The name Nurnberg, or Nuremberg, is familiar to us for a number of reasons, none of which has much to do with that fascinating city's true claim to fame in Western history. Operaphiles know of the south German site through Richard Wagner's six-hour opus Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, the only "comedy" that composer ever wrote, while survivors of World War II remember the place as the setting not only of Nazi rallies in the thirties but also of the war-crime trials in the late forties. A superb exhibition, which recently opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and will travel to Nurnberg for presentation at Germanisches National-museum from July 24 through September 28, should do much to explain the true significance of this cultural center. The exhibition is rich in artworks that have never before left Germany and makes an eloquent statement about the equality of artistic activity there during an era that has primarily been remembered for development in Italy.
Featuring nearly 300 works of painting, sculpture, decoration, tapestry, armor, and manuscripts, the exhibit is highlighted by the art of the most famous son of the legendary urban center, Albercht Durer (1471-1528). He was in large part responsible for bringing to the north the advancements made in Florence and Venice during the early Renaissance, at a time when his native city was among the most important seats of power in Europe. Because of Nurnberg's historical importance as one of the capitals of the Holy Roman Empire and because the workmanship of its artisans was unsurpassed, the exhibit, organized with the financial assistance of Mercedes Benz, constitutes one of the year's seminal cultural events.
As a medieval town, Nurnberg was like many others throughout central Europe. Existing as a virtual city-state within the ever-changing borders of the confederation known as the Holy Roman Empire, the walled city was both self-contained and commercially active as the crossroads of important trade routes between north and south and east and west. With the income derived from a full range of crafts and technologies. Such as goldsmithing, metalworking, printing, engraving, and the manufacture of stained glass, families established themselves as patricians, gradually setting themselves apart from the craftsmen and artisans who produced the exquisite masterpieces of armor, illumination, and jewelry they sold. These artists, under the control of guilds, never managed to gain any voice for themselves within the city government, so the artistic and political sources of power in Nurnberg were separated throughout its history. Rather like the Medici of Florence, the patron class in Nurnberg encouraged artistic development, always with an eye toward the fortunes they were steadily amassing.
Although Nurnberg attempted to promulgate the story that it was an ancient Roman settlement, there seems little evidence for that claim, even though its location would have made strategic sense when Rome was endeavoring to conquer the northern reaches of Europe. In an effort to create a stronghold away from the bishopric of Bamberg, which Emperor Henry II (r. 1002-1024) had established, Emperor Henry III (r. 1039-1056) built the first portions of Nurnberg Castle, a remarkable fortification that is still visited by legions of tourists. In fact, the hilltop fortress is the most complete example of Carolingian-Romanesque-Gothic fortified architecture in Germany.
With that structure erected by the Salian dynasty (1024-1125), Nurnberg began to grow in
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