Varel

Listed and illustrated in Bähren-Aye (2005) [https://ediss.sub.uni-hamburg.de/bitstream/ediss/1077/1/dissertation.pdf] [accessed 29 October 2022] as a baptismal font of 1618 by Münstermann with representation related to baptism: "Die Darstellung der vier Evangelisten an Taufen hat durchaus Tradition, jedoch ist die dominante Aufstellung am Schaft als Kreuz ohne tragende Funktion einzigartig. Entfernt erinnert die Gestaltung der Taufe an eine Arbeit von Münstermann in Varel von 1618". The rather complex story of this font is written in the 5th of April 2018 edition of NWZ Online [https://www.nwzonline.de/friesland/kultur/varel-historisches-taufbecken-taufbecken-feiert-geburtstag_a_50,1,1173029608.html] [accessed 29 October 2022] [cf. infra]. Described and illustrated in the Ludwig-Münstermann-Gesellschaft e.V. entry for this church [https://www.ludwig-muenstermann.de/werke/kirchen/varel] [accessed 29 October 2022] [cf. infra]. A communcation from Pol Herman to BSI (e-mail of 4 July 2022) includes the English version of two sources on this font: 1.- NWZ Online, 5th of April 2018: HISTORISCHES TAUFBECKEN: Baptismal font celebrates birthday. 400 years ago the sculptor Ludwig Münstermann created the baptismal font for the Schlosskirche. The anniversary will be celebrated in the service. The baptismal font in the Varel church has not always looked as magnificent as it does today: more than 100 years ago it lay shattered behind the altar. The meaning of baptism had changed so much by the 18th century that it took place in the homes of the believers. The baptismal fonts in the churches were soon superfluous. And what is no longer needed can go, people apparently thought back then. And they removed the baptismal font from our church, as in many other communities - regardless of its artistic value. The famous Hamburg sculptor Ludwig Münstermann was ultimately responsible for the Varel baptismal font. He created the baptismal font exactly 400 years ago. The year 1618 can still be seen at the foot of the font [...] The figures on the baptismal font in particular have an interesting story: when the basin lay shattered behind the altar, the figures were badly damaged. Elimar Bruns, the architect of the last count of Varel, put the fragments back together and reconstructed the figures from them. With this he created models from which new figures could be cast and which served as templates for new sculpting and carving work. The models remained in the family; the master builder's grandson, Christian Kleimann, had inherited them from his grandfather. He was a forester in Ahlhorn for a long time and at the same time was a close friend of his successor, Jörn Schöttelndreier. After Kleimann's death, Schöttelndreier received the figures, and he brought them back to their place of origin in Varel in 2016. The baptismal font also has a wooden lid, which had disappeared over the course of history, but has also reappeared. It was apparently placed in a different place than the baptismal font. It was found in a rather battered condition in the church tower in the 1920s, put back together and has been adorning the baptismal font again since 1998. 2.- source: https://www.ludwig-muenstermann.de/werke/kirchen/varel 1618. Donor: Anton II (1550–1619), Count of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst and his wife Sybille Elisabeth, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Dannenberg (1576–1630). Material: sandstone, alabaster (basin); Oak wood, softwood (lid). Dimensions: 107 cm, D. 81 cm (basin); H. 140 cm, D. 105 cm (lid). Condition: Shortly after 1900, the parish decided to restore the demolished baptismal font. Except for the figure of John the Baptist and an angel figure, all alabaster work pieces were replaced in soapstone by the sculptor Richter in 1905in the Heinrich Boschen company, Oldenburg. The fragments of the originals were cast in plaster and the additions modelled on, to create templates for the copies. The original parts are lost, two of the plasters (painted) in private ownership survive, four unpainted plasters from private ownership were acquired by the parish in 2019. Apparently, the decoration of the bowl was historically reinvented based on preserved fragments and other models. The baptismal font was re-erected in 1963 in the middle of the chancel, as it was originally. The wooden lid was found "completely broken" in the tower of the church and collected by Walter Müller-Wulckow for the State Museum of Oldenburg, where one of the calotte spandrels was already located. For the lid to be displayed in the museum, its workshop made a reconstruction with the addition of the supports for the central lantern. But for the reinstallation of the lid over the basin in the church, in 1998 these supports were replaced by new shorter pillars, and the conserved damaged condition of the original frame was reinforced and secured with the wooden substance. An examination of the findings showed that here too, the original lacquer on the wooden surfaces at the bottom can be seen, as on the altar. This coating had been applied before the coloured paint was added, soon after the installation. Here too, as with the pulpit, it can be assumed that the different materials of the pulpit’s body and sound cover, basin and lid, sandstone, alabaster and wood, were intended to achieve a uniform aesthetic effect through a common design. Signed and dated on the circular base plinth in recessed letters: + M . LUDEWICH + MUNSTERMAN ++ BILTHOUWER . VAN HAMBROCH . FECIT . 1618 + The body of the goblet-shaped baptismal font, on a circular floor plan divided into six sections, is made of sandstone, the parts foot, basin and column divide the height into thirds. The foot rises on a high plinth bearing the signature and date. The strongly constricted column forms a cylinder, in which six shell niches are deepened in a close succession, in which putti figures stand, who pour water from an urn as allegories of the rivers of paradise and the Jordan. The only original urn is the one in the niche to the left of the figure of John the Baptist, where a figure holds a fragment in his hands. On the front edge of the foot stand the figures of the evangelists with their attributes on flat, fluted volute bases, as well as John the Baptist (the only original figure except for the left arm that has been added) and the Salvator. The decoration of the bowl, created entirely in soapstone by the Boschen company, raises doubts as to its originality: the winged herms find no comparable examples in Münstermann's work in terms of style or ornamentation, they are new creations based on the original, but lost, biblical baptismal scenes and are intendet to replace their prefigurations. The calotte arches above the expansive cornice of the wooden lid, divided six times by a richly and imaginatively designed scrollwork clasp, which climbs to the apex in multiple tiered volutes. Between these constructive parts made of oak wood, six expertly carved gusset-shaped softwood segments are inserted: each surface is covered with fittings and scrollwork ornamentation as a frame for the cartouche with a portrait relief. Their frames with their inscription fields and the ornamental systems that accommodate them, which also accommodate wildly gymnastic putti, are specially and differently designed for each case; Circular and rectangular frames with upper arches for the portraits alternate in a regular sequence. The people depicted in the destroyed bust portraits can be identified on the basis of the legible and decipherable inscriptions: JOHAN HUS / D. M. L. [D. Martin Luther] / M.P.M. [Mag. Philipp Melanchthon] / [Johann] CASELIUS [1533–1613] / [Aegidius] HUNNIUS [1550–1603] / CHRISTIANUS REX [Cristian III. of Denmark (1503–1559)]; collectively reformers, theologians, introducers of the Reformation and defenders of the true faith manifested in the understanding of the sacrament of baptism. The baluster columns of the lower canopy are additions, as is the dove hovering over the dome high above the preserved upper smaller canopy. The baptismal font that had been delivered to the chapel of Sonderborg Castle by the famous Frans Floris from Antwerp could be regarded as a model for the artistically demanding design of this work, which has no comparison in Münstermann's oeuvre. And which the Delmenhorst couple might have admired on the occasion of one of their family visits to their Danish relatives. Unless a corresponding copper engraving was sufficient as a template. The virtuosity with which Münstermann executed the sculptural woodwork on the lid of the baptismal font in his personal style is highly remarkable and almost overwhelming, despite the great loss of substance, and within his surviving oeuvre it is unique; the lid with its unusually monumental projection, apparently referring to the dimensions of the other principal pieces in the choir, is shown in excellent and wonderfully sovereign proportions to the rather delicately supporting basin, which in its openwork character is also unique in the master's surviving work. A fundamental restoration, based on the present research with additional retouching of the version, not least taking into account the known plaster casts of the original sculptures, is therefore urgently desired."