Leonhard
Kern

Nordportal Mittelportal Fassadenflucht mit Nord- und Mittelportal Rathaus, Fassadenflucht Drei Portale der Rathausfassade von Norden nach Süden Nuremberg, Old Town Hall Figurenschmuck und Wappen der Portale Abfolge der Portale von Norden nach Süden Bildprogramm des Mittelportals Prudentia in stark verkürzter seitlicher Ansicht mit Bilddetail nge Prudentia, Oberkörper 2.244 / 5.000Sculptor in stone, wood, bronze and ivory, * November 22nd, 1588 Forchtenberg/Württ. – † April 4th, 1662 Schwäb. Hall. Son of Michael Kern the Elder, stonemason; father of Johann Jakob. ∞ 1614 Amalia Zöllner; 14 children, most of whom died in childbirth or early age. 1603-09 apprenticeship with his brother Michael the Younger in Würzburg. 1609-14 study trip to Italy. 1614-20 worked in Forchtenberg and Heidelberg at the court of Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate. 1617 in Nuremberg collaborated on the figural decoration of the side portals of the town hall, where he carved the four monumental "monarchies" based on designs by Christoph Jamnitzer, and in 1620 carried out stucco work in the town hall (journeyman's engraving). During his stay in Nuremberg, he lived in Christoph Jamnitzer's house in Zisselgasse (Albrecht-Dürer-Straße 22). During this time, he also trained Georg Pfründt. On March 24, 1620, he became a citizen and in the same year a master in Schwäb. Hall. There, and from 1651 in nearby Tullnau, he ran a workshop for four decades, in which he mainly created small sculptures made of wood, bronze and ivory. In 1648, he became court sculptor to the Electorate of Brandenburg. His circle of clients, who were fixated on cabinet pieces, included bourgeois and aristocratic collectors and the imperial family. He was one of the most important German artists of the 17th century and the most successful woodcarvers of his time. Kernstraße in Nuremberg was named after him. Works: NUREMBERG, north and south portal of the Wolff town hall: portal figures and coat of arms cartouches, 1617/18 (replaced in 1889 by copies by Georg Leistner). MuS: BERLIN, State Museum DARMSTADT, Hess. State Museum HAMBURG, Museum of Art and Trade NEUENSTEIN, Hohenlohe Museum NUREMBERG, GNM; –, MStN: ivory statuette. STUTTGART, Württemberg State Museum Lit.: Thieme-Becker; Doppelmayr, 1730; Johannes Zahlten, in: Weltkunst, issue 23 of 1.12.1988; Barock, 1962, p. 113; Mende, Town Hall 1979; Maué, 1997; E. Grünenwald: Leonhard Kern, A Baroque Sculptor, Schwäbisch Hall 1969; Masa, Freiskulpturen, p. 50. Exhibition: 1952/5; 1988 Museum Schwäb. Hall, EA Leonhard Kern. Frank Matthias Kammel (quoted from the Nuremberg Artists' Lexicon, edited by Manfred H