The Huguenots in Franconia

 Huguenots were french Protestants, mainly followers of Calvinism, who were persecuted in France in the 16th and 17th centuries because of their faith. In 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of mob violence directed against the Huguenots.

  Louis XIV instituted the dragonnades to forcibly convert Protestants, and revoked all Protestant rights in his Edict of Fontainebleau of 1685. In 1686, the Protestant population sat from 10% down to 1% of the french population.

Many fled from France, mainly to Germany, where they were accepted in various territories.

source

 

 The Huguenot Fountain, created in 1706 by the Bayreuth court sculptor Elias Räntz, depicts a cone-shaped rocky mountain in an oval fountain basin (29 × 19.5 metres), which is divided into three levels. Noble Huguenot families are depicted on the lowest level, ancient deities above and Margrave Christian Ernst at the very top. The cartouches pointing in the four cardinal directions contain texts praising the margrave that have since disappeared. 

 

 The Neustädter Kirche (new town church) is one of three large downtown churches of the Baroque old town of Erlangen. Germany. The church is Lutheran. It dominates the town, together with the Reformed Hugenottenkirche (church of the Huguenots) and the Lutheran Altstädter Kirche (old town church). During World War II the church was severely damaged by bombs and rebuilt in 1955. 

Inside it's striking by baroque architecture which is quite uncommon for lutheran churches

The ceiling with a view to the organ. The present organ was created in 2004 and 2005 by the organ builder Goll (Lucerne / Switzerland), re-using existing historical structures from the 18th c.

The baptismal font and altar with huge paintings of Martin Luther (1483-1546) on the left and Philipp Melanchton (1497-1560) on the right wall.

 

side entrance with copies of Albrecht Dürers "Apostles" (Original:1526, on display at the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München)

 

 

 

 

Completed 16th June 2024

  

6000 Pieces

Allegory of Sight and Smell (detail), ca. 1620 AD

Oil on canvas, 264 x 176 cm

Jan Brueghel the Younger

Antwerp (Belgium), 1601 - Antwerp (Belgium), 1678

Hendrick van Balen

 Antwerp, 1575, 1632

Frans Francken II

Antwerp, 1581 - Antwerp, 1642

Sebastian Vrancx

Amberes, 1573 - Amberes, 1647

Jan Brueghel the Younger was a Flemish painter. He was the son of the eminent Flemish Renaissance painter Jan Bruegel the Elder. A close friend and frequent collaborator with Peter Paul Rubens, the two artists were the leading Flemish painters in the first three decades of the 17th century. 

 The artist was nicknamed "Velvet" Brueghel, "Flower" Brueghel, and "Paradise" Brueghel. The first is believed to have been given him because of his mastery in the rendering of fabrics.

Jan Brueghel's works reflect the contemporary interest in the classification and ordering of all of the natural world. Brueghel produced various sets of allegorical paintings, in particular on the themes of the Five senses and the Four Elements. These paintings were often collaborations with other painters .... like Five senses on which Brueghel and Rubens collaborated and which are now in the Prado Museum in Madrid LINK 

The jigsaw puzzle was manufactured by Clementoni, Italy, 

and has been edited in the so-called Museum Collection.

Development process of a 6000pcs-Puzzle - assembled quarter by quarter (1st quarter completed, next to come)

 10 years (!) ago I bought this outstandingly beautiful jigsaw puzzle from a friend and kept it safe in my stockpile. I bought it because it was split in 4 quarters and I hold on the possibility to decide if I mix them up - or not. I opened the box several times and now. almost 10 years and many jokes about my delaying tactics later, the box was open and I didn't close it instantly.

Allegoria della vista et del'olfatto by Jan Brueghel the Elder, approx. 1620

Prado, Madrid

  

In fact I couldn't find a decision which quarter should be released first and I asked my friends from my germany jigsaw forum. It's always a bit easier ;-) and they pushed me to open the upper left quarter. The most challenging one? For sure!

These are my successes from 9th to 26th May 2023

 

And it's about those blackcoloured pieces again... 230 pcs. left ... never give up!

Finished 1st May 2020

1530 Pieces

Chinese porcelain vase of flowers on a tabletop

aka "Flowers in a blue vase"

Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625)

Painting approx. 1608

oil color on oak panel

measures of the original painting: 51,7 x 65,8 cm

Still life paintings from the Netherlands 1550-1720

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna since 1781

http://de-stilling-still-life.info/

flower summary created by Sam Segal

detailed views will follow...

Finished 29th March 2020

1000 Pieces

Würzburg Residence

A Ravensburger ROYAYL jigsaw puzzle dated 1970

40 years old and complete! 

The picture shows the garden front which is 168 metres long!

Find out more about the residence which was built in the baroque era

Finished 27th August 2017

556 Pieces

Protestant Church of the Holy Trinity, Speyer, Germany

49° 19′ 4.35″ N, 8° 26′ 22.22″ E

 Built 1701-1717 

The jigsaw puzzle has been edited to collect money for the parish hall of the protestant community.

Probably 1970ies/1980ies by Zweipunkt Verlag (Two Dot Publishing)

Details of the Altar and Orgue

Finished 23rd April 2017 - including a gif :-)

2000 Pieces

Eton College

by Canaletto

A MondoPuzzle made in Italy

assembled from 30th March until today

You may find the development process here

 

Development process of "Eton College" by Canaletto - 2000 pcs. - completed

Given to me as a present for my birthday last year.

I was wondering how Mondopuzzle jigsaw puzzles (Italy) are and decided to open the box

The original painting is on display in the National Gallery, London.

Truely italian baroque by Giovanni Antonio Canal (*1697 in Venice, +1768 in Venice)

Information about this famous college may be found here

I started assorting and assembling last tuesday...

this will be challenging!

*****

update 4th April

this is the cathedral - I love the windows

I need my time. It is amazing to see, how easy they fit but the cohesion of the pieces is really poor.
Don't even think about moving two pieces inside the frame... they break up.

*****

Update 8th April

Time to take care of the trees and the sky....

9th April:

*****

12th April - still working on the sky

 *****

17th April

*****

20th April

Left to be assembled piece by piece

*****

21st April

 

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23rd April 

 next step: completion! :-)

Finished 14th August 2016

500 Pieces

named "Church in the mountains" - obviously, due to Neuschwanstein Castle in the background, it must be St. Coloman in the Fields. The church was built in the late 17th century.

47° 34′ 44″ N, 10° 44′ 56″ O

A vintage Ravensburger jigsaw puzzle of excellent quality, dated 1982

Photographer: Marco Schneiders

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I've been there in 1992 :-)

photo taken from a photography I took in 1992

Finished 16th June 2016

300 Pieces

The calming of the Storm

by Nicolò Circignani

The frescoe is located on the south wall of the Hall of the Meridian inside the Tower of Winds.

Archivum Secretum Vaticanum (which means 'personal papal archive', not 'secret collection of books'').

A Ravensburger ArtCollection jigsaw puzzle, 2012

There's a special detail to be discovered on top of the wall

"The meridian is a straight line made of white marble on the floor, parallel to the North-South direction, whose aim was to measure the altitude of the sun at noon according to the meteorological seasons: the sun ray enters through a hole in the south wall projecting a spot of light on the meridian line." (source + additional pictures and informations)