Council cup of the Neustadt Hanau
The council cup of the Neustadt Hanau is an outstanding silversmith's work from the first quarter of the 17th century of European standing.
description
The goblet belongs to the genus of the Akkelei or bellflower goblet , a shape that was developed in Nuremberg from late Gothic humpback goblets in the second half of the 16th century . The name refers to the shape of the cup dome of the cup, which is modeled on these flowers and unfolds from a narrow shaft (" nodus ") that stands on a broad base. The models for the Hanau Council Cup come from Nuremberg and Augsburg . The cup has an early baroque shape and ornamentation .
The cup is closed by a lid, which is crowned with the figure of a Justitia . The whole cup is fire-gilded . Six virtues are depicted in allegories on the upper section of the cup : love, faith / hope, bravery, humility, wisdom and temperance. The middle section of the cup is ornamented with depictions of plants and animals. The lower part of the bowl shows emblematic animals in further fields that are assigned to the virtues above. Three graces , leaves and fruits adorn the nodus .
The cup is 63.5 cm high and weighs 1850 grams. The base, cup and lid are each made of sheet silver, the figure of Justitia and Nodus are cast. The surface is hallmarked , chased and engraved .
Attribution
The trophy bears the hallmark of the Hanau goldsmiths guild . This was founded with a guild order from 1610. This means that the cup was created after 1610 and was created in Hanau. It is also hallmarked with a maker's mark, a right-facing bird with upturned wings. It is not clear which master used this symbol. The attempted attribution to Hanns or Johannes Rappolt (* 1583, Nuremberg; † May 11, 1625, Hanau) from Nuremberg is controversial. If that were the case, then the cup would have to have been created between 1621, the year Johannes Rappolt immigrated to Hanau, and 1625, the year he died.
Since almost nothing of the gold and silversmith's work from Hanau's production that was created before the Thirty Years War has survived the course of time, the trophy is unique.
History of tradition
The cup was probably created for the Neustadt Hanau , a foundation from 1597, primarily for wealthy religious refugees from the Spanish Netherlands and France , traders and craftsmen from luxury trades. There is no archival record from the time it was created . This only starts with an inventory from 1811. The specific occasion on which the cup was donated is therefore unknown.
Shown in 1880 at the art and industrial exhibition in Düsseldorf , the trophy was sold by the city of Hanau for 20,600 marks to the Frankfurt art and antiques dealers Gebrüder Löwenstein , who built up a collection of international goldsmithing for Mayer Carl von Rothschild . This happened even though it was one of the most important works of art that had ever been produced in Hanau. The city had previously had a replica for the collection of the state drawing academy made by August Schleißner . August Schleißner made further copies of the trophy, which he added to his company's offer and sold. Replicas that were for sale are also known from the Neresheimer company and others.
The Rothschild Collection was dissolved in 1911 and auctioned in Paris . Two French import stamps, which had been in use since 1902 and were attached to the lid, testify to this today . After the auction , the trophy will initially be lost because it was included in a non-German private collection. It did not come on the market again until the 1980s and was able to be acquired again by the city of Hanau with the help of the Hessian Cultural Foundation , the Cultural Foundation of the Länder and donations from private individuals and companies. Today it is shown in the permanent exhibition of the Hanau Historical Museum in Philippsruhe Castle .
Worth knowing
The Hanau Council Cup is the focus of Christiane Gref's novel , Das Meisterstück . However, the historical background reproduced in the novel is pure fantasy and - apart from a few names of places and people - has nothing in common with historical reality.
literature
- Kulturstiftung der Länder (Ed.): The Hanauer Council Cup = Kulturstiftung der Länder, issue 15. Berlin 1990:
- Gerhard Bott : On the return of the Hanau Council Cup: Was Hanns Rappolt the master? , Pp. 9-17.
- Anton Merk: The Hanauer Council Cup , pp. 19–26.
- Klaus Remer: Foreword , p. 7.
- Helmut Seling: The Hanau Council Cup . In: Städel Jahrbuch NF Vol. 12, pp. 235–242.
- Ernst Julius Zimmermann : The Hanau Council Cup . In: Hanauisches Magazin 1, No. 4 (1922), p. 4.
Web link
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klaus Remer, p. 7.
- ^ So: Helmut Seling; approving: Anton Merk.
- ↑ Anders: Gerhard Bott: To return , p. 14.
- ↑ Only one other piece from that period has survived: The Windecker Chalice by Jacob Degorge . Cf .: 450 years old town hall, German goldsmith's house. Catalog. Hanau 1988, p. 107; Cat.-No. 1.
- ↑ Klaus Remer, p. 7.
- ↑ Cf.: Gerhard Bott: The copy of the Hanauer council cup and other replicas by August Schleißner . In: Hanauer Geschichtsverein (ed.): Hanauer Geschichtsblätter Vol. 20, p. 323ff.
- ^ Christiane Gref: The masterpiece . Hanau 2010. ISBN 978-3-940168-70-2