Leseprobe

Gdańsk and Beyond 161 q area. 15 Departing from Denmark, Windrauch received a letter of recommendation from King Frederik II. 16 He arrived in Kaliningrad in 1586 and stayed there for about four years. According to a letter issued by Duke Georg Friedrich in 1589, he decorated the new castle chapel and other rooms at the ducal residence with various fig- ures made of stucco (fig. 1). 17 Apparently, the profes- sional profile of Zacharias and Windrauch differed sig- nificantly. The former was established in Szczecin, tak- ing up occasional works elsewhere, while the latter ap- pears to have been travelling in search of employment. In both situations however, they came to Kaliningrad to work for the ducal court. Even though Duke Georg Friedrich was able to re- cruit some skilled workmen and designers, he none- theless complained about the scarcity of qualified builders and decorators in his domain. Recruiting a capable workforce proved to be a challenging task, also because high demand gave accomplished professionals a strong negotiating position. This is well illustrated by the failed attempt to hire Hercules van Obbergen (c. 1517–1602), an architect fromMechelenwho worked for the Danish court for many years. Georg Friedrich requested him to come to Kaliningrad, and to bring with him a team of skilled and capable assistants. The architect however declined that offer, informing the duke that he would not find anyone willing to go there at that point. 18 Not all the artists and architects who made an im- pact on the local milieu came on invitation, however. The sculptor Willem van den Blocke (c. 1550–before 1628) arrived in Prussia delivering the funeral monu- ment of Albrecht Hohenzollern, which was produced in the Antwerp workshop of Cornelis Floris (fig. 2). 19 According to the practice observed in the Floris studio, prefabricated tombs were sent to their places of desti- nation accompanied by the master’s collaborators qualified to set up the works and to repair any dam- age. 20 In this case it was the pattern of workshop prac- tice that incited the artist to take to the road. After building the Albrecht monument the sculptor re- mained in Kaliningrad. The duchy must have been an attractive place for a young artist who had not attained a sound professional position yet, as was the case with Van den Blocke. The well-established taste for Nether- landish sculpture among the local elite and the afore- said weakness of the local artistic milieu may have been further enticement. In Gdańsk, a trade hub experiencing a period of exceptional prosperity, the patterns of migration were different. Instead of court patronage the main incen- tives for foreign artists and architects were the mani- fold possibilities offered by the city and its prosperous art market. A convenient geographical position, prom- ising market and easy access to a skilled workforce and necessary materials attracted artists from various places, including the LowCountries, Mecklenburg, Sile- sia, Saxony, southern Germany, and even France and Italy, aswell as fromother parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For instance, builders and sculptors recorded in the Guild of Masons, Stonecutters and Sculptors came from places such as Ghent, Antwerp, Mechelen, Brussels, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Bremen, Lübeck, Szczecin, Copenhagen, Dresden, Augsburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Halle, and Lviv (Lwów). 21 Artist mobility was likely enhanced by the growing exchange of information between expatriates and their associ- ates or relatives at home and elsewhere, which provided Fig. 1 Kaliningrad (Königsberg), castle, decoration of the Hirschsaal (destroyed). Hans Windrauch, 1586–1589 (photo: Bildarchiv Foto Marburg)