State Gallery of Old German Masters

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View from the entrance in the east into the choir of the former Katharinenkirche.
The ceiling with cross vaults
Jakob Fugger the Rich , portrait of Albrecht Dürer (around 1519) in the State Gallery of Old German Masters

The State Gallery of Old German Masters , often referred to as the State Gallery in the Katharinenkirche , is an art museum in Augsburg's old town . It was founded after 1806 and moved to the Katharinenkirche of the former St. Catherine's Monastery in Augsburg in 1835 . The gallery is the oldest branch gallery of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen . Besides the Alte Pinakothek, it houses the most valuable collection of old German painting in Bavaria, primarily "Paintings from the Augsburg and Swabian Schools of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, the great time of Augsburg painting."

location

The State Gallery is located in the former Katharinenkirche, part of an old monastery building , on Maximilianstrasse in the heart of Augsburg's old town . Access to the exhibition is via the Schaezlerpalais , which is located directly next door, and which houses other art collections.

The admission price also includes a visit to the German Baroque Gallery , the Graphic Collection of the City of Augsburg , the Karl and Magdalene Haberstock Foundation and the Rococo Festival Hall, which is one of the most important southern German profane spatial art of the 18th century. The hall is located between the German Baroque Gallery and the State Gallery.

Due to its central location, the Staatsgalerie Altdeutsche Meister is difficult to reach by car due to the lack of parking spaces, but the museum is well connected via several tram and city bus routes.

history

Although Christian von Mannlich considered the establishment of the Staatsgalerie Altdeutsche Meister as early as 1806, it took almost thirty years, mainly for financial reasons, before the gallery could be opened in the intended location. The state's portfolio of paintings had grown considerably as a result of the secularization and the merger of the Mannheim , Zweibrücker and Düsseldorf galleries.

In 1835, the exhibition was set up in the previously vacant Katharinenkirche in downtown Augsburg - one year before the Alte Pinakothek. This makes it the oldest state art collection in Bavaria.

Originally the collection was to be presented in the Ursuline monastery . However, King Max I Joseph confirmed the Katharinenkirche as the final location on October 21, 1807. Until the opening, the holdings were kept in the golden hall of the town hall and in the two adjoining princely rooms. From around 1810 the exhibition was partially open to the public. Numerous other pictures were in the depot rooms in the town hall. In 1821 the collection is said to have comprised over 1000 paintings.

The catalog from 1869 lists over 700 paintings from the 15th to 18th centuries. As a “universal gallery”, the picture collection included almost all German art circles. Because of the limited space, the walls were densely hung with works of art.

A reorganization only began towards the end of the 19th century. These measures were carried out during the tenure of the director of the Zentralgemäldegalerie Franz von Reber (1875–1909). His successor Hugo von Tschudi withdrew numerous pictures from Augsburg in 1910, but increased the number of works by the Swabian schools. In Augsburg, however, this action was viewed as a centralistic exercise of power and even led to a heated debate in the Bavarian state parliament.

Some rearrangements of the existing building and plans to relocate the gallery to another location document a deep dissatisfaction with the existing situation during the following decades.

It was only after the Second World War that the state and the municipalities began to coordinate their exhibition concepts. The spatial connection between the municipal and state galleries demonstrates this collaboration in a special way. Since then, the State Gallery has been regarded as the world's most important collection of Augsburg painting from around 1500. All exhibits have a direct connection to the city or the surrounding area. About a dozen paintings come from the Katharinenkloster , so they are still connected to their original destination. The focus of the exhibition are the six representations of the Roman basilicas, which were made by Hans Holbein the Elder. Ä. and Hans Burgkmair were created for the chapter house of the monastery and were replaced there by reproductions .

During its existence, the collection had to be brought to safety several times - including before the bombing of the Second World War - but each time it was set up again in its original location. Between 1998 and 2000 the gallery was closed due to extensive renovation. During this time, the paintings and frames were preserved and partially restored in Munich.

In the course of the general refurbishment and renovation of the Schaezlerpalais next door , which was reopened in February 2006, a renewed, fundamental renovation of the gallery was carried out, which was completed in April 2009. The exhibition has been open to the public again since the Easter holidays this year.

Sponsorship

Since most of the works in the State Gallery are owned by the Free State of Bavaria , the State of Bavaria is also responsible for maintaining and expanding the collection.

Formally, the Staatsgalerie Altdeutsche Meister is a branch gallery of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen , whose headquarters are in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich. Some of the exhibits are loans from the Augsburg Municipal Art Collections, the Schäfer Collection in Schweinfurt , the St. Moritz parish (Augsburg) and the Kaisheim church administration .

exhibition

Master of 1477: Calvary (1477, detail)
Hans Holbein the Elder Ä: Votive picture of Ulrich Schwarz (around 1508, detail)

The extensive collection offers an insight into Augsburg and Swabian art around 1500, i.e. at the heyday of the city of Fuggers and Welsers . It includes numerous paintings from churches and panel paintings from the so-called "Augsburg School" of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance . A total of almost 100 paintings are presented in four exhibition rooms. In addition to the main works of the Augsburg Art Circle, works from the neighboring imperial cities of Ulm , Memmingen and Nördlingen can be seen. Some paintings come from the monasteries of Kaisheim , Wettenhausen and Mönchsdeggingen .

The highlight of the exhibition is probably the world-famous portrait of Jacob Fugger , printed in almost every history book , which Albrecht Dürer from Nuremberg drew around 1519. In addition, works by Hans Holbein the Elder , Hans Burgkmair the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Elder can be considered the core items of the valuable collection.

Furthermore, works by Christoph Amberger , Leonhard Beck , Jörg Breu the Elder , Hans Schäufelein , Martin Schaffner , Bartholomäus Zeitblom and from the so-called Apt workshop give a good and artistically valuable insight into Swabian painting around 1500. The 15th century will be only represented by a few works. Paintings from the period up to 1450 are completely missing. In general, very few examples of early Augsburg panel painting have survived.

Many of the panels on display were donations from important Augsburg patrician families , such as the Rehlinger, Stetten, Vetter, Walther, Welser, Riedler, Rephon and Rembold. Some donors were shown on the paintings, and numerous family coats of arms can also be seen. The portraits of Prince-Bishop Friedrich von Hohenzollern , Konrad Peutinger , Hans or Lukas Rem and the famous portrait of Jakob Fugger are closely connected to Augsburg's history .

The magnificent vaulted ceiling of the Katharinenkirche, which is another eye-catcher with a Renaissance painting from 1517, was created almost at the same time as the works of art on display and thus makes its own contribution to the overall impression. The room layout of the early 19th century corresponds to the former functional areas of the nun gallery, lay church and choir . The spatial impression of the former monastery church is, however, falsified by the partition walls and the current floor level. During the conversion to a gallery, a false ceiling was put in, which is just above the former nun's gallery.

The basilica cycle from the former chapter house

The six large basilica pictures from the former chapter house of St. Catherine's Monastery are among the most important works of the State Gallery . The tablets are endowed by the nuns of the monastery and remind of a papal privilege of indulgence . On October 19, 1487, Pope Innocent VIII allowed religious women to acquire all the indulgences of the Roman churches within their cloister . Only three Ave Maria and three paternosters were to be spoken at three different places in the monastery. The creation of the panels can be seen in connection with renovations to the monastery. The six paintings were each fitted in an ogival shape in the upper wall panels under the vaults of the chapter hall that has been preserved in today's Holbein-Gymnasium . An affixing in the chapter house attests to a chronicle of the monastery from 1752, which goes back to older sources. The monumental images, each composed of three individual boards, were accordingly executed up to two and a half meters high and four meters wide.

The six pictures were created within five years and show the seven pilgrimage churches of Rome , one of the pictures depicting two pilgrimage churches. In 1499 Hans Holbein the Elder created Ä. the first painting depicting the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore . Hans Burgkmair painted the Peters ( San Pietro in Vaticano ) and Johannes basilica ( San Giovanni in Laterano ) in 1501 and 1502 during the absence of his competitor Holbein, who had taken on orders in Frankfurt and Kaisheim. The fourth panel in the cycle was also created in 1502. The picture shows two basilicas, San Lorenzo fuori le mura and San Sebastiano fuori le mura . An inscription on the facade of San Lorenzo contains the monogram LF.There are some suggestions for the identity of this monogrammist LF: Lienhart Framer, Leonhardt Fenndt, Leo Fras or Fraß or Maurer, Laux Frö (h) lich or Freilich, Leonhard Furchsbüchl (er). In 1503/04 the last two representations of the two missing pilgrimage churches were commissioned by the new prioress of the monastery, Veronica Welser . The older Holbein and Burgkmair worked here at the same time and apparently influenced each other. Burgkmair painted the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme with the crucifixion of Christ and the martyrdom of St. Ursula. Holbein created the table of the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura with the crowning of thorns and depictions of the Legenda aurea .

The accuracy of the representations of the Roman churches fluctuates; they are more to be understood as symbols, as “substitute places of pilgrimage” and not as precise documentation of their real models. Such substitute acts were also an integral part of indulgences in other places. Often a monetary donation was enough to acquire a corresponding indulgence. There were also cycles of the seven main Roman churches as representative places similar to the Augsburgers in Villingen and probably in Kaufbeuren. The Poor Clares of St. Clara Monastery in Villingen had also received a papal indulgence privilege. Indulgence privileges similar to that of the Augsburg Dominican Sisters also seem to have existed in other women's convents. A cycle of stylized depictions of the seven main Roman churches with their patron saints and depictions of the Stations of the Cross assigned to the churches , which is attributed to the master of the Riedener Altar , is now in the "Coena Domini" church of the Ducal Georgianum in Munich. It was probably intended for the Franciscan nunnery in Kaufbeuren .

Overview of the boards
Illustration blackboard painter Dating Founder
Holbein - S. Maria Maggiore - Basilica Cycle 1.jpg Santa Maria Maggiore Hans Holbein the Elder Ä. 1499 Dorothea Rehlinger
Burgkmair - S. Pietro - Basilica Cycle 2.jpg San Pietro Hans Burgkmair the Elder Ä. 1501 Anna Riedler
Master LF - S. Lorenzo and S. Sebastiano - Basilica Cycle 3.jpg San Lorenzo and San Sebastiano Monogrammist LF 1502 Helena Partridge
Burgkmair - S. Giovanni in Laterano - Basilica Cycle 4.jpg San Giovanni in Laterano Hans Burgkmair the Elder Ä. 1502 Barbara Riedler
Holbein - S. Paolo fuori le mura - Basilica Cycle 5.jpg
San Paolo Fuori le mura Hans Holbein the Elder Ä. 1504 Veronica Welser
Burgkmair - S. Croce - Basilica Cycle 6.jpg Santa Croce Hans Burgkmair the Elder Ä. 1504 Veronica Welser

As the only one of the basilica pictures, that of the Basilica of San Paolo is no longer completely preserved. The condition is documented with a full pointed arch on a fleeting drawing that is now in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig , which may have been made by Hans Burgkmair the Elder. Like other pictures in the cycle, that of the Basilica of San Paolo is divided into several fields by painted tracery . The outermost image fields visible in the drawing on the far left and far right were separated at an unknown point in time, Lieb and Stange suspect a distance after the picture had left its original location. On the Brunswick drawing, one or two coats of arms are indicated with a few lines in the image field on the far left and a female figure in the one on the far right. One of the coats of arms cut off from the original picture was probably that of the founder Veronica Welser. While the coat of arms image field is lost, most of the right image field has been preserved. The image field, originally bordered vertically on the left and on the right by the rising pointed arch, has been cut into a rectangular panel with a symmetrical shape and bevelled upper corners. The board shows a portrait of the founder. It came from Count Joseph von Rechberg to the collection of the Princes of Oettingen-Wallerstein before 1817/18 . The “land register of the Hochfürstlich Oettingen Wallersteinschen Gallery old German paintings. 1817/18 ”lists it as a work by Hans Holbein from Augsburg.

Room 1

Room 2 (former choir of the Katharinenkirche)

  • Bartholomäus Zeitblom
  • Hans Holbein the Elder Ä.
  • Lucas Cranach the Elder Ä.
  • Leonhard Beck

Room 3 (former lay church)

  • Basilica cycle
  • Hans Burgkmair the Elder Ä.
  • Hans Holbein the Elder Ä
  • Albrecht Dürer

Room 4 (former nuns' gallery)

  • Christoph Amberger
  • Hans Holbein the Elder Ä.
  • Jörg Breu the Elder Ä.
  • Hans Schäufelein
  • Apt workshop
  • Martin Schaffner

literature

  • Gisela Goldberg, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Ed.): Old German paintings. Catalog . 3. Edition. Munich 1988.
  • Gisela Goldberg: One hundred and fifty years of the Augsburg State Gallery in the former Katharinenkirche . In: Journal of the historical association for Swabia , 79, 1985, pp. 211-238.
  • Martin Schawe: State Gallery Augsburg. Old German painting in the Katharinenkirche . Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich 2002.

Basilica cycle

  • Magdalene Gärtner: Roman basilicas in Augsburg. Piety of nuns and painting around 1500 (= Swabian historical sources and research. Vol. 23). Wißner, Augsburg 2002, ISBN 3-89639-351-0 (also Diss. University Erlangen-Nürnberg 1998, review: [1] , [2] ).
  • Magdalene Gärtner: The basilica pictures of the Katharinenkloster in Augsburg as early substitutes for the seven churches pilgrimage. In: Klaus Herbers (ed.): Augsburg networks between the Middle Ages and the modern age. Economy, culture and pilgrimages (= James Studies. 18). Narr, Tübingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8233-6447-4 , pp. 61-94.
  • Magdalene Gärtner: The Augsburg basilica pictures and the reception of Rome in painting and graphics in Augsburg in the early 16th century. In: Wolfgang Wüst, Peter Fassl, Rainhard Riepertinger (eds.): Swabia and Italy - Two European cultural landscapes between ancient and modern. Essays on the Bavarian State Exhibition 2010 "Bavaria - Italy" in Füssen and Augsburg (= Journal of the Historical Association for Swabia. Vol. 102) Wißner, Augsburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89639-759-1 ( ISSN  0342-3131 ), p 187-222.
  • Martin Schawe: Rome in Augsburg. The basilica pictures from the Katharinenkloster . Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich (undated [1999], catalog for the exhibition in the Alte Pinakothek December 3, 1999– April 2, 2000).
  • Johannes Evangelista Weis-Liebersdorf: The Jubilee Year 1500 in Augsburg Art. An anniversary gift for the German people; in two parts , gen. Verl.-Ges., Munich 1901.

Web links

Commons : Staatsgalerie Altdeutsche Meister (Augsburg)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Staatsgalerie Augsburg Katharinenkirche. (No longer available online.) In: pinakothek.de. Archived from the original on May 27, 2013 ; Retrieved September 7, 2013 .
  2. Cf. Goldberg 1988 , p. 130. The text of the chronicle (Diözesanarchiv Augsburg, HS 95, fol. 27 v) also names the donors and costs of the six pictures: “Verzaichnus who has the tables in the Capitl or the siben haubt Krichn let me grind. / To draw the Capitl, so always written in bargament in the bichl where the Closter Pau described in 1496, quite a few women [e] n excepted particularly and thought about having it covered grind the Nam herna [c] h follows. / Barbara riedlerin has S: Joannes tafl mahen let [e] n the hat or [he] has confessed 64 guilders. od [er] 54: / Item helena rephonin, Sanct Lorenzen Vnd Sanct Sebah [s?] tian let mahen, who are always 60 guilders, I write after [c] h the old language as it stett. / Item veronica Welserin, has had a taffeln mah [e] n die ainen Von Heillig [e] n Creiz, the other Von Sanct Pauls have confessed [e] n: with everything 187 gulden. / Item Dorothea Rölingerin, has given our dear wife the permission, or stett 60 gulden. / Item Anna riedlerin Sanct Peters dafel with the 14th noth helpers, gedie permitt, od [er] stett 45 guilders. ”(Quoted from Schawe [1999] , p. 23).
  3. Norbert Lieb, Alfred Stange: Hans Holbein the Elder refer to this name, which is listed in the Augsburg city court book of 1499 as a painter journeyman of Hans Burgkmair . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich [a. a.] 1960. , p. 14 out. Also Gärtner 2002 , p. 57f. assumes his identity with the monogrammist, for which she cites, among other things, common technical characteristics with Burgkmair's panels. Schawe [1999] , p. 50 suspects a painter from Thoman Burgkmair's circle .
  4. Gärtner 2002 , pp. 22-26.
  5. Gärtner 2002 , p. 22.
  6. Gärtner 2002 , p. 24.
  7. Gärtner 2002 , pp. 24-26.
  8. a b See Schawe [1999] , p. 73.
  9. Cf. Norbert Lieb, Alfred Stange: Hans Holbein the Elder . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich [a. a.] 1960. , p. 21.
  10. Schawe [1999] , p. 73 speaks of a coat of arms, Norbert Lieb, Alfred Stange: Hans Holbein the Elder . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich [a. a.] 1960. , p. 21 speak of coats of arms in the plural. The shape below should certainly be a coat of arms, the one above it may be another.
  11. See Goldberg 1988 , p. 158.

Coordinates: 48 ° 21 '54 "  N , 10 ° 53' 57"  E