Niklaus Manuel Deutsch (''Niklaus Manuel'', c. 1484 – 28 April 1530), of
Bern
german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese
, neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen
, website ...
, was a
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
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* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
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Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
artist, writer, mercenary and
Reformed
Reform is beneficial change
Reform may also refer to:
Media
* ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang
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*''Reforme'' ("Reforms"), initial name of the ...
politician.
Biography
Niklaus was most likely the son of Emanuel Aleman (or Alleman), a pharmacist whose own father had immigrated from
Chieri
Chieri (; pms, Cher) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont (Italy), located about southeast of Turin, by rail and by road. It borders the following municipalities: Baldissero Torinese, Pavarolo, Montaldo Torine ...
in Piedmont, and his wife Margaretha Fricker (or Frikart), an illegitimate daughter of Bernese city scribe Thüring Fricker.
He used "Manuel", the given name of his father, as his surname and used "Deutsch", as the German equivalent of the surname ''
Alleman Allman (variants Alleman, Allmand) is an English surname from the Norman French ''aleman'' "German".
In North American usage, the spelling ''Allman'' likely also stands in for the cognate Spanish name Aleman
(to avoid the reading /eɪlmæn/ as in ...
'', as an additional appellation, signing his works with the initials NMD.
He is first recorded in 1509, when he married Katharina Frisching, daughter of Hans Frisching, a former Bernese
reeve and member of the city council (''Kleiner Rat''). Niklaus Manuel and Katharina Frisching had six children. Two of them,
Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch
Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (1525–1571) was a Swiss artist. He made several of the woodcuts for '' De re metallica'' (the metals and mining treatise by Georgius Agricola, the "father of mineralogy") and for Sebastian Münster's '' Cosmogr ...
(1525–1571) and
Niklaus Manuel Deutsch the Younger (1528–1588), were also artists.
[The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press, Inc](_blank)
/ref> Niklaus Manuel is considered the founder of the patrician Manuel family of Berne. From 1510, Niklaus Manuel was a member of the city parliament (''Grosser Rat''). He is first recorded as a painter in the employment of the city in 1513. Aside from Holbein Hans Holbein may refer to:
* Hans Holbein the Elder
Hans Holbein the Elder ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Ältere; – 1524) was a German painter.
Life
Holbein was born in free imperial city of Augsburg (Germany), and died in Issenheim, Alsa ...
he is the major representative of Renaissance painting in Switzerland.
In 1514, he bought the house at Gerechtigkeitsgasse 72 which remained in possession of the Manuel family until the 17th century.
In 1516, he entered mercenary service as the secretary of Albrecht von Stein Albert von Stein ( fl. 1513–22) was a Swiss mercenary captain. During the War of the League of Cambrai, having arrived late to the Battle of Novara, he abandoned the Swiss army before the Battle of Marignano. In 1522, he was the chief of the Swi ...
, participating in the French campaign in the War of the League of Cambrai
The War of the League of Cambrai, sometimes known as the War of the Holy League and several other names, was fought from February 1508 to December 1516 as part of the Italian Wars of 1494–1559. The main participants of the war, who fough ...
. His famous ''danse macabre
The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death.
The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...
'' on the wall of the Dominican Abbey in Berne was begun in 1516 or 1517; this work was destroyed in 1660, but a 1649 copy by Albrecht Kauw
Albrecht Kauw (1621–1681) was a Swiss still-life painter, cartographer and a painter of Veduta, vedute.
Biography
Kauw was born in Strasbourg, then moved to Bern in 1640. He painted a large number of works for public buildings and for variou ...
is extant.
Niklaus Manuel's latest signed works date from around 1520, after which time he dedicated himself to literary production.
He used a drawing of a Swiss degen
The Swiss ''degen'' (') was a short sword ('' Degen''), an elongated version of the Swiss dagger, with the same double-crescent shape of the guard.
It was used as a type of side arm in the Old Swiss Confederacy and especially by Swiss mercenaries ...
alongside the initials NMD as his mark; the Swiss degen also appears on his literary manuscripts, and ''schwitzerdegen'' appears as his author's pseudonym in some of his printed works.
In 1522 he once again entered service with Albrecht von Stein in a campaign in Lombardy, and was wounded at Novara
Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is ...
.
He also participated in the Battle of Bicocca
The Battle of Bicocca or La Bicocca ( it, Battaglia della Bicocca) was fought on 27 April 1522, during the Italian War of 1521–26. A combined French and Venetian force under Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, was decisively defeated by an ...
of 27 April. He composed a satirical song against the German Landsknechts who defeated the Swiss mercenaries in this battle.
After the 1522 campaign, he was also harshly critical of the Holy See, specifically the late Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
Born into the prominent political an ...
and his militaristic policy in the Italian Wars
The Italian Wars, also known as the Habsburg–Valois Wars, were a series of conflicts covering the period 1494 to 1559, fought mostly in the Italian peninsula, but later expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and the Mediterranean Sea. The pr ...
.
In the years that followed, he was a strong supporter of the Swiss Reformation
The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate, Mark Reust, and the population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matte ...
and a friend of Huldrych Zwingli
Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the Unive ...
, who like him had been on campaign in Italy and had become disenchanted with the warmongering of the pope in the Italian Wars.
He campaigned for the reformed cause in Bern with Berchtold Haller
Berchtold Haller (c. 149225 February 1536) was a German Protestant reformer. He was the reformer of the city of Bern, Switzerland, where the Reformation received little to none opposition.
Haller was born at Aldingen in Württemberg. After scho ...
, the priest at St Vincent Münster. He wrote two anti-catholic (anti-papist) carnival plays or ''Fasnachtsspiele'', performed in 1522. The plays were very popular and are said to have done more for the adoption of the Reformation in Berne than the sermons of Haller. The two plays were printed as early as 1524, and again in 1540. The 1540 edition was the basis of a re-edition published in 1836.
In 1523, he was given the office of Bernese reeve of Erlach, Echallens and Nidau
Nidau is a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
History
Nidau is first mentioned in 1196 as ''Nidowe''. In 1352, it was recorded in Latin as ''Nydow''.
The remains of a number of sti ...
.
He was sent as a representative of Bern to the Swiss Diet
The Federal Diet of Switzerland (german: Tagsatzung, ; french: Diète fédérale; it, Dieta federale) was the legislative and executive council of the Old Swiss Confederacy and existed in various forms from the beginnings of Swiss independen ...
in 1526.
He served as a member in the city council (''Kleiner Rat'') from April 1528 until his death.
Artistic works
File:Niklaus Manuel Neuer Eidgen.jpg, Swiss mercenary, with a scene of the assault on Castellazzo (1513/4)
File:Niklaus Manuel Eidgenosse.jpg, Swiss mercenary (1513/4)
File:Reislaeufer Bettler.jpg, Allegory on mercenary service
File:Niklaus manuel (germania), altare di san giovanni, 1513-14, 02.JPG, Beheading of John the Baptist (1513/4)
File:Altar of St. Anna- Saint Luke paints the Madonna - Niklaus Manuel (Deutsch).jpg, Saint Luke painting the Virgin
Saint Luke painting the Virgin (German and Dutch: ''Lukas-Madonna'') is a devotional subject in art showing Luke the Evangelist painting the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus. Such paintings were often created during the Renaissance for chapels of ...
File:Albrecht kauw, copia della perduta danza macabra di m.manuel del cimitero domenicano di berna (1512-20), 1649, 23.JPG, 1649 copy of Niklaus Manuel's self-portrait in the lost ''dance macabre'' of the Dominican cemetery in Bern (1516/7)
File:Niklaus Manuel.jpg, The NMD initials with Swiss degen, signature of his ornamental painting of ceiling of the choir in Bern Minster
Bern Minster (german: Berner Münster) is a Swiss Reformed cathedral (or minster) in the old city of Bern, Switzerland. Built in the Gothic style, its construction started in 1421. Its tower, with a height of , was only completed in 1893. It ...
(1516/7)
File:Niklaus Manuel Deutsch - Beheading of John the Baptist.jpg, Beheading of John the Baptist (1517)
File:Niklaus Manuel - The Judgment of Paris - WGA14032.jpg, The Judgement of Paris (1517/8)
File:Niklaus Manuel - Allegory of Death - WGA14034.jpg, Allegory of Death (drawing)
File:Niklaus Manuel Deutsch 001.jpg, ''Demons Tormenting Antonius
Antonius is a masculine given name, as well as a surname. Antonius is a Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Latin, Norwegian, and Swedish name used in Greenland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, part of the Republic of Karelia, Estonia, Belgium, Netherlands, ...
'' (1520)
File:Никлаус Мануэль Дойч. Автопортет (1520, Базель).jpg, Self portrait (1520)
File:Lucretia, -Niklaus Manuel (Deutsch), 1517.jpg, Lucretia (1517)
Literary works
* ?1510, with Thomas Murner
Thomas Murner, OFM (24 December 1475c. 1537) was an Alsatian satirist, poet and translator.
He was born at Oberehnheim (Obernai) near Strasbourg. In 1490 he entered the Franciscan order, and in 1495 began travelling, studying and then teaching a ...
, ''Ein schon bewerts lied von der reynen unbefleckten entpfengnüß Marie'' ("Song of the Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.
It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...
")
* 1522, ''Ein Traum'' (poem, on the disastrous involvement of the Holy See (the recently deceased "warrior pope" Leo X
Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
Born into the prominent political an ...
) in the Italian Wars)
* 1522?, ''Nüw lied vnd verantwortung deß Sturms halb beschähn zu Pigogga'' ("New song and account of the attack at Biccoca", printed after 1525)
* 1522, ''Underscheyd zwischen dem Bapst und Christum Jhesum'' (drama, "Difference between the Pope and Jesus Christ")
* 1522/3, ''vom Babst und seiner priesterschafft'' (drama, "on the Pope and his priesthood")
* 1523, ''Die Totenfresser'' ("Eaters of the Dead")
* 1525, ''Der Ablaßkrämer'' (drama, "The seller of indulgences")
* 1526, ''Das Barbeli'' (dramatic dialogue, against monastery lif
* 1526, ''Fabers und Eggen Badenfahrt'' (dialogue, " Faber and Eck at the Conference of Baden
Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the Unive ...
")
* 1528, ''Krankheit und Testament der Messe'' (satire, "Sickness and testament of the holy mass")
The play ''Elsli Tragdenknaben'' (''von dem Elszlin trag den knaben und von Uly Rechenzan, mit irem eelichen Gerichtshandel''), printed in 1530, has been ascribed to Niklaus Manuel, but the attribution is probably spurious.[Vetter (1923), p. 133.]
References
*.
* Cäsar Menz, Hugo Wagner (red.): ''Niklaus Manuel Deutsch. Maler, Dichter, Staatsmann''. Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern 1979.
* Gisi, Lucas Marco: ''Niklaus Manuel und der Berner Bildersturm.'' In: Peter Blickle
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a sur ...
, André Holenstein, Heinrich Richard Schmidt, Franz-Josef Sladeczek (Hg.): ''Macht und Ohnmacht der Bilder. Reformatorischer Bildersturm im Kontext der europäischen Geschichte.'' Oldenbourg, München 2002 (Historische Zeitschrift, Beihefte; 33), S. 143–163.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manuel, Niklaus
1484 births
1530 deaths
Artists from Bern
16th-century engravers
Swiss engravers
Swiss Protestant Reformers
16th-century Swiss painters
16th-century Swiss writers
Swiss mercenaries
Writers from Bern