Ulm School (late Gothic)

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Some artists of the southern German late Gothic and early Renaissance who worked in Ulm at this time , had their workshops there or came from Ulm are summarized under the name Ulm School .

History of origin

The construction of the Ulm Minster from 1377 attracted many art lovers to the city of Ulm in the late Middle Ages

Ulm was regarded as an important center of the late Gothic in southwest Germany with an impact all over southern Germany, Franconia , Tyrol , South Tyrol and Graubünden . From the late Middle Ages , the period between the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 16th century, around 55 painters (barrel painters, glass painters, art painters) and 25 sculptors and carvers are known by name from Ulm .

An important basis for this artistic boom was the municipality's decision to move the parish church into the center of the city in 1377 and to start building the huge new Ulm Minster . The status of Ulm as a Free Imperial City resulted in art-political orientation towards supraregional centers such as Prague , Strasbourg and the Netherlands. The Münsterbauhütte and numerous foundations of the Ulm patrician families and the wealthy bourgeoisie offered work for artist workshops in various genres. A complex network of exchange principles emerged. Important artists immigrated to the city, and they in turn received numerous commissions from the near and distant area.

Hans Koepf stated: “The splendor of the imperial city attracted artists from a wide area to their heavy field” . But the other was also true, as Barbara Maier-Lörcher put it succinctly: “The imperial city of Ulm was not only an important center in art, but also a point of crystallization in many ways. .... Ulm art was in demand. The export was boosted. The export routes led in all directions. "

Martin Schaffner's altar, a famous work from the Ulm School, which is framed by Syrlin's choir stalls
The carved choir stalls in the cathedral by Michel Erhart and Jörg Syrlin, masters of the Ulm School

Artists and workshops

The meaning of the term Ulm School has changed over time. There has never been a concrete "school" in the sense of an institutionalized training system. The term is used more as a metaphor. Today it is more to be understood as a network of artists that changes over time and has not yet been explored in detail. Although sculpture as a genre of art is in the foreground in research history, a close cooperation between sculptors, painters, glass painters, architects and other artists was typical and documented in many sources.

The Ulm School in the narrower sense counts

Belong to the Ulm School in a broader sense

The Blaubeuren high altar, created between 1493 and 1494, is located in the choir of the church of the former Benedictine monastery of Blaubeuren . It was carved by Michael Erhart, painted by Bernhard Strigel and Hans Holbein the Elder.

Some artists of the 15th and 16th centuries worked with representatives of the Ulm School for a certain time or for a certain project, but then moved on and are also other artistic schools (e.g. in Upper Swabia , Tyrol , Augsburg and on the Upper Rhine ).

Master stonemasons and architects such as:

In connection with the Ulm School are discussed

A number of masters who appear in the Ulm area have been given an emergency name . These emergency names highlight the creator of a work as masterful, but the identity of the master as a workshop manager or a style-influencing or innovative personality is not proven beyond doubt. In most cases, the sources are also only sparse. Nonetheless, the emergency names are an important aid for an art-historical perspective on works of the Ulm School and the associated hypothesis formation.

Related to the Ulm School

  • Friedrich Herlin (* around 1430 in Nördlingen; † around 1500) was the father-in-law of Bartholomäus Zeitblom.
  • Moritz Ensinger (* around 1430; † before February 26, 1483) was an architect and master builder of Ulm Cathedral and since around 1467 brother-in-law of Michael Erhart .

Represented in Ulm with works since the late Gothic

  • Hans Schäufelin (also Schäufelein, Schäuffelein, Scheifelen, Scheuflin) (* around 1480/1485 probably in Nuremberg; † around 1538 or 1540 in Nördlingen); In 1515 he created an altar for the Last Supper for Ulm Minster, which is now the cross altar.

Represented in Ulm workshops during the training years

  • Adam Kraft (* between 1455 and 1460 in Nuremberg; † 1509) was a sculptor and master builder in Ulm during his traveling years .
  • Jörg Lederer (* around 1470, † around 1550), his exact apprenticeship in Ulm is unknown.
  • Hans Maler zu Schwaz (* probably 1480/1488 in Ulm; † 1526/1529 in Schwaz ) was trained in the workshop of Bartholomäus Zeitblom.
  • Michael Zeynsler (documented between 1515 and 1559), his apprenticeship in Ulm is only suspected, but has not yet been documented.

Formerly attributed to the Ulm School

  • Lucas Moser (* around 1390; † after 1434), the creator of the Magdalene Altarpiece by Tiefenbronn , was discussed for a long time in the history of art in connection with the early Ulm School. The identification with a master named "Lukas" , which can be proven in Ulmer sources , is questioned today. The spatial proximity to the altar by Hans Schüchlin from Ulm set up in the same church of St. Maria Magdalena says nothing about Lukas Moser.

Division of late Gothic art into four generations

Reinhard Wortmann differentiates between four generations of Ulm art of the 15th and 16th centuries and names their main representatives, but avoids the term "Ulm School":

generation Main representative Year of birth description
First generation Hans Multscher born around 1400 contributes to the upswing of the Ulm school
Second generation Michel Erhart born around 1440/45 instrumental in the choir facilities of Ulm Minster and the Blaubeurer altar involved
Third generation Niklaus Weckmann born around 1455 successful carving workshop, 600 works identified and preserved
Fourth generation Daniel Mauch born around 1477 leaves Ulm again in the course of the Reformation .

  • The Man of Sorrows by Hans Multscher from 1429. The original shown here is now in the interior of the Ulm Minster.

  • Knight of Michael Erhart from 1482 at the fish box fountain.

  • Saint George by Niklaus Weckmann (between 1496 and 1499)

  • The Naked Old Woman by Daniel Mauch around 1520

Connections

Cooperations between artists

A collaboration between different masters was not only on the agenda in Ulm when creating the Blaubeurer high age, but also when creating the choir stalls in Ulm Minster from 1468.

In some cases, the artists worked together in the production of large orders, such as the high altar of the Blaubeuren monastery church from 1493. Here you can see Hans Holbein the Elder at the side of Michael Erhart. In the choir stalls of Ulm Minster, as has since been reconstructed, Jörg Syrlin the Elder and Michel Erhart work together with other carvers.

Niklaus Weckmann appears in 1506 as the guardian of one of Michel Erhart's children. From this fact it is deduced that the atmosphere among the Ulm artists at this time was friendly and that there were job-related relationships; everything points to a climate of mutual support.

Family ties

Diverse family ties can also be identified; z. B. Hans Multscher and Heinrich Multscher worked together as brothers on large art projects. Hans Schüchlin is the father of Daniel Schüchlin and the father-in-law of Bartholomäus Zeitblom . Jörg Stocker is the father of the painter Anton Stocker and the father-in-law of Daniel Mauch . Michael Erhart produced the artist sons Gregor Erhart and Bernhard Erhart .

Furthermore, rich stylistic dependencies can be described.

As far as can still be ascertained today, “a large part of the Ulm artists seem to have married in their own social milieu”.

The role of the individual artist in the Ulm school

The bulk of the works in Ulm temporarily no longer permit a “hand separation”, which means that the “creative personality” of an individual artist is not the focus, but rather the collective work and cooperation of several artists in one company. In Ulm, it can even be assumed that several workshops work together. Claudia Lichte speaks when looking at the extremely rational way of working z. B. with Nikolaus Weckmann from a "picture factory".

Guild master

The members of the sculptors and painters were organized in Ulm in the Kramer guild. This gave them a certain political influence through the guilds in the city government.

  • Hans Schüchlin was a guild master from 1494 to 1500.
  • Niklaus Weckmann is called the Zwölfermeister 1499
  • Jörg Syrlin (the younger) was the carpenter's guild master from 1483 to 1516

Luke Guild Ulm

Only sparse remains from the Gothic are preserved today in the Wengen Church, which has since been baroque. In the late Middle Ages, the Wengen Church was the meeting place for the Ulm artists and thus a spiritual center for the members of the Ulm School.

The Guild of St. Luke , and St. Luke Brotherhood had, from 1473 in Ulm located in the Church of St. Michael the Wengen . Hans Schüchlin has been handed down as a chairman of this brotherhood. It seems that "all known artists of the time were members". Letter painters, glass painters and sculptors are also mentioned in documents that have survived from the 15th century. It was mandatory for the artist association to "celebrate a solemn sea mass every year on the first Sunday after St. Luke's Day (October 18) ". In addition, fees from the brotherhood treasury were due to the Wengenprobst and its convent. In 1499 Bartholomäus Zeitblom and Peter Lidenforst acted as gunsmiths, as treasurers.

But “a pronounced cult of memory and death in this professional group” can also be observed. When a member died, the Guild of St. Luke was responsible for a “solemn sea mass” with singing. Again, fees were due for this.

It is uncertain whether the works of art that remained there after the bombing night in 1944 can actually be traced back to the Guild of St. Luke and an altar of St. Luke for painters and sculptors.

History of destruction

The long development path of the Ulm School and Ulm Art corresponds to a tragic path of destruction. Barbara Maier-Lörcher names four levels:

Reformation iconoclasm

On the eve of the Reformation, the Ulm Minster in particular was a church richly decorated with works of art from the Ulm School. The main altar and 50 to 60 side altars filled the interior. “The iconoclasm swept through the cathedral with vehemence on June 19, 1531 and destroyed a large part of the inventory”. Some altars and individual paintings could be saved from the so-called Götzentag at the time , "but were dispersed far into the Ulm area".

Baroque

A second time a good hundred years later, the inventory of works by the late Gothic Ulm School was further decimated. now by the builders of the Baroque , "who lightly banned the old-fashioned remains from their bright halls".

secularization

The secularization ultimately led to "the need for objects worthy of worship being reduced completely and altars and saints were worth almost nothing". The art of the Ulm School was "cleared out again, dismantled and sawn into firewood". The churches in particular were now "largely plundered".

Second World War

After all the destructive machinations mentioned, in the final phase of the Second World War many things that had been preserved in Ulm were completely destroyed. The massive war destruction caused by the air raids on Ulm on December 17, 1944 also affected the churches.

The Ulm Museum was almost the only building ... survived the inferno of World War II in the middle of the destroyed city center. But on the one hand, the salvage sites from which the stocks had been evacuated had been damaged by “improper storage” of “moisture, cold and heat”. "The American occupation troops looted a place of recovery in Reutti near Neu-Ulm."

Other aggravating factors

A fifth aggravating factor should be mentioned in this context. In 1981, the director of the Ulmer Museum, Erwin Treu, regretfully stated in his History of the Ulmer Museum that until the 19th century, Ulm did not have an institution "that would have shown a systematic collection of artistic or art-historical objects."

reviews

In 1963, Hans Koepf stated that the Ulm school was "an astonishing achievement all in all", "unlike any other city in Germany". It should be noted that “no other city in Germany suffered such devastating losses as a result of the iconoclasm as Ulm”.

Reinhard Wortmann said in 1993 that there was a "tendency towards the gigantic as an expression of power and wealth" to be felt in Ulm art. One consequence of this is that “the artistic quality could not keep up in all the pieces”.

See also

The Ulmer Museum is the first address when it comes to the scientific processing of the Ulm School and the preparation and implementation of special exhibitions. In addition, a large part of Ulm's Gothic and Renaissance works are presented to the public there.
  • Ulm Museum , where the Ulm School is documented in detail; Special exhibitions try to show the connections
  • Ulm Minster
  • Memmingen School , a neighboring sculpture and painting school with diverse personal and stylistic references to the Ulm School.

literature

First representations

  • Julius Baum : Ulm Art. Stuttgart / Leipzig 1911
  • Julius Baum: Guide to the Ulm City Museum. (= Ulm writings on art history. Volume 7,). Ulm 1930.
  • Gertrud Otto : The Ulm sculpture of the early 15th century. Tübingen 1924
  • Gertrud Otto: The Ulm sculpture of the late Gothic. Reutlingen 1927.

2nd half of the 20th century

  • Hans Koepf : The great century of painting in Ulm. In: Swabian art history. Volume 3, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Konstanz 1963, pp. 35-40.
  • Catalogs of the Ulm Museum. Catalog I, (catalog editing: Gerald Jasbar and Erwin Treu). Ulm 1981.
  • Barbara Schäuffelen, Joachim Feist: Ulm - portrait of a city landscape. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0484-5 , p. 171.
  • Heinz Koppenhöfer: Altars Ulm Masters. Treasures in village churches in the Swabian Alb. Metzingen 1993, ISBN 3-87785-020-0 .
  • Gerhard Weiland: The Ulm artists and their guild. In: Württembergisches Landesmuseum (Ed.): Masterpieces en masse. The sculpture workshop of Niklaus Weckmann and painting in Ulm around 1500. Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-929055-25-2 , pp. 369–388.
  • Reinhard Wortmann: Ulm as the art metropolis of Swabia. Ulm Art - Art in Ulm. In: Württembergisches Landesmuseum (Ed.): Masterpieces en masse. The sculpture workshop of Niklaus Weckmann and painting in Ulm around 1500. 1993, ISBN 3-929055-25-2 , pp. 29–46.
  • Barbara Maier-Lörcher: Ulm art around Ulm. Late Gothic altars and individual paintings from 50 churches . Ulm 1996.
  • Erhard John: The stained glass in Ulm Minster. Langenau 1999, ISBN 3-88360-067-9 .
  • David Gropp: The Ulm Choir Stalls and Jörg Syrlin the Elder. Studies on architecture and sculptures (= New Research on German Art, Vol. 4). Berlin 1999.

21st century

  • Franz Härle: The choir stalls in Ulm Minster. Langenau 2000, ISBN 3-88360-115-2 .
  • Michel Erhart and Jörg Syrlin d.Ä. Late Gothic in Ulm . Catalog of the exhibition in the Ulmer Museum. Ulm 2002.
  • Barbara Maier-Lörcher: Masterpieces Ulm Art. Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 .
  • Wolfgang Lipp : Guide through the Ulm Minster. Langenau 2005, ISBN 3-88360-011-3 , p.?.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The more precise list and statistics in Reinhard Wortmann: Ulm as art metropolis of Swabia. Ulm Art - Art in Ulm. In: Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart (Ed.): Masterpieces en masse. The sculpture workshop of Niklaus Weckmann and painting in Ulm around 1500. 1993, ISBN 3-929055-25-2 , p. 29.
  2. ^ Hans Koepf: Swabian art history. Volume 3, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Konstanz 1963, p. 39.
  3. ^ Barbara Maier-Lörcher: Masterpieces of Ulmer Art. Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , p. 6.
  4. ^ Herbert Schindler: Augsburger Renaissance , p. 8
  5. ^ Dietlinde Bosch: Bartholomäus Zeitblom. 1999, p. 150.
  6. ^ Reinhard Wortmann: Ulm as the art metropolis of Swabia. Ulm Art - Art in Ulm. In: Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart (Ed.): Masterpieces en masse. The sculpture workshop of Niklaus Weckmann and painting in Ulm around 1500. 1993, ISBN 3-929055-25-2 , pp. 43–45.
  7. ↑ Manuel Teget-Welz: Bartholomäus Zeitblom, Jörg Stocker and the Ulm art production around 1500. In: Jerusalem in Ulm. The winged altar from St. Michael zu den Wengen. Exhibition catalog. Ulmer Museum, Ulm 2015, ISBN 978-3-88294-465-5 , p. 11.
  8. ↑ This is emphasized by Claudia Lichte in particular in her essay Masterworks en masse ... - On the problem of separating hands in the Weckmann workshop. In: Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart (Ed.): Masterpieces en masse. The sculpture workshop of Niklaus Weckmann and the painting in Ulm around 1500. Catalog. 1993, ISBN 3-929055-25-2 , p. 19.
  9. ↑ Claudia Lichte, masterpieces en masse ... - On the problem of the divorce of hands in the Weckmann workshop. In: Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart (Ed.): Masterpieces en masse. The sculpture workshop of Niklaus Weckmann and the painting in Ulm around 1500. Catalog. 1993, ISBN 3-929055-25-2 , p. 27.
  10. ↑ Quotations and detailed description of the St. Luke Brotherhood at Dietlinde Bosch: The history of the Wengen Church and its medieval furnishings. In: Ulmer Museum (Hrsg.): Jerusalem in Ulm. The winged altar from St. Michael zu den Wengen. Exhibition catalog. Ulm 2015, ISBN 978-3-88294-465-5 , p. 34.
  11. ^ Barbara Maier-Lörcher: Masterpieces of Ulmer Art. Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , p. 6.
  12. ^ Barbara Maier-Lörcher: Masterpieces of Ulmer Art. Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , p. 7.
  13. ^ Barbara Maier-Lörcher: Masterpieces of Ulmer Art. Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , p. 7.
  14. ^ Barbara Maier-Lörcher: Masterpieces of Ulmer Art. Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-8004-2 , p. 7.
  15. ^ Erwin Treu: History of the Ulm Museum. In: Ulmer Museum. Catalogs of the Ulmer Museum. Catalog I: Sculpture and Painting from the 13th Century to 1600. Ulm 1981, p. 13.
  16. ^ City of Ulm (ed.): Ulmer Museum. Catalogs of the Ulmer Museum, Catalog I, Sculpture and Painting from the 13th Century to 1600. Ulm 1981, p. 6.
  17. ^ Hans Koepf: Swabian art history. Volume 3, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Konstanz 1963, p. 35.
  18. ^ Reinhard Wortmann: Ulm as the art metropolis of Swabia. Ulm Art - Art in Ulm. In: Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart (Ed.): Masterpieces en masse. The sculpture workshop of Niklaus Weckmann and painting in Ulm around 1500. 1993, ISBN 3-929055-25-2 , p. 29.

Web links

Commons : Ulmer Schule  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files