page_title: Branchwork
hierarchical_section_title: Branchwork
caption_attribution_description: Ulm, Ulmer Münster, Passionsportal
context_page_description: Branchwork or branch tracery is a type of architectural ornament often used in late Gothic architecture and the Northern Renaissance, consisting of knobbly, intertwined and leafless branches. Branchwork was particularly widespread in Central European art between 1480 and 1520 and can be found in all media. The intellectual origin of branchwork lies in theories in Renaissance humanism about the origins of architecture in natural forms and barely-treated natural materials.
  In artistic terms it often follows scrolling patterns that had long been used with thinner stem and tendril plant forms. The development of the representation of thicker tree branches had a long history in the crosses in representations of the Crucifixion of Jesus, and the popular subject of the Tree of Jesse.
context_section_description: Branchwork or branch tracery (German: Astwerk) (Dutch: Lofwerk of Loofwerk) is a type of architectural ornament often used in late Gothic architecture and the Northern Renaissance, consisting of knobbly, intertwined and leafless branches. Branchwork was particularly widespread in Central European art between 1480 and 1520 and can be found in all media. The intellectual origin of branchwork lies in theories in Renaissance humanism about the origins of architecture in natural forms and barely-treated natural materials.
  In artistic terms it often follows scrolling patterns that had long been used with thinner stem and tendril plant forms.  The development of the representation of thicker tree branches had a long history in the crosses in representations of the Crucifixion of Jesus, and the popular subject of the Tree of Jesse.
caption: Branchwork tracery at Ulm Minster, c. 1475
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