A German Renaissance master – Friedrich Sustris

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The Court Art of Friedrich Sustris

By Susan Maxwell

A focused academic study on a specific Renaissance court provides an end in itself, though some courts hold special prominence.  The Wittelsbach dukes of Bavaria stand at the cusp of many crucial 16th-century developments. They ardently embraced a revived Catholicism in the face of challenges from Lutherans.  They asserted regional rivalry to the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperors.  And they made their court principally in Munich, a crossroads of art and architecture (and music: Orlando di Lasso) that reached towards Italian Renaissance models while retaining more regional leadership.

As the title declares, this book has a central figure at its core: Friedrich Sustris (c. 1540–1600) – born to a Netherlandish painter father, trained in Italy, and ultimately employed as both a court artist and artistic director by Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria (r. 1579–97).  While many projects by Sustris have disappeared or been altered, he left a paper trail of drawings and designs that allow fuller reconstruction of his creative achievement.  Modern visitors to Trausnitz Castle (at Landshut; currently used to display a model ‘cabinet of curiosity’, the combined early collection of artworks and naturalia, pioneered in Munich by the previous duke, Albrecht V), or to the Munich Jesuit Church and ducal Residenz, can still appreciate the multimedia designs of this formative artist.

Susan Maxwell, professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, has employed considerable primary documentary material, verbal as well as visual, to reconstruct the Bavarian career of Sustris.  She tackles his career chiefly through the major sites outlined above.  But she clearly establishes the wide range of media employed by ducal workshops under his direction, from decorative objects and prints to ephemeral court spectacles, such as fireworks.

Training in Florence familiarized Friedrich with fresco technique and the goals of history painting as well as with the importance of drawing in the production process, as taught there in the nascent Accademia del Disegno.  Maxwell also ties Sustris to the experience of festivities for the Medici wedding of 1565.  His link to Bavaria probably stemmed from Rome, in the person of Cardinal Otto Truchsess von Waldburg, and his pathway through Augsburg linked him with the powerful financier Hans Fugger family, who shared princely taste for Italian art forms.  By 1573 Sustris was engaged on work (until 1581) for the castle at Trausnitz, residence of Wilhelm.

Loss to fire (1961) of ceilings at Trausnitz now precludes direct experience of the new Sustris additions there, but photographs preserve their appearance, and Maxwell assembles extant preparatory drawings (for the earlier 1536 ‘Italian Wing’ under Ludwig X, see Ewig blühe Bayerns Land, 2009, 82-163; not cited).  His courtly decoration includes a Knights’ Hall and ceiling allegories of princely virtues.  A bedchamber focused on dynastic imagery.  A distinctive ‘Staircase of Fools’ linked the floors.  Thus these decorations combined the comic with the serious, entertainment with learning, and dynastic specifics with generalized princely allegory.

Sustris took this experience with him to the Munich Residenz, where as all-powerful Kunstintendant he served during the rest of Wilhelm V’s reign (1580-97).  At the palace he enhanced earlier structures, such as the celebrated Antiquarium, while adding new ones, notably the multimedia Grotto Courtyard.  Maxwell is especially careful in reconstructing the programme and court significance of the Grottenhof paintings.   

Meanwhile, the vast decorations for the new Jesuit Church, St Michael’s, occupied most artists associated with the court, closely supervised by Sustris.  This structure and its accompanying college embodied deep commitment to the Catholic Reformation by Wilhelm V, on behalf of his dynasty.  Monumental bronze sculpture by Hubert Gerhard included the name saint (1588) on the façade as well as the planned tomb ensemble for the duke inside, based as usual on designs (1590–3) by Sustris.  In the Renaissance arched interior, Christoph Schwarz’s high altar (1587–8) follows Sustris’ plan; even stucco decorations derive from his sketches, and he planned a reliquary collection Chapel of the Holy Cross (ded. 1596). 

Financial difficulties led to the premature accession of Elector Maximilian I as Wilhelm V’s successor and ended the autocratic art direction of Friedrich Sustris shortly before his death in 1599.  Art patronage diminished under new economic and eventually military circumstances during the early 17th century.  But the dominance of Sustris’ artistic imagery, so well reconstructed by Susan Maxwell, lasted in the service of religion and dynasty from this formative moment in German Renaissance art history to provide enduring glory for Munich and the Wittelsbachs.

The Court Art of Friedrich Sustris  by Susan Maxwell is published by Ashgate, 2011. 234 pp. 75 illus. ISBN 978-0-7546-6887-9