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- Niklaus Manuel I
- Also known as
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Niklaus Manuel I
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primary name: Manuel, Niklaus I
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other name: Deutsch, Niklaus Manuel
- Details
- individual; painter/draughtsman; printmaker; Swiss; Male
- Life dates
- 1484-1530
- Biography
- Painter and printmaker of the Swiss Reformation and a leading statesman in his native city of Bern. His grandfather came from Chieri, near Turin (the family name Manuel was originally Aleman or Alemans, hence 'Deutsch', or 'German'). Served as a mercenary soldier in Italy on campaigns between 1516 and 1522 (wounded at the Battle of Bicocca in 1522); the unsheathed dagger with his monogram refers to this activity. From 1510 until his death Manuel was a member of Bern city council. Worked as a painter from 1513 until about 1525. About ninety drawings are recorded produced over a longer period, c. 1507-29. His paintings are chiefly preserved in the Kunstmuseum, Basel, where there is also a large collection of his drawings, and in the Kunstmuseum, Bern. In his day, he was best known for his series of large wall-paintings of the 'Dance of Death' executed c. 1516-19 on an exterior wall of the Dominican monastery at Bern, (destroyed in 1660, now only known through copies, such as the drawings of 1649 by Alfred Kauw in the Historisches Museum, Bern). His woodcuts of the 'Wise and Foolish Virgins' are his only documented prints. He wrote plays and satires against the Catholic church and spent his later years in government service and in promoting the cause of the Reformation.
- Bibliography
- C. Menz and H. Wagner, 'Niklaus Manuel Deutsch: Maler, Dichter, Staatsmann', exhibition catalogue, Bern Kunstmuseum, 1979; G. Bartrum, German Renaissance Prints, BM exh.cat. 1995, p. 209; Michael Egli and Hans Christoph von Tavel, 'Niklaus Manuel: catalogue raisonné', Zurich, 2017, 2 vols.
New Hollstein (2 vols, 2016) by Guido Messling