Current Exhibits

The third sculpture of St. Anne with the Virgin and Child on display at the Mining and Gothic Museum in Leogang is on private loan and comes from the Cologne workshop of the master craftsman Tilman. Tilman appears in the archives as having been in Cologne between 1487 and 1515 and is the most important sculptor and woodcarver of Cologne’s Late Gothic Period.

Originally, the group of figures probably stood in the centre of a small winged altarpiece. They are carved in oak, are flat at the back and were made between 1500 and 1510.

Mary’s high forehead and fine, open, wavy hair below a simple crown are typical of sculptures from Tilman’s workshop.

The quality of the silver from the mines in medieval Leogang was excellent and it was used for minting gold and silver coins by the Salzburg archbishops, whose archbishopric was both imperial estate and mint estate of Bavaria.

Salzburg coins from around 1500 are closely connected with one name in particular, Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach. When he came to power shortly before 1500, the domestic coinage and monetary system was in a state of disrepair.

Salzburg was in possession of huge amounts of gold and silver deposits, among the largest in Europe. But since nearly all the noble metal had been sold to Venice by a trading company there was a state-wide lack of coinage. Not a single coin had been minted for over 30 years.

Foreign money was coming into Salzburg but this was not enough to fulfil the demands of the economy. Leonhard von Keutschach had to act. Against the will of the powerful trading companies, he put a stop to the export of gold and silver and from then on had Salzburg’s noble metal made into its own coinage.

In earlier centuries it was almost exclusively small silver coins, called pfennigs, that were minted. If somebody wanted to pay a large sum they would have to use hundreds or even thousands, which was very impractical. The well-off were known to use silver bars or foreign gold coins for such payments.

Leonhard von Keutschach put a stop to all this. He introduced a modern system with different sizes and values of coin in gold and silver. Pfennigs remained, as the currency of the average Joe.

Batzen were favoured for medium-sized payments. They were worth 16 pfennigs. For larger payments it was possible to use gold gulden. They were worth the same as 240 pfennigs, a week’s salary for a paid mine worker. Only a few people would ever hold one of these in their hand.

Leonhard von Keutschach’s most famous coin was the turnip thaler, the first Salzburg silver coin to be worth the same as a gulden. The archbishop used the turnip thalers as presents rather than payments. Why were they called turnip thalers? Because of the turnip in the archbishop’s coat of arms. The same turnip could be found on all of Leonhard von Keutschach’s coins.

From the Middle Ages on, high quality medals and coins, desired throughout the empire, were created at the Salzburg mint. Renowned medallists such as Peter and Paul Seel, Philipp Heinrich Müller, Philipp Christoph Becker, Georg Raphael Donner and various generations of the Matzenkopf family created medals and coins which acquired an excellent reputation beyond the borders of Salzburg and still go for top prices at auction today.

Very close to where mining administrator, tourism pioneer and painter Michael Hofer worked lies the Grundbach estate.

This oil-on-cardboard painting by Hofer shows a classic Pinzgau farm with a brickwork lower and timbered upper storey. The larch shingles used for roofing at that time are easy to make out, as are the stones placed on the finished roof to secure it.

Once again, Michael Hofer proves he has a good eye for the beauties of nature and developing architecture of the Pinzgau farms.

The picture is the property of the Leogang Mining and Gothic Museum and signed ‘M. Hofer’ on the bottom left.