''Angelic Salutation'' (German: ''Engelsgruß'') is an assemblage of life-sized
limewood
''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Great Britain and Irelan ...
sculptures celebrating the
Annunciation
The Annunciation (; ; also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord; ) is, according to the Gospel of Luke, the announcement made by the archangel Gabriel to Ma ...
by the late-
Gothic German artist
Veit Stoss
Veit Stoss (, also spelled Stoß and Stuoss; ; ; before 1450about 20 September 1533) was a leading German language, German sculptor, mostly working with wood, whose career covered the transition between the late Gothic art, Gothic and the North ...
. It was commissioned in 1517 by Anton II Tucher and completed the following year. Tucher was a high ranking official in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
in southern Germany, and donated the work to the medieval church of
St. Lorenz (or St. Lawrence) in Nuremberg, where it still freely suspended on a metal chain in the center of the choir, facing the
high altar
An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...
.
[Burkhard (1935), p. 37]
Description
The sculptures are dominated by the life-sized figures of
Virgin Mary
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
and
Archangel Gabriel
In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...
, from whom the work takes its name.
[Burkhard (1935), p. 35] They are suspended within a circular frame resembling a wreath of roses, that represent the rosary of the Annunciation. ''Angelic Salutation is widely regarded as Stoss' masterpiece.
[Burkhard (1935), p. 31] Mary and Gabriel are surrounded by a series of small angels, many of whom are ringing bells or playing musical instrument.
The statues are suspended within the encircling frame of a
wreath
A wreath () is an assortment of flowers, leaves, fruits, twigs, or various materials that is constructed to form a ring shape.
In English-speaking countries, wreaths are used typically as household ornaments, most commonly as an Advent and C ...
of roses embedded with eight medallions illustrating scenes from both the
Life of the Virgin
The Life of the Virgin, showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art, often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ. In both cases the ...
and
Life of Christ.
Stoss created a large gilded crown to hang over the frame, but this is now lost. Tucher commissioned craftsman Jakob Pulmann to design and install an iron
candelabra
A candelabrum (plural candelabra but also used as the singular form) is a candle holder with multiple arms. "Candelabra" can be used to describe a variety of candle holders including chandeliers. However, candelabra can also be distinguished as b ...
holding a miniature statue of Mary in order to illuminate Stoss's work.
Provenance
The ensemble was commissioned in 1517 by the German merchant, city councillor and treasurer
Anton Tucher as a devotional centerpiece for those reciting the
rosary
The Rosary (; , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), formally known as the Psalter of Jesus and Mary (Latin: Psalterium Jesu et Mariae), also known as the Dominican Rosary (as distinct from other forms of rosary such as the ...
or other
Marian devotions
Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of Jesus, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Orien ...
.
[Heal (2007), p. 74] Tucher employed
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...
to review the quality of the piece before final payment was determined and made to Stoss.
[Smith (2004), p. 353] It was completed on the eve of the
German Reformation
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, when Lutheran reformers introduced ideas of
iconoclasm
Iconoclasm ()From . ''Iconoclasm'' may also be considered as a back-formation from ''iconoclast'' (Greek: εἰκοκλάστης). The corresponding Greek word for iconoclasm is εἰκονοκλασία, ''eikonoklasia''. is the social belie ...
as they began to question both the need for, and purpose of religious art.
[Smith (2004), p. 354]
In 1525 Tucher and the city split from the Catholic church in favour of
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
.
From 1519 a green fabric was placed over the work, and it was allowed to be uncovered only on
holy days. It had long been thought that the covering was imposed by iconoclasts, however the 20th-century discovery of a document drawn up by Tucher finds mention of payment for the cloth indicating that the shroud was part of the original design. In 1529 it stopped being uncovered for Church holidays. A 1756 record reveals that because the Lutheran theologian
Andreas Osiander
Andreas Osiander (; 19 December 1498 – 17 October 1552) was a German Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer.
Career
Born at Gunzenhausen, Ansbach, in the region of Franconia, Osiander studied at the University of Ingolstadt before ...
"preached against this image and called the Mary a golden milk-maid a green coverage was made for it."
In the late 1520s ''Angelic Salutation'' was seen as merely devotional with no liturgical purpose; it celebrated Mary rather than Jesus and was centered on the rosary which fell out of favour with the Lutherans.
It was expensive to maintain, and it was argued that the money paid for its upkeep could be better spent providing for the poor.
Because the work was deemed the private property of the wealthy and influential Tucher family it mostly escaped destruction. Generally, in post-reformation Germany, religious art commissioned by nobility was spared if it was taken into private collection. Yet the ''Angelic Salutation'' was allowed to remain - albeit shrouded - in a public area,
[Heal (2007), p. 104] an indication of the city of Nuremberg's pride in its heritage.
[Heal (2007), p. 109] Only the crown was disassembled and demolished, and the centerpiece covered and largely decommissioned.
[Brockmann (2006), p. 36]
The work was further threatened when it was described as "a disgrace to Nuremberg". At one point a collection was made to replace the metal suspension with hemp to save costs. However, in 1817 this rope broke.
It was not until the end of the 19th century that the ''Angelic Salutation'' was permanently uncovered and opened to the public.
References
Sources
* Brockmann, Stephen. ''Nuremberg: The Imaginary Capital''. London: Camden House, 2006.
* Burkhard, Arthur. "Veit Stoss, German Sculptor". ''Speculum'', vol. 10, No. 1, 1935.
* Heal, Bridget. ''The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
*
Nash, Susie. ''Northern Renaissance art''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
*
Smith, Jeffrey Chipps. ''The Northern Renaissance''. London: Phaidon Press, 2004.
{{refend
Sculptures by Veit Stoss
Sculptures of the Annunciation
16th-century sculptures
Culture in Nuremberg