Maßwerkfenster in Schönberg 

Curator: Here we have Karl Ballenberger's "Maßwerkfenster in Schِnberg," housed right here at the Städel Museum. Editor: At first glance, it feels like a faint memory, these almost ghostly window tracings floating on the paper. Curator: Precisely. Ballenberger was capturing details of Gothic architecture. It's all about this exploration and understanding of forms, styles and techniques employed at the time. This falls squarely into the period when medieval art and design experienced an intensive rediscovery and revival. Editor: I'm particularly drawn to how rudimentary the materials seem; humble paper and pencil for such ornate designs, don’t you think? These are designs intended to be realized with so much care and expert hands by stone masons, and then he just uses pencil… Curator: It highlights the distinction, or even tension, between conception and creation. He wasn’t involved in production. This paper, these pencil strokes – this represents his interpretation, mediated and filtered. The architecture becomes academic when the creation stops in the drawing, where only he experiences it. Editor: But in their own way, the repetitive lines mimic the process involved. One sees how designs could easily be adapted, reproduced, modified slightly through material choices – tracing, repetition. Do you know where Schِnberg might be and how it impacts his drawings? Curator: Unfortunately, the current whereabouts and precise connection remains uncertain to our historians! It’s quite frustrating. These may be mere memory. Perhaps it’s precisely the distance, literal and temporal, that lets him abstract from mere construction to geometric principles. He may have even re-interpreted his models as well! Editor: I agree, it's compelling how a seemingly simple drawing invites us to contemplate craft, history, memory and also to trace the journey from concept to creation and back again. Curator: Indeed. It shows art's capacity to exist not just in monumental creation but also ephemeral and individual encounters with history.