HEMMEL VON ANDLAU, Peter
(active 1447, d. ca. 1501)

Biography

German glass painter, born in Andlau, Alsace. His commissions and influence extended from the area around Strasbourg into southern Germany and Austria. Hemmel became a citizen of Strasbourg through marriage in 1447 with the widow of a local glass painter named Heinz. His work shows figure types similar to contemporary engravings, in particular those of Martin Schongauer; Hemmel's Adoration of the Magi in the Nonnbergkirche, Salzburg, is derived from a Schongauer print of the same subject. Distinctive among his many commissions are the Kramer window (1479-80) in Ulm Minster and the axial choir window of St Anne and the Virgin (c. 1478-79) in the Stiftskirche, Tübingen. The balance of the intense purple, scarlet and deep blue against extensive silver-stain yellow and white glass creates a tension between spatial planes. Hemmel's draughtsmanship in his Virgin and Child with Lily from the Nonnbergkirche, Salzburg (c. 1470-80; Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum), shows a sculptural treatment of drapery and form that dominates the composition. The extraordinarily lush treatment of the architectural frame, often developed through sprouting and intertwining branches, seen especially in large-scale work, is one of Hemmel's most distinctive contributions.

The highly gifted Hemmel directed the Strassburger Werkstattgemeinschaft, a loose association of glass painters that operated in numerous sites across southern and central Europe, from Strasbourg to Vienna, between 1477 and 1499.