DOI Heft:
Heft 6
DOI Artikel:Dogson, Campbell: Ostendorfer and the Beautiful Virgin of Regensburg
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70400#0523
Dodgson. Ostendorfer and the Beautiful Virgin of Regensburg
515
The church here exhibited corresponds to the wooden model of the architect Hans
Hieber, or Huber, of Augsburg, which is still preserved in the Rathaus at Regensburg,
and not to the building actually erected from a modified design, which was converted,
on the introduction of the Reformation in 1542, into the new Protestant Pfarrkirche.
To give verisimilitude, however, to the picture, the church is drawn as if
already erected on its site; the ruins of the demolished Jewish buildings are
shown again around it and the scene is enlivened by several good Catholics of
Regensburg, strolling about, admiring the fine new church, or passing quickly on their
business. (Abb. 3.) Ostendorfer received twelve gülden for drawing the design of
this church upon the block. The payment was made in 1519 according to Schuegraf,1)
but Nagler gives the date as 1520; the payment appears to be entered in the church
accounts for 1520.-) The block is preserved in the Bavarian National Museum
at Munich.3)
Max Friedländer has suggested with great probability that Altdorfer's woodcut
representing an altar in Renaissance style (B. 50) preserves a design for an
altar intended for the new church of the Beautiful Virgin.4) The same destination
may be suggested for an ornamental design by Ostendorfer, dated 1521, repre-
senting a tabernacle for the reception of the consecrated Host. This rare woodcut
was first described by Wessely; 5) a fine impression was purchased for the British Museum
at the Brentano sale in 1870; Prince Liechtenstein posseses another, and a third, mach
later impression, from the worm-eaten block, is in the Albertina. The structure,
designed throughout in Renaissance style, consist of five members. (1) A slender
shaft, resting on two plinths, the uppermost of which bears the date 1521, supports
(2) the actual tabernacle. This is an arched recess, destined to contain the monstrance
in which the reserved Host would be placed; it is closed in front by a grating, and
flanked by Corinthian pilasters. A torch-bearing angel stands on either side upon a
small detached column. Above the tabernacle the structure expands and takes the
form of (3) a vaulted recess containing a plastic group of the Last Supper, seen through
the intervals between four pillars, which support an entablature resting on round
arches; the frieze is adorned with dolphins. Ostendorfer's monogram, in its early
form, the 0 attached to the left side of the M, and indistinctly cut, is to be seen
to left on the shaded side, beneath a seated apostle. Above this member the structure
contracts again, and we see (4) a flat arch-shaped tablet on which is a representation
of the Israelites gathering manna, set in an architectural frame. On either side of the
frame stands an angel, with wings uplifted and cross erect over the brow, supporting
a shield of florid pattern. At the top of the frame rises an open arch with orna-
ments on the outer edge which culminate in a cherub's head between two dolphins.
9 Verhandl. d. hist. Vereins v. Oberpfalz und Regensburg, 1850, XIV (N. F. VI), p. 7.
2) Ibid., p. 23.
3) Friedländer, Altdorfer, p. 169, note 76.
4) Ibid., p. 56.
5) Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, IV. 150. 2.
515
The church here exhibited corresponds to the wooden model of the architect Hans
Hieber, or Huber, of Augsburg, which is still preserved in the Rathaus at Regensburg,
and not to the building actually erected from a modified design, which was converted,
on the introduction of the Reformation in 1542, into the new Protestant Pfarrkirche.
To give verisimilitude, however, to the picture, the church is drawn as if
already erected on its site; the ruins of the demolished Jewish buildings are
shown again around it and the scene is enlivened by several good Catholics of
Regensburg, strolling about, admiring the fine new church, or passing quickly on their
business. (Abb. 3.) Ostendorfer received twelve gülden for drawing the design of
this church upon the block. The payment was made in 1519 according to Schuegraf,1)
but Nagler gives the date as 1520; the payment appears to be entered in the church
accounts for 1520.-) The block is preserved in the Bavarian National Museum
at Munich.3)
Max Friedländer has suggested with great probability that Altdorfer's woodcut
representing an altar in Renaissance style (B. 50) preserves a design for an
altar intended for the new church of the Beautiful Virgin.4) The same destination
may be suggested for an ornamental design by Ostendorfer, dated 1521, repre-
senting a tabernacle for the reception of the consecrated Host. This rare woodcut
was first described by Wessely; 5) a fine impression was purchased for the British Museum
at the Brentano sale in 1870; Prince Liechtenstein posseses another, and a third, mach
later impression, from the worm-eaten block, is in the Albertina. The structure,
designed throughout in Renaissance style, consist of five members. (1) A slender
shaft, resting on two plinths, the uppermost of which bears the date 1521, supports
(2) the actual tabernacle. This is an arched recess, destined to contain the monstrance
in which the reserved Host would be placed; it is closed in front by a grating, and
flanked by Corinthian pilasters. A torch-bearing angel stands on either side upon a
small detached column. Above the tabernacle the structure expands and takes the
form of (3) a vaulted recess containing a plastic group of the Last Supper, seen through
the intervals between four pillars, which support an entablature resting on round
arches; the frieze is adorned with dolphins. Ostendorfer's monogram, in its early
form, the 0 attached to the left side of the M, and indistinctly cut, is to be seen
to left on the shaded side, beneath a seated apostle. Above this member the structure
contracts again, and we see (4) a flat arch-shaped tablet on which is a representation
of the Israelites gathering manna, set in an architectural frame. On either side of the
frame stands an angel, with wings uplifted and cross erect over the brow, supporting
a shield of florid pattern. At the top of the frame rises an open arch with orna-
ments on the outer edge which culminate in a cherub's head between two dolphins.
9 Verhandl. d. hist. Vereins v. Oberpfalz und Regensburg, 1850, XIV (N. F. VI), p. 7.
2) Ibid., p. 23.
3) Friedländer, Altdorfer, p. 169, note 76.
4) Ibid., p. 56.
5) Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, IV. 150. 2.