Hans Weiditz
Encyclopedia
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
artist, also known as The Petrarch Master for his woodcuts illustrating Petrarch
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
's De remediis utriusque fortunae
De remediis utriusque fortunae
De remediis utriusque fortunae is a collection of 253 Latin dialogues written by the humanist Francesco Petrarca , commonly known as Petrarch...
, or Remedies for Both Good and Bad Fortune, or Phisicke Against Fortune. He is best known today for his very lively scenes and caricatures of working life and people, many created to illustrate the abstract philosophical maxims of Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
and Petrarch.
Like most artists in woodcut he only designed the woodcuts, leaving the block-cutting to a specialist "formschneider" (sometimes Jost de Negker
Jost de Negker
Jost de Negker was a cutter of woodcuts and also a printer and publisher of prints during the early 16th century, mostly in Augsburg, Germany. He was a leading "formschneider" or blockcutter of his day, but always to the design of an artist. He is "closely tied to the evolution of the fine...
in his Augsburg period) who pasted the design to the wood and chiselled the white areas away. The quality of the final woodcuts, which varies considerably, depended on the skill of the cutter as well as the artist. Weiditz was unfortunate in that his publishers went bankrupt part way through the production of his two longest series of woodcuts, and the cutting was later completed by cutters of lower skill.
Life
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
between 1497 and 1514, and was described as a 'bildhower' or sculptor in the Painters' Guild records. In 1505 he worked on the Dreikönigsaltar in Freiburg Cathedral. Parish records show a 1510 payment to him for carved wooden rosettes on the keystones in the chancel, working with Hans Baldung
Hans Baldung
Hans Baldung, known as Hans Baldung Grien/Grün was a German Renaissance artist in painting and printmaking in woodcut. He was considered the most gifted student of Albrecht Dürer.-Life:...
, the gifted student of Albrecht Dürer. He is not to be confused with the slightly older Strasbourg woodcut artist Hans Wechtlin
Hans Wechtlin
Johann, Johannes or Hans Wechtlin was a German Renaissance artist, active between at least 1502 and 1526, whose woodcuts are his only certainly surviving work...
.
Weiditz the Younger, a brother of Christoph Weiditz (1500-1559), was a prominent member of an elite group of woodcut artists including such figures as Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
, Hans Holbein
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...
, and Hans Burgkmair
Hans Burgkmair
Hans Burgkmair the elder was a German painter and printmaker in woodcut.Burgkmair was born in Augsburg, the son of painter Thomas Burgkmair and his son, Hans the Younger, became one too. From 1488 he was a pupil of Martin Schongauer in Colmar, who died during his two years there, before Burgkmair...
, his teacher. He was active in Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
between 1512 and 1522, and from 1522 to 1536 in Straßburg
Strasburg
-Places:*Strasbourg, a city in Alsace *Straßburg, Austria, in Carinthia*Strasburg, Germany, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania*the former name of Brodnica, became Polish after World War I*Strassburg, the German name for Aiud, Alba...
, producing woodcuts for book illustrations in the style of Burgkmair. He also produced notable work for an edition of Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
's popular De Officiis
De Officiis
De Officiis is an essay by Marcus Tullius Cicero divided into three books, in which Cicero expounds his conception of the best way to live, behave, and observe moral obligations.- Origin :...
in 1531, for Apuleius
Apuleius
Apuleius was a Latin prose writer. He was a Berber, from Madaurus . He studied Platonist philosophy in Athens; travelled to Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt; and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the...
' The Golden Ass
The Golden Ass
The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which St. Augustine referred to as The Golden Ass , is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety....
(1538), and the Comedies of Plautus
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
.
He produced the German chiaroscuro woodcut with the most different colour blocks, a seven-block coat of arms of a cardinal, for a book frontispiece
Book frontispiece
A frontispiece is a decorative illustration facing a book's title page. The frontispiece is the verso opposite the recto title page. Elaborate engraved frontispieces were in frequent use, especially in Bibles and in scholarly books, and many are masterpieces of engraving...
of 1520, probably cut by Jost de Negker
Jost de Negker
Jost de Negker was a cutter of woodcuts and also a printer and publisher of prints during the early 16th century, mostly in Augsburg, Germany. He was a leading "formschneider" or blockcutter of his day, but always to the design of an artist. He is "closely tied to the evolution of the fine...
.
Illustrations for the Herbarum vivae eicones
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
in three parts between 1530 and 1536, was a landmark publication in the development of botanical illustration. The text was compiled by Otto Brunfels
Otto Brunfels
Otto Brunfels was a German theologian and botanist...
from earlier writings, but the illustrations by Weiditz represented a novel approach and set a high standard of realism in the portrayal of plants. Weiditz took his plants from nature, often showing the changing appearance with the seasons. His technique was admired and inevitably copied, leading to a copyright infringement lawsuit against the publisher Christian Egenolff
Christian Egenolff
Christian Egenolff or Egenolph , also known as Christian Egenolff, the Elder, was the first important printer and publisher operating from Frankfurt-am-Main, and best-known for his and re-issue of books by Adam Ries, Erasmus von Rotterdam and Ulrich von Hutten...
.
Selected books illustrated by Hans Weiditz
- Der Altenn Fechter anfengliche Kunst, Christian EgenolffChristian EgenolffChristian Egenolff or Egenolph , also known as Christian Egenolff, the Elder, was the first important printer and publisher operating from Frankfurt-am-Main, and best-known for his and re-issue of books by Adam Ries, Erasmus von Rotterdam and Ulrich von Hutten...
, (Frankfurt am Main 1529) - Petrarch De Remediis Utriusque FortunaeDe remediis utriusque fortunaeDe remediis utriusque fortunae is a collection of 253 Latin dialogues written by the humanist Francesco Petrarca , commonly known as Petrarch...
, or Remedies for Both Good and Bad Fortune, or Phisicke Against Fortune as well prosperous as adverse - The Herbarum vivae eicones (Living plant images), published Strasbourg in three parts between 1530 and 1536--a landmark publication in botanical illustration, by Otto BrunfelsOtto BrunfelsOtto Brunfels was a German theologian and botanist...
External links
- http://www.infobitte.de/free/lex/artsLex0/w/weiditzHansDae.htm