Twelve Messenger Altar

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Twelve Messenger Altar or Windsheim Altar is a late Gothic carved altar by Tilman Riemenschneider created in 1509 . It is one of the most important works by Riemenschneider and at the same time it is one of the most important exhibits in the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg .

Description and meaning

Altar of twelve messengers (copy)

The altar shows Christ in the midst of the twelve apostles . In the middle section you can find Christ and six apostles, consisting of two individual figures and two groups of two. Three apostles are depicted in bas-relief on each of the two wings . Christ is 104 cm high , the other figures are around 90 - 95 cm high. The apostles are each shown with their typical attributes . The theme of the altar is the sending of the apostles through Christ. Typical of the twelve messenger altar, also in contrast to other works by Riemenschneider, is the "subtlety of the intellectual and formal conception". The figure in the middle of the right wing relief probably represents a self-portrait of Riemenschneider.

The carving shows "extraordinarily high-quality details", such as the differentiated modeling of the limewood in the depiction of the faces, hair, hands and the folds of the robes, as well as the expressive physiognomies .

The altar is not completely preserved. The tendrils games over the figures as well as the missing conversation Enge , who has been possibly occupied with other figures. There is a design drawing in black chalk and red chalk on the back of the right wing relief showing a dancing woman - possibly Salome . This drawing, too, presumably comes from Riemenschneider himself.

history

Riemenschneider created the altar in 1509 for the parish church of St. Kilian in Windsheim an der Aisch on behalf of the widow Elisabeth Bachknapp. Just three years later the altar was painted for the first time, presumably by Jakob Mülholzer . Another painting took place in 1617.

In December 1730 the church of St. Kilian burned down, which left light traces of fire on the altar that are still visible today. The further fate of the altar is unknown until it appeared in Würzburg in 1840 , where the carving was restored and the altar was repainted according to the taste of the time.

In 1861 Charles de Graimberg auctioned the altar in Würzburg as a work supposedly from a Heidelberg church for his collections, without realizing that it was a work by Riemenschneider. Even when, after Graimberg's death, his collections fell to the city of Heidelberg, Riemenschneider's authorship was not known. Although the altar was repeatedly associated with Riemenschneider, the painting at the time gave the altar the "appearance of inferiority", so that one was satisfied with the altar for the work of a student of Riemenschneider or for a copy based on a model by To hold Riemenschneider.

After the Second World War , the altar was extensively restored in order to repair any damage that the altar might have sustained during the war. Not only were all wormholes treated, but the disfiguring paintwork was also removed. Only through this did the true artistic quality of the altar become recognizable. At the same time, the traces of fire that have now been found and a chalk note from 1617 that were found made it possible to clearly identify the altar as the one that Riemenschneider had created for the Church of St. Kilian in Windsheim and that stood there until 1730.

Today the altar is one of the most important exhibits in the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg and is presented there in its own room.

After the efforts of the Windsheim parish to bring the altar back to its original location failed, the Heidelberg carver Robert Stieler was commissioned to make a copy. From 1951 until his death in 1967 he made the center shrine and started with the right side wing. From 1968 to 1970 the Riemenschneider copy was completed by the Würzburg sculptor Anton Johann Rausch and has been in the Seekapelle in Bad Windsheim since 1988.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Poensgen: The Windsheimer Twelve Messenger Altar by Tilman Riemenschneider in the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg , 7th edition 1974
  2. ^ Poensgen: The Palatinate Museum in Heidelberg , Hamburg 1965, page 25
  3. ^ Jörn Bahns: Heidelberg as a museum city , in: Elmar Mittler (Hrsg.): Heidelberg. History and Shape , University Press C. Winter, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-9215-2446-6 , p. 434ff., Here p. 438
  4. ↑ Bernd Uhlmann: 600 years Seekapelle Bad Windsheim 1402 - 2002 , printing and paper Meyer, Scheinfeld 2002

literature

  • Georg Poensgen : The Windsheim twelve-messenger altar by Tilman Riemenschneider in the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg. 7th edition 1974
  • Georg Poensgen (editor): The Windsheim twelve-messenger altar by Tilman Riemenschneider in the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg. Contributions to its history and interpretation , Deutscher Kunstverlag 1955

Web links