Übergabe des Augsburger Bekenntnisses (Hinterglasbild)

Stadtmuseum Kaufbeuren

Description

The stained-glass picture shows the moment of the delivery of the Confessio Augustana to Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) during the Diet of 1530 held at the Augsburg episcopal residence. Only 15 years later, in the year 1545, Kaufbeuren also adopted the Augsburg Confession. In the great hall, a large number of ecclesiastical and secular personages had gathered around Emperor Charles V who is enthroned on a raised dais under a canopy. On the opposite side, guards with halberds stand in line before a wall. Before the emperor stand two men with the text composed, the Augsburg Confession. In the back, two secretaries sit at a desk to record the proceedings. The frame which protrudes upwards includes a field of inscriptions in which the names of the people present are marked by numbers and listed. As model for this picture served a copperplate print of the act of public reading inside the episcopal palace in Augsburg made by Georg Köhler (1599-1638) from Nuremberg. The engraving was however made over 100 years after the event depicted and modelled after a drawing by Michael Herr (1591-1661). It had been published in 1631 in a book by Johann Saubert (1592-1646). During the early modern period, Kaufbeuren was one of the bi-confessional imperial cities. Numerous conflicts between the Catholic and the Protestant population left their mark on the city’s atmosphere. From the mid-eighteenth century onwards, therefore stained-glass pictures were created against this background with a Protestant imagery and message intention.

Author

Susanne Sagner / Petra Weber

Rights Statement Description

RR-F