How old is the Hageri church retable?
The age of the Hageri church retable cannot be unambiguously determined. Its older parts originate from Ackermann’s workshop and are quite likely from the latter half of the 1670s or the first half of the 1680s. Its newer parts, however, were completed after the sculptor’s death, after the fire that damaged the church and after the Great Northern War: Johann Valentin Rabe first rebuilt the surviving retable from Ackermann’s time in 1731. It was altered a second and third time in the 19th century in connection with the replacement of the altar pictures.
What parts of the retable originate from Ackermann?
The older parts of the retable that were made in Ackermann’s workshop are the columns and putto cantilevers at the bases of the columns on the main level, the statues of the evangelists Matthew and Mark, and the ornamental reliefs beside and beneath them designed in auricular style and foliage. Similarly, most of the retable’s profiled cornice and the carved central panel with a scene of Calvary dates from Ackermann’s time. This central panel was replaced in the 19th century by an altar painting on canvas. Nowadays the carved central panel is on display on the wall beside the altar.
Which parts of the retable were made by Rabe?
The part of the retable that is on the profiled cornice is from Johann Valentin Rabe’s workshop. The coats of arms of the donors who commissioned Rabe to refurbish the retable, and the following statues are above and on the background of the gable designed as foliage: two angels, a pelican with chicks and the statue of Christ the Invincible.
Which changes did 19th century master artists make to the retable and why?
The 19th century reconstructions were connected to the wish to freshen up the retable and to make it suitably imposing for the large stone church that was completed in 1892. The old retable’s central panel with a carved Calvary scene was replaced in 1851 by an oil painting on canvas on the same theme by Carl Sigismund Walther. The colourful retable was apparently painted over at the same time with grey colouring, and the sculptures were painted white. A large-format oil painting by Rudolf von zur Mühlen replaced Walther’s painting in 1892. The retable had to be built taller and wider in connection with the placement of this painting at the altar: the cornice of Ackermann’s, or perhaps Rabe’s, time had to be prosthetised by about half a metre; the lower end of the new painting had to be placed in the retable’s old predella; a new predella had to be built beneath the entire retable to provide a place for affixing the text panel accompanying the picture. The text on this panel was now not only in German but also in Estonian. This is also probably the time when the altar retable was given its current brown colouring.
What was the retable of the Hageri church like in Ackermann’s time?
It is not known what the retable originally looked like in Hageri’s large, old wooden church that burned down due to carelessness in 1710. Perhaps Ackermann did not even make the retable for the Hageri church, but rather for some other church instead. Perhaps the retable bearing details carved by Ackermann was brought to the Hageri church only in 1731, when the master Rabe combined those details with his own work. This is possible because otherwise the question would arise: how in the world could the retable have been taken out of the burning church? And if the retable really was successfully removed from the burning church, can there really be no traces of fire damage to the retable? Indeed, no fire damage can be found in the old constructions or beneath the thoroughly studied secondary coat of paint.
By analogy, it can be assumed that the retable of Ackermann’s time had another two levels in addition to the predella zone with the panel bearing the text and where the putto cantilevers were also located: either a depiction of the Last Supper (which has been lost) or the (separately) preserved carved Calvary scene against the background of a painted landscape and heavenly Jerusalem was at the centre of the main level, flanked on either side by columns and statues of the evangelists Matthew and Mark. Either the statue of Christ the Invincible or the carved Calvary scene mentioned above was situated on the cornice above Matthew and Mark, between the two remaining evangelists, John and Luke. If the Calvary scene was on the cornice, then Christ had to have stood with the victory flag at the tip of the retable because the iconographic scheme of the baroque altar was to be read upwards, and it was prescribed that a positive message pointing to everlasting life in Christ and the eternity of Christianity had to be at the top of the composition.
Did Ackermann use the work of assistants to complete his commissioned works?
Ackermann surely used the help of joiners to make retables because, as he himself said, he had not ever held a planer in his hands, because he was a carver. Judging by the close examination of the Hageri retable figures and the analysis of x-ray pictures of these statues, however, we can assume that the handiwork of one other man was involved here in addition to Ackermann. There is certainly no doubt that Ackermann carved the putto cantilevers with his own hands, but the master evidently used the assistance of one of his helpers in carving the statues of Matthew and Mark.The statues of Matthew and Mark admittedly follow the characteristic contours of Ackermann’s sculptures right down to their details, but a sort of peculiar dullness and superficiality characterises them. It hardly seems likely that Ackermann would have left the heel that extends out beyond the edge of the figure’s base (pedestal) uncarved from below in its true anatomical form, as is the case with both the evangelists Matthew and Mark.
A comparison of Matthew’s two hands also supports the assumption that one of the master’s assistants helped to complete the statue: Matthew’s angular hand holding the book clearly differs from his other hand, which is streamlined and finely carved. Such a different style, and the fact that the finely carved hand’s dimensions are too large in relation to the figure, lead to the idea that Matthew’s beautiful hand had originally been meant for a different statue, presumably a woman’s figure: as a rule, the wish to adhere to men’s anatomy and to model muscles and swollen blood vessels is noticeable in the case of the hands of Ackermann’s male figures. It cannot be ruled out that Matthew’s beautiful feminine hand was simply taken from a shelf in Ackermann’s workshop, where “prefabricated details”, so to speak, were kept for rush jobs.
What is extraordinary about the Hageri church retable’s polychromy?
The entire retable of Ackermann’s time was definitely covered with polychromy that generally adhered to the natural colouring of the figures and plants, but amplified it by using lustre. Yet Ackermann definitely did not do the painting work. This was instead done by the man who also painted the landscape and heavenly Jerusalem that formed the backdrop for the carved Calvary scene.
The two different strata of the Hageri church retable – those of Ackermann’s time and of Rabe’s time – are also reflected in its polychromy. According to analyses of the paint on the retable, it appears that Rabe did not paint over the older sculptures from Ackermann’s time but did have the old ornamental parts repainted, since polychromic coats are found on these parts. These parts were apparently painted over in the interests of the overall impression of the altar corpus of Rabe’s time.
The paint analyses that have now been conducted have brought a number of additional surprises to light: Rabe’s later angels, as well as the angel that is the attribute of Matthew as he was completed in Ackermann’s workshop, have light blue wings in the Hageri retable; while a golden loincloth covers the lower body of Christ the Invincible as a rule in Estonian baroque retables, in Hageri it is a vermilion drapery. The blue garment with golden edges worn by Matthew the Evangelist is also surprising. It differs considerably from Mark’s garment coated with red and green lustre, and supports the idea already mentioned that the statues had to have counterparts with analogous colour schemes.
The retable’s polychromies from Ackermann’s and Rabe’s times are covered by another two monochromic coats of paint, the first in grey tones and the second in brown tones. It seems that the altar acquired its grey tonality in 1851, at the time of Walther’s painting, and it was given its current brown colouring in the early 1890s, when the old baroque retable was brought into the new church and adjusted to match the overall brown colouring of the church. The sculptures were also probably painted white in the mid-19th century, evidently because colourful wooden sculptures did not fit in with 19th century aesthetics. Monochromatic white marble statues, or at least statues that imitated marble, were preferred.
