published for the exhibition in the Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart, Altes Schloß, from May 11 to August 1, 1993, Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-929055-25-2
• Wolfgang Deutsch, Syrlin the Younger or Niklaus Weckmann? , in: Masterpieces en masse - Niklaus Weckmann's sculpture workshop and painting in Ulm around 1500, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-929055-25-2 , pp. 7-18.
• Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Masterpieces Ulmer Kunst , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2

Web links

Commons : Niklaus Weckmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The “Nusplinger Madonna” by Niklaus Weckmann
• Niklaus Weckmann in the Ulmer Museum
• Mourning Johannes by Niklaus Weckmann in the Bavarian National Museum

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wolfgang Deutsch: Jörg Syrlin the Younger and the sculptor Niklaus Weckmann, Schwäbisch Hall 1966 (typewritten); ders., Jörg Syrlin the Younger and the sculptor Niklaus Weckmann, in: Zeitschrift für württembergische Landesgeschichte 27 (1968), pp. 39–82.
2. ↑ Gerhard Weiland (ed.), Masterworks en masse - Niklaus Weckmann's sculpture workshop and painting in Ulm around 1500; published for the exhibition in the Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart, Altes Schloß, from May 11 to August 1, 1993, Stuttgart 1993, in particular pp. 7 ff. and 19 ff.
3. ↑ Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Masterpieces Ulmer Kunst , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , pp. 104-105
4. ↑ Erwin Treu (Ed.): Ulmer Museum, Catalog I: Sculpture and Painting from the 13th Century to 1600 , Ulm 1981, p. 176
5. ↑ Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Masterpieces Ulmer Kunst , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , pp. 34–35
6. ↑ Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Masterpieces Ulmer Kunst , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , pp. 56–57
7. ↑ Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Masterpieces Ulmer Kunst , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , pp. 124–125
8. ↑ Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Masterpieces Ulmer Kunst , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , pp. 50–51
9. ↑ Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Masterpieces Ulmer Kunst , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , pp. 136-137
10. ↑ Wolfgang Urban: Worthy of a cathedral. The masterpiece of the Bingen Altarpiece . Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg i. Allgäu 2018, ISBN 978-3-95976-111-6 .
11. ↑ Erwin Treu (ed.): Ulmer Museum, Catalog I: Sculpture and Painting from the 13th Century to 1600 , Ulm 1981, p. 177
12. ↑ http://www.suedkurier.de/region/linzgau-zollern-alb/messkirch/Spurensuche-im-Museum;art372566,2372298
13. ^ Erwin Treu (ed.): Ulmer Museum, Catalog I: Sculpture and Painting from the 13th Century to 1600 , Ulm 1981, pp. 178–179
14. ↑ Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Masterpieces Ulmer Kunst , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , pp. 66–67
15. ↑ Barbara Maier-Lörcher, Masterpieces Ulmer Kunst , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , pp. 72–73