Sebaldus tomb

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sebaldus grave of Peter Vischer

The grave monument of St. Sebaldus of Nuremberg in the Nuremberg church of the same name is one of the most important German bronze sculptures at the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Peter Vischer and his Nuremberg foundry workshop created the work with its rich figural decoration between 1507 and 1517 on behalf of the church clergy of St. Sebald . It forms an open housing around the actual, older reliquary.

history

For the relics of Sebaldus of Nuremberg , the saint venerated in Nuremberg since the 11th century, who became the city's patron and was canonized in 1425 , a Nuremberg goldsmith had made a box-shaped shrine covered with silver sheet as early as 1397. Towards the end of the 15th century it seemed necessary to secure this reliquary with a case. There is a crack from 1488 which, with its late Gothic shapes, is so closely related to the style of the stone sacrament house by Adam Kraft that the drawing is also attributed to this sculptor . For the execution, the Vischersche Erzgießerhütte was most likely to have come into question, but Hermann Vischer the Elder died in the same year in 1488. This probably delayed the start of the work, because Peter Vischer was not commissioned to carry out the work until 1507. According to an inscription, the first parts must have been cast in 1508. An inscription on the base names 1519 as the year of completion. Since then, the work has enclosed the silver shrine in the late Gothic hall choir. It only stood temporarily in the west choir in the 19th century. The tomb of Sebaldus survived the destruction of the Second World War under protection made of concrete. In 1957 it was shifted one yoke to the east.

shape

In contrast to the sky-striving draft from 1488, the work carried out is limited to a height of 4.71 m. What has remained is the Gothic idea that a rectangular tumba surrounded by reliefs as a base for the shrine is encompassed by an arcade structure made up of three bays that is open on all sides and crowned by vaults made of architectural elements. This “Gothic” structure is filled with detailed renaissance motifs: pillars are given a baluster shape and the late Gothic wrinkling has been lost in the fold style.

  • overall view

  • Base zone

  • Redrawings of the base reliefs from 1838

  • Candlestick women

  • Figures of the apostles Philip and James d. Ä. in front of the shrine

iconography

The base plate rests on fully plastic cast snails and dolphins. Not always clearly identifiable biblical and mythological heroes sit on the corners in “ heroic nudity ”. Personifications , putti, tritons and other allegorical figures populate this zone. Some of the figures, e.g. B. the woman who looks at herself in the mirror as a symbol of vanity have a direct model in drawings by Jacopo de 'Barbari , as Paul Johanneis noted. De Barbari spent three years as a royal court painter in Nuremberg. Twelve figures of the apostles placed in front of the pillars of the canopy surround the shrine, which is only heraldically decorated. On its base, reliefs with genre-like scenes from the legend of the saints cover the long sides: icicle miracles, healing of the blind, wine miracles and the conversion of heretics. In the niches on the narrow sides are St. Sebaldus with the church model and, dressed in the foundry master's leather apron, Peter Vischer himself.

literature

  • Georg Hammacher: St. Sebald, the patron saint of Nuremberg. For the five hundred year feast of his canonization 1425–1925. Nuremberg 1925
  • Klaus Pechstein: The Sebaldus Grave in Nuremberg (= Reclam's work monographs on the fine arts No. 126), Stuttgart 1967
  • Gerhard Weilandt: The Sebalduskirche in Nuremberg. Image and Society in the Age of Gothic and Renaissance. Studies on the international history of architecture and art 47. Imhof, Petersberg 2007. Review: Matthias Exner . - In: Kunstchronik, Vol. 61 (2008), pp. 381–391 and NZ from August 13, 2007 (also digital: http://www.franken-wiki.de/index.php/St._Sebald )
  • Herbert Bauer , Herbert Liedel: Cheeky putti, seductive women, wild men. Discoveries at Sebaldus tomb . context medien und verlag, Nuremberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-939645-28-3 .
  • H. v. C .: A great master and his greatest work . In: The Gazebo . Issue 32, 1867, pp. 501, 502–504 ( full text [ Wikisource ] - with illustration by Rudolf von Seitz , only of historical interest).

Web links

Commons : Sebaldusgrab  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fritz Habeltzheimer, previously mentioned here, is no longer considered the creator of the shrine.
  2. ^ Equipment of the church after Daniela Crescenzio: Italian Walks in Nuremberg - Volume I: Nuremberg, Venice of the North. Verlag IT-INERARIO, Unterhaching 2011, ISBN 978-3-9813046-3-3 .