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Branchwork (Astwerk) is an architectural ornament of the late Gothic architecture and Northern Renaissance, consisting of knobbly, intertwined and leafless branches. Branchwork was particularly widespread in Central European art between 1480 and 1520 and can be found in all genres. The origin of this branchwork boom lies in the occupation of Renaissance humanism with theories about the antique origins of architecture in nature.

Origins and Meanings
Traditionally branchwork was conceived as a typical ornament of late Gothic art in the lands north of the Alps. Only Recently the programmatic connection between the vegetal architectural forms of the branchwork and the theories of early Renaissance humanism about the origins of architecture has been recognized.

Parallel to the increased appearance of branchwork in art since the last third of the 15th century, there is evidence in the treatise literature of an architectural theoretical background to this form of design that recalls Vitruv's concept of the Primitive Hut. In De architectura libri decem Vitruvius creates a model for the emergence of architecture from nature, according to which the first people would have built their dwellings from vertical forks of branches with branches laid over them. Filarete also takes up this idea in his manuscript Trattato di Archittetura, in which he explains the origin of the arch as the first doorway. In the early 16th century similar explanations can be found in Raphael, among others.

The derivation of the Gothic ogival arch from branches tied together from trees found an other historical basis in  the work De Germania by the Roman author Tacitus around 98 AD which was rediscoverd in the early 15th century by humanist scholars. Tacitus reports that the Germans had worshipped their gods in the forests. The particularities of Gothic architecture north of the Alps - pointed arch vaults in analogy to the canopy of leaves of the Germanic groves - are interpreted by early German humanists as their own national antiquity. Cardinal Francesco Todeschini-Piccolomini (1439-1503), who was in possession of the Germania edition of his uncle, Pope Pius II, played a decisive role in the reception of Tacitus by German scholars. Several copies of this copy found their way across the Alps via Regensburg.

Use
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.

An very early example of this new approach to architecture is the vault in the west choir of 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 intellctual 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 already 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 the 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 isTilman Riemenschneiders Heilig-Blut-Altar (1501/05). Here, the canopies are formed by intertwined branches, which in turn are crowned by an architectural fial. This artistic approach deliberately broke with the expectable 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 Bramantes tree pillars in the cloister of S. Ambrogio in Milan are such an implementation of the architectural theoretical discourse.

Literature

 * Ethan Matt Kavaler: On Vegetal Imagery in Renaissance Gothic. In: Monique Chatenet, Krista De Jonge, Ethan Matt Kavaler, Norbert Nussbaum (Hrsg.): Le Gothique de la Renaissance, actes des quatrième Rencontres d'architecture européenne, Paris, 12-16 juin 2007. (= De Architectura. 13). Paris 2011, pp. 298–312.
 * Étienne Hamon: Le naturalisme dans l'architecture française autour de 1500. In: Monique Chatenet, Krista De Jonge, Ethan Matt Kavaler, Norbert Nussbaum (Hrsg.): Le Gothique de la Renaissance, actes des quatrième Rencontres d'architecture européenne, Paris, 12-16 juin 2007. (= De Architectura. 13). Paris 2011, pp. 329–343.
 * Hubertus Günther: Das Astwerk und die Theorie der Renaissance von der Entstehung der Architektur. In: Michèle-Caroline Heck, Fréderique Lemerle, Yves Pauwels (Hrsg.): Théorie des arts et création artistique dans l’Europe du Nord du XVIe au début du XVIII siècle, Villeneuve d’Ascq (Lille). 2002, pp. 13–32. Online-Version
 * Hanns Hubach: Johann von Dalberg und das naturalistische Astwerk in der zeitgenössischen Skulptur in Worms, Heidelberg und Ladenburg. In: Gerold Bönnen, Burkard Keilmann (Hrsg.): Der Wormser Bischof Johann von Dalberg (1482–1503) und seine Zeit. (= Quellen und Abhandlungen zur mittelrheinischen Kirchengeschichte. Band 117). Mainz 2005, pp. 207–232. Online-Version auf ART-dok
 * Hartmut Krohm: Der „Modellcharakter“ der Kupferstiche mit dem Bischofsstab und Weihrauchfaß. In: Albert Châtelet (Hg.): Le beau Martin. Etudes et mises au point. Colmar 1994, pp. 185–207.
 * Paul Crossley: The Return to the Forest: Natural Architecture and the German Past in the Age of Dürer. In: Thomas W. Gaehtgens (Hrsg.): Künstlerischer Austausch, Akten des 28. Internationalen Kongresses für Kunstgeschichte. Band 2, Berlin 1993, pp. 71–80.
 * Walter Paatz: Das Aufkommen des Astwerkbaldachins in der deutschen spätgotischen Skulptur und Erhard Reuwichs Titelholzschnitt in Breidenbachs „Peregrinationes in terram sanctam“. In: Siegfried Joost (Hrsg.): Bibliotheca docet. Festgabe für Carl Wehmer. Amsterdam 1963, pp. 355–368.