(b Andlau, Alsace; fl 1447; d c. 1501). German glass painter. His commissions and influence extended from the area around Strasbourg into southern Germany and Austria. Hemmel became a citizen of Strasbourg through marriage in 1447 with the widow of a local glass painter named Heinz. His work shows figure types similar to contemporary engravings, in particular those of Martin Schongauer; Hemmel’s Adoration of the Magi in the Nonnbergkirche, Salzburg, is derived from a Schongauer print of the same subject. Distinctive among his many commissions are the Kramer window (1479–80) in Ulm Minster and the axial choir window of St Anne and the Virgin (c. 1478–9) in the Stiftskirche, Tübingen. The balance of the intense purple, scarlet and deep blue against extensive silver-stain yellow and white glass creates a tension between spatial planes. Hemmel’s draughtsmanship in his Virgin and Child with Lily from the Nonnbergkirche, Salzburg (c. 1470–80; Darmstadt, Hess. Landesmus.; see STAINED GLASS, colour pl. IV), shows a sculptural treatment of drapery and form that dominates the composition. The extraordinarily lush treatment of the architectural frame, often developed through sprouting and intertwining branches, seen especially in large-scale work, is one of Hemmel’s most distinctive contributions.

• Hemmel von Andlau, Peter
  • Anjou, §II: (5) René II
  • assistants
    • Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists, §I: Master of the Coburg Roundels
  • patrons and collectors
    • Württemberg, House of
  • works
    • Augsburg, §4(ii): Cathedral stained glass
    • Freiburg im Breisgau, §2(iii): Cathedral stained glass
    • Gothic, §VIII, 5(ii): Stained glass: Holy Roman Empire, after 1340
    • Nuremberg, §IV, 2: St Lorenz
    • Salzburg, §2(i): Art life and organization, before c 1600
    • Stained glass, §II, 1(iv): 1300–1539
  • workshop
    • Germany, §III, 2(i)(a): Painting and graphic arts: `International’ and Late Gothic