BREU, Jörg the Elder
(b. 1475/76, Augsburg, d. 1537, Augsburg)

Fugger Chapel

1509-18
Photo
St. Anna, Augsburg

It is presumed that Sebastian Loscher and Hans Burgkmair were jointly responsible for the plans for the Fugger Chapel. The architecture of this family vault for Jakob, Ulrich, and Georg Fugger, which was consecrated in 1518, introduced the vocabulary of the early Italian Renaissance to Germany for the first time. The contemporary furnishings, with sculptures by the Daucher workshop and the painted organ shutters by Jörg Breu the Elder, are important works of the Renaissance, which reached the north of Europe in the early 16th century.

The Fuggers were a Swabian merchant and banking family who were also major patrons of the arts, established in Augsburg from 1367. The founder of the Fugger trading house was Jacob I (d. 1469), but the fame and wealth of the family was due to his sons Ulrich (1441-1510), Georg (1453-1506), and Jakob II ("the Rich," 1459-1525), founder of the Fugger Chapel in St. Anna's church in Augsburg. As successful traders and businessmen wielding far-reaching political influence, members of the family commissioned important buildings and works of art.