Wolff, Jacob, the Elder

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Wolff, Jacob, the Elder (c.1546–1612). German architect and master-mason. His most significant buildings were those he designed and built in Nuremberg, but he seems (from records of 1572) to have begun his career as Master-Mason at Bamberg Cathedral. He made alterations and additions to the Marienberg fortress above Würzburg (1600–7), linking the two wings to create an enormous court. He and one Peter Carl erected (1602–7) the splendid Peller House in Nuremberg that incorporated a Renaissance rusticated façade inspired by Venetian exemplars crowned with an elaborate three-storey gabled confection. The internal court had superimposed arcades and much Renaissance enrichment. The Pellerhaus was a casualty of the 1939–45 war, but has been partly rebuilt. Wolff's son, Jakob the Younger (1571–1620), travelled (early C17) in Italy, acquiring a knowledge of Italian Renaissance architecture which he employed in the extension to the Nuremberg Rathaus (Town Hall) with its long façade incorporating three festive portals (1616–20). After his death the work was completed by his brother, Hans (fl. 1612–22), but was destroyed in the 1939–45 war. It has since been rebuilt.

Bibliography

Cruickshank (ed.) (1996);
Jane Turner (1996)

A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

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Wolff, Jacob, the Elder

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