1008

ALTAR

Saalfeld was – second only to Erfurt - a major centre of sculpture and panel painting in Thuringia in the two decades before and after 1500. The workshops formerly located there and the numerous altarpieces they produced go by the term of "Saalfeld School". Its best-known representatives are Valentin Lendenstreich († 1506) and the Riemenschneider student Hans Gottwald von Lohr († 1542).

The winged altar presented here is the oldest preserved and consequently dated altar of the Saalfeld School. It was created in 1479 by the "Schwarza Master" for the village church of St. Laurentius in Schwarza near Blankenhain, which explains the artist's convenience name. At the beginning of the 20th century, he was still known as the "Master of architectural canopy altars" (Voß 1905). However, Margarete Riemschneider-Hoerner introduced the convenience name of "Master of the Altar of Schwarza" referring to the direct connection of the unknown artist to this main work. As the only treatise on the "Schwarza Master", the work of Andrea Jakob also lays the ground for the overview of the artist and work given here.

Regarding the life of the "Schwarza Master", one can only speculate. Based on the age determination of the altar, one can assume that he was possibly born around 1450 in Ostfalen, which includes today's German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, and that he received his artistic training there or in Westphalia before he came to Saalfeld around 1475 and founded a workshop. In addition to the main work presented here, Andrea Jakob credits the following works as part of his core oeuvre: a relief with the Adoration of the Kings that originates from the former Marienaltar of the Saalfeld Johanniskirche, as well as a significant participation in the creation of the Mariae altars of Großkochberg, Gorndorf (dated 1490) near Saalfeld and Schaala.

The altar representing a row of figurines has a stepped elevated shrine with accordingly attached wings. In the middle compartment, under the keel-arched canopies with cross-ribbed vaults, Mary stands with her child on a crescent moon in a radiant glow against a blue, star-studded background. By her sides, there are twelve smaller saints and helpers, divided into groups of three. In the central shrine on the left side, from the inside to the outside, there are the Saints Catherine, Lawrence and Peter, followed in the wing by Juliana of Nicomedia, Andrew and Martin. In the central shrine on the right side, from the inside to the outside, there are the Saints Barbara, John the Evangelist and Nicholas, followed in the wing by George, Gangolf and Sebastian. The figures stand on polygonal pedestals bearing name inscriptions. They are flattened and hollowed out at the rear, polychromatic and gilded, partly also covered with pressed brocade in the central shrine. Mary’s golden dress is intricately engraved. Historical black and white illustrations of the altar dating from 1890 and 1905, from Münzenberger and Voß, show small, bright areas to the left and right of Mary's nimbus – presumably the chalk ground – which might point to originally existing, floating angels.

Paintings of music-making angels are fitted into the wing elevations. When closed, the altar shows paintings of the Annunciation and the Nativity. On the back of the shrine box there is an inscription, surrounded by large tendrils, with the date of the altar that reads: "Sub anno d(om)in(i) 1479 i(n) vigi(lia) visitacionis mari(ae) co(m)pleta e(st) hoc opu(s)". The work on the altar was therefore completed on July 1st 1479, the day before the Feast of the Visitation of Mary.

PROVENANCE

Built in 1479 for the village church in Schwarza near Blankenhain / Thuringia;
Sold in 1859 to the Schwarzburg Minister of State Hermann Jakob von Bertrab (1818-1887);
In 1887 it passed into the possession of Prince Georg Albert von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1838-1890) as a legacy;
Inherited by Günther Victor von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt;
from 1891 displayed in his castle Heidecksburg, second floor south wing; a few years later in the chapel of Schwarzburg Castle;
after the First World War sale due to expropriation of princes / dissolution of the constitutional monarchy;
Dutch art trade;
lost from 1920;
from about 1960 part of the collection Dr. Wolfgang Hofstätter, Vienna;
Austrian Private Collection

CONDITION

Supplements: Saint Katherina: 1 finger, sword; Saint Peter: 5 fingers, 2 keys; Saint Martin: 2 fingers, sword; Saint Gangolf: 1 arm with hand, lance, toe; Saint Laurentius: 6 fingers, rust; Saint John: Chalice; Saint Sebastian: tip of the foot, palm branch; Saint George: tip of the foot, lance, dragon's tail; Saint Niclas: crosier; Saint Andrew: 4 fingers, book, St. Andrew's Cross; Mary with child: sceptre, 1 hand, 5 fingers, 2 toes, globe, parts of crown, stars in the background. Parts of the canopy.
For more than 130 years, two coronation angels have been missing to the right and left of Mary's head.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Exhibition catalogue of the art historical exhibition in Erfurt: September 1903. Magdeburg 1904. [here p. 61, Cat.nr. 317]

Beissel, Stephan: Zur Kenntniß und Würdigung der mittelalterlichen Altäre Deutschlands. Bd. 2. Frankfurt a. Main 1905. [here p. 184]

Bergner, Heinrich: Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler Thüringens, Heft XIXa. Amtsgerichtsbezirk Rudolstadt, in: Zeitschrift für Thüringische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Neue Folge, Zehnter Band. Jena 1897. p. 574-586. [here p. 581]

Dehio, Georg: Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Bd. 1: Mitteldeutschland. Berlin 1905. [here p. 338]

Jakob, Andrea: Der "Schwarzaer Meister" und sein näherer Umkreis. Dipl. Leipzig 1988. [here Cat.nr. 1]

Lehfeldt, Paul u. Voß, Georg: Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler Thüringens. Fürstenthum Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. District court districts Rudolstadt, Stadtilm, Königsee, Oberweissbach and Leutenberg. Jena 1894. [here p. 64 and 75]

Lehfeldt, Paul u. Voß, Georg: Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler Thüringens. Herzogthum Sachsen-Meiningen. District Court District of Meiningen. Jena 1909. [here p. 408]

Münzenberger, Ernst F. A.: Zur Kenntniß und Würdigung der mittelalterlichen Altäre Deutschlands. First volume: Beginnings and development of the Gothic winged altar, initially in northern Germany. Frankfurt a. Main 1890. [here p. 184, fig. plate 55 no. 3]

Riemschneider-Hoerner, Margarete: Thüringer Altarwerkstätten der Spätgotik. o. O. 1929. [here pp. 81, 119 and 140]

Riemschneider-Hoerner, Margarete: Die Schnitzaltäre des Saalfelder Museums, in: Festschrift Valentin Hopf zum achtzigsten Geburtstag: 27. Januar 1933. Jena 1933. p. 199-217. [hier p. 202]

Riemschneider-Hoerner, Margarete: Der Beweinungsaltar der Saalfelder Johanniskirche, in: Thüringer Fähnlein, Heft 5. Jena 1933. p. 281-283 [here p. 282]

Stange, Alfred: Deutsche Malerei der Gotik. 9. Franconia, Bohemia and Thuringia-Saxony in the period from 1400 to 1500. Berlin 1958. [here pp. 149-150]

Voß, Georg: Thüringische Holzschnitzerei des Mittelalters und der Renaissance, in: Meisterwerke der Kunst aus Sachsen u. Thüringen: Gemälde, Skulpturen, Schnitzaltäre, Medaillen, Buchmalereien, Webereien, Embroiderereien, Edelschmiedekunst, hrsg. von Doering, Oscar u. Voß, Georg. Magdeburg 1905. p. 53-83. [here pp. 54-55, pp. 67-71 and fig. panel 81a]

Werner, Gerhard: Spätmittelalterliche Künstler und Werkstätten der Malerei und Holzschnitzkunst im Gebiet der oberen Saale, in: Rudolstädter Heimathefte 9/10. Rudolstadt 1973. p. 190-195. [hier p. 190]

Werner, Gerhard: Mittelalterliche Kunstwerke, Thüringer Heimatmuseum Saalfeld (Saale). Saalfeld 1977. [here p. 14]
Werner, Gerhard: Der Saalfelder Bildschnitzer Hans Gottwalt von Lohr, ein Schüler Tilman Riemenschneiders, Bd. I, Text. Diss. Greifswald 1983. [here p. 15 ff., 159 and 161]