Book Description

Famous, above all, for his awe-inspiring Isenheimer Altarpiece, Matthias Grunewald was one of the great Renaissance visionaries and has exerted a lasting influence on European painting.This book presents Grunewald's oeuvre from the early paintings and drawings through his major masterpieces, the altarpieces in Frankfurt, Isenheim, Aschaffenburg and Mainz up to his last works, and also includes an up-to-date catalogue of paintings and drawings definitively attributed to the artist. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Will the real Matthias Grunewald please stand up?
Possibly 26 paintings and 37 drawings by MATTHIAS GRUNEWALD made safe passage. Others didn't. In 1789 revolutionary mobs went after his late Gothic Isenheim altarpiece. An altarpiece panel went missing from a Frankfurt museum 36 years after.

Grunewald became unknown in art history. But he came back, thanks to Heinrich Alfred Schmid in 1911 and Walter Karl Zulch in 1938. In fact, records in Aschaffenburg and Seligenstadt, plus studies by Alfred Schadler and Bernhard Saran, have left us with 4 Masters Mathis to choose from!

So was the artist Master Mathis, carver in Seligenstadt? Or was he Master Mathis of Aschaffenburg, also hydraulic engineer of the Klopp castle artesian well in Bingen? Or was he Master Mathis of Grun, carver, painter or sculptor in Frankfurt? Or was he Master Mathis, architectural painter and gilder in Aschaffenburg?

Even with the author's answer, we've no record of Grunewald's journeymanship, apprenticeship, or pre-mastership. How did Grunewald paint the first European realistic total solar eclipse, in the Mainz small crucifixion? The only eclipse during his lifetime was on October 1, 1502. It was seen only in the Brandenburg marches, Lusatia, Mecklenburg, Silesia and southern Poland.

And how did he come up with his tempera medium? It used little oil, for boldly spreading colors and subtle changes. That was only done by the colorist Master of Wittingau, Bohemia.

Finally, his art had Bohemian, French, Italian and Netherlandish touches. Did the lack of colored center and the modulated local color in The mocking of Christ mean that he studied with Hans Holbein the Elder, the great colorist of Augsburg? Why was Judas standing alone, Leonardo da Vinci-style, in The last supper?

Why was the Isenheim Calvary painted, da Vinci-like, in brightest light? Why did Christ turn out his palms, Raphael- and Verrocchio-like, to show his wounds in the Isenheim Resurrection? Where did the Isenheim central panel get the angel concert from? They were painted in France, as of Jean Pucelle's Book of hours. The roofless golden temple was like Melchior Broederlam's Dijon altarpiece and the Breisach minster roodscreen in Alsace. Why were there Hieronymus Bosch-like light rays from God in the Isenheim Incarnation?

Horst Ziermann's book perfectly preps Ruth Mellinkoff's THE DEVIL AT ISENHEIM and Gottfried Richter's THE ISENHEIM ALTAR. ... Read more

Book Description

Andrée Hayum approaches Matthias Grunewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, now at the Musée d'Unterlinden in Colmar, as a structural and iconographic entity and restores it to its broader cultural context in the early sixteenth century. She interprets the altarpiece in terms of its hospital context, then explores how this polyptych functions as a system of communication, in relation to contemporary sermons and in response to an emerging print culture. The meaning and motivation behind the direct visual appeal of the Isenheim panels are considered within the liturgy and the sacramental economy. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A wonderful, scholarly treatment of a superb work of art.
Grunewald's Isenheim altarpiece is an extraordinary polyptich, expressive and dramatic, that was painted circa 1510-15 for a monastery church of the Order of St. Anthony, a hospital order. Following the French Revolution, the altarpeice was removed from the monastery, and it therefore can no longer be seen in its original church setting.

Hayum's wonderful book successfully considers the original context of Grunewald's German Renaissance masterpiece to enable the reader to understand and appreciate it in terms of the particular needs and circumstances of its creation. The book, which contains numerous fine (albeit rather small) illustrations, examines the altarpiece's architectural setting, patronage, place in church rituals, reception by the specific audiences for which it was intended, and its historical setting on the eve of the Reformation.

The first chapter of the book looks at the hospital context of the altarpiece, and illuminates themes of dire illness and miraculous healing that are features of the polyptich panels, and their relationship to the monastery's healing and spiritual missions. It explains how each of the three different stages of the altarpiece (the panels were movable to display three settings) deal with illness in distinct manners.

The second and third chapters discuss how the stages of the altarpiece fit into the devotions of the church calendar, particularly its impact on a worshipper at the Mass. These chapters illustrate how Grunewald's painterly techniques and powerful visual effects work to heighten the impact on the communicant of the work's messages.

The final chapter explores the impact of the altarpiece following its reemergence from seclusion in the middle of the 19th Century. Various prominent artists, writers, and musicians have reacted to the mix of rugged realism and transcendent vision in the work, and the book examines the ways that it influenced them.

All in all, this is a fascinating and rewarding book for the serious art lover or student. ... Read more

Book Description

Matthias Grnwald's world-famous Isenheim Altarpiece ranksamongthe most powerful expressionistic works of the Northern Renaissance.Characterized by great emotional force, exquisite handling of color andbrilliantly interwoven subtleties of Christian iconography, the multi- paneledaltarpiece has remained the object of intense scholarly interest and themainattraction of the Muse d'Unterlinden in Colmar, France. Ruth Mellinkoff offers an original analysis of the altarpiece,uncovering thelate medieval popular beliefs that underlie its unusual visual content.Sheplaces its rich imagery within a tradition of Christian art, andstunningly,discovers Lucifer among the angels observing the Nativity. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Contenido, published by Editorial Contenido, S.A. de C.V. on November 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1018 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: El luterano: Mathias Grnewald.(TT: Mathias Grunewald: the Lutheran.)
Publication: Contenido (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2000
Publisher: Editorial Contenido, S.A. de C.V.
Page: 52

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Edicional Siempre on April 6, 2000. The length of the article is 703 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: El Cristo de Grnewald.(TT: Grunewald's Christ.)
Author: Javier Sicilia
Publication: Siempre! (Refereed)
Date: April 6, 2000
Publisher: Edicional Siempre
Volume: 46Issue: 2442Page: 72

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more