Feldbach Altarpiece
The Feldbacher altar , a late Gothic Passions - altarpiece was 1848 in an annex of the Cistercian monastery Feldbach in Steckborn found and carries since then the name. Nothing has been handed down about the altar, it is not known whether it was in the monastery or whether it came there later. Due to stylistic features, it is dated to the middle of the 15th century. Because of the landscape background, it is an outstanding example of a future-oriented development of late medieval panel painting. It is exhibited in the Historisches Museum Thurgau in Schloss Frauenfeld .
Representations
The closed altar
Eight figures of saints are depicted on the closed altar. You are standing on a tiled floor in front of a previously gold press brocade curtain . The gold plating is destroyed by oxidation .
On the outside of the left wing, the Saints Michael and Dionysius are depicted above . An inscription on the stole above the magnificent robe of St. Dionysius is clearly legible : Almighty God Lord Jesus Krist what libs Naruong is to give us , the first lines of a widely spread poem that was written around 1400 and served as a vernacular version of the Benedictio mensae : Almighty God , Lord Jesus Christ, what body food is to give us, dy be blessed and ready from you with all bliss. Saint Michael wears a knightly armor with angel wings, which indicates that he has defeated a demon or devil.
On the outside of the left wing below, St. Mary Magdalene and Mary with child can be seen. The crown shows Mary as Queen of Heaven . Maria Magdalena is shown naked as a penitent. The hair covers the intimate areas. A visible angel hovers at their feet. More angels on her upper body make the figure appear to be floating. Today only the hands of these angels can be seen. The bodies were destroyed in previous restoration work .
Saint Stephen and Barbara are painted on the outside of the right wing . Deacon Stephen is wearing a dalmatic , in his hand a stone and a palm branch .
Next is the Holy Dorothea displayed in a red golden patterned dress. With her right hand she lifts the mass of fabric of the sweeping dress and at the same time holds a white rose with it. With the other hand she leads a child who is carrying a basket with flowers.
The last figure on the outside is Saint Agnes . Agnes, who came from the Roman nobility, refused to marry, whereupon she suffered martyrdom. After her death, a lamb appeared to her parents, which is understood as a reference to her name ( Agnus Dei (lamb) - Agnes) and related to the desire to enter into an engagement with Christ.
The open altar
The Passion of Christ up to the Resurrection is told on the inside panels from left to right. One sees the scene of the Mount of Olives embedded in the surroundings of a city , then the carrying of the cross, in the middle the crucifixion with John the Baptist , Mary, John and St. Catherine. The Entombment and Resurrection take place on the right.
The landscape depictions in the dramatic light of the uniquely colored vaults of the sky, the contemporary urban architecture on the various panels and the large discrepancy between the filigree depictions of the city and landscape and the monumentally positioned crucifixion group in front of the landscape are striking. The anonymous master of the Feldbach Altarpiece does not depict a clearly identifiable landscape, but the lake landscape with the hills alludes to Lake Constance .
The port city on the lake would have to be historical Jerusalem , which, however, presents itself with European medieval architecture in a Central European landscape. The representation of cities as a background or window view of sacred scenes had initially been established in the old Dutch Ars nova from the beginning of the 15th century and spread from there. It established the relationship between the sacred events and the living environment of the donors from the nobility, clergy and bourgeoisie.
The painting process
The infrared reflectography of the central panel shows that the city originally extended under the right cross arm in the preliminary drawing: This provides information about the painting process, not only from this altar, but also about panel paintings in general: the exact image program was by no means fixed from the start but it was usually developed together with the client, who gave the painter precise specifications. In the case of the Feldbach Altarpiece, the donor not only asked for a crucifixion scene, he will also have precisely defined the saints.
While the drawing was being carried out, the client kept coming back to the artist's workshop and asking for changes if necessary. This could have been the case here near the city. This seemed too expansive to the founder , so the painter downsized it. Nevertheless, the painter had artistic freedom, as can be seen from his individual painting style.
Web links
literature
- Alfons Raimann, Peter Erni (ed.): The art monuments of the canton of Thurgau: The district of Steckborn. Birkhäuser, 2001, ISBN 978-3-90613102-3 , p. 398.
- Frank Matthias Kammel , Carola Bettina Gries: Encounters with old masters. Old German panel painting put to the test. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2000, ISBN 978-3-92698267-4 , p. 75.
- Museum Guide Historisches Museum Thurgau, pp. 47, 51, 92.