page_title: Korbinian Aigner
section_title: Aigner as pomologist
hierarchical_section_title: Korbinian Aigner / Aigner as pomologist
caption_attribution_description: English: Korbinian Aigner: Äpfel und Birnen. Das Gesamtwerk. Matthes &amp; Seitz, Berlin 2013
context_page_description: Korbinian Aigner, known as the Apfelpfarrer, was a Bavarian Catholic priest and pomologist.
context_section_description: After the war, Aigner returned to his duties as a pastor in his community of Hohenbercha. There he devoted himself once more to his great passion, apples. Aigner obtained as many varieties as he could and embarked upon his great project of painting apples (and some pears): in total, paintings of 649 varieties of apple and 289 varieties of pear have survived and are now held in the Historical Archive of the Technical University of Munich.
  Aigner first prepared a large postcard-sized piece of firm paper and after drawing the outlines in pencil would then work in watercolor, gouache or colored pencil. Most of his paintings were on a scale of 1:1 but this was not always the case when larger varieties were depicted. The paintings show two views of each specimen depicted side by side, the upper and the under-side of the fruit. However, contrary to established pomological practice Aigner did not offer a cross-sectional drawing of the core. Given his interest it was likely he would have seen examples of scientific studies, but he appears to have chosen to produce images to assist his teaching practice rather than to undertake any rigorous scientific study. Nevertheless his collection still offers a valuable reference resource today.
  His obsession with apples led to criticism from his superiors who called him "more of a pomologist than a priest". Many of the varieties he painted have since disappeared from cultivation.
caption: A reader enjoying the catalog of apple paintings by Korbinian Aigner. Published by Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2013 ISBN 978-3-88221-051-4. On view (bottom left) is number 600, the KZ 3 or Korbinian Apple.
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