Wittenberg / Lutherstadt Wittenberg

Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

Results: 17 records

Apostle or saint - unidenitfied - 8

three of them seen here; some of the figures are damaged and have lost their identifying symbol but St Peter can be clearly identified in the centre panel here

Scene Description: three of them seen here; some of the figures are damaged and have lost their identifying symbol but St Peter can be clearly identified in the centre panel here

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

Apostle or saint - unidentified - 4

raised on tall platforms on the outer side of the four outer colonnettes of the base; like to figures on the basin sides, these appear to hold objects in their hands -- the figure in the centre of the image appears to be a cleric holding a chalice in his left hand and blessing it with his right hand

Scene Description: raised on tall platforms on the outer side of the four outer colonnettes of the base; like to figures on the basin sides, these appear to hold objects in their hands -- the figure in the centre of the image appears to be a cleric holding a chalice in his left hand and blessing it with his right hand

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

animal - fabulous animal or monster - 4

four little weasel-like (?) animals climb on the inside of the girders that link the outer colonnettes to the central shaft of the base

Scene Description: four little weasel-like (?) animals climb on the inside of the girders that link the outer colonnettes to the central shaft of the base

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

animal - fabulous animal or monster - holding shield

there is at least one animal holding a shield by the centre pillar of the lower base; it looks much like the ones perched on the girders, but this one holds a shield

Scene Description: there is at least one animal holding a shield by the centre pillar of the lower base; it looks much like the ones perched on the girders, but this one holds a shield

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

animal - mammal - lion - rampant - holding shield - 4

the almost-rampant position with each lion resting its upper legs on a shield; we have no identification of emblems or ams on the shilelds [although one source claims to have seen one X cross here]

Scene Description: the almost-rampant position with each lion resting its upper legs on a shield; we have no identification of emblems or ams on the shilelds [although one source claims to have seen one X cross here]

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

design element - architectural - buttress - crocketed pinnacle

Scene Description: each of the four outer colonnettes of the base is formed by four such buttresses

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

design element - architectural - buttress - crocketed pinnacle - 8

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

design element - motifs - floral or foliage - 8

Scene Description: eight leafy motifs linked by a roll moulding; the motif is repeated on other parts of the base

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

inscription - detail

Scene Description: Gothic lettering around the upper rim

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

view of base

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

view of basin - upper view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: digital photograph taken 27 September 2015 by M_H.DE [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lutherstadt_Wittenberg,Kirchplatz,Stadtpfarrkirche_St._Marien.jpg] [accessed 20 February 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-4.0

view of church interior - altar and retable

Scene Description: the Cranachs?

Image Source: digital photograph taken 17 July 2015 by W. Bulach [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:00_3419_Wittenberg_-_Lutherstadt_(Stadtkirche).jpg] [accessed 20 February 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-4.0

view of church interior - retable - detail

Source caption: "Philipp Melanchthon administers the sacrament of Baptism) [...] Reformation altarpiece, Stadt- und Pfarrkirche St. Marien zu Wittenberg, left wing".

Scene Description: Source caption: "Philipp Melanchthon administers the sacrament of Baptism) [...] Reformation altarpiece, Stadt- und Pfarrkirche St. Marien zu Wittenberg, left wing".

Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 April 2009 by Nick Thompson [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lucas_Cranach_d.J._-_Reformationsaltar,_St._Marien_zu_Wittenberg,_linker_Flügel.jpg] [accessed 20 February 2018]

Copyright Instructions: CC-PD-Mark / PD-Art (PD-old-100)

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

view of font

Image Source: digital photograph taken 5 February 2020 by Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received from the author (e-mail of 6 February 2020)

INFORMATION

FontID: 06378WIT

Object Type: Baptismal Font1

Church/Chapel: Stadt- und Pfarrkirche St. Marien zu Wittenberg

Church Patron Saints: St. Mary the Virgin

Church Location: Kirchpl. 12, 06886 Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany -- Tel.: +49 3491 62830

Country Name: Germany

Location: Halle, Sachsen-Anhalt

Directions to Site: Located 70 km N of Leipzig; the church is located in the Altstadt, on Kirchplatz, east of the Market

Ecclesiastic Region: Bistum Brandenburg

Font Location in Church: Inside the church

Date: 1457

Century and Period: 15th century (mid), Late Gothic

Workshop/Group/Artisan: Master Hermann Vischer / heraldic font

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Mary MacTavish, Toronto, Canada, for bringing this font to our attention and for the information supplied. We are grateful to Juan Antonio Olañeta [www.claustro.com] for his photographs of this font

Church Notes: wooden church here first documented 1187; present church is 14th-15th century Gothic. Cranach retable (1547) depicts both Luther [who preached in this church] and Melanchton.

Font Notes: Click to view

Lübke (1870) notes a font of the Gothic period cast by master "Hermann Vischer, the father of Peter Vischer of Nuremberg". Listed in Enlart (1902) among a group of metal fonts on stone bases; his only description is "très richement ornés". The font consists of a octagonal basin with slightly tapering sides, each containing a standing figure, probably an apostle or saint. Although Enlart reports it mounted on a stone pedestal base, a recent [1999] photograph shows it on a metal base. Octagonal mounted bronze font dated to 1457. The panels of the basin are divided by roofed arch-like buttresses; between these, a human figure stands holding an attribute of his calling in deep relieve; the inner basin appears to have two inserts, both of metal; the outer one resembles a lining whereas the inner is a removable one with handles; there is a running inscription in Gothic lettering around the upper rim; also on the rim are twp qanchoring stots of the cover lock [no cover present]. The base is a four-legged stand of complex design; the legs themselves are buttress like but each ends in a foot with a lion holding a shield (charged with arms) outwards; the upper end of these four legs ends in a volute at every other corner of the lower basin, forming trefoil arches with the corners without legs; these four leg-less corners have the same volutes with an extension that continues inwards to meet the lower extension rising feom the lower base, all meeting at the centre, under the bowl, at a very ornate junction. Each of the four legs of the base has a standing figure (one of them holds what appears to be a X-cross and may represent St. Andrew.

COORDINATES

Church Latitude & Longitude Decimal: 51.8665, 12.6448

Church Latitude & Longitude DMS: 51° 51′ 59.4″ N, 12° 38′ 41.28″ E

UTM: 33U 337845 5748812

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: metal, bronze

Font Shape: octagonal (mounted)

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Notes: there is a Gothic lettering inscription around the upper rim

Inscription Location: basin upper rim

Inscription Text: [transcription not available]

LID INFORMATION

Notes: the upper basin rim has two staples to secure the lid

REFERENCES

Enlart, Camille, Manuel d'archéologie française depuis les temps mérovingiens jusqu'à la Renaissance, Paris: Alphonse Picard & fils, 1902

Lübke, Wilhelm, Ecclesiastical in Gemany during the Middle Ages [tranl. by L. A. Wheatley], London: Cassell, Petter, & Galpin, 1870