Niklaus Manuel
Illustration — Self-portrait of Niklaus Manuel, c. 1515 Niklaus Manuel Deutsch (Niklaus Manuel, c. 1484 – 28 April 1530), of Bern, was a Swiss artist, writer, mercenary and Reformed politician.
Also recorded as Niklaus Manuel Alemand · Niklaus Manuel-Deutsch · Schweizer Mahler Manuelli · Alemand Alamann Alleman
Niklaus Manuel

Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
- Born
- 1484 · Bern.
- Died
- 1530 · Bern.
- Nationality
- Switzerland
- Occupation
- poet · politician · painter · playwright · draftsperson · graphic artist · diplomat
- Languages
- German
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Self-portrait of Niklaus Manuel, c. 1515 Niklaus Manuel Deutsch (Niklaus Manuel, c. 1484 – 28 April 1530), of Bern, was a Swiss artist, writer, mercenary and Reformed politician.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Niklaus Manuel (1484–1530) was a diplomat, draftsperson and graphic artist, among other activities, of Swiss nationality. The diplomat was born and died in Bern. Niklaus Manuel held the position of Member of the Grand Council of Bern.
Languages used include German. Works are held at Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunstmuseum Bern and Nationalmuseum, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Niklaus Manuel. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q670805
In this article
Biography
Biography
Manuel worked between 1484 and 1530 across poet, politician, painter, playwright and poet lawyer and 5 further recorded occupations. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.
Niklaus was most likely the son of Emanuel Aleman (or Alleman), a pharmacist whose own father had immigrated from Chieri in Piedmont, and his wife Margaretha Fricker (or Frikart), an illegitimate daughter of Bernese city scribe Thüring Fricker. He used "Manuel", the given name of his father, as his surname and used "Deutsch", as the German equivalent of the surname Alleman, as an additional appellation, signing his works with the initials NMD. He is first recorded in 1509, when he married Katharina Frisching, daughter of Hans Frisching, a former Bernese reeve and member of the city council (Kleiner Rat). Niklaus Manuel and Katharina Frisching had six children. Two of them, Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (1525–1571) and Niklaus Manuel Deutsch the Younger (1528–1588), were also artists. Niklaus Manuel is considered the founder of the patrician Manuel family of Berne. From 1510, Niklaus Manuel was a member of the city parliament (Grosser Rat). He is first recorded as a painter in the employment of the city in 1513. Aside from Holbein he is the major representative of Renaissance painting in Switzerland. In 1514, he bought the house at Gerechtigkeitsgasse 72 which remained in possession of the Manuel family until the 17th century. In 1516, he entered mercenary service as the secretary of Albrecht von Stein, participating in the French campaign in the War of the League of Cambrai. His famous danse macabre on the wall of the Dominican Abbey in Berne was begun in 1516 or 1517; this work was destroyed in 1660, but a 1649 copy by Albrecht Kauw is extant. Niklaus Manuel's latest signed works date from around 1520, after which time he dedicated himself to literary production. He used a drawing of a Swiss degen alongside the initials NMD as his mark; the Swiss degen also appears on his literary manuscripts, and schwitzerdegen appears as his author's pseudonym in some of his printed works. In 1522 he once again entered service with Albrecht von Stein in a campaign in Lombardy, and was wounded at Novara. He also participated in the Battle of Bicocca of 27 April. He composed a satirical song against the German Landsknechts who defeated the Swiss mercenaries in this battle. After the 1522 campaign, he was also harshly critical of the Holy See, specifically the late Pope Leo X and his militaristic policy in the Italian Wars. In the years that followed, he was a strong supporter of the Swiss Reformation and a friend of Huldrych Zwingli, who like him had been on campaign in Italy and had become disenchanted with the warmongering of the pope in the Italian Wars. He campaigned for the reformed cause in Bern with Berchtold Haller, the priest at St Vincent Münster. He wrote two anti-catholic (anti-papist) carnival plays or Fasnachtsspiele, performed in 1522. The plays were very popular and are said to have done more for the adoption of the Reformation in Berne than the sermons of Haller. The two plays were printed as early as 1524, and again in 1540. The 1540 edition was the basis of a re-edition published in 1836. In 1523, he was given the office of Bernese reeve of Erlach, Echallens and Nidau. He was sent as a representative of Bern to the Swiss Diet in 1526. He served as a member in the city council (Kleiner Rat) from April 1528 until his death.
Artistic works
Artistic works
• Illustration — Swiss mercenary, with a scene of the assault on Castellazzo (1513/4) • Illustration — Swiss mercenary (1513/4) • Illustration — Allegory on mercenary service • Illustration — Beheading of John the Baptist (1513/4) • Illustration — Saint Luke painting the Virgin • Illustration — 1649 copy of Niklaus Manuel's self-portrait in the lost dance macabre of the Dominican cemetery in Bern (1516/7) • Illustration — The NMD initials with Swiss degen, signature of his ornamental painting of ceiling of the choir in Bern Minster (1516/7) • Illustration — Beheading of John the Baptist (1517) • Illustration — The Judgement of Paris (1517/8) • Illustration — Allegory of Death (drawing) • Illustration — Demons Tormenting Antonius (1520) • Illustration — Self portrait (1520) • Illustration — Lucretia (1517)
Literary works
Literary works
•?1510, with Thomas Murner, Ein schon bewerts lied von der reynen unbefleckten entpfengnüß Marie ("Song of the Immaculate Conception") • 1522, Ein Traum (poem, on the disastrous involvement of the Holy See (the recently deceased "warrior pope" Leo X) in the Italian Wars) • 1522?, Nüw lied vnd verantwortung deß Sturms halb beschähn zu Pigogga ("New song and account of the attack at Biccoca", printed after 1525) • 1522, Underscheyd zwischen dem Bapst und Christum Jhesum (drama, "Difference between the Pope and Jesus Christ") • 1522/3, vom Babst und seiner priesterschafft (drama, "on the Pope and his priesthood") • 1523, Die Totenfresser ("Eaters of the Dead") • 1525, Der Ablaßkrämer (drama, "The seller of indulgences") • 1526, Das Barbeli (dramatic dialogue, against monastery life) • 1526, Fabers und Eggen Badenfahrt (dialogue, "Faber and Eck at the Conference of Baden") • 1528, Krankheit und Testament der Messe (satire, "Sickness and testament of the holy mass") The play Elsli Tragdenknaben (von dem Elszlin trag den knaben und von Uly Rechenzan, mit irem eelichen Gerichtshandel), printed in 1530, has been ascribed to Niklaus Manuel, but the attribution is probably spurious.
Life and work
Life and work
Niklaus Manuel was born on 1 January 1484 in Bern. Manuel held the nationality of Switzerland. Recorded child: Hans Rudolf Manuel. Manuel worked as poet, politician, painter and playwright, and the authority record catalogues a further 6 occupations under the same name, among them poet lawyer, draftsperson, graphic artist, diplomat, organ builder and writer. Manuel held the posts of Member of the Grand Council of Bern. Manuel worked in German.

Gedenktafel für Niklaus Manuel (schweizerischer Dramatiker, Maler, Graphiker, Reformator und Staatsmann) an der Gerechtigkeitsgasse 72 in Bern.
Photo uploaded by User:RicciSpeziari. Photographer: Riccardo Speziari
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1484–1530
The full dated record · 4 entries
1484
Niklaus Manuel born at Bern.
1517
Judgement of Paris by Niklaus Manuel (Kunstmuseum Basel).
1530
Dies at Bern.
1530
Niklaus Manuel died at Bern.
Catalogued output
Writings and published texts
These are catalogued publications carrying the name — editions and printings, distinct from the works they contain and from writing about the subject. The 1990s are the densest part of the run, with 3 titles, and that concentration is a fact about what the registers have catalogued rather than a judgement on the work itself.
17 editions carry dates between 1533 and 2016
The run opens with Dialogus om den papistiske messe and closes with Söldner, Bilderstürmer, Totentänzer
The entries follow Open Library
Dialogus om den papistiske messe
1533
Von bäpstlicher, vermainten heyligen Mesz, fröliche Badenfart
1546
Niklaus Manuel's todtentanz
1829
Die Krankheit der Messe
1886
Satire om den syge messe
1893
Der Ablasskrämer
1895
Spiel evangelischer Freiheit
1923
Spiel evangelischer Freiheit Die Totenfresser "Vom Papst und seiner Priesterschaft"
1923
Ecrits satiriques
1947
Paintings, drawings and prints, 1515–1520
Catalogued output
Paintings, drawings and prints, 1515–1520
These are objects catalogued as visual works, each held or recorded by the institution named against it. 11 works carry dates between 1515 and 1520. The 1510s are the densest part of the run, with 10 titles, and that concentration is a fact about what the registers have catalogued rather than a judgement on the work itself. They belong to a run of 14 titles in all, from 1515 to 1520.
Judgement of Paris by Niklaus Manuel
1517
The run opens with Portrait of a Man and closes with Pyramus and Thisbe
Portrait of a Man
1515
Saint Luke painting the Virgin
1515
Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child, Saint James the Great and Saint Roch as Intercessors for Mankind Ridden by the Plague
1515
Saint Thomas of Aquin at the Table of King Louis the Saint
1517
Lucretia
1517
Bathsheba Bathing / Death as a Mercenary Embracing a Young Woman
1517
The Wise Virgin
1518
The Foolish Virgin
1518
The conversion of Paul
1519
Pyramus and Thisbe
1520
Paintings, drawings and prints without a settled date
Catalogued output
Paintings, drawings and prints without a settled date
3 further works are catalogued under Manuel's name without a date the collections agree on, which is why they are set apart from the dated run rather than placed in it.
Fanbärare för sex schweiziska kantoner
The Mocking of Christ
Authority records
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Van Abbé, Derek. Niklaus Manuel of Bern and His Interest in the Reformation. The Journal of Modern History. 24. 3. 287–300. 1952. 0022-2801.
- 2.The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press, Inc
- 3.Des Venners der Stadt Bern Niklaus Manuel Fasnachtsspiele, Bern (1836).https://books.google.com/books?id=mpATAAAAQAAJ
- 4.Bayerische Staatsbibliothek https://books.google.com/books?id=bksQfmTBhJsC, see Gottlieb Emauel von Haller, Bibliothek der Schweizer-Geschichte ( 1785-1788), vol. 3, 35-64.
- 5.Ferdinand Vetter (ed.) Die Totenfresser (1923)
- 6.Karl Goedeke, Grundrisz zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung vol. 1 (1862), p. 300. 1546(?) print: Newe Zeittung. Von Bäpstlicher, vermainten heyligen Meß, fröliche Badenfart. Darin sie wider grün zuwerden verhofft, aber onuersehens auß ihr ein tödtliches wasser geschwitzt, darauff kläglich vnd jämerlich gestorben https://books.google.com/books?id=bksQfmTBhJsC
- 7.Ejn klegliche Botschafft dem Bapst zukomen, antreffend des gantzen Bapstumbs Weydung, nit des viechs, sonder des zartten völcklins, vnd was syn heydischheyt darzu geantwurt vnd than hatt Bayerische Staatsbibliothekhttps://books.google.com/books?id=ko1UAAAAcAAJ
- 8.Vetter (1923), p. 133.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
institutional register
Wikidata, structured authority record Q670805: Niklaus ManuelWikimedia Foundation
Unverified
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Naming and authority record. Those registers additionally record the form Güdel, Niklaus M.
Manuel, Niklaus, Religion Past and Present
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Paintings
18,705 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Nikifor KrylovArtist
- Nikiforos LytrasArtist
- Niklas ÅkerbladArtist
- Niklaus BütlerArtist
- Niklaus StoecklinArtist
- Niko PirosmaniArtist
- Nikodim SilivanovichArtist
- Nikola AleksićArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Niklaus Manuel?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.