Nikolaus Eisenberg

Nikolaus Eisenberg (* around 1420 in Eisenberg (?); † after 1482 in Leipzig (?)) Was a German painter who was best known for his carved bell drawings .

Life

Nikolaus Eisenberg, whose name comes from Eisenberg in Thuringia, was first mentioned by name when he painted an altarpiece in 1446 for the church of the former Franciscan monastery in Zeitz , to which he belonged as a monk , on the back of which the painter and the year of creation were recorded. The picture has not been preserved.

It can be traced back to Leipzig for the period from 1452 to 1482. This makes him the earliest known painter in Leipzig. His name was on the bell decoration of the Osianna bell of Leipzig's Nikolaikirche, which was cast in 1452 . He signed the scratch drawing of a bell in Elstertrebnitz south of Leipzig in 1460 with “ Niclaus eysenberg moler zu Leypck hat diß ” ( pictures torn were omitted due to lack of space).

In 1465 he bought a house at St. Peter's Church . In the same year he enrolled at the Leipzig University , presumably to come under its jurisdiction . In the event of war, homeowners had to provide weapons and equipment. For Eisenberg in 1466 were listed: "a crossbow , a hat (probably meant helmet), a shield and a Koller ". According to a Turkish tax book from 1481, again as a house owner, he had to pay seven groschen of this tax.

During his time in Leipzig, Eisenberg carried out bell carvings in Panitzsch , Merseburg and at the Leipzig Thomaskirche . The Leipzig City History Museum owns two panel paintings from the Nikolaikirche, which are attributed to Nikolaus Eisenberg because of the similarity of the characters with the carved bell . But there are also doubts about this ascription.

For the city council, he painted and gilded city buildings ( town hall , cloth house). The last recorded activity of this type was in 1482.

Works

St. Martin - Bell scratch drawing in Elstertrebnitz

Panel painting crucifixion

The incised drawings on the Gloriosa of the Thomaskirche Leipzig

• 1446: Altarpiece in the church of the former Franciscan monastery in Zeitz (not preserved)
• 1452: Bell decorations on the Osanna bell of the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig. The bell suffered war damage in 1633 and was remelted.
• 1458 Incised drawings on the Quarta bell in Merseburg Cathedral.
• 1459: Incised drawings of one of the bells of the Panitzsch church northeast of Leipzig with depictions of a crucifixion group, St. Martin and the archangel Michael fighting the dragon.
• 1460: Incised drawings on one of the bells in Elstertrebnitz with depictions of a crucifixion group and St. Martin, today in the Dresden Museum of Arts and Crafts
• after 1460: Two panel paintings each with the crucifixion with Mary and John and two different saints. Formerly Nikolaikirche, now Leipzig City History Museum. (Attribution)
• 1463: Wall paintings in the Delitzsch town church "St. Peter and Paul"
• 1470: Incised drawings on the Gloriosa of St. Thomas Church with the crucifixion group, Maria Magdalena, and the incredulous Thomas

literature

• Ingrid Schulze: Nikolaus Eisenberg, a Saxon painter and bell scribe from the second half of the 15th century . In: Scratches by lay hands - drawings by medieval sculptors and painters? Figural bell carved drawings from the late 13th century to around 1500 in central and northern Germany , Engelsdorfer Verlag 2006, ISBN 3-939404-95-0 , pp. 171–208
• Ingrid Schulze: Nikolaus Eisenberg, a Saxon painter from the 2nd half of the 15th century . In: Scientific journal of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Ges.-Sprachwiss. X / 1. February 1961, pp. 163-189
• Peter Schwarz: Millennial Leipzig. From the beginning to the end of the 18th century . 1st edition. tape 1 . Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2014, ISBN 978-3-945027-04-2 , pp. 141 f., 153, 155, 258 f .
• Horst Riedel, Thomas Nabert (ed.): Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z . 1st edition. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , pp. 129 .
• Heinrich Wichmann :  Eisenberg, Nikolaus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 411 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Gustav Wustmann : On the earliest Leipzig art history . In: From Leipzig's past . 3rd volume, Leipzig 1909, p. 53ff

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z , p. 129
2. ↑ Depiction of the Crucifixion. (No longer available online.) In: Website of the Leipzig City History Museum. Archived from the original on July 2, 2017 ; accessed on May 8, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ This cloth house, which was connected to the town hall at the time, is not the Gewandhaus built in 1498 on Kupfergasse .
4. ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt : Panitzsch. In:  Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 16. Issue: Amtshauptmannschaft Leipzig (Leipzig Land) . CC Meinhold, Dresden 1894, p. 89.
5. ↑ The church bell , artfully decorated with carved bell drawings , saved the state monument curator Bachmann from melting down in 1917 . Source: Page 134 in: Rainer Thümmel; Roy Kress; Christian Schumann: When the bells went into the field ... - The destruction of Saxon bronze bells in the First World War. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Leipzig 2017, ISBN 978-3-374-05203-5 - there this Eisenberg bell is also shown in postcard size.
6. ^ Nikolaus Eisenberg (Eysenberg) (?). (PDF) Retrieved May 5, 2017 .  (Original publication in: Gleisberg, Dieter (Hrsg.): Kunstschätze aus Sachsen: Masterpieces from Leipzig museums from the Middle Ages to the present (exhibition catalog). Karlsruhe 1991, pp. 248–250)
7. ↑ City Church "St. Peter and Paul" in Delitzsch. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .