Pacher Altar (St. Wolfgang)
The Pacher Altar (1471–1479) in the parish and pilgrimage church of Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut (Upper Austria) is a pentaptych , a convertible altar with a main shrine, two movable outer and two movable inner wings. The shrine is decorated with sculptures , the wings are painted on both sides. A small part of the carvings in the shrine is colored, the greater part is gilded. The theme of the main shrine is the Coronation of Mary . The winged altar with its three sides is the only completely preserved altar by Michael Pacher today .
History of the altar
At the end of the 15th century, Sankt Wolfgang in the Salzkammergut was one of the most popular pilgrimage sites. That is why Abbot Benedikt Eck from Mondsee Monastery , to whose domain the place belonged, was looking for something very special to decorate the church. In 1471 in Bruneck in South Tyrol , he found Michael Pacher, the master to whom he wanted to entrust the production of a valuable altar. Michael Pacher worked in his workshop in Val Pusteria for almost 10 years, then the altar was dismantled and transported to Lake Wolfgang.
The winged altar is well preserved and has remained unchanged since it was painted over in 1625. Restoration work carried out in 1856/62 and 1969/76 only served to clean and secure it.
description
The altarpiece is 10.88 meters high and, with the wings open, 6.60 meters wide. The original height from the cafeteria to the top was 11.50 meters, but when the reredos were set up, the top had to be shortened by about 60 centimeters. The altar contains 71 carved and mounted sculptures and 24 individual paintings. The shrine, cracks and sculptures are made of Swiss stone pine, the casement frames and picture panels are made of spruce wood.
The convertible altar has a pair of movable outer and a pair of movable inner wings, which allow a change between a weekday, a Sunday and a festival side during the church year. All wings are painted on their front and back sides, the main shrine is decorated with sculptures and flanked by shrine guards. The weekday side shows scenes from the legend of Wolfgang , the Sunday side shows events from the life of Jesus, the festive side shows motifs from Jesus and Mary. The altar has a predella that can be closed with a pair of wings and a vent with ten sculptures.
The weekday side, front side with closed wings
The weekday page is devoted to hagiography . The four panels show motifs from Wolfgang's vita. When the altar is closed, the shrine guards can be seen, on the left side of the shrine the sculpture of St. George, on the right that of St. Florian. Both saints are in armor and carry long lances that protrude above the height of the shrine. The figure of St. Catherine can be seen above Georg , and that of St. Margaret above Florian .
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Closed Predella : The Four Latin Church Fathers
The pictures of the church fathers with their attributes in St. Wolfgang are very similar to those of Pacher's church father altar for Neustift monastery near Brixen, which are now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. Here as there, Gregory the Great can be seen with Emperor Trajan , a pagan whom he redeemed from the flames of hell with his prayers according to a vision of Dante . Next to him is shown Hieronymus pulling a thorn from a lion's paw. On the right wing of the predella are Augustine with a child who wants to scoop out the sea, a symbol of the unfathomable Trinity of God, and Ambrose with a child in a cradle, since he was saved from a swarm of bees as a child.
The Sunday side, front side with the outer wings open
The Sunday page has a christological focus. With the outer wings open, four motifs are presented in two rows, miracles and events from the life of Jesus:
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With the exception of the baptism of Jesus and the multiplication of the bread, which are located in a landscape, the scenes are strongly characterized by buildings with Gothic architecture, which almost always fill the entire background. With the temptation of Jesus by the devil, all three temptations are represented simultaneously, the call of the devil to Jesus to turn stones into bread, to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple and to prostrate himself before him and to worship him. The first temptation is the main scene. In most of the pictures Christ is surrounded by many people; alone with his counterpart, but supported by angels, he is only at baptism and temptation.
Closed Predella: The Four Latin Church Fathers
The festive side, front side with open inner wings
The wings
The opened inner wings show four scenes from the life of Mary and Jesus:
The contextual connection of the wing paintings and the main shrine is based on the motif of the death of the Virgin. Christ appears above the dying Mary, surrounded by hovering angels, below a round arch to take his mother up into heaven. The subsequent coronation of Mary is depicted in the main shrine.
The main shrine
In the richly gilded main section, the crowned Mary kneels before her son. The Mother of God and Queen of Heaven should also recite the intercessions of the people here. The two are surrounded by 16 angels, some of whom play music, others hold precious cloths and robes. The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove hovers over them. The fact that a coronation of Mary is depicted by Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit but without God the Father is unprecedented in the pictorial tradition. Either only Christ or God the Father performs the ceremony, or Mary is crowned in the presence of the Trinity.
The large figures on the side represent St. Wolfgang and St. Benedict . The shrine is also surrounded by a bar, which shows the prophets and Old Testament ancestors of Christ in finely carved, small figures.
The predella
The pair of wings of the predella is open and allows the view of a three- dimensional representation of the Adoration of the Magi . The inside of the wings are decorated with panel paintings, the motif on the left wing is the Visitation of the Virgin Mary , on the right the flight to Egypt. Hidden in the frame around the Predell shrine we find two typological models for the adoration of the kings from the Old Testament . On the left side to bring three armored hero King David water in golden pitchers (1 Chr 11.15 to 19), wrapped around a thistle Ranke, right enough in a vine with red grapes, the Queen of Sheba , followed by two servants, King Solomon a golden treasure chest.
Currently, except during Lent, you can always see the festival side of the Pacher Altar. In the past, this sight was only granted to believers on high Christian holidays.
The burst
The basic structure of the blast consists of five two-storey canopy towers with ten fully plastic sculptures. The top sculpture in the middle of the blast represents God the Father. Below him, Archangels Gabriel and Mary form the motif of the Annunciation of the Lord . Below the Annunciation you can see Christ on the cross with the assistants Mary and John (Evangelist) . On the left side of the burst we find below the Archangel Michael as the devil's conqueror and soul weigher, above him a holy nun, possibly Scholastica . At the bottom on the right-hand side is John the Baptist , the Savior's forerunner, with St. Ottilie above him .
The back of the altar
The back of the shrine, completed in 1479, is very elaborately decorated with images of saints. In the middle there is an image of St. Christopher at the height of the shrine . The areas to the left and right of it are halved. In the upper half St. Otmar and Francis of Assisi are depicted on the left, Eustachius and Aegidius on the right , Erasmus and Ulrich on the lower left , Clare and Elisabeth on the lower right .
On the back of the predella the four evangelists Mark, Luke, John and Matthew are depicted with their attributes. Together with the four Church Fathers on the front, they symbolize the foundation of faith.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rainer Kahsnitz, page 86
- ↑ Manfred Koller , page 31
- ↑ Rainer Kahsnitz, page 80
literature
- Rainer Kahsnitz : The large carved altars. Late Gothic in southern Germany, Austria and South Tyrol. Hirmer, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7774-2625-3 .
- Manfred Koller : Michael Pacher's winged altar in St. Wolfgang (= studies on monument protection and preservation. Volume 18). Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-205-98900-7 .
- Herbert Schindler : The carved altar. Masterpieces and masters in southern Germany, Austria and South Tyrol. Pustet, Regensburg 1978, ISBN 3-7917-0754-X .
- Berta Reichenauer: The altar to St. Wolfgang by Michael Pacher. Thaur, Vienna / Munich 1998, ISBN 3-85400-072-3 .
- Franz Fuhrmann: Michael Pacher. The St. Wolfgang Altar. Reclam, Stuttgart 1967 (Reclam's work monographs).
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 44 ′ 16.6 " N , 13 ° 26 ′ 51.4" E