Two scenes depicted on Maximilian's funeral monument. Photo © KHM Museums Association.
Florian Abel was a 16th-century German graphic artist, sculptor and painter. Together with his brothers Bernard and Arnold, he worked on a cenotaph devoted to Maximilian I of Austria. The 24 marble reliefs on this funeral monument, still on display in the Austrian city of Innsbruck, are interesting for their use of sequential illustrations with text above or underneath, making them a prototypical text comic. Together with Hans Burgkmair the Elder, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Jeremias Gath, Hans Holbein The Elder, Hans Holbein the Younger, Caspar Krebs, Georg Kress, Bartholomäus Käppeler, Hans Rogel the Elder, Hans Rogel the Younger, Erhard Schön, Johann Schubert, Hans Schultes the Elder, Lucas Schultes and Elias Wellhöfer, Florian Abel is one of the earliest German prototypical comic artists who has been identified.
Early life and work
Florian Abel was born either in the late 15th century or the early 16th century, at an unknown date. His birth city was Cologne in present-day Germany, but back then located in the Holy Roman Empire. Abel's father was a painter, sculptor and stonecutter and both Florian and his brothers Bernhard and Arnold followed in his footsteps. Not much is known about Abel's graphic career. Together with Italian illustrator Francesco Terzio, he livened up the pages of a Czech Bible, printed by Jiří Melantrich d'Aventine. This Bible, nicknamed the 'Melantrich Bible' (1549), was at the time the most widespread Bible in the Czech language and frequently reprinted.
By 1561, Florian Abel appears to have moved to the kingdom of Bohemia. In 1565, Abel died in the Bohemian capital Prague, nowadays part of the Czech Republic but back then a constituent state of the Habsburg Empire.
Emperor Maximilian's funeral monument
Abel and his brothers are nowadays best remembered for their work on a funeral monument for Emperor Maximilian I of Austria. Maximilian I was Duke of Burgundy (1477-1482), King of the Romans (1486-1519), Archduke of Austria (1493-1519) and Holy Roman Emperor (1508-1519). The monarch had a strong interest in art, albeit mostly for propaganda purposes. During his lifetime he ordered several megalomaniac projects, like 'Triumphzug' ("Triumphal Procession"), a series of woodblocks that depict an imperial procession. This work, co-created by, among others, Hans Burgkmair the Elder, still wasn't finished when the Emperor died in 1519.
It was only natural that Maximilian's funeral monument would be just as bombastic as the works he ordered during his lifetime. His grandson Ferdinand I decided that Innsbruck was the ideal location. Almost four decades after Maximilian's death, the grave was ready, but still needed decorations fit for a deceased monarch. Ferdinand I wanted 24 marble reliefs depicting scenes from Maximilian's life and pointed to Albrecht Dürer's 'Triumphal Arch' as a graphic example. On 28 April 1561, the Abels went to Vienna, where they signed the contract to work on Maximilian's funeral monument in the Hofkirche church in Innsbruck. The brothers divided the tasks. Bernhard went to Salzburg to get marble, while Arnold travelled to Italy for the same purpose, but also to study Renaissance art. Meanwhile, Florian made the designs.
The cenotaph of Maximilian's funeral monument is an interesting example of a prototypical comic strip. The reliefs are flanked by female representations of the virtues Fides (Faith) and Spes (Hope). The images are separated by panels and have text underneath them, making them comparable with a text comic. However, some of the illustrations aren't understandable to the modern-day viewer, since the text isn't always a description, but sometimes a mere general reflection on Maximilian's glory. Among the scenes historians can recognize are the Battle of Hainaut, the reconquering of Austrian territory from Hungarian troops, the reconquering of Stuhlweissenburg (1490) and the marriage of Maximilian's son, Philip I of Castile, with Joanna of Castile, AKA "Johanna the Mad" (1496).
Ironically enough, the Abels worked so long on these reliefs that neither of them ever saw the finished work. By June 1562 they had only finished one relief, the 'Battle of Vicenza'. They employed Flemish sculptor Alexander Colyn to assist them. A year later, other sculptors were brought in too: Franz Willems, Hans Ernhofer and Michael von der Vecken. In hindsight, extra assistance was a wise move, because the Abels all died one year after the other. Bernard passed away on 13 October 1563, Arnold on 15 February 1564 and Florian in 1565, as a result of an unspecified illness. Colyn continued the project, completing the remaining 20 reliefs by 1567.
Part of Maximilian's funeral monument. Photo © KHM Museums Association.