Lot Essay
While Hans Jacob Brubacher is traditionally thought to have influenced few artists around him, the religious text illustrated here suggests the opposite. With its sectioned and geometric format, repeating abstracted tulip motif and ink-blocked angled corners, this religious text bears many of the design elements of Brubacher's work (see Earnest, Papers for Birth Dayes: Guide to the Fraktur Artists and Scriveners (Alburquerque, NM: 1989), p. 79). With its date of 1824, however, this hand-decorated illuminated text appears to have been executed 22 years after Brubacher's death.
An examination of the handwriting suggests at least two, and possibly three different hands at work. Laid out in alternating rows of flowers and twelve blocks of text, the scriptual verses written on this manuscript are both old and new testament. Each block is also identified as to book, chapter and verse. Identifiable scriptures include John, chapter 5, verse 39: "Search the scriptures; for in the ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me"; Mark, chapter 8, verse 35: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." Matthew, chapter 5, verse 15: "Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house"; Matthew, chapter 3, verse 10: "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefor every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire"; and Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28: "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me."
Hans Jacob Brubacher (before 1730-d. 1802) worked from circa 1751-1801, principally in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania as a school teacher and farmer. At the time he was active as a fraktur artist, the majority of illuminated manuscripts and certificates were produced nearby at Ephrata Cloister. Perhaps in his capacity as a school teacher, Brubacher passed on his characteristic flat, geometric style. Interestingly, while the format employed in this fraktur does not conform to several standard formats Brubacher used, it is nonetheless closely related to the gridded alternating decorated and textual manuscripts he produced toward the end of his life between 1799-1801 (see Earnest, p. 81). Brubacher is known to have done at least ten other religious texts. For a related example illustrated here, see Heaney and Weiser,The Pennsylvania German Fraktur of The Free Library of Philadelphia,vol. II (Breinigsville, 1976), figs. 260 and 896.
An examination of the handwriting suggests at least two, and possibly three different hands at work. Laid out in alternating rows of flowers and twelve blocks of text, the scriptual verses written on this manuscript are both old and new testament. Each block is also identified as to book, chapter and verse. Identifiable scriptures include John, chapter 5, verse 39: "Search the scriptures; for in the ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me"; Mark, chapter 8, verse 35: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." Matthew, chapter 5, verse 15: "Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house"; Matthew, chapter 3, verse 10: "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefor every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire"; and Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28: "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me."
Hans Jacob Brubacher (before 1730-d. 1802) worked from circa 1751-1801, principally in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania as a school teacher and farmer. At the time he was active as a fraktur artist, the majority of illuminated manuscripts and certificates were produced nearby at Ephrata Cloister. Perhaps in his capacity as a school teacher, Brubacher passed on his characteristic flat, geometric style. Interestingly, while the format employed in this fraktur does not conform to several standard formats Brubacher used, it is nonetheless closely related to the gridded alternating decorated and textual manuscripts he produced toward the end of his life between 1799-1801 (see Earnest, p. 81). Brubacher is known to have done at least ten other religious texts. For a related example illustrated here, see Heaney and Weiser,The Pennsylvania German Fraktur of The Free Library of Philadelphia,vol. II (Breinigsville, 1976), figs. 260 and 896.