Specialist hand tools depicted below the scratched date 1565 on a panel over the arched main doorway to Stadtplatz 31 in the market place at Gmünd in Lower Austria, suggest that when the Renaissance sgraffito facade was added to the original late medieval house, it was the home and premises of a cooper or barrel-maker. The brown and white south front is decorated with a design unique in Austria, a small-scale diamond sgraffito pattern.
Gmünd, Lower Austria, Austria: specialist tools depicted below the scratched date 1565 on a panel over the arched main doorway to Stadtplatz 31, one of the ‘sgraffito houses’ in the market place of this medieval town on Austria’s border with the Czech Republic, indicate that when the Renaissance facade was added to the original late medieval house, it was the home and premises of a cooper or barrel-maker. The brown and white south front of No. 31, on the north side of the Stadtplatz, is covered with a decorative design unique in Austria, the small-scale diamond sgraffito pattern seen in this image. Higher up the wall, vibrant friezes show naked men fighting each other with swords, lances, longbows and shields as well as a man clubbing a dragon, and a winged monster with clawed feet. Sgraffito is the ancient artistic technique of scratching or cutting away parts of a surface layer of plaster, stucco or paint to expose a background of a different colour or texture.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Gmünd, Lower Austria, Austria
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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