DOCSLIB.ORG

The Master of the Mediaş Altarpiece Painting: The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Master of the Mediaş Altarpiece Painting: The Résumé. Le retable de chœur de l'église Sainte-Marguerite de Mediaş, avec ses huit scènes du cycle de la Passion du Sauveur peintes à l’extérieur de ses ailes, est THE MASTER OF THE MEDIAŞ considéré comme un ensemble d'importance ALTARPIECE PAINTING: primordiale de l'art médiéval de THE MONOGRAMMIST MSP – THE Transylvanie, et c’est l'une des études de cas du projet de recherche du consortium ARTISTIC CONTEXT AND HIS WORKSHOP composé par plusieurs institutions de recherche de Bucarest et de Cluj, contexte dans lequel nous avons eu l'occasion de passer en revue les informations bibliographiques existantes, qui serront corroborées avec les résultats des recherches multidisciplinaires envisagées. Keywords: Mediaş, Transylvania, Dana Jenei Nuremberg, Vienna, altarpiece, painting, engravings. Wappenprozession, a typical decorative The retable from the choir of program, which here includes wooden St. Margaret’s Church in Mediaş, with its shields at the intersection of the ribs that, Passion Cycle of eight scenes preserved on although evidently repainted, permit the the outer faces of the wings, is considered identification of the heraldry, the most an ensemble of prime importance for the important arms being those of Matthias late medieval art in Transylvania, and is Corvinus from 1487, confirming Soterius’ 2 one of the case studies of the consortium information . Similar wooden painted research project developed by several escutcheons, but illustrating the Credo research institutions from Bucharest and theme, decorate the choir networked-vault Cluj-Napoca. It is in this context that the and reflect the assimilation of heraldry present study reviews existing work on the within late medieval religious monumental altarpiece that in due course will be art3. reinforced by the results of the In the same late phase of construction, multidisciplinary investigations envisaged1. the main altarpiece of the church was created as a Gothic polyptych retable-type, * a Wandelaltar with “hidden architecture”, The church was decorated during being one of the few pieces of late fifteenth several phases of construction, the last one century date preserved in situ and completed in 1488, during the reign of conceived in relation to the space of the Matthias Corvinus (1458–1490), as choir for which it was created, being specified by Georgius Soterius in his connected with the mensa4. It has an Historia Transilvaniae, at the beginning of elongated crowning formed by three the eighteenth century. In addition to the canopies for statues decorated by phinials, older artistic components from c. 1420, that fleurons and coat of arms, a central shrine are themselves superimposed over earlier adorned with a frieze of gilded Gothic elements, fragmentary mural scenes from tracery at the top, fixed and mobile panels, the end of the fifteenth century are and a shrine-type predella that shelters preserved, while the vaults of the nave and another smaller supporting plinth, deriving the southern aisle were embellished with a from a different later piece. This hybrid REV. ROUM. HIST. ART, Série BEAUX-ARTS, TOME LVI, P. 3–18, BUCAREST, 2019 3 conformation, still preserved to this day, Gisela Richter discerned four scenes from was noted by Victor Roth, the first the Life of the Virgin: the Annunciation, researcher to analyse the piece at the the Visitation, the Nativity and the beginning of the twentieth century5. Adoration of the Magi. In the only The altar was the first of its kind to be photography of the altar preserved before restored in Gisela Richter’s workshop in those interventions which radically Brașov in 1972–1973, from whose archive, modified the feast part, one can see the preserved today in Sibiu (Begegnungs- und dividing horizontal line of the figurative Kulturzentrum Friedrich Teutsch), comes a part of the representation and the upper photograph showing the condition of the part-gilded background, the horizon line9. piece before the interventions, with the Only landscape forms are discernible in the transformed inner faces of the wings, and a case of the first panel, but in the second, the later statuary group representing the shape of a roof visible is indeed in keeping Crucifixion, replacing the original statues with that of the stable in the Nativity scene. of the central shrine. Their impression is No contours of the characters are visible to preserved on the gilded background, and confirm the accurate determination of would most likely have consisted of the scenes, but further investigation may well Virgin Mary with the Child between two verify this suggestion. A major merit of the female saints, one of whom would certainly restoration of 1972–1973 was that it have been Margaret, the spiritual patron of brought to light the figures of the two the church. At that stage of the restoration, donors on the wings of the predella10. the original four niches of the predella were The rear of the altarpiece, artfully also reconstructed, the golden background painted, preserves in its entirety the vegetal imitating a curtain with a fold behind each ensemble of Grünerankmalerei type, amongst figure, on which could be discerned which the Master of Mediaş has hidden his impressions of the four statues that may have MSP monogram11. represented the four evangelists or the four The Passion Cycle that decorates the doctors of the Catholic Church6. eight panels of the week part presents in the In 1984, statues were installed in the upper register The Arrest, the Flagellation, rebuilt niches, but removed within the last the Crowning with Thorns, the Ecce homo decade, when the latest restoration work and, in the lower register, the Carrying of brought this part of the altarpiece back to the the Cross, Rast Christi, the Crucifixion and form of the first recording, including the the Resurrection. small later sixteenth-century predella, taken The first scholars to discuss the paintings from a secondary altarpiece in the church7. indicated Martin Schongauer’s engravings as The restoration of the 1970s also removed graphic sources of the figurative scenes, the colonettes attached in the Baroque era opinion advanced by Victor Roth in 1907, and created the new look of the outer part of taken up by Virgil Vătăşianu in 1959, and the panels, each one being centrally fitted further developed by Otto Folberth in the with one of the four symbols of the monograph he devoted to the polyptych in evangelists, carved in relief, in a quadrilobe 197312. In 1979, however, Dietmar Priebisch medallion8. The decorative painted pointed out that seven of the eight panels of background imitates a brocade cloth with the altar are actually based on the engravings diagonal lines that intersect and form of Israhel van Meckenem, which were either rhombs, adorned alternately with lilies, other copied in detail, interpreted, modified or stylised flowers, vases, and eagles around St. completed with elements taken from other John the Evangelist’s symbol. works. The Crucifixion scene was created by Victor Roth showed that initially the the Master of the Mediaş Altarpiece, by intrados of the mobile panels had been assembling details taken from various 13 4 decorated with flat carved reliefs, in which sources . * literally transposes the design (B VI.207.11), representing the Kiss of Judas Israhel van Meckenem of Bocholt (c. at its centre. In the lower left, Peter, the 1445–1503) was one of the most prolific first of the three apostles who witnessed German engravers of the late fifteenth Jesus’s prayer in the Garden of century, and around 600 of his engravings Gethsemane, raises the sword against survive14. His oeuvre represents Gothic Malchus, while in the distance, Jacob and Mannerism par excellence, characterized by John the Evangelist are shown leaving the stylized and conventional figures, whose enclosure hastily by a side-gate. elegant and studied postures, undermine the The Flagellation copies Van Meckenem’s drama of the Passion Cycle scenes. engraving in the smallest details (B According to Geisberg, the first scholar to VI.207.13), including the secondary scene devote serious attention to his life and work, with Jesus before Herod. Van Meckenem, a goldsmith by training, The Crowning with Thorns, with the worked before 1470 with the Master of the Mocking of Christ in the depth plane (B Berlin Passion and with Master E. S. in the Konstanz area, who influenced him in VI.207.15) is the first example of a Van technique and style. Van Meckenem Meckenem composition which has been produced many copies after their work, altered, here by the substitution of a soldier “retouching” them, and even intervening in kneeling in front of Christ, offering him a certain cases directly onto the plates. In the reed as a sceptre with one hand, and holding his hat in the other, a character taken from an middle of his activity, he copied Martin 17 Schongauer’s works and, at its end, he was engraving by Martin Schongauer . inspired by the compositions of the In the Ecce homo scene, Christ is Housebook Master, Hans Holbein the Elder, presented to the agitated crowd that clamours and Albrecht Dürer. for him to be crucified. In the distance, under His engravings served as the models for the arch of the back of the pretorium, is several Gothic artworks such as the altar represented the apocryphal episode of painted by the Meister des Jahreszahlen in Claudia Procula, Pilate’s wife, who asks him 1486 (Warszawa, Muzeum Narodowe), an to spare Jesus’s life; the scene also copies 18 artist trained in Nuremberg and known to Van Meckenem’s engraving (B VI.207.16) . have worked in collaboration with Sebald The Carrying of the Cross was the most Pleydenwurff at Eisleben in 147115. His impressing image for the religious sensitivity work has been already noticed in connexion of the Late Western Middle Ages, referring with the Mediaş altarpiece16.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Cidade Real E Ideal: a Paisagem De Nuremberg Na Crônica De Hartmann Schedel E a Sua Concepção De Espaço Urbano
    A CIDADE REAL E IDEAL: A PAISAGEM DE NUREMBERG NA CRÔNICA DE HARTMANN SCHEDEL E A SUA CONCEPÇÃO DE ESPAÇO URBANO LA CIUDAD REAL E IDEAL: EL PAISAJE DE NUREMBERG EN LA CRÓNICA DE HARTMANN SCHEDEL Y SU CONCEPCIÓN DE ESPACIO URBANO THE REAL AND IDEAL CITY: THE NUREMBERG LANDSCAPE IN HARTMANN SCHEDEL’S CHRONICLE AND ITS CONCEPTION OF URBAN SPACE Vinícius de Freitas Morais Universidade Federal Fluminense [email protected] Fecha de recepción: 11/10/2016 Fecha de aprobación: 01/06/2017 Resumo A partir de uma concepção de espaço confeccionada pela elite local de Nuremberg, buscava-se, através de um projeto tipográfico promover uma imagem ideal para esta cidade. Hartmann Schedel, um importante humanista local em conjunto com o impressor Anton Koberger e os gravadores Micheal Wolgemut e Wilhem Pleydenwurff produziram duas edições do imponente incunábulo comumente conhecido pela historiografia como A Crônica de Nuremberg. Este presente artigo tenta, a partir de uma comparação entre fonte escrita e imagética, elucidar esta apologia de Nuremberg como um importante polo econômico para a região da Baviera. Palavras-chave Cidade – Incunábulo - humanismo Resumen A partir de una concepción de espacio confeccionada por la élite local de Nuremberg, se buscaba, a través de un proyecto tipográfico promover una imagen ideal para esta ciudad. Hartmann Schedel, un importante humanista local, en conjunto con el impresor Anton Koberger y los grabadores Micheal Wolgemut y Wilhem Pleydenwurff, produjeron dos ediciones del imponente incunable comúnmente conocido por la historiografía como La Crónica de Nuremberg. Este presente artículo intenta, a partir de una comparación entre fuente escrita e imagética, elucidar esta apología de Nuremberg como un importante polo económico para la región de Baviera.
    [Show full text]
  • HNA April 11 Cover-Final.Indd
    historians of netherlandish art NEWSLETTER AND REVIEW OF BOOKS Dedicated to the Study of Netherlandish, German and Franco-Flemish Art and Architecture, 1350-1750 Vol. 28, No. 1 April 2011 Jacob Cats (1741-1799), Summer Landscape, pen and brown ink and wash, 270-359 mm. Hamburger Kunsthalle. Photo: Christoph Irrgang Exhibited in “Bruegel, Rembrandt & Co. Niederländische Zeichnungen 1450-1850”, June 17 – September 11, 2011, on the occasion of the publication of Annemarie Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen 1450-1850, Kupferstichkabinett der Hamburger Kunsthalle (see under New Titles) HNA Newsletter, Vol. 23, No. 2, November 2006 1 historians of netherlandish art 23 S. Adelaide Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904 Telephone/Fax: (732) 937-8394 E-Mail: [email protected] www.hnanews.org Historians of Netherlandish Art Offi cers President - Stephanie Dickey (2009–2013) Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art Queen’s University Kingston ON K7L 3N6 Canada Vice-President - Amy Golahny (2009–2013) Lycoming College Williamsport, PA 17701 Treasurer - Rebecca Brienen University of Miami Art & Art History Department PO Box 248106 Coral Gables FL 33124-2618 European Treasurer and Liaison - Fiona Healy Seminarstrasse 7 D-55127 Mainz Germany Board Members Contents Dagmar Eichberger (2008–2012) HNA News ............................................................................1 Wayne Franits (2009–2013) Matt Kavaler (2008–2012) Personalia ............................................................................... 2 Henry Luttikhuizen (2009 and 2010–2014) Exhibitions
    [Show full text]
  • November 2012 Newsletter
    historians of netherlandish art NEWSLETTER AND REVIEW OF BOOKS Dedicated to the Study of Netherlandish, German and Franco-Flemish Art and Architecture, 1350-1750 Vol. 29, No. 2 November 2012 Jan and/or Hubert van Eyck, The Three Marys at the Tomb, c. 1425-1435. Oil on panel. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. In the exhibition “De weg naar Van Eyck,” Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, October 13, 2012 – February 10, 2013. HNA Newsletter, Vol. 23, No. 2, November 2006 1 historians of netherlandish art 23 S. Adelaide Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904 Telephone: (732) 937-8394 E-Mail: [email protected] www.hnanews.org Historians of Netherlandish Art Offi cers President - Stephanie Dickey (2009–2013) Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art Queen’s University Kingston ON K7L 3N6 Canada Vice-President - Amy Golahny (2009–2013) Lycoming College Williamsport, PA 17701 Treasurer - Rebecca Brienen University of Miami Art & Art History Department PO Box 248106 Coral Gables FL 33124-2618 European Treasurer and Liaison - Fiona Healy Seminarstrasse 7 D-55127 Mainz Germany Contents Board Members President's Message .............................................................. 1 Paul Crenshaw (2012-2016) HNA News ............................................................................1 Wayne Franits (2009-2013) Personalia ............................................................................... 2 Martha Hollander (2012-2016) Exhibitions ............................................................................ 3 Henry Luttikhuizen (2009 and 2010-2014)
    [Show full text]
  • A Moral Persuasion: the Nazi-Looted Art Recoveries of the Max Stern Art Restitution Project, 2002-2013
    A MORAL PERSUASION: THE NAZI-LOOTED ART RECOVERIES OF THE MAX STERN ART RESTITUTION PROJECT, 2002-2013 by Sara J. Angel A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of PhD Graduate Department Art University of Toronto © Copyright by Sara J. Angel 2017 PhD Abstract A Moral Persuasion: The Nazi-Looted Art Recoveries of the Max Stern Art Restitution Project, 2002-2013 Sara J. Angel Department of Art University of Toronto Year of convocation: 2017 In 1937, under Gestapo orders, the Nazis forced the Düsseldorf-born Jewish art dealer Max Stern to sell over 200 of his family’s paintings at Lempertz, a Cologne-based auction house. Stern kept this fact a secret for the rest of his life despite escaping from Europe to Montreal, Canada, where he settled and became one of the country’s leading art dealers by the mid-twentieth century. A decade after Stern’s death in 1987, his heirs (McGill University, Concordia University, and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) discovered the details of what he had lost, and how in the post-war years Stern travelled to Germany in an attempt to reclaim his art. To honour the memory of Max Stern, they founded the Montreal- based Max Stern Art Restitution Project in 2002, dedicated to regaining ownership of his art and to the study of Holocaust-era plunder and recovery. This dissertation presents the histories and circumstances of the first twelve paintings claimed by the organization in the context of the broader history of Nazi-looted art between 1933-2012. Organized into thematic chapters, the dissertation documents how, by following a carefully devised approach of moral persuasion that combines practices like publicity, provenance studies, law enforcement, and legal precedents, the Max Stern Art Restitution Project set international precedents in the return of cultural property.
    [Show full text]
  • National Inventory of Continental European Paintings Report NIRP in the North – York City Art Gallery Dr
    National Inventory of Continental European Paintings Report NIRP in the North – York City Art Gallery Dr. Magdalena Łanuszka During my research for the NICE Paintings project in York I have completed the examination of 231 paintings dating from the 15th century to ca. 1900. Most of them have not been researched for the past 40 years and many of them have never been researched at all. The collection was last catalogued in the 1960s and 1970s. As a result of the present research many new aspects of the paintings have been described; new datings, attributions and interpretations have been proposed. Apart from collecting up‐to‐date literature references (and conclusions on the paintings proposed by various scholars in their publications in recent decades), some brand new hypotheses have been suggested. The following report contains the conclusions which are the result of my own study on the paintings and are here proposed for the first time. I would like to thank Mr. Andrew Greg, Director of the NIRP project, for his kind support of my work and a lot of help in editing this report. 1. Attributions YORAG 752 Flagellation of Saint Barbara Attributed in the past to the so‐called Wiener Schottenmeister the Younger (Master of the Schotten Altar II), who led a workshop that created the retable to the Schottenstift in Vienna in 1469 (dated, but by some scholars assumed it had been produced between 1469 and about 1475) of which 21 panels survived (now partly in Schottenstift Museum and partly in Belvedere 1 in Vienna). The Schotten Altar Master was clearly influenced by Nurembergian painting, and he knew Netherlandish art as well.
    [Show full text]
  • The Passion, Death and Ressurection Murals Painted Inside St. Matthias Church in Râșnov (1500)
    THE PASSION, DEATH AND RESSURECTION MURALS PAINTED INSIDE ST. MATTHIAS CHURCH IN RÂȘNOV (1500) de DANA JENEI Résumé L’église paroissiale Saint-Matthias de Râșnov, une basilique romane à trois nefs et tour-clocher à l’ouest, a été construite au XIIIe siècle et modifiée successivement jusq'à la fin du XVe siècle, lorsque l’encadrement de la sacristie, avec la profilature du début de la Renaissance a été installé. À l’intérieur, seulement l’ensemble peint en 1500 sur le mur nord du chœur, représentant le Cycle de la Passion, Mort et Résurrection du Christ est visible maintenant. Des traces de couleur à l’extérieur ont été mentionnées par Walter Horwath en 1928, Virgil Vătăşianu en 1959 et Vasile Drăguț en 1965, l’image très endommagée représentant Jésus de l'Eucharistie étant découverte sur le nord de l’abside. Au-dessus, dans la section où le plâtre a été enlevé, un fragment de cadre d'une peinture plus tardive a apparu aussi, tandis que l'an 1594 est écrit sur la couche supérieure. Le Cycle Pascal, comme le motif dévotionnel Vir dolorum peint avant, est lié à la présence du Saint-Sacrement dans la niche du tabernacle (remplacé en 1753 par un ex-voto), étant intégré dans le contexte plus large de la préparation liturgique, évoquant à la fois les pratiques et les croyances du courant spirituel Devotio moderna. Dix images ont été peintes symétriquement sur le mur des deux baies du chœur dont la succession n’a pas été respectée pour mettre en évidence la Cène et la Crucifixion, situés dans les tympans.
    [Show full text]
  • Albrecht Dürer's “Oblong Passion”
    ALBRECHT DÜRER’S “OBLONG PASSION”: THE IMPACT OF THE REFORMATION AND NETHERLANDISH ART ON THE ARTIST’S LATE DRAWINGS by DANA E. COWEN Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Catherine B. Scallen Department of Art History and Art CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY January, 2014 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Dana E. Cowen ______________________________________________________ Doctor of Philosophy candidate for the ________________________________degree *. Catherine B. Scallen (signed)_______________________________________________ (chair of the committee) Jon L. Seydl ________________________________________________ Holly Witchey ________________________________________________ Erin Benay ________________________________________________ 4 November 2013 (date) _______________________ *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Nancy and John, and to my brother Mark Table of Contents Table of Contents i List of Figures ii Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 Chapter One 23 Albrecht Dürer in the Netherlands, 1520 to 1521: The Diary and Works of Art Chapter 2 58 Dürer and the Passion: The “Oblong Passion” and its Predecessors Chapter 3 111 Dürer, Luther, and the Reformation: The Meaning of the “Oblong Passion” Chapter 4 160 The “Oblong Passion” Drawings and their Relationship to Netherlandish Art Conclusion 198 Appendix 1: 204 Martin Luther. “Ein Sermon von der Betrachtung des heiligen Leidens Christi” (A Sermon on Meditating on the Holy Passion of Christ), 1519 Appendix 2: 209 The Adoration of the Magi Appendix 3: 219 The Progression of Scholarship on Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Netherlandish and German Drawings from the Late Nineteenth-Century to the Present Figures 233 Bibliography 372 i List of Figures Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • On Why Hans Süss Von Kulmbach ‘Must’ Have Portrayed John Boner
    Just what is it that makes identification-portrait hypotheses so appealing? On why Hans Süss von Kulmbach ‘must’ have portrayed John Boner Masza Sitek The alleged apprentice of Albrecht Dürer, Hans Süss von Kulmbach (d. 1522), ‘must’ have painted at least one crypto-portrait of the influential Krakow banker John Boner (d. 1523), who went down in history as ‘the Polish Jacob Fugger.’ Such an idea recurs in art-history scholarship devoted to Kulmbach’s relations to Poland. What varies is the selection of figures in his religious pictures claimed to represent Boner. This paper is to examine two of these theories, which refer not solely to the lifelikeness of random physiognomies but also to historical and iconographical arguments.1 In the 1510s Kulmbach gained a large share of the Nuremberg art market as painter of altarpieces, portraitist and designer of glass windows. A number of his panel paintings found their way to Krakow but the circumstances of their commission are not elucidated by any written record. Only one of the concerned works contains a coat of arm – the one of the Boners (Figure 1).* This composition is part of a cycle of scenes from the life of St Catherina of Alexandria, dated 1514–5, originally comprising eight panels, two of which were lost in the 1939–45 war I would like take the opportunity to thank the organizers of the inspiring conference Reconsidering the Origins of Portraiture, Prof. Marek Walczak and Dr Mateusz Grzęda. I owe a debt of gratitude to all those who supported me with their expert knowledge and insightful comments.
    [Show full text]
  • Albrecht Dürer
    Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer HIS ART IN CONTEXT Edited by Jochen Sander With contributions by Katrin Dyballa, Erik Eising, Christian Feest, Karoline Feulner, Stephan Kemperdick, Hans Körner, Christof Metzger, Andrew Morrall, Ulrich Pfisterer, Almut Pollmer-Schmidt, Jochen Sander, Johann Schulz, Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Jeroen Stumpel, and Berit Wagner PRESTEL Munich · London · New York SPONSORED BY WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROM MARKETING AND MEDIA PARTNERS MOBILITY PARTNER Lenders AMSTERDAM, Rijksmuseum LISBON, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga BAMBERG, Staatsbibliothek Bamberg LONDON, The British Museum BASEL, Historisches Museum Basel The National Gallery Kunstmuseum Basel Royal Collection Trust/HM Queen Elizabeth II BERLIN, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum LOS ANGELES, The J. Paul Getty Museum Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie LYON, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett MADRID, Museo Nacional del Prado Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung Real Bibliotheca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst Patrimonio Nacional BRAUNSCHWEIG, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum MAINZ, Landesmuseum Mainz BREMEN, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen MALMAISON, Musée National du Château de Malmaison CHATSWORTH, Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement MUNICH, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München COBURG, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek COLOGNE, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud Staatliche
    [Show full text]
  • The Wittelsbach Court in Munich: History and Authority in the Visual Arts (1460-1508)
    UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW FACULTY OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF ART PHD Andreas M. Dahlem The Wittelsbach Court in Munich: History and Authority in the Visual Arts (1460-1508) May 2009 © Andreas Dahlem 2009 2 Abstract The culture at the ducal court of Sigmund and Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich was characterised by a coexistence of traditional as well as novel concepts and interests, which were expressed in the dukes’ artistic, architectural and literary patronage. Apart from examining the orthodox means of aristocratic self-aggrandizement like jousting, clothes, decorative arts and precious, exotic objects, this thesis discusses ‘innovative’ tendencies like the forward-looking application of retrospective motifs, historicising styles as well as the dukes’ genealogy, the ducal government’s imprint on the territory and the aesthetic qualities of the landscape. The study of a selection of buildings and works of art with the methodologies of the stylistic analysis, iconology and social history emphasises the conceptual relations between the ducal court’s various cultural products, which were conceived as ensembles and complemented each other. The elucidation of their meanings to contemporaries and the patrons’ intentions is substantiated with statements in contemporary written sources like travel reports, chronicles and the ducal court’s literary commissions. The principal chapters explore three thematic strands that are idiosyncratic for the culture at the court of Sigmund and Albrecht IV between 1460 and 1508, because they were consistently realised in several buildings and works of art. The first chapter provides an overview of the history of Munich, the Duchy of Bavaria and the Wittelsbach dynasty. The second chapter explores the princely self-conception at the threshold of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era by considering the application of clothes, decorative arts, knightly skills, exotic animals, and monuments of the patrons’ erudition as means of social communication and differentiation.
    [Show full text]
  • A Case Study Determining the Nature and Extent of Lucas Cranach the Elder’S Involvement in His Industrious Workshop Using Image Processing
    ‘Cranach Inc.’ A Case Study Determining the Nature and Extent of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Involvement in his Industrious Workshop using Image Processing Ruth Lubashevsky Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Dept. of the Arts, P.O.B 653, 84105, Beer-Sheva, Israel ABSTRACT Lucas Cranach the Elder (LCE) (1472-1553) maintained an organized and highly efficient workshop, served as councilor in Wittenberg from 1519-1544, established a publishing house in 1520, held a pharmacy from 1520, and served as mayor of Wittenberg from 1537 to 1543. He was known as the ‘swiftest of painters,’ resulting in 1,000 surviving panel paintings, canvas paintings, drawings, and etchings in a career that spanned 53 years (1500-1553). Facing this astoundingly enormous oeuvre, the question that this paper seeks to answer is unavoidable: what was LCE’s involvement in this oeuvre, which most is still attributed to him, in light of his many other time-consuming engagements? To answer this question, this paper becomes a study of stylistic comparisons of LCE’s oeuvre, in order to assess, analyze and identify his style to determine whether all of the works attributed to him were indeed his own handiwork. Classifying LCE’s style, together with the fact that he ran his workshop in factory-like conditions, supplying his apprentices with pigments, designs they could trace, copies, modelling versions, and patterns, making him an artist turned businessman, LCE becomes an artist who turned art into an industrial operation, earning the title ‘Cranach Inc.’ The conclusion of this paper will be based inter-alia on comparisons between Infra-red images and the visible paintings, in order to undermine the established attributions made to LCE.
    [Show full text]
  • Are We Still Being Historical? Exposing the Ehenheim Epitaph Using History and Theory
    Introduction/Conclusion: Are We Still Being Historical? Exposing the Ehenheim Epitaph Using History and Theory Corine Schleif Preface and Acknowledgments The volume had its beginnings in 2004 when sessions on Madeline Caviness’s theoretical model were proposed to the International Center for Medieval Art for sponsorship at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo. Accepted for 2006, the sessions were honored with the distinction of commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the International Center for Medieval Art. In addition to issuing the open call for papers we invited individual scholars from as far away as Europe and Japan. Due to the overwhelming response, what began as a double session was expanded to five sessions. I would like to thank many who made these sessions possible: Alyce Jordan, co-organizer of the sessions and the chair of the ICMA program committee; Annemarie Weyl Carr and Mary Shepard, past presidents of the ICMA; Elizabeth Teviotdale, Associate Director of the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University; and the presiders: Evelyn Lane, Elizabeth Pastan, Virginia Chieffo Raguin, Ellen Shortell, and Anne Rudloff Stanton. Not all the papers delivered are re-presented in the following volume. Many participants had otherwise committed their work or planned for its publication: Anna Bücheler, “Bilder im Auftrag Gottes: Zur Konzeption des Wiesbadener Scivias der Hildegard von Bingen,” (MA Thesis, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, 2003); Kathleen Nolan, Queens in Stone and Silver: The Creation of a Visual Imagery of Queenship in Capetian France (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, announced for 2009); Pamela Sheingorn, “Subjection and Reception in Claude of France’s Book of First Prayers,” in Four Modes of Seeing.
    [Show full text]