The House of the Knight: prancing horses, armoured knights and ‘Gloria’, the Christian personification of divine glory, amongst facade frescoes recreated by Carl Roesch on Haus zum Ritter, built in 1492 in Vordergasse, Schaffhausen, Switzerland. The original artworks by Tobias Stimmer (1539-1584) were removed for conservation in 1935 and are now displayed in the city’s Allerheiligen museum.
Schaffhausen, northern Switzerland: Haus zum Ritter (House of the Knight), at Vordergasse 65 in the old town, was built in 1492 then heightened in 1566 by the knight Hans von Waldkirch. The facade paintings he commissioned from artist Tobias Stimmer are considered to be the most important Renaissance frescoes of their type north of the Alps. However, the classically inspired artworks on the front of the house today are not the originals, which were removed in 1935 to conserve them and are now displayed in Schaffhausen’s Museum zu Allerheiligen. Stimmer’s frescoes, painted between 1568 and 1570, had already been much overpainted - sometimes in oils - before they were repainted for the final time in 1918/19. The artworks on the house today, recreating the Stimmer originals, were painted by Carl Roesch in 1938-39 and 1943. This detail depicts knights in armour riding prancing horses with flowing manes above a female personification, holding a sceptre, of Gloria, a motif found throughout Christianity portraying the manifestation of God’s presence as perceived by mankind. Elsewhere on the facade are depictions of Hans von Waldkirch and Tobias Stimmer. Stimmer (1539-1584), born in Schaffhausen, was a painter, draftsman and woodcutter who is considered to be the most distinctive artist of his time after Hans Holbein. Although some of his portraits and other works have survived, many were lost during the world wars of the 20th century - including seven paintings destroyed when US aircraft accidentally bombed Schaffhausen in April 1944. Carl Roesch (1884-1979), born into an artisan family, worked as a graphic artist before being inspired by the works of Cézanne to become a freelance painter. He was prolific, leaving 93 oil paintings, about 200 watercolours, 150 pastels and around 1,000 drawings, as well as etchings and mosaics.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Schaffhausen, Schaffhausen canton, Switzerland
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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