Antwerp reredos

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Late Antwerp reredos in Roskilde Cathedral (DK), around 1550–1560

Antwerp reredos (in common parlance also Antwerp altars ) is the collective name for a genre of winged altars , which was produced in Antwerp workshops on a large scale for export, especially in the first third of the 16th century , and mostly from a sculptural wooden middle section with one or more painted pairs of wings. Antwerp reredos are usually characterized by a raised cupboard box and detailed carving, but also by certain standardizations, for example in the dimensions and the frequent repetition of certain groups of figures. However, the current assessment as “mass-produced goods” does not do justice to the wealth of variants and must be re-examined today. Comparable altarpieces as export items are produced - alongside other art and luxury goods - in the nearby production centers in Brussels and Mechelen . Even today, over 200 copies are preserved in churches and museums in various European countries.

Antwerp at the beginning of the 16th century

At the beginning of the 16th century, Antwerp economically replaced Venice as a trading city in Northern Europe. The construction of the port enabled the relatively safe trading center, which was easily accessible via the Scheldt, to enjoy rapid growth. In trade with England and Scandinavia and as the location of a market for Spanish and Portuguese goods, Antwerp became the most important port in Western Europe and, as it were, the successor of the Hanseatic League in the early modern era. This situation of a flourishing international market sooner or later caused the demand for luxury goods such as tapestries , glasses, fabrics or goldsmith's work, which were exported in exchange for imported spices, grain, herring or the like.

The situation of the art market and art export

In contrast to Brussels, Antwerp did not have a strict separation of professions in different guilds for the majority of so-called visual artists. While painters and sculptors were strictly organized in Brussels, the Antwerp St. Luke Guild has united painters, sculptors, printers, glass painters, carpenters and later typesetters and other specialized trades under one roof. For the first time in 1460, on the south side of the immunity district of the Panda's Cathedral of Our Lady, the art market, called the Pand’s Cathedral, was occupied during the annual markets, where artists of all genres offered their works for sale in rented stands. As early as 1481, this market secured a monopoly as the only permitted art market for the sale of carvings and paintings.

The Antwerp branding system

The high output of works of art from 1470 onwards led to an early quality assurance measure through clear processing regulations and a brand. The exact cause of the introduction of the brand is controversial, as it could be traced back to the artist's intention to differentiate himself from other producers and to make them recognizable. On the other hand, it could just as well have been introduced only in response to consumer demand in order to demonstrate standardized, quickly testable quality. The open hand - symbol of the city's coat of arms, which derived its name from “hand throwing” - was the trademark of Antwerp carving and was carved into the wood of the unmounted groups of figures by two periodically changing guild inspectors during workshop visits . If the entire reredos were later set and given wings, two hands were often smashed into the shrine box above the so-called castle - formed from the silhouette of the seat of the Brabant rulers ( Steen Castle ) at the port in Antwerp.

The shape and iconography of the winged retable

A fundamental characteristic of the Antwerp reredos production is - with a few exceptions - the narrative design of the scenes reproduced in the reredos. Small figures with an average height of about 38 cm are put together in individual compartments that divide the reredos box in a stage-like arrangement. For this purpose, the compartment is usually designed with a rising bottom and two side walls narrowing in depth (similar to backdrop walls). The figures are then often set up on three levels parallel to the viewer. First of all, facing the scene, there are two standing figures on the left and right. The main characters fill the second level, offset a little to the back, while the characters in the third row look over the shoulders of these main characters. These figures are often not painted or gilded in the parts that are not visible due to the economical way of working and sometimes not even completely carved. The origin of this design as a takeover from the late medieval passion or mystery plays is discussed in art history. Occasionally, behind the narrating figures, another level with a landscape representation that covers the back wall of the compartment is inserted, which can contain scenes secondary to the main scene. The level of detail in the narrative and the number of scenes and figures per compartment depends very much on the client's request or the desired theological concept for the installation site.

The motifs of the individual compartments depend on the desired iconography of the reredos.

Passion retable

A passion retable made in Antwerp contains depictions of the Passion of Christ. The biblical accounts of the carrying of the cross, crucifixion (in the raised central compartment) and the descent from the cross or lamentation, which are more important for theological interpretation, are usually presented in the large upper compartments of a reredos (cf. Roskilde). The smaller compartments in the row below contain other scenes, such as the flagellation, the crowning of thorns or a depiction of Ecce homo , or, even more frequently, scenes from the childhood story of Christ, which in the Middle Ages is understood as a preceding and associated path before passion and salvation. On the wings, as seen by the viewer, beginning on the left and progressing over the shrine scenes in the reading direction to the right, first painted scenes that took place chronologically before the crucifixion (entry into Jerusalem, prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, betrayal or arrest and Christ before Pilate), and then scenes after the crucifixion (burial, resurrection, ascension and sending of the Holy Spirit) are shown. The outer sides of the reredos often show the mass of Pope Gregory or a representation of the Lord's Supper, the feeding of the 5000 and associated Old Testament typologies such as Abraham before Melchizedek or the Mannalese. It can be assumed that this very Eucharistic exterior was the face of a reredos shown during most medieval masses , since the wings may only have been opened on the high feast days.

The Passion scenes in particular are based - in addition to the texts of the New Testament  - on its apocrypha , theological-didactic texts of the Church Fathers and exegetes and on literary works e.g. B. of St. Bernard of Clairvaux , Bonaventure of Bagnoregio or the Flemish mystics before and in the Devotio moderna .

  • Antwerp reredos in the pilgrimage church of the Visitation of Mary in Klausen (Eifel) , around 1480

  • Antwerp reredos in the Musée des Beaux-Arts Dijon (F): Carrying the cross, around 1520

  • Antwerp reredos in the Musée des Beaux-Arts Dijon (F): Crucifixion in the raised compartment, around 1520

  • Antwerp reredos in the Musée des Beaux-Arts Dijon (F): Descent from the Cross, around 1520

  • Antwerp reredos in Zukowo Kashubia

  • Antwerp reredos in the Petrikirche Dortmund

Marian retable

Marienretabel from 1518 in the Marientidenkapelle of the Marienkirche (Lübeck) . The central picture shows the death of Mary.

As with the Passion retable, the lower compartments are mostly filled with depictions of the childhood story of Jesus , since these logically make up a large part of the story of Mary. The upper compartments are occupied by depictions of the temple passage, the marriage to Joseph, the death of Mary, or special mariological themes such as her ascension to heaven, coronation by Christ and God the Father, glorification by the secular and spiritual classes or a rosary Madonna . The motifs of the wings are more variable in the composition and use the same literary sources as the scenes of the Passion retable, with the New Testament texts being receded in favor of the texts of the Apocrypha and late medieval mysticism and piety due to the less prominent role of Mary there . Sometimes they show depictions of Deesis or the sacrament or saints assigned to Mary (e.g. Margaret of Antioch or Catherine of Alexandria ).

  • Birth of Christ (detail), Brussels reredos from Mengen, sculpture collection in the Bode Museum , Berlin, around 1480

  • Circumcision of Christ (detail), Brussels reredos from Mengen, sculpture collection in the Bode Museum , Berlin, around 1480

Holy retable

The saints retables, which are much rarer than the Passion and Marian retables, are based on a design that is exactly comparable to the two previous groups in terms of construction, but consistently contain scenes of the legend of one or more saints on the wings and in the shrine case. You are e.g. B. received or handed down for the apostle Matthew , James the Elder , Leonhard of Limoges , George and the saints Dymphna and Anna . They seldom also contain non-narrative representations in the form of standing figures. These special forms usually appear in Antwerp retables in areas where the local or particularly valued production of neighboring art centers cultivates the reproduction of standing figures. For example in northern Spain and central Sweden, which had been under the influence of Lübeck in the previous century (see Ytterselö). The literary model in the late Middle Ages may be the Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine and others. a. Hagiographies .

Special forms

As a special form of Antwerp production, preserved or handed down reredos, e.g. B. to the Eucharist, such as that of Jan de Molder for the Abbey Averbode , (today Musée national du Moyen Age , Paris, 1513). But even single-scene, small-format retables sometimes leave the classifications set out above and mixed forms emerge.

In general, an iconographic classification of the Antwerp, as well as the Brussels and Mechelen and other reredos, depends on various factors such as chosen motifs, theological and historical context at the place of installation or the use of literary models and is definitely debatable.

Locations

An Antwerp retable can be found u. a. in:

photos

  • Antwerp reredos in Notre-Dame in Gedinne (B)

  • Special form of a Brabant reredos in Ytterselö (S), around 1520 (?)

  • Antwerp reredos in the Salvatorkirche in Heimbach (Eifel)

  • Brussels reredos from Skånela, Uppsala Cathedral (S), Pasquier Borman (?), Around 1520

  • Brussels reredos from Mengen, sculpture collection in the Bode Museum , Berlin, around 1480

  • Antwerp reredos in Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, Paris

  • Antwerp reredos in Wattignies (F), St. Lambertus, heavily fragmented and repainted

  • Antwerp reredos in Affeln (D), around 1525

literature

  • Leonid Malec: Antwerp Marienretabel in: Jan Friedrich Richter (Ed.): Lübeck 1500 - Art metropolis in the Baltic Sea region , catalog, Imhoff, Petersberg 2015, pp. 244-251 (No. 28)
  • Sandra Braun: The Antwerp reredos from 1518 in the Marienkirche in Lübeck. Observations on an Antwerp import piece in the western Baltic region . In: Jiří Fajt, Markus Hörsch (ed.): Dutch art exports to North and East Central Europe from the 14th to the 16th century. Research on their beginnings, on the role of courtly clients, artists and their workshops (=  Studia Jagellonica Lipsiensia ). tape 15 . Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2014, ISBN 978-3-7995-8415-9 , p. 133-161 .
  • Barbara Welzel, Thomas Lentes, Heike Schlie (eds.): The “Golden Miracle” in the Dortmund Petrikirche. Image use and image production in the Middle Ages (=  Dortmund Middle Ages Research . Volume 2 ). 2nd Edition. Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 3-89534-582-2 .
  • Godehard Hoffmann: Compound altarpieces in context . In: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerp. Jaarboek . 2004, ISSN  0770-3104 , p. 75-121 .
  • Marjan Buyle, Christine Vanthillo (eds.): Retables Flamands et Brabançons dans les monuments belges (=  M & L Cahier . Volume 4 ). Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Brussels 2000, ISBN 90-403-0104-2 .
  • Hans Nieuwdorp (Ed.): Antwerp Altarpieces. 15th - 16th centuries . Museum voor Religieuze Kunst, Antwerp 1993 (exhibition catalog, Antwerp Cathedral, May 26 to October 3, 1993, 2 volumes).

Web links

Commons : Antwerp Reredos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Coat of arms of Antwerp
  2. ↑ Legend of Antwerp hand throwing