Branchwork

Last updated
Branchwork on the baptismal font of Worms Cathedral Baptismal font (detail) - Worms Cathedral - Worms - Germany 2017.jpg
Branchwork on the baptismal font of Worms Cathedral
Branchwork tracery at Ulm Minster, c. 1475 Ulm Munster Passionsportal 01.jpg
Branchwork tracery at Ulm Minster, c. 1475
Branchwork portal of the former monastery church of Chemnitz (1525) Astwerkportal Chemnitz, Schlosskirche 01.jpg
Branchwork portal of the former monastery church of Chemnitz (1525)

Branchwork or branch tracery (German : Astwerk, Dutch: Lofwerk of Loofwerk) is a type of architectural ornament often used in late Gothic architecture and the Northern Renaissance, consisting of knobbly, intertwined and leafless branches. Branchwork was particularly widespread in Central European art between 1480 and 1520 and can be found in all media. The intellectual origin of branchwork lies in theories in Renaissance humanism about the origins of architecture in natural forms and barely-treated natural materials.

Contents

In artistic terms it often follows scrolling patterns that had long been used with thinner stem and tendril plant forms. The development of the representation of thicker tree branches had a long history in the crosses in representations of the Crucifixion of Jesus, and the popular subject of the Tree of Jesse.

Origins and meanings

Traditionally branchwork was conceived as a typical ornament of late Gothic art in the lands north of the Alps. Only recently has the connection between the vegetal architectural forms in branchwork and theories of early Renaissance humanism about the origins of architecture been recognized. [1]

Parallel to the increased appearance of branchwork in art from the last third of the 15th century, there is evidence in the treatise literature of an architectural theoretical background to this form of design that recalls Vitruvius's concept of the "Primitive Hut". [2] In his De architectura Vitruvius creates a model for the emergence of architecture from nature, according to which the first people would have built their dwellings from vertical forks of branches with branches laid over them. Filarete also takes up this idea in his book Trattato di architettura , in which he explains the origin of the arch as the first doorway. In the early 16th century similar explanations can be found in the writings of Raphael, among others.

The derivation of the Gothic ogival arch from branches tied together from trees found another historical basis in De Germania by the Roman author Tacitus (c. 98 AD) which was rediscovered in the early 15th century by humanist scholars. [3] Tacitus reports that the Germans worshipped their gods in the forests. The particularities of Gothic architecture north of the Alps – pointed arch vaults in analogy to the canopy of leaves of the Germanic groves – are interpreted by early German humanists as their own national antiquity. Cardinal Francesco Todeschini-Piccolomini (1439–1503), who was in possession of the copy of Germania of his uncle, Pope Pius II, played a decisive role in the reception of Tacitus by German scholars. Several copies of this found their way across the Alps via Regensburg.

Use

In Central European art of the 15th and 16th centuries, architectural elements were often replaced by branches. In stone sculpture, the juxtaposition of architectural and natural elements, such as branches, takes on a further level. First a wooden branch is imitated in stone, which then replaces a component.

A very early example of this new approach to architecture is the vault in the west choir of Eichstätt Cathedral (dated 1471), where the architectural ribs are presented in the shape of a round staff of branches. Here Wilhelm von Reichenau, humanist and bishop of Eichstätt, can be identified as a source of ideas and intellectual background. Wilhelm had studied together with Johannes Pirckheimer, the father of Willibald Pirckheimer, at the University of Padua and represents a typical early representative of early Humanism in Germany with Italian roots. In Johannes Pirckheimer's library there was also a copy of the Germania, which he probably had acquired during his studies in the 1460s. [4]

In Eichstätt, with the so-called "beautiful column" (Schöne Säule) of 1489 in the Mortuarium of the cathedral, there is a further, later example of the use of branchwork. At the same time, this pillar with a twisted shaft is an early example of the revival of Romanesque forms and stylistic features in the 15th century architecture. This style of an Romanesque Renaissance, understood as specifically northern Alpine antiquity, was first used in Early Netherlandish painting for depicting ancient buildings and was also received as an inspiration for new architectural motifs in Germany from around 1460 onwards. [5]

An example of the interlinking of architectural and vegetable form is Tilman Riemenschneider's Heilig-Blut-Altar (St. James's Church, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 1501/05). Here, the canopies are formed by intertwined branches, which in turn are crowned by an architectural finial. This artistic approach deliberately broke with the expected order and with the comprehensibility of the architectural system.

Similarly, the monumental north portal of the Benedictine monastery church in Chemnitz, which was built in 1525 by the wood carver and stone sculpture Franz Maidburg, combines pre-Gothic (Romanesque) forms like rounded arches with branchwork. Both the style and the figurative program with the founders of the 12th century emperor Lothair II refer here to the distant foundation of the monastery and emphasize the age and venerability of the complex. [6] Also Bramante's tree pillars in the cloister of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan are such an implementation of the architectural theoretical discourse.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albrecht Dürer</span> German painter, printmaker and theorist (1471–1528)

Albrecht Dürer, sometimes spelled in English as Durer, was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, Fra Luca Pacioli and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrad Celtes</span> German Renaissance humanist scholar and poet (1459–1508)

Conrad Celtes was a German Renaissance humanist scholar and poet of the German Renaissance born in Franconia. He led the theatrical performances at the Viennese court and reformed the syllabi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gothic architecture</span> Architectural style of Medieval Europe

Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. It originated in the Île-de-France and Picardy regions of northern France. The style at the time was sometimes known as opus Francigenum ; the term Gothic was first applied contemptuously during the later Renaissance, by those ambitious to revive the architecture of classical antiquity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherusci</span> Germanic tribe in present-day northwestern Germany in the 1st centuries BC and AD

The Cherusci were a Germanic tribe that inhabited parts of the plains and forests of northwestern Germania in the area of the Weser River and present-day Hanover during the first centuries BC and AD. Roman sources reported they considered themselves kin with other Irmino tribes and claimed common descent from an ancestor called Mannus. During the early Roman Empire under Augustus, the Cherusci first served as allies of Rome and sent sons of their chieftains to receive Roman education and serve in the Roman army as auxiliaries. The Cherusci leader Arminius led a confederation of tribes in the ambush that destroyed three Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9. He was subsequently kept from further damaging Rome by disputes with the Marcomanni and reprisal attacks led by Germanicus. After rebel Cherusci killed Arminius in AD 21, infighting among the royal family led to the highly Romanized line of his brother Flavus coming to power. Following their defeat by the Chatti around AD 88, the Cherusci do not appear in further accounts of the German tribes, apparently being absorbed into the late classical groups such as the Saxons, Thuringians, Franks, Bavarians, and Allemanni.

The Vistula Veneti, also called Baltic Veneti or Venedi, were an Indo-European people that inhabited the lands of central Europe east of the Vistula River and the Bay of Gdańsk. Ancient Roman geographers first mentioned Venedi in the 1st century AD, differentiating a group of peoples whose manner and language differed from those of the neighbouring Germanic and Sarmatian tribes. In the 6th century AD, Byzantine historians described the Veneti as the ancestors of the Slavs who, during the second phase of the Migration Period, crossed the northern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire.

<i>Germania</i> (book) Book by Publius Cornelius Tacitus

The Germania, written by the Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus around 98 AD and originally entitled On the Origin and Situation of the Germans, is a historical and ethnographic work on the Germanic peoples outside the Roman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eichstätt</span> Town in Bavaria, Germany

Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Eichstätt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flamboyant</span> Very Ornate style of late Gothic architecture

Flamboyant is a lavishly-decorated style of Gothic architecture that appeared in France and Spain in the 15th century, and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century and the beginning of the Renaissance. Elaborate stone tracery covered both the exterior and the interior. Windows were decorated with a characteristic s-shaped curve. Masonry wall space was reduced further as windows grew even larger. Major examples included the northern spire of Chartres Cathedral, Trinity Abbey, Vendôme, and Burgos Cathedral and Segovia Cathedral in Spain. It was gradually replaced by Renaissance architecture in the 16th century.

The 1270s in architecture involved the following:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hall church</span> Type of church building

A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height. In England, Flanders and the Netherlands, it is covered by parallel roofs, typically, one for each vessel, whereas in Germany there is often one single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an architectural basilica, where the nave is lit from above by the clerestory, a hall church is lit by the windows of the side walls typically spanning almost the full height of the interior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French Gothic architecture</span> Architectural style

French Gothic architecture is an architectural style which emerged in France in 1140, and was dominant until the mid-16th century. The most notable examples are the great Gothic cathedrals of France, including Notre-Dame Cathedral, Reims Cathedral, Chartres Cathedral, and Amiens Cathedral. Its main characteristics are verticality, or height, and the use of the rib vault and flying buttresses and other architectural innovations to distribute the weight of the stone structures to supports on the outside, allowing unprecedented height and volume. The new techniques also permitted the addition of larger windows, including enormous stained glass windows, which fill the cathedrals with light.

<i>Jagdschloss</i> Building set in a wildlife park or a hunting area

A Jagdschloss is a hunting lodge in German-speaking countries. It is a schloss set in a wildlife park or a hunting area that served primarily as accommodation for a ruler or aristocrat and his entourage while hunting in the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Flötner</span> German designer, sculptor, and printmaker

Peter Flötner, also Flatner, Flettner, or Floetner, was a German designer, sculptor, and printmaker. He was a leading figure in the introduction of Italianate Renaissance design to sculpture and the decorative arts in Germany, competing in this regard with the Vischer Family of Nuremberg. He designed and produced work in a wide range of media, but "seems to have made only a modest living", unlike many of his contemporary artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willibald Sauerländer</span> German art historian

Willibald Sauerländer was a German art historian specializing in Medieval French sculpture. From 1970 to 1989, he was director of the prestigious Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willibaldsburg</span> Bavarian Castle

The Willibaldsburg is a spur castle, built around the year 1353, in Eichstätt in Upper Bavaria. Until the middle of the 18th century, it was the representative castle and seat of Eichstätt's prince-bishops.

Norbert Nussbaum is an architectural historian specialising in the Gothic who is a professor at the Kunsthistorisches Institut, University of Cologne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Parler</span>

Heinrich Parler the Elder, was a German architect and sculptor. His masterpiece is Holy Cross Minster, an influential milestone of late Gothic architecture in the town of Schwäbisch Gmünd, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Parler also founded the Parler family of master builders and his descendants worked in various parts of central Europe, especially Bohemia. His son, Peter Parler, became one of the major architects of the Middle Ages. The family name is derived from the word Parlier, meaning "foreman".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altenberger Dom</span> Church in Altenberg, Germany

The Altenberger Dom is the former abbey church of Altenberg Abbey which was built from 1259 in Gothic style by Cistercians. Listed as a cultural heritage, it is located in Altenberg, now part of Odenthal in the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Until 1511, the church was the burial site of counts and dukes of Berg and the dukes of Jülich-Berg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alain Erlande-Brandenburg</span> French art historian (1937–2020)

Alain Erlande-Brandenburg was a French art historian and honorary general curator for heritage, a specialist on Gothic and Romanesque art.

The Codex Hersfeldensis was a manuscript from the Early Middle Ages. Written between 830 and 850, the codex was found in Hersfeld Abbey in the first half of the 15th century. The codex was brought to Italy by Enoch of Ascoli in 1455, where it was divided up and copied. The original has since been lost. The Codex Hersfeldensis is considered to be the original source for the surviving manuscripts of the Opera Minora – the shorter works of Tacitus, including the Germania.

References

  1. Paul Crossley: The Return to the Forest: Natural Architecture and the German Past in the Age of Dürer. In: Thomas W. Gaehtgens (ed.): Künstlerischer Austausch, Akten des 28. Internationalen Kongresses für Kunstgeschichte. vol 2, Berlin 1993, pp. 71–80.
  2. Joseph Rykwert: On Adams House in Paradise: The Idea of the Primitive Hut in Architectural History. New York: Museum of Modern Art. 1972 ISBN   0870705121.
  3. Christopher B. Krebs: A Most Dangerous Book. Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich. W. W. Norton 2011.
  4. See Dieter Mertens: Die Instrumentalisierung der Germania des Tacitus durch die deutschen Humanisten. In: Heinrich Beck (ed.): Zur Geschichte der Gleichung germanisch – deutsch. Sprache und Namen, Geschichte und Institutionen. Berlin 2004, pp. 37–101, here pp. 39 and 59–61.
  5. Stephan Hoppe: Romanik als Antike und die baulichen Folgen. Mutmaßungen zu einem in Vergessenheit geratenen Diskurs. In: Norbert Nußbaum et al. (Hrsg.): Wege zur Renaissance. Beobachtungen zu den Anfängen neuzeitlicher Kunstauffassung im Rheinland und den Nachbargebieten um 1500, Cologne 2003, pp. 89–131 Online version.
  6. Stephan Hoppe: Stildiskurse, Architekturfiktionen und Relikte. Beobachtungen in Halle, Chemnitz und Heilbronn zum Einfluss der Bildkünste auf mitteleuropäische Werkmeister um 1500. In: Stefan Bürger und Bruno Klein (Hg.): Werkmeister der Spätgotik. Position und Rolle der Architekten im Bauwesen des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts. Darmstadt 2009, pp. 69–91 online version.

Literature