Hans Holbein the Younger's Darmstadt
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© COPYRIGHT by Jennifer Wu 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1 For my mother and father. REINVENTING DONOR FAMILY PORTRAITURE: HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER’S DARMSTADT MADONNA BY Jennifer Wu ABSTRACT This thesis examines how Hans Holbein the Younger negotiated the genre of donor family portraiture in the Darmstadt Madonna (1526/1528) by creating a contemporary representation of the patron Jakob Meyer’s family. In early sixteenth- century Basel, reforms within the Catholic Church and the advent of Protestantism contested late medieval concepts of gender, kinship, and piety. I argue that the Darmstadt Madonna addressed this tumultuous context by partially reorienting the focus of traditional devotionally-themed paintings from the holy figures to the donor family. In this transitional work, Holbein offered an innovative and complex representation of the Meyer family members, their interconnections, and their relations with the depicted holy figures. The painting inventively satisfied Jakob Meyer’s ostensible objectives in representing his family’s exemplary devotional practices, his own paternal authority, and the Meyers’ procreative continuity through their daughter, Anna. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply grateful to a number of people who have supported me in writing this thesis. It has been a true privilege to work with Dr. Andrea Pearson, who guided my academic journey at American University from the very beginning, shared her time and wisdom generously, and inspired me to do my best work. I thank Dr. Kim Butler Wingfield for encouraging me to “go big,” trust my instincts, and pursue my ideas. I am greatly appreciative of the wonderful art history faculty and staff, including Dr. Helen Langa, Dr. Juliet Bellow, Dr. Joanne Allen, Dr. Ying-chen Peng, Sarah Osborne Bender, and Jaylynn Saure. Many thanks to Josh Foley, Steve Clark, and Natalie Ennis for their friendship and support. I am very thankful for the camaraderie of my classmates and cohort, which will sustain me for years to come. Most importantly, I thank my husband Adam and our little boy Landon for being a constant source of joy and affection. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................................. iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.............................................................................................. v INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1 TRADITIONS AND TRANSITIONS: DONOR FAMILY PORTRAITURE IN EARLY GERMAN AND NETHERLANDISH PAINTINGS......................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 2 THE DEVOTIONAL MATRIX: EMERGING MODES OF INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE PIETY....................................................... 27 CHAPTER 3 FATHER OF THE BRIDE: PATERNAL AUTHORITY AND PROCREATIONAL ANXIETIES....................................................................... 37 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................... 56 ILLUSTRATIONS........................................................................................................... 59 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................. 61 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Hans Holbein the Younger, Darmstadt Madonna, 1526/28, oil on panel, Schwäbische Hall, Germany: Johanniterkirche........................................ 59 Figure 2: Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Jakob Meyer, 1516, oil on panel, Basel, Switzerland: Kunstmuseum Basel................................................. 59 Figure 3: Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Dorothea Kannengiesser, 1516, oil on panel, Basel, Switzerland: Kunstmuseum Basel.................................. 59 Figure 4: Gerard David, Baptism of Christ (interior), 1502 -1508, oil on panel, Bruges, Belgium: Groeninge Museum..................................................... 59 Figure 5: Gerard David, Baptism of Christ (exterior panel), 1502 -1508, oil on panel, Bruges, Belgium: Groeninge Museum........................................... 59 Figure 6: Hans Holbein the Elder, The Votive Painting of Ulrich Schwarz, 1508, Augsburg, Germany: Staatsgalerie Altdeutsche Meister.......................... 59 Figure 7: Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece, c.1475, oil on panel, Florence, Italy: Galleria degli Uffizi......................................................................... 59 Figure 8: Hans Memling, Moreel Triptych, 1484, oil on panel, Bruges, Belgium: Groeninge Museum................................................................................... 59 Figure 9: Unknown, Epitaph of Klara Löffelhoz, née Münzmeister, 1437, Nuremberg, Germany: St. Sebaldus Church............................................. 59 Figure 10: Lucas Cranach the Elder, Torgau Holy Kinship Altarpiece, 1509, oil on panel, Frankfurt, Germany: Städel Museum............................................. 59 Figure 11: Bernhard Strigel, Conrad Rehlinger and His Children, 1517, oil on panel, Munich, Germany: Alte Pinakothek......................................................... 59 Figure 12: Hans Holbein the Younger, Oberried Altarpiece, c. 1520, unspecified paint on pinewood panel, Freiburg, Germany: Freiburg Cathedral................................................................................................... 59 Figure 13: Hans Baldung Grien, St. James the Greater from Christ and the Apostles, 1519, woodcut, New York, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art..... 59 Figure 14: Gregor Erhart, schutzmantelmadonna sculpture for the Kaishem Altarpiece, 1502-1505, (now lost)............................................................ 59 Figure 15: Hans Holbein the Elder, Single-sheet schutzmantelmadonna woodcut from Kaishem, 1502-1505, Munich, Germany, Alte Pinakothek...................... 59 v Figure 16: Rogier van der Weyden, Crucifixion, c. 1445, Vienna, Austria: Kunsthistorisches Museum....................................................................... 59 Figure 17: Hans Holbein the Younger, Darmstadt Madonna, detail of Magdalene kneeling, oil on panel, 1526/28, Schwäbische Hall, Germany: Johanniterkirche........................................................................................ 60 Figure 18: A. Werthmann, detailed drawing of the Darmstadt Madonna, 1871....... 60 Figure 19: Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition, oil on panel, c. 1435, Madrid, Spain: Museum del Prado.................................................................................... 60 Figure 20: Hans Holbein the Younger, Darmstadt Madonna, infrared reflectogram detail of the Meyer women....................................................................... 60 Figure 21: Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Anna Meyer, chalk on paper, 1526, Basel, Germany: Kunstmuseum................................................................ 60 Figure 22: Rogier van der Weyden Miraflores Altarpiece, oil on panel, 1445, Berlin, Germany: Berlin Gemäldegalerie............................................................. 60 Figure 23: Tilman Riemenschneider, sculpture of Anna Selbdritt, wood, c. 1500, Würzburg, Germany: Mainfränkisches Museum...................................... 60 Figure 24: Attributed to Matthäus Gutrecht the Younger, Holy Kinship, oil on panel, c. 1500-1510, Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art................ 60 Figure 25: Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Dorothea Meyer née Kannengiesser, chalk on paper, 1526, Basel, Germany: Basel Kunstmuseum........................................................................................... 60 Figure 26: Bernhard Strigel, Portrait of Maximilian I and His Family, oil on panel, 1516, Vienna, Austria: Kunsthistorisches Museum................................. 60 Figure 27: Hans Burgkmair, Portrait of Hans Schellenberger, oil on panel, 1505, Cologne, Germany: Wallraf-Richartz Museum....................................... 60 Figure 28: Hans Burgkmair, Portrait of Barbara Schellenberger, oil on panel, 1507, Cologne, Germany: Wallraf-Richartz Museum....................................... 60 Figure 29: Hans Holbein the Younger, Study of Sir Thomas More Family Portrait, pen and brush on chalk, 1527, Basel, Switzerland: Kunstmuseum Basel.......................................................................................................... 60 vi Figure 30: Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of the Artist’s Wife and their Two Elder Children, mixed techniques on paper, mounted on wood, 1528- 1529, Basel, Switzerland: Kunstmuseum Basel....................................... 60 vii INTRODUCTION In the nineteenth century, Hans Holbein the Younger’s Darmstadt Madonna (1526/28), also known as the Meyer Madonna, (fig. 1) achieved cultural prominence with the public audience through a major controversy on connoisseurship that shaped art historical theory and influenced German Romanticism.1 This dispute was centered on the authorship of two versions of the Meyer Madonna, one known as the “Dresden” Madonna and the other as the “Darmstadt.” Throughout the early part of the century, the Dresden version stimulated a plethora of popular literature as an ideal painting of the German Renaissance. These writings widely compared the Dresden Meyer Madonna with Raphael’s Sistine Madonna,