German Renaissance painter (c.1470-1528)
Grunewald's
John the Evangelist
. This work was long thought to be a self-portrait.
Matthias Grunewald
(
c.
1470
? 31 August 1528) was a
German Renaissance
painter of religious works who ignored Renaissance
classicism
to continue the style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century. His first name is also given as
Mathis
and his surname as
Gothart
or
Neithardt
.
Only ten paintings?including several
polyptychs
?and thirty-five drawings survive, all religious, although many others were
lost at sea
on their way to Sweden as war booty. He was obscure until the late nineteenth century, when many of his paintings were attributed to
Albrecht Durer
, who is now seen as his stylistic antithesis. His largest and most famous work is the
Isenheim Altarpiece
created
c.
1512 to 1516.
Life
[
edit
]
Second state of the
Isenheim Altarpiece
, Colmar,
Unterlinden Museum
He was recognised in his own lifetime, as shown by his commissions, yet the details of his life are unusually unclear for a painter of his significance at this date. The first source to sketch his biography comes from the German art historian
Joachim von Sandrart
, who describes him around 1505 working on the exterior decoration of an altarpiece by
Albrecht Durer
in
Frankfurt
. This is the sort of work typically performed by apprentices and therefore an estimate of his age can be reached, suggesting he was born in 1475.
[1]
Sandrart records that Grunewald had as an apprentice the painter
Hans Grimmer
, who became famous in his time, but most of whose works were
lost
in the
Thirty Years' War
.
[2]
Sandrart describes Grunewald as leading a withdrawn and melancholy life, and marrying unhappily.
[3]
More recent investigations have provided further information on Grunewald's life. In 1511 he became court artist of
Uriel von Gemmingen
,
Archbishop of Mainz
, and he also worked for the next archbishop,
Albert of Brandenburg
. About 1510 he received a commission from the Frankfurt merchant Jacob Heller
[4]
and settled in nearby
Frankfurt
where records indicate he bought a house and married Anna, a converted
Jew
, then probably aged 18. The marriage was not happy and in 1523 she was institutionalised with what is variously described as mental illness and
demonic possession
.
[5]
From 1512 to 1514 or 1515 he worked on the Isenheim altarpiece, apparently in partnership with another Mathis, variously surnamed Nithart, Neithart, von Wurzburg (after his
place of birth
), or Gothardt. Grunewald seems to have left Isenheim in a hurry, returning to Frankfurt, and his subsequent poverty suggests he was not fully paid for the altarpiece. In 1527 he entered the services of the wealthy and noble von Erbach family, apparently with a child (whether his own or adopted, is unclear). He most probably died in 1532, although sources vary.
[6]
There has been considerable uncertainty about the details of his life. In 1938 Walter Karl Zulch published the theory that Grunewald and his partner Nithart/Gothardt were the same person; this Nithart/Gothardt was a painter, engineer, and "water artist" born in Wurzburg in the 1460s or maybe 1470s and probably dying in 1528. This theory is now generally discredited, although more recent historians believe Nithart/Gothardt may have pretended to be Grunewald for business reasons.
[7]
Works
[
edit
]
Sketch for a lost
Saint Dorothy
(Berlin). The
J. Paul Getty Museum
purchased a
forged
painting based on this drawing.
Only religious works are included in his small surviving corpus, the most famous being the
Isenheim Altarpiece
, completed 1515, now in the
Musee d'Unterlinden
,
Colmar
. Its nine images on twelve panels are arranged on double wings to present three views (rather than just the open and closed states of
triptych
altarpieces
), according to the season or occasion. The first view with the outer wings closed shows a Crucifixion flanked by
Saint Sebastien
and
Saint Anthony
, with a
predella
showing the entombment. When the first set of wings is opened, the
Annunciation
,
Angelic Concert
(sometimes interpreted as the
Birth of
Ecclesia
)
Mary bathing Christ
, and
Resurrection
are displayed. The third view discloses a carved and gilded wood altarpiece by
Nikolaus Hagenauer
, flanked by the
Temptation of St. Anthony
and
Anthony's visit to
Saint Paul
. As well as being by far his greatest surviving work, the altarpiece contains most of his surviving painting by surface area, being 2.65 metres high and over 5 metres wide at its fullest extent.
His other works are in Germany, except for a small Crucifixion in
Washington
and another in
Basel
, Switzerland. Around 1510 he was asked to paint four saints in
grisaille
for the outside of the wings of
Albrecht Durer
's
Heller Altarpiece
in Frankfurt. Durer's work was destroyed by fire and survives only in copies, but the wings have survived, one pair of saints being displayed in
Frankfurt's
Municipal Art Gallery
and the other in
Karlsruhe
's,
Staatliche Kunsthalle
. There are also the late
Tauberbischofsheim altarpiece
in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, and the
Establishment of the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome
(1517?1519),
Augustiner Museum
,
Freiburg
. A large panel of
Saint Erasmus
and
Saint Maurice
in
Munich
probably dates from 1521 to 1524, and was apparently part of a larger altarpiece project, the rest of which has not survived. Other works are in Munich, Karlsruhe,
Aschaffenburg
and
Stuppach
(
:de
). Altogether four somber and awe-filled
Crucifixions
survive. The visionary character of his work, with its expressive colour and line, is in stark contrast to Durer's works. His paintings are known for their dramatic forms, vivid colors, and depiction of light.
Reputation
[
edit
]
Grunewald in a 19th-century depiction on the
Frankoniabrunnen
, by
Ferdinand von Miller
(1824), now in front of the
Wurzburg Residence
The
Lutheran
theologian
Philipp Melanchthon
is one of the few contemporary writers to refer to Grunewald, who is rather puzzlingly described as "moderate" in style, when compared with Durer and Cranach; what paintings this judgement 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 Durer paintings as possible, the Isenheim Altarpiece was already generally believed to be a Durer.
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?of the Isenheim Altarpiece appealing to both German
Nationalists
and
Modernists
.
Joris-Karl Huysmans
promoted his art enthusiastically in both novels and journalism, rather as
Proust
did that of
Vermeer
. His apparent sympathies with the peasants in the Peasants' War also brought him admiration from the political left.
The composer
Paul Hindemith
based his 1938 opera
Mathis der Maler
on the life of Grunewald during the
German Peasants' War
; scene Six includes a partial re-enactment of some scenes from the Isenheim Altarpiece.
Elias Canetti
wrote his novel
Auto-da-Fe
surrounded by reproductions of the Isenheim altarpiece stuck to the wall.
German author
W. G. Sebald
traces the life story of Grunewald in his first literary work,
After Nature
. This book-length prose-poem uses the preoccupations of Grunewald and especially his creation of the
Isenheim Altarpiece
to communicate an intensely apocalyptic vision of a world that has abandoned nature.
[8]
The Isenheim Altarpiece also features in the last chapter of Sebald's novel
The Emigrants
, in which the painter Max Ferber describes his intuition of the extreme power of pain after seeing Grunewald's work.
Veneration
[
edit
]
He is commemorated as an artist and saint by the
Lutheran Church
on April 6, along with Durer and Cranach.
Gallery
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Siglind Bruhn,
The temptation of Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler as a spiritual testimony
. Pendragon: 1998. pp. 25?27
- ^
Joachim von Sandrart.
"
Teutsche Academie
, TA 1675, II, Buch 3 (niederl. u. dt. Kunstler), S. 231"
. Sandrart.net
. Retrieved
2012-11-28
.
- ^
Joachim von Sandrart.
"
Teutsche Academie
, TA 1675, II, Buch 3 (niederl. u. dt. Kunstler), S. 237"
. Sandrart.net
. Retrieved
2012-11-28
.
- ^
"Matthias Grunewald"
. Retrieved
22 July
2022
.
- ^
Siglind Bruhn,
The temptation of Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler as a spiritual testimony
. Pendragon: 1998. pp. 28?29
- ^
Siglind Bruhn,
The temptation of Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler as a spiritual testimony
. Pendragon: 1998. pp. 29?31
- ^
Siglind Bruhn,
The temptation of Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler as a spiritual testimony
. Pendragon: 1998. pp. 34?35
- ^
Eva Hoffman (2002-09-22).
"Curiosity and Catastrophe"
.
New York Times
. Retrieved
2012-11-28
.
References
[
edit
]
- Grunewald, Matthias
.
In:
Meyers Konversations-Lexikon
.
4th edition. Volume 7, Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, Leipzig/Vienna 1885?1892, p. 875.
- Andersson, Christiane.
"Grunewald, Matthias."
In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, (accessed January 30, 2012; subscription required).
- Bautz, Friedrich Wilhelm (1990). "Matthias Grunewald". In Bautz, Friedrich Wilhelm (ed.).
Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL)
(in German). Vol. 2. Hamm: Bautz. cols. 367?369.
ISBN
3-88309-032-8
.
- Bryda, Gregory. (2023)
The Trees of the Cross: Wood as Subject and Medium in Late Medieval Germany
. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 78?129.
- Cuttler, Charles D. (1968)
Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel
. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
ISBN
0-03-072500-3
- Ladendorf, Heinz (1966),
"Grunewald, Matthias"
,
Neue Deutsche Biographie
(in German), vol. 7, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 191?197
- Woltmann, Alfred
(1879), "
Matthias Grunewald
",
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
(in German), vol. 10, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 52?53
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Paintings by Matthias Grunewald
at Wikimedia Commons
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