Architecture and Early Humanism at German Princely Courts: Lower Bavaria, Salzburg and Passau and the Romanesque Renaissance (c. 1480-1500)

Hoppe, Stephan (2021): Architecture and Early Humanism at German Princely Courts: Lower Bavaria, Salzburg and Passau and the Romanesque Renaissance (c. 1480-1500). In: Ottenheym, Konrad Adriaan (Hrsg.): Romanesque Renaissance : Carolingian, Byzantine and Romanesque Buildings (800–1200) as a Source for New All’Antica Architecture in Early Modern Europe (1400–1700). NIKI studies in Netherlandish-Italian art history, Bd. 14. Leiden ; Boston: Brill. S. 306-348

Abstract

After the ecclesiastical councils of Constance (1414–18) and Basle (1431), the number of highly qualified counsellors in Germany began to increase. These counsellors were a class of politically influential personalities who had studied in Italy and had come into contact with the new movement of Renaissance humanism., They had gained influential positions in Imperial cities and at major princely courts, and some were involved in some highly innovative projects in the visual arts and architecture.

To date, secular architecture at German courts in the last quarter of the fifteenth century has seldom been considered from the perspective of an entanglement with modern ideas of the new culture of humanism and the Renaissance. In this essay, three courtly centres in the south of the Holy Roman Empire are examined for stylistic innovations that can no longer be explained within the framework of traditional Gothic craftsmanship.

The new interest of humanistic circles in the architectural style of the Romanesque period, and its assumed links to ancient history, sparked here the construction of a new type of residential palace in a new architectural style. The new monumental style was thus a suitable catalyst for the taking-on of a more active role of princely government and for a new orientation towards ancient cultural and political models.

In Burghausen, Salzburg and Passau, these new princely castles from the period between 1480 and 1500 are still well preserved. They are introduced in the essay as representatives of a new architectural style programmatically oriented towards the ancient origins of their territories. The essay also discusses ties to innovations in painting and the visual arts and the new historiographic narratives of the time.

• Dokumententyp: Buchbeitrag
• Fakultät: Geschichts- und Kunstwissenschaften > Department Kunstwissenschaften > Kunstgeschichte
• Themengebiete: 700 Künste und Unterhaltung > 720 Architektur
• ISBN: 978-90-04-44661-8 ; 978-90-04-44662-5
• Ort: Leiden ; Boston
• Sprache: Englisch