Saalfeld School

Figure group Lamentation of Christ in Gräfinau-Angstedt

Marien Altar of Severikirche (Erfurt)

The Saalfeld School is a Gothic altar workshop around 1500. It was very productive in the field of carving in Thuringia during the late Gothic period . Especially in the Saalfeld and Rudolstadt area, she supplied numerous village churches in the surrounding area with high-quality pieces.

history

After an economic boom, the Benedictine abbey in Saalfeld reached its highest power in the last quarter of the 15th century . Supported by the art-loving abbot Georg von Geylsdorf, elected in 1460, a highly significant carving school (or altar workshop) flourished here, which carried out orders for the wealthy monastery, as well as for hundreds of religious foundations throughout the Orla region and beyond. Under Balthasar von Stein, the abbey church was splendidly renovated in 1486 . Above all Georg von Thüna (Thun), abbot since 1496, elevated to prince abbot in 1497 , built a lot on the monastery and favored art in every respect.

With the appointment of the first evangelical superintendent Caspar Aquila in 1527, the Reformation was publicly introduced. When the Benedictines fled Saalfeld in 1525 and the Franciscans in 1533 , their monasteries were used for other purposes. In the warlike turmoil of the Peasants' War in 1525 and the Schmalkaldic War , references to the altar workshops are lost.

Act

The most important contemporary studio in the merchant town of Saalfeld, which at that time belonged to the diocese of Würzburg , was headed by the carver Valentin Lendenstreich († 1506) and, after his death, Hans Gottwald von Lohr († 1542). This is proven as a student and employee of Tilman Riemenschneider in Würzburg, where he worked until 1501. From 1503 he worked in Lendenstreich's workshop in Saalfeld along with seven other, unknown carvers in the village, whose late Gothic sculpture is still represented today by a considerable number of preserved row figure altars made between 1480 and 1520.

the Saalfeld School are assigned:

• the Gothic stacked altar in the Volkstedter Church from the 15th century and the winged altars in Schaala and Keilhau
• the Marienaltar (1510) in the Severikirche (Erfurt)
• Late Gothic group of lamentations on the altar of the Marien Church in Gräfinau-Angstedt
• Altar from the former Benedictine abbey church in Saalfeld in the fortified church Zeigerheim near Bad Blankenburg
• the Rottenbach Altarpiece from 1498 from the workshop of the then well-known artist Valentin Lendenstreich in Saalfeld
• Richly carved winged altar in the Grosskochberg Church of St. Michael from 1500
• Gothic carved altar in the Saint Sebastian church in Dienstädt between 1509 and 1513
• Carved winged altar from Buchheim around 1500 in the Altenburg Castle Museum
• Winged altar of the Döhlen church, from around 1510/1515
• Martin's altar of the Martin's church in Meckfeld (located in the Weimar Castle Museum) from 1502
• Church of St. Nikolai Unterwellenborn , winged altar from 1522
• Large altar of Mary from the church of St. Veit (Oberpreilipp) near Rudolstadt (in the city museum in the Franciscan monastery in Saalfeld)
• Altar shrines in Oberwellenborn and in St. Jakobus (Rottenbach) near Schwarzburg from Valentin Lendenstreich's workshop in Saalfeld
• Altars or figures in St. Marien (Gorndorf) (1490), the Gertrudiskirche (Graba) , Reichenbach , Saalfeld, Weischwitz , the village church Achelstädt , Barchfeld , St. Marien (Treppendorf) (1480),
• Altar in Neusitz (1515)
• Altar of the Church of St. Stephanus and St. Nikolaus (Strößwitz) (1508)
• Altar in the Heilsberg church

See also

• Sculpture , in addition to the history of art, wood sculpture
• Barrel painter , about the painting of carved sculptures
• List of carvers

Web links

Commons : Saalfelder Schule  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Architectural and Art Monuments of Thuringia 1892, p. 50f
2. ↑ Erfurt Passion Paintings from the Late Middle Ages
3. ↑ hampel auctions
4. ↑ rudolstadt.de
5. ↑ Info sheet Severikirche Erfurt
6. ↑ ilm-kreis.de
7. ↑ siegfried-harnisch.de
8. ↑ rudolstadt-saalfeld church district
9. ↑ liebhabertheater.com
10. ↑ kahla.de
11. ↑ evangelische-kirchgemeinde-altenburg
12. ↑ rudolstadt-saalfeld church district
13. ↑ Weimar Church District
14. ↑ monuments-online
15. ↑ museums.thuringia
16. ^ Architectural and art monuments of Thuringia 1899
17. ^ Architectural and art monuments of Thuringia 1892
18. ↑ The Saalfeld altar workshop
19. ↑ poessneck.otz
20. ↑ rudolstadt-saalfeld church district