The Epitaphs of St. Stephen´s Cathedral in Vienna

The aim of the project, which is being carried out in cooperation with the Institute for Medieval Research (`Institut für Mittelalterforschung`) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, is the first art-historical study of the epitaphs of St. Stephen`s Cathedral in Vienna. Work focuses on the rich holdings of extant sculptural epitaphs from the 16th to 19th centuries, as well as on lost works that are known only from drawings in the so-called Codex Gartenschmid (Széchényi Library, Budapest, fol. germ. 1529). By analysing the objects, a solid basis should be created for a wide-ranging art-historical account. The presentation of individual epitaphs will be monographical with chronologically ordered catalogue entries that will be rounded off by essays on various themes, allowing the works to be set within their local and international art-historical contexts. Key questions and problems in this connection are those of artists and stylistic trends; work here could lead to the clarification of important research issues, such as dating and attributions to artists or workshop groups. Light should also be cast on questions of the origins of individual motifs and the manner in which they were mediated, questions of graphic models, of material and colour, just as much as those of patrons and historical, as well as religious-political, contexts. Hand in hand with this go investigations into iconography and iconology. Further focal points are general considerations on the portrait in sepulchral sculpture, on changing conceptions of death (memoria) in different epochs, on the use of relief etc. The project will, in all these areas, create greater clarity. As far as methods are concerned, these will be adapted to the objects. Alongside the classical approach of stylistic criticism of works, the analysis of material, as well as of iconography and iconology, will be important. This procedure, however, should never be an end in itself, but rather step by step reveal the nature of the epitaphs as art works and parts of a larger whole. This means a meeting of histories of art, of the city, nation, religion and culture, which can thus - building on the results of the project - have manifold implications for other scholarly fields.

The project has carried out a comprehensive investigation of epitaphs from St Stephens Cathedral in Vienna, with a special focus on the art- and cultural-historically important works of the early 16th century. This has produced fundamental new findings, particularly concerning sculpture of the early Renaissance in Vienna and the special role played by epitaphs in this context. Examination of the process of artistic production has made it possible to define the differing contributions of domestic production, non-local masters, and direct Italian influence. It has become clear that humanistic trends represented an essential and formative component in this context. In epitaphs such as that of Conrad Celtis or Johannes Cuspinian, whose memorial monuments are among the most important examples of early 16th-century sculpture north of the Alps, it emerges that humanism itself set the tone and determined formal aspects. Comparison with contemporary painting, drawing, and illumination also reveals that sculptural epitaphs formed the primary venue for pursuing new artistic fashions, according to the intellectual horizons of the patron. It has also been possible to answer the question posed by Anton Legner in his exhibition catalogue Die Kunst der Donauschule (The Art of the Danube School, 1965) as to where the sculptural equivalent to the early painting of Cranach can be found: selected examples among the epitaphs show that Viennese sculpture was decisively influenced by Cranachs work from his early Viennese period, and that his painting assumed a formative role in style development. One of the most significant results of the project, finally, is that the artistic profile of the sculptor Michael Tichter can now be reconstructed with far greater precision, thus casting light on the complex questions of attributions to him and his workshop. It is now possible to connect him with the signature M.T. on the Kaltenmarkter Epitaph (of 1517) and, furthermore, to extend his oeuvre on this basis. This alone has necessitated a complete rethinking of previously proposed groups of works and workshop nomenclature, which had involved the identification of diverse masters named after specific epitaphs, their work showing varying degrees of proximity to Michael Tichter. In this way, new and previously unexpected insights have been provided into a whole range of works.