The Patron’s Window and a Travelling Artist: Hans Schäufelein in Schwaz

It is a well-known fact that the German painter and designer Hans Schäufelein went to Tyrol for some two years after his stay in Nuremberg at the workshop of Albrecht Dürer (c. 1503–07). The small oeuvre of Schäufelein in Tyrol can be expanded by a further work, a really unexpected finding. It is a design for a stained glass window which was planned by the ‘Froner’ Heinrich Zehentner and his wife Caritas Hofstetter for the Church of Our Lady in Schwaz. The drawing of Hans Schäufelein, originated at his journey from Nuremberg to Meran in 1507, derives from the collection of Mario Salmi and is now kept in the Museo Nazionale d’Arte Medievale e Moderna in Arezzo. Although only preserved as a sketchy design, the projected Dureresque window should be without doubt an outstanding part of the church furniture made by several artists from Swabia, Bavaria, and even Franconia. Concerning the patron Heinrich Zehentner and his personal environment, there were a lot of connections to Nuremberg. Therefore it seems possible that Schäufelein started his journey to Tyrol with good prospects of concrete orders.