Ep. 195 – Engraving the German Renaissance
History of the Germans
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last year I went to an exhibition at the Städel museum in Frankfurt that was entitled Holbein and the Renaissance in the North. That is the elder Holbein, the father of the Holbein who came to England. This exhibition has now ended, but there is still a great summary available on the Städel website.
Though obviously not present at the exhibition, one key focus was the Fugger chapel in the church of St. Anne in Augsburg, one of the earliest and most significant Renaissance building north of the Alps. I wanted to kick off this episode with this chapel and then move on to Holbein, Burgkmair etc. But as I dug deeper and deeper into the late 15th and early 16th century art in Southern Germany, the more connections and links emerged that I hope you will find as fascinating as I did.
Links to artworks:
Fugger chapel: Die Fuggerkapelle | St. Anna Augsburg
Riemenschneider Heilig Blut Altar: The Altar of the Holy Blood | Reliquarian
The Hare: Young Hare, 1502 - Albrecht Durer - WikiArt.org
Schongauer St. Anthony: Martin Schongauer | Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rhinocerus: Albrecht Dürer | The Rhinoceros | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ritter, Tod und Teufel and other works: Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.
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To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.
So far I have:
Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy
Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen
The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356
The Reformation before the Reformation
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans, episode 195 engraving the German Renaissance. |
| 0:12.0 | Also episode 11 of season 10, the empire in the 15th century. |
| 0:17.0 | The last year I went to an exhibition at the Stedl Museum in Frankfurt that was entitled |
| 0:22.5 | Holbein and the Renaissance in the North. |
| 0:25.5 | Now that is the elder Holbein, the father of the Holbein who came to England. |
| 0:30.2 | This exhibition has now ended, but there is still a great summary available on the Steadel |
| 0:33.8 | website. |
| 0:36.1 | Though obviously not really present at the exhibition, one key focus of it was the Fugge |
| 0:41.6 | Chapel in the Church of St. Anne in Augsburg, one of the earliest and most significant |
| 0:46.4 | Renaissance buildings north of the Alps. |
| 0:49.4 | I wanted to kick off this episode with this chapel and then move on to Holbein, Borgmeier, etc. |
| 0:55.8 | But as I duck deeper and deeper into the 15th and early 16th century out in southern Germany, |
| 1:01.1 | the more connections and links emerged that I hope you will find as fascinating as I did. |
| 1:07.8 | But before we start another call to contribute to the show on History of the Germans.com |
| 1:13.2 | slash support. |
| 1:14.9 | In this episode we will encounter my pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-decessor, Conradtkeltis, who tried |
| 1:21.2 | but failed to complete a history of the Germans. |
| 1:24.4 | Still, he was crowned Poet Laureate and was given a generous pension by the Emperor. |
| 1:30.0 | So, just in case you wish to have your own Poet Laureate and want to see the history of the |
| 1:34.6 | Germans to go all the way to its conclusion, which is probably in the 2030s, do not hesitate |
| 1:40.5 | to follow Linda D, Lorenzo C, Jonathan, Lincoln B, and the seriously generous |
| 1:46.6 | Ed H, Sean P.B. and Pala H, who've already signed up. And with that, back to the show. |
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