Patrician domestic culture and representation of social standing

The representative Tucher castle with gardens is still a living testimony to former patrician domestic culture. It was an expression of the economic and social position of the builder Lorenz II Tucher (1490-1554).

Inside, the "gros stainer[n]e behaussung" (grand stone dwelling) is based on the traditional structure of a Nuremberg merchant’s house: the entrance hall served as a passage to the courtyard and storage space for business. The spiral staircase in the stair tower had comfortable steps – the most modern luxury at the time! Unlike in France and Italy, the private living rooms and chambers were located on the first floor. On the second floor, the "reception room" and "banqueting hall" were the state rooms. All rooms were furnished in a homely style with wooden panelling.

The Tucher domestic culture included presentable household goods as well as valuable works of art. Furniture, tapestries, tableware, paintings and sculptures were specially commissioned, collected and acquired until the 20th century.

Precious knitted carpets such as the verdures made in Flanders with the builder couple’s Tucher-Straub arms of alliance hung on the wall coverings. Portraits made up an important part of the patrician culture of remembrance: the small ones were kept in chests, a "portrait gallery" was created with the larger ones. Elegant furniture corresponded to the respective zeitgeist in its shape and design: a chest cabinet with Renaissance adornment as well as inlaid chests, "Fassadenschrank" cupboards and cabinets were luxury items. Cabinet panes with family coats of arms adorned the windows as glass treasures. Plates made from majolica and faience pottery, platters and jugs with figurative scenes or ornaments served more as show pieces than as domestic tableware.

From 1550 onwards, the Nuremberg patricians shifted the focus of their lives: they gradually withdrew from trade and practised aristocratic lifestyles on their estates, as evidenced by a magnificent hunting rifle. The Tuchers had their residences, such as the one in Simmelsdorf, depicted on exquisite goblets, cups and jugs.

Ulrike Berninger