The pulpit of the cathedral of Strasbourg is one of the finest sculpture work of the whole Upper-Rhine. It has been drawn by Hans Meiger von Werde for the famous preacher Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg. It was Meiger’s masterpiece, required in order for him to be the new master of the Münsterbauhütte, the “guild” of the cathedral’s builders in Strasbourg. This drawing still exist today and his the propriety of the Fondation de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame in Strasbourg, along with other drawings from him and other masters.
Though we are sure that Hans Meiger drew the pulpit in 1484, it is not really know in what extend he took part in the sculpture work itself. The figures are probably not from his hand, as Hans Meiger was not a sculptor, but a stonemason; Hans von Aachen, Conrad Sifer von Sinsheim or Niklaus Gerhaerdt von Leyde have been proposed as author of those figures, but this matter is still discussed today.
The pulpit was set up in 1485 and Meiger became guild master in 1486 under the name of Hans Hammer (“John the Hammer”). As the Munsterbauhütte of Strasbourg was the Supreme Lodge of Stonemasons of the Holy Roman Empire, it made him the Supreme Master of all the Stonemasons of this area, giving him the last word in any litigation between stonemasons living there.
The pulpit suffers in the following centuries of several damages: the lower figures were stolen and replaced in the XVIIIth century and some sculptures were destroyed at the same moment because they were then considered as indecent. The pulpit was originally painted with vivid colours like red and gold, but most of the paint you can see on this figure are left-overs from the XVIth century, when the cathedral was entirely painted in white.
Tools and exifs:
- Canon EOS 50D + Canon 18-200mm
- 200mm
- 5 s.
- f/8
- ISO 100
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