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PRINTS BY . r Xl TT\/}I\JI[{ SQTW/ER. APRIL 28,1971-JUNE 20,1971 BLUMENTHAL PATIO BALCONY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART c_o q Martin Schongauer, the son of a goldsmith, trained as a painter, is known to us primarily as an engraver. Active in the latter third of the fifteenth century, he was one of the earliest painters to try out the young art of printing from engraved plates which had developed in goldsmiths' workshops in South Germany in the 1430s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of sixty of Schongauer's en gravings, almost all superb impressions, will be on view from April 28 to June 20. Our collection contains over half of Schongauer's 116 engravings, a total which represents a fairly small body of work when you consider that Diirer and Rembrandt both made over 300 prints. Since all the Schongauer prints we know exist in no less than four impressions and sometimes in as many as seventy impressions, it is safe to assume that these 116 engravings are probably Schongauer's total out put. The number of paintings attributed to him is also not very large nor is the information available about his life very extensive. What can one say definitely about Schongauer's life and work? His father, Caspar, was a goldsmith from Augsburg, who came to the Alsatian town of Colmar in 1440. In 1445, Caspar was enrolled as a citizen of Colmar and became a mem ber of its town council. Martin Schongauer, one of either four or five sons born to Caspar, is listed in the records of the University of Leipzig for the year 1465- During the 1470s and 1480s, Martin's name appears on the tax rolls in Colmar. His only dated painting, The Madonna and Child in the Rose Arbor, is inscribed 1473- In 1489, Martin became a citizen of Breisach, a town just across the Rhine from Colmar. There he received a commission for a large fresco cycle in the cathe dral. He died in Breisach on February 2, 1491, at a time when the town had fallen prey to a plague epidemic. Some scholars believe Martin Schongauer was born in the 1430s; others argue for a date around 1450. Attempting to find the chronological order of his engravings adds another problem. While all of Schongauer's prints are signed with his mono gram /^ w. 8 , none is dated; and, as a result, their chronology has been the subject of much discussion, producing differing theories about Schongauer's life. One can generally say that the engravings tend to develop toward a more simplified and monumental type of composition. Trying to arrange the prints chrono logically, solely by means of stylistic analysis, has led equally reputable scholars to place the very same print early, late, and midway in Schongauer's career. Oc casionally a contemporary dated work copied from a Schongauer engraving helps to narrow down the years in which the engraving was done. The development of a more controlled system of burin strokes distinguishes the later prints from the very earliest ones. Style, technique, and copies all help generally to shape a chrono logy, which cannot be definitely ascertained. Schongauer belonged to the generation between the goldsmith engraver, Master E.S. and Albrecht D'urer. His art is the culmination of the Gothic tradition. Courtly figures inhabit a world of delicately wrought details. The nervous flutter of the swirling drapery clothing these elegant Gothic figures emphasizes the sweet seren ity of their faces. Schongauer made an important contribution to printmaking by discovering how to make engraved lines differentiate between the textures of various materials. Prints are easily transportable and Schongauer's balanced com positions and finished forms were particularly influential in the fifteenth and six teenth centuries. That he was highly regarded in his own time is demonstrated by the fact that Diirer, upon completing his apprenticeship, set out to work under Schongauer. Diirer arrived too late, for Schongauer was already dead, but Schon gauer's designs were available to be avidly studied and copied by the young Diirer. Judith E. Schub Curatorial Assistant Department of Prints and Photographs THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART'S COLLECTION OF SCHONGAUER ENGRAVINGS Excerpted from the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March, 1937, pp. 69-71. In his sweetness and charm unequaled among the print makers who were his contemporaries, Schongauer may be thought of as the outstanding engraver to come out of the tradition of the Van Eycks and Roger van der Weyden...he came at the end of a great movement of thought and expression and resumed in his work the results of the travail of a most remarkable group of predecessors. Schongauer's engravings are...among the basic prints for every great public collection, and to a certain extent the number of the quality of those in any col lection formed along historical lines may be regarded as an indication or touch stone of its age and importance. Of the early masters who were prolific and of whose prints many impressions are in existence, there are few if any whose prints are more difficult to secure in any number in impressions of satisfactory quality; for fine Schongauers are not to be had on demand or without watchful waiting over long periods of time. The Museum's print room, which is just entering its twenty-first year [this was in 1937], has as yet impressions of somewhat less than half of the 115 pieces that constitute Schongauer's engraved work, [the number 115 excludes the dis puted print of Saint James the Greater at the Battle of Clavigo, the last entry in this checklist. Since 1937 we have added some Schongauer prints to the collection so that we now have somewhat more than half of his total work]. The smallness of its collection of these precious engravings, however, is offset by the fact that, with the exception of two or three, they fulfill the most exacting standards of quality. Among the masterpieces in the collection there may be mentioned the Virgin Enthroned by God the Son (the first Schongauer that was bought by the Mu seum), the Angel and the Virgin of the Annunciation, the Annunciation, the Adora tion of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Kings (in a unique first state), the Flight into Egypt, the Baptism of Our Lord, several of the Passion Series, the great Christ Carrying the Cross, the Christ Crucified, the Crucifixion with Three Angels, Christ and the Magdalene, the Virgin in the Courtyard, the Temptation of Saint Anthony (in the first state), the small Saint George and the Dragon, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Martin, Saint Michael, Saint Veronica, the Infant Saviour, 173378 Christ Blessing, the Peasants Going to Market, the Griffin, the Censer, and several of the round coats of arms. Today it is possible for us to record the acquisition of four more specimens of the master's work - the Nativity, the Virgin with the Parrot, the Virgin with the Apple, and the oblong ornament with the birds. The Nativity is one of the most famous and best beloved of the master's prints, a work of art of the kind which once seen is never forgotten. The Virgin with the Parrot, a delicately and elab orately engraved piece done in the master's early period, is shown before the plate underwent any deterioration through wear. The Virgin with the Apple, the largest of Schongauer's single figure subjects is noteworthy as having been struck off before the disappearance of the transverse scratches across the lower part of the Virgin's dress. The ornament with the birds is the first piece of the master's purely ornamental work to enter the collection. With luck and time it is hoped that we may eventually be able to complete the series on the same high level of excellence that has so far marked its growth. William M. Ivins, Jr. (Mr. Ivins was the first curator of the Department of Prints, which began in 1916) The following checklist of prints on exhibition comprises the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of engravings by Martin Schongauer. In some cases, we have more than one impression of an engraving. These additional impressions, as well as copies, so necessary for a study collection, are not, however, exhibited or listed here. "Lehrs" refers to volume five of Max Lehrs, Gescbichte und kritischer Katalog des deutscben...Kupferstichs im XV Jahrhundert (Vienna, 1925)- The following list is in the order of Lehrs number. Lehrs is arranged according to subject not according to chronological order. The chronology of Schongauer's engravings, as mentioned before, is open to much discussion. A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Julius Baum, Martin Schongauer, Vienna, 1948. Max Geisberg, "Martin Schongauer," Print Collector's Quarterly, April, 1914, pp. 103-129. Max Lehrs, Geschichte und kritischer Katalog des deutschen...Kupferstichs im XV ]ahrhundert, Volume V, Vienna, 1925- Charles I. Minott, Martin Schongauer, New York, 1971. Elizabeth Mongan and Carl O. Schiewind, The First Century of Printmaking 1400- 1500...The Art Institute of Chicago... 1941. Alan Shestack, The Complete Engravings of Martin Schongauer, New York, 1969- Fifteenth Century Engravings of Northern Europe from the National Gal lery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1968. 1. THE ANNUNCIATION Lehrs 1 Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 32.64.1 There is a copy of this print by Wenzel von Olmutz, dated 1485, therefore giving the latest possible date for this engraving. 2. THE ANNUNCIATION Lehrs 2 The Angel Gabriel; Lehrs 3 The Virgin Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 34.94.1 & .2 This diptych treatment of the Annunciation, unusual in engraving, is marked by the simplified, monumental quality of the figures.