Jos Murer

Jos Murer
Jos Murer, etching by Conrad Meyer (1675)
Born	(1530-09-05)5 September 1530 Zurich, Switzerland
Died	October 1580 Winterthur, Switzerland
Known for	Glass painting, cartography, writing
Notable work	Murerplan
Spouse	Barbara Schön
Children	12, including Christoph Murer and Josias Murer

Jos Murer (5 September 1530 – October 1580) was a Swiss glass painter, cartographer, writer and politician from Zurich. He is known for the 1576 Murerplan, the first bird’s-eye view of Zurich.

Biography

Jos Murer was born in Zurich on 5 September 1530. His father, Hans Murer, was a belt maker who served as a Zurich councillor and guild master. Murer trained in Zurich as a glass painter and glazier. Few details of Murer’s training and early career have survived. In 1556, he married Barbara Schön, with whom he had six sons and six daughters. Their children included the artists Christoph Murer and Josias Murer. Murer owned the house Zum Nägeli in Zurich, whose facade bears the arms of the Murer and Schön families.

In 1572, Murer joined the Zunft zur Saffran and became a member of Zurich’s Grand Council. After his appointment in Winterthur in 1578, he moved into the official residence there. He died in Winterthur following a short illness in October 1580.

Work

Murer worked as a glass painter, draughtsman, cartographer, woodcut artist and writer.

Illustration and portraiture

From 1553, Murer designed title borders, vignettes, views and portraits for works printed by Christoph Froschauer. He also prepared drawings for Conrad Gessner’s Historiae animalium. His illustrations included eighteen full-page woodcuts for Johannes Fries’s 1561 edition of Virgil. He also produced portraits of Johannes Fries, Conrad Gessner and Conrad Pellican.

Stained glass

Murer produced numerous stained-glass panels with cantonal and heraldic designs. In 1571, he created a series of twenty stained-glass panels depicting standard-bearers for Zurich’s newly built Schützenhaus am Platz. In 1786, Johann Caspar Lavater arranged for the panels to be sent to Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau in Wörlitz. His other commissions included stained-glass panels for the cloisters of Wettingen Abbey and Tänikon Abbey.

Writing

Murer wrote seven plays based on biblical subjects. The plays appeared in print between 1556 and 1575 and were performed in Zurich and Winterthur. His surviving poetry includes a 1575 memorial poem for the theologian Heinrich Bullinger.

Cartography

In 1566, a map designed by Murer became the first printed map of the Zurich territory. It was the second-earliest of its kind, and survives only in a copy of the 1568 reprint. He completed an oil-painted view of the city in 1574, but the work has since been lost. A woodcut version was published in 1576 and subsequently appeared in numerous editions. The city plan was the first to show Zurich from a bird’s-eye perspective. It also included scenes of everyday life, such as women carrying laundry, livestock in public squares and activity along the Limmat. Known as the Murerplan, it is widely displayed in private and public spaces across Zurich and continues to be consulted when determining the original appearance of historic buildings and streets.

Collections

Works by Murer are held in collections including the Aargau Cantonal Library, Erlangen University Library, the ETH Zurich Graphics Collection, the Swiss National Museum and the Zurich State Archives. His stained-glass works are also preserved at Wettingen Abbey, Tänikon Abbey and the Gothic House in Wörlitz.

Gallery

• 
  Figure above the Murer and Schön coats of arms on Murer’s house in Nägelihof, Zurich (1565)
• 
  Map of the Zurich territory (1566)
• 
  The Murerplan (1576)

Further reading

• "MURER, Jos or Jodokus". Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford University Press – via Oxford Art Online.