Hans Burgkmair

Hans Burgkmair the Elder ( * 1473 in Augsburg, † 1531 ) was an important painter, draftsman and wood engraver at the beginning of the 16th century. He is next to Hans Holbein the Elder and Hans Holbein the Younger as the most important Augsburg artist between late Gothic and Renaissance.

Life

As the son of the painter Thoman Burgkmair (1444-1523) Hans came early in contact with the painting, the technique he learned in the workshop of his father. His apprenticeship led in 1488-1490 to Colmar (Alsace ) to Martin Schongauer, who influenced him long term. After his return was created in 1490 as his earliest work, the portrait of the Strasbourg cathedral preacher Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg. On his next hiking time through northern Italy he learned by the Venetian art decisive impressions.

1491 Burgkmair was a long time at the Augsburg printer Erhard Ratdolt as a thriller for the woodcut works. In 1498 he was accepted as a master in the imperial city painters' guild and married name in the same year with Anna Allerley, the sister of Hans Holbein the Elder. At the Diet of Augsburg, two years later, he established contacts with the German king and later Emperor Maximilian I, who knew how to appreciate him and soon he was awarded in 1516 a coat of arms. Between 1501 and 1504, the artist painted the three imaginative Basilikenbilder for the Cloister arches of the Augsburg Dominican convent of St. Catherine.

1503 Burgkmair went on a trip to the Lower Rhine. In 1506 he designed for the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise in the castle church of Wittenberg the triptych representing the emergency responders of the disease cartridge. For this, the plague saints Rocco and Cyprian and other saints appear. 1507 he traveled once more to Italy. In 1508 he placed first color woodcuts ago. Starting this year, he devoted his work mainly graphic work for Emperor Maximilian I, mediated by Conrad Peutinger. 1512-1518 he participated as a virtuoso wood cutter to imperial orders for several Augsburg artist.

At retirement, the painter bought in 1526 for himself and his wife a Leibgeding. His son Hans Burgkmair the Younger (1500-1562), who created the etchings for the "Augsburg Book of Genealogy " ( 1545 ) together with Heinrich Vogtherr the Younger, it was not possible to follow in the footsteps of his father.

Creation

Burgkmair is considered a pioneer of the Renaissance in Augsburg, synonymous as a painter and as a designer of woodcuts. Emperor and the Church were in his lifetime the most important clients for his versatile oeuvre. Burgkmair processed, inspired by the Italian art, especially in his woodcuts forms of the Renaissance and combined them masterfully with the tradition of the late Gothic period. His later paintings contain the warm color palette of Venetian painting, which is why there is speculation about further trips to Venice ( staying around 1515 applies at least as secure ). With his later works, such as the already Mannerist -style paintings Esther before Ahasuerus ( 1528) or the Battle of Cannae ( 1529), which he painted for Duke Wilhelm IV, Burgkmair did not reach the quality of his earlier career. Of the 100 woodcuts with portraits of famous rulers ( from Julius Caesar to Maximilian I ), which he produced for a planned Kaiser book, only 20 woodcuts are obtained. The name remained unknown so far master of the Augsburg Malerbildnisse was possibly his pupil.

Burgkmair created some excellent altarpieces. His most beautiful and important work, the St. John Altar, created 1518th

Works (selection)

Wedding picture Jakob Fugger and the Sibyl Artzt, 1498

Emperor Frederick III. , 1500

Basilica di S. Pietro, 1501

Basilica di S. Giovanni, 1502

Basilica di S. Croce, 1504

Chiaroscuro woodcut, 1510

Musicians representation, wood engraving, 1517

John Altar, 1518

History of Esther, 1528

Honor

A bust of Hans Burgkmair the Elder. formation found in the Hall of Fame in Munich.