Raeren stoneware
Raerener Steinzeug is a type of ceramic product that was produced in the early modern period in the pottery village of Raeren , which is now in Belgium , whereby the name encompasses the entire stoneware production between Verviers , Eynatten and Aachen . Raeren stoneware is one of the Rhenish stoneware products . It is characterized by a strong red-brown salt glaze, which is similar to that of Frechen stoneware . Raeren stoneware production reached its peak in the second half of the 16th century. Today the products of Raeren stoneware manufacture are considered to be a European cultural heritage.
history
In the Raeren pottery district, stoneware production probably began as early as 1400. Initially, stoneware vessels were produced that still bear great resemblance to contemporary products from South Limburg and Langerwehe. Around 1500 the production of stoneware vessels of national importance begins. While the products of the early 16th century still seem coarse and primitive, stoneware production here turns into handicraft from the middle of the 16th century. At the beginning of this development, the Raeren potters merged with potters from the neighboring villages of Neudorf , Kettenis- Merols and Titfeld . From the second half of the 16th century, around 50 master potters in the pottery district, who called themselves "pot bakers", are known. However, the workshops of the Mennicken family, whose most famous master was Jan Emens Mennicken , were decisive . The pottery families Kalf and Kran also gained importance.
The upswing of the Raeren pottery is apparently related to the expulsion of the stoneware potters from Cologne after 1566. It is possible that Cologne workers found a new job in Raeren workshops and brought their technical knowledge and motifs with them. Since then, elements of the High Renaissance have been introduced into the Raeren pottery art in the range of types that were still Gothic.
During the last quarter of the 16th century, the Raeren pottery workshops reached their artistic and economic climax.
Analogous to the development in Siegburg, there was also a migration of many potters to the Westerwald and the Kannenbäckerland in Raeren at the beginning of the 17th century . The potters who stayed behind gradually stopped making vessels with red-brown salt glaze and in the 17th century also switched to blue-gray goods, which are stylistically based on the baroque stoneware products of the Westerwald ( Westerwald stoneware ). They expanded their range of shapes to include beer mugs and tankards .
After the 30s of the 17th century, the Raeren workshops finally lost their importance. There are no external reasons for the decline. In the 18th century, the local potters mainly produced beer mugs without artistic height.
technology
For the Raeren pottery district, the clay was mined south of Aachen from the regional clay deposits between Lichtenbusch , Berlotte and Kettenis. The clay burns to a gray to yellow-brown body. It is coarser than the clays of the deposits that the Cologne or Siegburg workshops were able to access.
Raeren stoneware was usually provided with a light to red-brown engobe under a transparent salt glaze. This sprue is similar to the glazes that were used in Cologne and Frechen. Similar to Anno Knütgen in Siegburg, but three years earlier and with greater success, Jan Emens Mennicken experimented with cobalt blue glazes in Raeren from 1584.
Form spectrum
The range of shapes of the stoneware produced in the Raeren pottery district initially consisted of utility ceramics such as jugs, jugs and drinking utensils. The Raeren potters usually copied vessel shapes from Cologne, Frechen and Siegburg. However, the Raeren clay camps were unable to deliver such fine clays that would allow the creation of similar filigree reliefs. So the Raeren potters placed the emphasis on precise shaping.
The products of the pottery district between Verviers, Hauset, Eynatten and Aachen appear uniform in the decor and design of the goods. Vessels from the first half of the 16th century still appear rather coarse. In the second half of the 16th century they were at their handicraft peak. The products now appear more precise and finely worked, even if they do not achieve the filigree thin walls of Siegburg stoneware. In the choice of motifs for the decorative overlays, the theme of peasant dance or peasant wedding dominates, based on contemporary copperplate engravings by Sebald Beham .
Another popular motif is the representation of the then seven electors of the German Empire on jugs with a cylindrical body.
Three-handle mug
The three-handle mug is the leading form of Raeren stoneware. Around 1500, the Raeren potters began to use three handles instead of the usual one. This feature can also be found in the artisan jugs of the second half of the 16th century.
Cylinder belly mug
Another vessel shape characteristic of Raeren is the so-called cylinder belly jug. With this jug, the otherwise bulbous body of the vessel is cylindrically straightened, so that a surface for a picture frieze is created. This area was often decorated with the motif peasant dance or peasant wedding, often after copper engravings by Sebald Beham.
Other cylinder bellied mugs show the Old Testament depiction of the story of Susanna in the bath after engravings by Abraham de Bruyn . These are also called Susan's jugs after their motif.
Raeren face jug
Around 1500 bulbous jugs were made in Raeren with incised contours of male faces with beards above the center of the vessel, some of which were also modeled. In contrast to the Bartmann mug, the face is not limited to a modeled mask pad. Face jugs can be equipped with a ribbon handle or come in the three-handle shape typical of Raeren.
Similar to the Bartmann mugs from the Aachen-Raeren area, the face mugs also feature bagpipe blowers.
Raerener Bartmann mug
In the second half of the 16th century, Bartmann mugs were also made in Raeren . Pear-shaped drinking and serving mugs are referred to as Bartmann, which wear a single bearded male face mask on the neck and shoulder of the vessel. This type of vessel based on the Cologne model can be found in almost all Rhenish pottery centers in the 16th century. For Bartmann mugs from Raeren, in addition to the stronger colored salt glaze, very long beards are typical in the design of the face rest.
Another specialty in Raeren are bagpipe- blowing beard men, as they are known in a similar form from a pottery in Aachen's Franzstraße.
Firing aids
Raeren stoneware production knows firing aids in longitudinally oval, rectangular and round shapes, the flat disks often had half to three quarters of a circle-shaped edge cutouts through which the glaze deposit could also settle on the inside of the vessel. In Raeren there are large numbers of small, round firing aids that have impressions of ribbed ribbon or beaded handles. It probably served to support the sensitive handles. Furthermore, strikingly thick beads, ring-shaped pieces and more or less randomly shaped firing aids are also represented in the finds.
Research history
Between 1870 and 1882, Laurenz Heinrich Hetjens had the first systematic excavations carried out in Raeren. The aim of this was to win vessels for his art collection. Together with vessels from excavations in Siegburg, these finds formed the basis for the German Ceramics Museum .
Otto von Falke presented a first comprehensive presentation of Raeren stoneware in 1908.
In 1949/50 Otto Eugen Mayer began scientific excavations in the entire pottery district. Until his death in 1981, Mayer devoted himself to researching the history of Raeren stoneware and undertook numerous excavations together with Michel Kohnemann and Leo Kever. The Mayers, Kohnemanns and Kevers found pieces became the core of the stoneware collection of the Raeren Pottery Museum .
A scientific analysis of the blue-gray baroque ware of the 17th century, which looks confusingly similar to the Westerwald stoneware, is still pending.
Awards
On May 8, 2007, the Raeren stoneware and its reference collection in the Raeren Pottery Museum received the European Heritage Seal .
literature
- Otto von Falke: The Rhenish stoneware. 2 volumes. Berlin 1908.
- Heinrich Hellebrandt: Raeren stoneware. IA Mayer (in comm.), Aachen 1967.
- Michel Kohnemann: editions on Raeren stoneware. Society for the Promotion of the Raeren Pottery Museum. Raeren 1982.
- Michel Kohnemann: Raeren's pottery family Mennicken. Raeren 1992.
- Karl Koetschau : Rhenish stoneware. Munich 1924. pp. 38-46.
- Herbert Lepper (Ed.): Stoneware from the Raeren and Aachen area. Aachen History Association, Aachen 1977. ISBN 3-87519-017-3
- Caroline Leterme: New archaeological finds in Raeren. New archaeological finds in Raeren. Most important finds of decorated fragments from the rescue excavations in Schulstrasse in Raeren 1999-2000. Keramos 175/176, 2002. pp. 169-184.
- Ralph Mennicken: Raerener Steinzeug: European cultural heritage. Grenz-Echo Verlag, Eupen 2013. ISBN 978-3867120852 . 484 pp.
- Gisela Reineking von Bock: stoneware. Decorative Arts Museum of the City of Cologne. Cologne 1986.
- Gisela Reineking von Bock: stoneware in Raeren. For the 25th anniversary of the Raeren Pottery Museum. Keramos 125, 1989. pp. 87-106.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Otto Eugen Mayer: Twenty-five years of excavations in the Raerener Land. In: Lepper 1977, pp. 163-202.
- ^ Tünde Kaszab-Olschewski : The life of the archaeologist Otto Eugen Mayer in the field of tension between world and local politics. In: Archaeological Information . Volume 33, No. 1 (2010), pp. 43-50, doi: 10.11588 / ai.2010.1.10256 .
- ^ Grenz-Echo edition of May 11, 2007, p. 11.
