In
Central European art of the 15th and 16th centuries, architectural elements were often replaced by branches. In stone sculpture, the juxtaposition of architectural and natural elements, such as branches, takes on a further level. First a wooden branch is imitated in stone, which then replaces a component. A very early example of this new approach to architecture is the vault in the west choir of
Eichstätt Cathedral (dated 1471), where the architectural ribs are presented in the shape of a round staff of branches. Here Wilhelm von Reichenau, humanist and bishop of Eichstätt, can be identified as a source of ideas and intellectual background. Wilhelm had studied together with Johannes Pirckheimer, the father of
Willibald Pirckheimer, at the
University of Padua and represents a typical early representative of early
Humanism in Germany with Italian roots. In Johannes Pirckheimer's library there was also a copy of the
Germania, which he probably had acquired during his studies in the 1460s. In Eichstätt, with the so-called "beautiful column" (
Schöne Säule) of 1489 in the Mortuarium of the cathedral, there is a further, later example of the use of branchwork. At the same time, this pillar with a twisted shaft is an early example of the revival of
Romanesque forms and stylistic features in the 15th century architecture. This style of an Romanesque Renaissance, understood as specifically northern Alpine antiquity, was first used in
Early Netherlandish painting for depicting ancient buildings and was also received as an inspiration for new architectural motifs in Germany from around 1460 onwards. An example of the interlinking of architectural and vegetable form is
Tilman Riemenschneider's
Heilig-Blut-Altar (
St. James's Church, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 1501/05). Here, the canopies are formed by intertwined branches, which in turn are crowned by an architectural
finial. This artistic approach deliberately broke with the expected order and with the comprehensibility of the architectural system. Similarly, the monumental north portal of the
Benedictine monastery church in
Chemnitz, which was built in 1525 by the wood carver and stone sculpture Franz Maidburg, combines pre-Gothic (Romanesque) forms like rounded arches with branchwork. Both the style and the figurative program with the founders of the 12th century emperor
Lothair II refer here to the distant foundation of the monastery and emphasize the age and venerability of the complex. Also
Bramante's tree pillars in the cloister of
Sant'Ambrogio in
Milan are such an implementation of the architectural theoretical discourse. == Gallery ==