The Italian Renaissance had a huge impact on the art and architecture of the countries north of the Alps since the late fifteenth century. Elias Holl (1573–1646), chief archi-tect (Stadtwerkmeister) of the Free Imperial City of Augsburg, is one of the main promoters of the new style in southern Germany. In his family chronicle (Haus- chronik), Holl mentioned that some of his buildings were erected “in Italian style”
(auf welsche Manier).1 He became the protagonist in the transformation process of Augsburg from a late Gothic to a Renaissance city.
The Neue Bau (1614; fig. 1), a representative secular building erected on the Perlach Square (Perlachplatz) in the immediate neighborhood of the Italian-style City Hall (1615–20; fig. 2), is a key work in this development. As a show piece in the very heart of the city, the building was designed in ‘modern’ forms inspired by the Italian High Renaissance, thus not only contributing to the dignity of the site, but also to the sublime image of the city.
Augsburg was a significant transfer station of the Italian Renaissance culture in the German territory. Her relationship to Italy can be traced back to Roman antiquity.
The city, which was originally called Augusta Vindelicorum, was founded in ca. 15 BC under Emperor Augustus, from whom the name derives.2 Augsburg became the capital of the Roman province Raetia in ca. 120/121.3 The Via Claudia Augusta, the
1 The expression auf welsche Manier is found in Holl’s description of the Bakers’ Guild house (Bäckerzunfthaus, 1602) and the Barfüßer Bridge (Barfüßerbrücke, 1610). Christian Meyer (ed.), Die Hauschronik der Famile Holl (1487–1646), insbesondere die Lebensaufzeichnungen des Elias Holl, Baumeisters der Stadt Augsburg, Munich 1910, pp. 45 and 56.
2 The Roman origins of Augsburg can be traced back to a Roman military station, founded under the Roman generals Drusus (38 BC–AD 9) and Tiberius (42 BC–AD 16) during their invasion in the northern foothills of the Alps in 15 BC. Alois Schmid, “Bayern und Italien im frühen und hohen Mittelalter,” in: Rainhard Riepentinger [et al.] (eds), Bayern – Italien. Die Geschichte einer intensiven Beziehung, Stuttgart 2010, pp. 18-27, here p. 18; Wolfgang Wallenta, Augsburg & Italien.
Eine 2000jährige Beziehung, Mering 2009, p. 5.
3 Bernd Roeck, Geschichte Augsburgs, Munich 2005, pp. 15-16.
old Roman military and business route, connecting southern Germany with northern Italy, had already been used in antiquity by Germanic tribes.4 Located on the northern part of this traditional traveling route, Augsburg became a major gate to Italy. The merchants of Augsburg had developed an intensive network in Venice since the fourteenth century and installed their headquarters in the German Warehouse (Fondaco dei Tedeschi) at the Rialto.5
Thanks to the intensive commercial links between Augsburg and Venice, the Italian Renaissance was established here long before Holl’s time. With the Fugger Chapel in the Protestant Church St. Anna (1502–09) the Italian Renaissance style had reached Germany;6 the Fugger Palace (1512–15) was the first representative dwelling of a merchant family inspired by models from south of the Alps.7 Moreover, Augsburg as an important center for printing was stimulated by Venice.8 After 1500, collecting Italian printed books became in vogue in Augsburg.9 Numerous northern art works were intentionally described by artists or patrons as made auf welsche Manier.10 As early as in 1472, Günther Zainer (†1478), an incunabular printer of
4 Roeck 2005 (as note 3), p. 14; Reinhard Stauber, “Bayern und Italien – Aspekte ihrer Beziehungen in der Neuzeit,” in: Riepentinger (as note 2), p. 38. For the Via Claudia Augusta, see below chapter 3.1.
5 Since the early fifteenth century, the merchants of Augsburg played a leading role in the management of the business activities of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Bruno Bushart, “Venice and Augsburg:
Architecture and Sculpture in Sixteenth Century,” in: Bernard Aikema and Beverly Louise Brown (eds), Renaissance and the North. Crosscurrents in the Time of Dürer, Bellini and Tizian, exhibition catalog, Venice, Palazzo Grassi, 5 September 1999–9 January 2000, London 1999, p. 166.
6 Norbert Lieb, “Augsburger Baukunst der Renaissancezeit,” in: Hermann Rinn (ed.), Augusta 955-1955. Forschungen und Studien zur Kultur- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte Augsburgs, Munich 1955, pp. 229-247, p. 229; Christoph Bellot, “‘Auf welsche art, der zeit gar new erfunden.’ Zur Augsburger Fuggerkapelle,” in: Gernot Michael Müller (ed.), Humanismus und Renaissance in Augsburg:
Kulturgeschichte einer Stadt zwischen Spätmittelalter und Dreißigjährigem Krieg, Berlin and New York 2010, pp. 445-489.
7 The Fugger were the predominant merchant family in Augsburg and the patrons, especially with regard to Italian Renaissance culture. Their palace was designed by the local architect Hans Hieber (ca. 1480–1521/22). Italian influence can be observed in the so-called Ladies’ Courtyard (Damenhof), which is designed as a Renaissance cortile. Wallenta (as note 2), pp. 38-43.
8 Bernd Roeck, “Kulturtransfer zwischen Bayern und Italien in der Renaissance,” in: Riepentinger (as note 2), pp. 28-39.
9 For collecting Italian books and architectural treatises in Augsburg at Holl’s time, in particular, see below chapter 3.1.
10 The Fugger Chapel in Augsburg, for instance, is registered in the Fuggers’ Book of Honor (Ehrenbuch) in 1564 as built “in Italian style, which is a newly invention of the time” (auf welsche art, der zeit gar new erfunden). Bellot (as note 6), p. 446. The term auf welsche Manier is
Augsburg, had chosen the phrase “lest we seem to give primacy to the Italian” (Ne monuments on the one hand and the study of architectural theory on the other. Holl’s reference to Italian Renaissance architecture is, more precisely, to be understood on the background of a journey to Venice, he had undertaken in winter 1600/01, and the contact with Italian architectural treatises of the sixteenth century. The Neue Bau is an example par excellence of his mature work, as it also shows the intensive research on Italian Renaissance architecture.
The choice of this building as key object of research and the exclusion of other early architectures are principally based on the following reasons: During his early years as Stadtwerkmeister of Augsburg, Holl was still shaping his personal style, which was inspired by Italian Renaissance models. At this early stage of his career, the emulation of features from Italy was a significant task. Erected shortly before Holl’s masterpiece, the City Hall of Augsburg, the Neue Bau can be regarded as a
problematic as it could also indicate an artistic influence derived from French Renaissance under King Francis I (1494–1547). For the various meanings of the word welsch as used for German Renaissance architecture, see Matthias Müller, “‘Welsche Manier’ und territoriale Konkurrenz. Zur Funktion eines gestalterischen Leitbildes im Mitteldeutschland Schlossbau zu Beginn der frühen Neuzeit,” in: Anke Neugebauer and Franz Jäger (eds), Auff welsche Manier gebauet. Zur Architectur der mitteldeutschen Frührenaissance, Bielefeld 2010, pp. 107-127.
11 Carl Wehner, “NE ITALO CEDERE VIDEAMUR: Augsburger Buchdrucker und Schreiber um 1500,” in: Augusta 955-1955, Augsburg 1955, pp. 148-149; Bushart (as note 5), p. 168. Many printers of Augsburg expanded their business to Venice or stayed there for learning Renaissance typography, such as the printer Erhard Ratdolt (1447–1528). Roeck 2010 (as note 8), pp. 27-34;
Christoph Reske, “Erhard Ratdolts Wirken in Venedig und Augsburg,” in: Klaus Arnold, Franz Fuchs and Stephan Füssel (eds), Venezianische-deutsche Kulturbeziehungen in der Renaissance. Akten des interdisziplinären Symposions vom 8. und 10. November 2001 in Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani in Venedig, Wiesbaden 2003, pp. 27-34.
mature work based on his studies of Italian Cinquecento architecture.12
Other early buildings of Holl, instead, such as the Baker’s Guild house (Bäckerzunfthaus, 1602) and the House for controlling and preserving the wine barrels (Siegelhaus, 1607), which would have been relevant for a better understanding of his style of those years, were completely demolished in the past centuries. As we are lacking sufficient historical sources to allow conclusions on their original form, our means for detailed analysis are limited. A concentration on these buildings had to be ruled out, though they will serve, as far as it is possible, as examples of reference.
Finally, the use of the architectural orders should be considered more in detail, as Holl applied them in his early buildings closely referring to the Italian Cinquecento architecture. The orders displayed at the Neue Bau demonstrate his particular interest in this aspect of the buildings’ decoration. This makes the Neue Bau an appropriate object for researching the Italian influence on Holl’s architectural language.
The building is literally overshadowed by Holl’s masterpiece, the City Hall of Augsburg, and has not yet been given adequate attention by the researchers. The main purpose of the present study is, therefore, to reevaluate the Neue Bau by delineating the influence of the Italian Cinquecento architecture stemming from architectural theory and practice. Since the architectural order is one of the fundamental features of the Italian Renaissance concerning the buildings’ physical appearance and iconographic meaning, this aspect will be thoroughly analyzed.
The Neue Bau and its connection to the Italian Cinquecento architectures are the focus in the following study, for which two methodic ways will be adopted. The formal analyses and comparisons will be applied to examine the influences, originated from the Italian architectures and treatises, on the Neue Bau; while the textual review on the Cinquecento treatises, Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) and Andrea Palladio
12 Julius Baum, Die Bauwerke des Elias Holl, Straßburg 1908, p. 126.
(1508–80) in particular, will be undertaken regarding the façade designs and orders at this building.13 Art historian like Erik Forssman mentioned once that the German architects of the early seventeenth century were quite relied on the texts of architectural treatises for their project designs. He further recommended the methods of reviewing and comparison for studying the archiectures of German Renaissance and Elias Holl.14 With its help these methods could prove the influences of the Italian treatises on the façade designs of the Neue Bau and how are these texts transformed into building’s configuration.
Before undertaking the study, there are two aspects, which make research on Elias Holl in general and on the Neue Bau in particular very complicated. At first, scholars have to deal with architecture partly or totally rebuilt after World War II, and this also applies to the Neue Bau, which had been partially damaged in 1944.15 It is therefore necessary to reconstruct a monument’s original state, before real formal analysis can be started. Despite its moderate volume, the material, presented in 1951 by Raimund von Doblhoff (1914–93), architect-in-chief at the Neue Bau in the years 1946–52, is therefore extremely precious for this present survey.16
The second and even more serious problem concerns the question of authorship.
As Holl had major collaborators, such as the “painter-architect” Johann Matthias Kager (1566–1634), the attribution of a building’s original design is often difficult.17
13 The reason for the selection of these treatises as studying objects is based on the fact that Serlio’s and Palladio’s treatises were generally familiar to Holl and other German architects of early seventeenth century.
14 Erik Forssman, Der Dorische Stil in der deutschen Baukunst, Freiburg im Breisgau 2001, p. 101.
15 Bernd Roeck, Elias Holl. Ein Architekt der Renaissance, Regensburg 2004, p. 109.
16 Raimund Freiherr von Doblhoff, “Zum Wiederaufbau einiger nichtöffentlicher historischer Bauten in Augsburg,” in: Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Schwaben 58, 1951, pp. 141-143; Gregor Nagler, “‘Das Wegwerfen ist ja ein Irrglaube.’ Raimund von Doblhoff und der Wiederaufbau der Fuggerei, der Fuggerhäuser und des Neuen Baues in Augsburg,” in: Winfried Nerdinger (ed.), Raimund von Doblhoff (1914–1993). Architekt zwischen Rekonstruktion und Innovation, Berlin 2008, pp. 53-84, here 74-77.
17 For different opinions on the attribution of the Neue Bau and Kager’s relationship to Holl, see chapter 2. Ingeborg Albrecht, “Elias Holl. Stil und Werk des ‘Maurmeisters’ und der Augsburger Malerarchitekten Heinz und Kager,” in: Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst 12, 1937/1938, pp.
The present research is based on the fact that the architect in his autobiography considered the Neue Bau as his own work.18
The year 2014 is the four-hundredth anniversary of the completion of the Neue Bau. It is significant to give a throughout study on this edifice at this moment. In research of the building’s connection with the Italian Renaissance architecture it is expected to evidence the intensive influences from the South on the architectures of Elias Holl, not only with regard to the form but also to his reception of the new style.
101-136, here p. 132; see also Rudolf Pfister, “Die Augsburger Rathaus-Modelle des Elias Holl,” in:
Ibid., pp. 85-100.
18 Hauschronik (as note 1), p.61.