Grunewald, Matthias
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{{foreignchar|Ü|Matthias Gruenewald}} | {{foreignchar|Ü|Matthias Gruenewald}} | ||
[[Image:Grunewald Self Portrait.jpg|thumb|220px|[[John the Evangelist]] (long thought to be a self portrait)]] | [[Image:Grunewald Self Portrait.jpg|thumb|220px|[[John the Evangelist]] (long thought to be a self portrait)]] | ||
| − | '''Matthias Grünewald''' or "Mathis" (as first name), "Gothart" or "Neithardt" (as surname), (c. 1470 – August 31 1528), was an important [[German Renaissance]] painter of religious works, who ignored [[Renaissance]] [[classicism]] to continue the expressive and intense style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century. | + | '''Matthias Grünewald''' or "Mathis" (as first name), "Gothart" or "Neithardt" (as surname), (c. 1470 – August 31, 1528), was an important [[German Renaissance]] painter of religious works, who ignored [[Renaissance]] [[classicism]] to continue the expressive and intense style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century. |
Only ten paintings (several consisting of many panels) and thirty-five drawings survive, all religious. Many others were lost in the [[Baltic Sea]] on their way to [[Sweden]] as war booty. His reputation was obscured until the late nineteenth century, and many of his paintings attributed to [[Albrecht Dürer]], who is now seen as his stylistic antithesis. His largest and most famous work is the [[Isenheim Altarpiece]] in [[Colmar]], [[Alsace]] (now in [[France]]). | Only ten paintings (several consisting of many panels) and thirty-five drawings survive, all religious. Many others were lost in the [[Baltic Sea]] on their way to [[Sweden]] as war booty. His reputation was obscured until the late nineteenth century, and many of his paintings attributed to [[Albrecht Dürer]], who is now seen as his stylistic antithesis. His largest and most famous work is the [[Isenheim Altarpiece]] in [[Colmar]], [[Alsace]] (now in [[France]]). | ||
Revision as of 05:10, 19 January 2009
- The title of this article contains the character Ü. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Matthias Gruenewald.
Matthias Grünewald or "Mathis" (as first name), "Gothart" or "Neithardt" (as surname), (c. 1470 – August 31, 1528), was an important German Renaissance painter of religious works, who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the expressive and intense style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century.
Only ten paintings (several consisting of many panels) and thirty-five drawings survive, all religious. Many others were lost in the Baltic Sea on their way to Sweden as war booty. His reputation was obscured until the late nineteenth century, and many of his paintings attributed to Albrecht Dürer, who is now seen as his stylistic antithesis. His largest and most famous work is the Isenheim Altarpiece in Colmar, Alsace (now in France).
Biography
The details of his life are unusually unclear for a painter of his significance, despite the fact that his commissions show that he received reasonable recognition in his own lifetime. His real name remains uncertain, but was definitely not Grünewald; this was a mistake by the 17th-century writer, Joachim von Sandrart, 150 years after his death, who confused him with another artist. He is documented as "Master Mathis" or "Mathis the Painter" (Mathis der Maler), and as using the surnames Gothart and Neithardt - this last may have been his surname, or more likely that of his wife.
He was probably born in Würzburg between 1470 and 1475. It is possible he was a pupil of Hans Holbein the Elder. By 1500, he was a 'free master' and settled in the small town of Seligenstadt, where he bought a house with a pond and opened a workshop for painters and woodcarvers. His first dated painting is probably in Munich, dated 1503.
From about 1510 to 1525 he served in the Rhineland as court painter to the Archbishop of Mainz and to his successor, Albrecht of Brandenburg, (whose face he used for a St. Erasmus in Munich) Archbishop of Magdeburg, later bishop and Elector of Mainhz and from, 1518, Cardinal. Among his other patrons were a canon in Aschaffenburg and the 'preceptor' of the Anthonite monastery at Eisenheim in Alsace. Albrecht of Brandenburg, at first showed tolerance and even sympathy for the Lutheran Reformation but soon became an implacable opponent.
Grünewald left this post possibly because of sympathies either with the Peasants' War, in which Seligenstadt was particularly caught up, or Lutheranism (he had some Lutheran pamphlets and papers at his death). In 1526 he moved to Frankfurt and in the following year to Halle, where he died, probably in 1528, or perhaps 1531.
Works
Only religious works are included in his small surviving corpus, the most famous being the Isenheim Altarpiece, completed in 1515, now in the Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar. Its nine images on twelve panels contain scenes of the Annunciation, Mary bathing Christ, Crucifixion, Entombment of Christ, Resurrection, Temptation of St. Anthony and saints.
As was common in the preceding century, there are different views, depending on the arrangement of the wings; but the three views available here are exceptional. The third view discloses a carved and gilded wood altarpiece in the center. As well as being by far his greatest surviving work, the altarpiece contains most of his surviving painting by area, being 2.65 metres high and over 5 meters wide at its fullest extent.
The Concert of Angels-Nativity panel is known as one of the great interpretive puzzles for critics and art historians. However, it is flanked by easily recognizable representations of the Annunciation and Resurrection. The composition is unique and has caused the efforts of scholars much grief in divining the depths of the meaning therein.
Grunewald's art is rooted in the irrational and mystical spiritual traditions of the medieval northern European art, compared to the cool logic of the Italian Renaissance, yet he produced an expressive 'realism' equaled only in modern times. He produced what he believed were crucial events in salvation history, presenting them symbolically, yet with realism. Grunewald was not adverse to altering Biblical versions of events to heighten the Christian message and his version of Christian truth was highly personal. His introduction of what appears to be Lucifer and other 'fallen' angels or dark spirits only adds to the realism of his work.
His other works are in Germany, except for a small Crucifixion in Washington, D.C. and another in Basel, Switzerland. Around 1510 he was asked to paint four saints in grisaille for the outside of the wings of Dürer's Heller Altarpiece in Frankfurt.
Dürer's work was destroyed by fire and only survives in copies, but fortunately the wings have survived. There are also the late Tauberbischofsheim altarpiece in Karlsruhe, and the Establishment of the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome (1517-1519), Freiburg, Augustinermuseum. A large panel of Saint Erasmus and Saint Maurice in Munich probably dates from 1521-24, and was apparently part of a larger altarpiece project, the rest of which has not survived. Other works are in Munich, Karlsruhe, and Rhineland churches. Altogether four somber and awe-filled Crucifixions survive. The visionary character of his work, with its expressive color and line, is in stark contrast to Albrecht Dürer's works. His paintings are known for their dramatic forms and depiction of light.
Legacy
The Protestant theologian Philipp Melanchthon is one of the few contemporary writers to refer to Grünewald, who is rather puzzlingly described as "moderate" in style, when compared with Dürer and Cranach; which paintings this judgment is based on is uncertain.
By the end of the century, when the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph II embarked on his quest to secure as many Dürer paintings as possible, the Isenheim Altarpiece was already generally believed to be a Dürer. In the late 19th century he was rediscovered, and became something of a cult figure, with the angst-laden expressionism, and absence of any direct classicism. The Isenheim Altarpiece appealed to both German Nationalists and Modernists.
Joris-Karl Huysmans promoted his art enthusiastically in both novels and journalism, rather as Proust did for Vermeer. His apparent sympathies with the peasants in the Peasants' War also brought him admiration from the political left. Elias Canetti wrote his novel Auto-da-Fé surrounded by reproductions of the Isenheim altarpiece stuck to the wall.
The composer Paul Hindemith based his 1938 opera Mathis der Maler on the life of Grünewald during the Peasants' War; scene Six includes a partial re-enactment of some scenes from the Isenheim Altarpiece.
He is commemorated as an artist and quasi-saint by the Lutheran Church on April 6, along with Dürer and Cranach.
Gallery
- Issenheim altarpiece view 2.jpg
Isenheim Altarpiece, 1515.
Madonna and Child, 1517-1519.
Establishment of the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, 1517-1519.
The Mocking of Christ, c. 1503.
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Cuttler, Charles D. (1968) Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. ISBN 0-03-072500-3
- Grunewald, with an essay by J-K Huysmans, Phaidon Press Ltd., Oxford, E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc, New York, 1976, ISBN 0-7148-1751-1, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number, 76-388.
- Hayum Andree, The Eisenheim Altarpiece, God's Medicine and the Painter's Vision, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1989, ISBN 0-691-04070-2.
- Mellinkokoff Ruth, The Devil at Eisenheim, Reflections of a Popular Belief in Grunewald's Altarpiece., University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. 1988, ISBN 0-520-06204-3.
External links
- Grünewald Gallery at MuseumSyndicate. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
- Grünewald paintings at CGFA. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Grünewald, Matthias |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gothart-Nithart, Mathis;Gruenewald, Matthias |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | German Renaissance painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | |
| DATE OF DEATH | 31 August 1528 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Halle (Saale) |
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