Madern Gerthener
Encyclopedia
Madern Gerthener was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 stonemason and late Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

.

Gerthener was born in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

 to Johann Gerthener, a stonemason whose business the younger Gerthener took over by 1391. In 1395 he entered the city payroll, and soon took a leading role in the city's large construction works. One of his earlier works was involvement in building the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge) over the Main in 1399, and, although his role in only a few other works is directly attested, he was probably involved in a number of other projects around Frankfurt as its Werkmeister, including the city walls and town hall.

Of high architecture, the largest portion of his career in Frankfurt was spent on the Frankfurt Cathedral
Frankfurt Cathedral
Saint Bartholomeus's Cathedral is a Gothic building located in Frankfurt, Germany.Frankfurt Cathedral is the main church of Frankfurt and was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundation of an earlier church from the Merovingian time...

, whose works he was appointed to oversee in 1408. Of note here are the Cathedral's single tower, which Gerthener designed and began building in 1415, and which would become a symbol of Frankfurt's independence; and innovative use of hanging and vaulted tracery
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...

 forms on the cathedral's portals
Portal (architecture)
Portal is a general term describing an opening in the walls of a building, gate or fortification, and especially a grand entrance to an important structure. Doors, metal gates or portcullis in the opening can be used to control entry or exit. The surface surrounding the opening may be made of...

 that would become a characteristic of his style. He may have also been responsible for the tympanum
Tympanum (architecture)
In architecture, a tympanum is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, bounded by a lintel and arch. It often contains sculpture or other imagery or ornaments. Most architectural styles include this element....

 above the south portal of the Liebfrauenkirche in Frankfurt, depicting a scene of the Adoration of the Magi.

By the 1410s his services were in enough demand that he worked on a number of projects outside Frankfurt as well, though most are only attributed to Gerthener based on style. The most important and confidently attributed of these are the portal to the Memorial Chapel of the Mainz Cathedral
Mainz Cathedral
Mainz Cathedral or St. Martin's Cathedral is located near the historical center and pedestrianized market square of the city of Mainz, Germany...

, dated to around 1425, which also includes several sculptures attributed to him, partly on the basis of payment records indicating he had at least occasionally worked as a sculptor.
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