Recycled historic artwork

Sometimes the best way of determining how tools evolved is by investigating historic pieces of art, be it paintings, carvings, etchings, etc. One of the issues that sometimes arises is that historic images are sometimes recycled.

One good example is a 1568 book of woodcuts depicting various trades, Das Ständebuch (Book of Trades). The book was a collaboration between Swiss-German artist Jost Amman (1531-1591), and poet Hans Sachs (1494-1576). Amman, the primary author provided the woodcuts, and Sachs the verse for each trade. The book depicts more than just trades, but a wider cross-section of Renaissance society, as viewed from the German city of Nuremberg. Jost Amman was born in Zurich in 1539, the son of a scholar. By 1561 he had relocated to Nuremburg where he became one of northern Europe’s most prolific printmakers and book illustrators of the late sixteenth century. Das Ständebuch actually covered a wide spectrum of society, as viewed from Nuremburg.

In the book is a plate titled Der Schreiner which depicts two joiners working in their workshop, which is pilled with tools of the period, albeit some of the tools are a little out of proportion (e.g. the chisels high up on the wall).

Der Schreiner from Stände und Handwerker, 1884 facsimile of 1568 edition, Wellcome Library, London.

A second 1568 version of the image also appears in a Latin book titled “Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera continens…”, written by Hartmann Schopper (1542-1595), illustrated by Amman, and published by Sigmund Feyerabend. But the images are subtlety different, an indication that the woodcuts might have been recycled.

Version 1 (German), versus version 2 (Latin) of Der Schreiner

There is also a very similar picture which appears on both Peter Follansbee’s and the Lost Art Press websites. It first appeared on Peter Follansbee’s site in 2009, however he didn’t know the source and it appears it is only half the image. The whole image appears on Lost Art Press in 2014. People often attribute this woodcut to Amman, however there is no conclusive evidence. The work is entitled “Das Ehrbare Handwerk der Tischler”, or “The honourable craft of the carpenter”, and is from the latter half of the 16th century. It is subtitled “Contemplation of two pieces of daily carpentry work: the cradle and the coffin”, so requires both sides of the woodcut to interpret.

There are interesting differences between the two images. In some places there is a lot more detail in the der Tischler image, for example the joiners faces, the side panels of the box, and the addition of the glue pot in the foreground. In other aspects The Schreiner has more content, for example the clouds through the windows, and the shadows (crosshatching) of the objects. Both show an interesting and similar array of tools, but there are some disparities. In The Schreiner, some of the tools, like the pair of dividers on the workbench, seem overly-large, and the chisels on the wall seem way out of the reach of the joiners.

It is hard to know which work appeared first, but it is more likely that der Tischler was derived from Der Schreiner, due to the presence of Amman’s work (although Tischler does seem to be a better woodcut). The difference of course also has to do with the regional use of words: Schreiner versus Tischler. The term Tischler was more commonly used in northern and eastern Germany and Austria, whereas Schreiner is used in southern and southwestern Germany and Switzerland. Both Schopper and Amman used the term Schreiner, so to suddenly change to Tischler would be uncharacteristic. (German-English dictionaries circa 1800 show both words to mean joiner in English, differing from Zimmermann which means carpenter).

NB. While doing some other research, I came across the version of the image shown below, in Henry Havard’s 1921 book “La Menuiserie“. If you compare the image closely to the others it has small differences which likely imply it is another copy. How many copies of this image exist?

Workbenches in art (iii) – art in churches

The older renditions of workbenches in art worked largely because staked workbenches were likely found in the first century AD.

From a historical context, artwork often offers one of the few insights into objects of use. The problem of course is that art which itself depicts a historical event is never really that accurate from the perspective of the the objects contained within. This is largely because the artists themselves likely had little in the way of historical knowledge. This is especially true of religious art found in churches. They incorporated woodworking tools and workbenches of the time period the painting was created, and often borrowed ideas from paintings in existing churches.

Workbenches generally follow the same basic structure, a simple worktop with four splayed legs, and usually focused on the holy family in Joseph’s workshop. One early painting, circa 1517-1521, “St Joseph working in his workshop”, is an Italian painting which appears in the Sanctuary of St. Maria di Piazza, Busto Arsizio, Italy.

There are workbenches found in the artwork on the ceiling of two churches in the Haute-Savoie region of France. The first is a mural called “La Sainte-Familie”, in Eglise-Saint-Jean Baptiste (Church of St.John the Baptist) in Megéve. The interior paintings are by Italian painter Mucengo, ca. 1827.

The second, almost identical bench can be found in a mural is on the ceiling vaults of Saint Jacques Collegiate Church in Sallanches (built in 1847). The fact that these towns are only 11km apart may indicate that the painter here took inspiration from the church in Megéve.

The final workbench comes from St Martin’s Church (Sint Maartenskerk) in Kortrijk, Belgium. The scene is painted on plaster (J van der Plaetsen, 1885-87; completed by Edward Messeyen, 1889). It is a strange bench because it seems like the legs are constructed of logs, mortised at the top into which large half discs are fitted. Atop this a thick bench-top is placed. A very odd looking bench.

P.S. These are sketches because I couldn’t find any public domain images.