Maßwerkfenster in Nördlingen 

Karl Ballenberger’s drawing shows a window design from Nördlingen, rendered in pencil and perhaps a light wash. The medium itself speaks volumes. It is not a blueprint or technical specification, but a freehand study, carefully observed and recorded. Ballenberger, working in the 19th century, was part of a wave of artists and architects captivated by medieval craftsmanship. They saw in Gothic structures like this window a spirit of dedication, a hand-made quality that seemed absent in their own rapidly industrializing era. Consider the original window itself – each stone precisely cut, fitted, and mortared, embodying the labour of skilled masons. The design, too, with its delicate tracery, is the result of meticulous handwork. Ballenberger's drawing isn't just a record; it's an act of preservation, a valuing of pre-industrial modes of production, and we might see it as an implicit critique of the emerging capitalist landscape. It reminds us that every object, no matter how seemingly simple, carries within it a history of making, labour, and cultural ideals.