Grabower Altar

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The Grabower Altar in the Hamburger Kunsthalle is a late Gothic winged altar . It is the main work of Master Bertram von Minden and was written between 1379 and 1383.

history

The work is the former altar of St. Petri Church in Hamburg . It is one of the oldest completely preserved winged altars in northern Germany. It was brought from the St. Petri Church to Grabow in Mecklenburg in the 18th century because the town church there had lost its altar in a fire. With this change of location, he was spared the devastating Hamburg fire of 1842, which also destroyed St. Petri Church. For a long time it was considered a work by Lübeck masters, it was not until 1902 that Friedrich Schlie identified it as the work of Master Bertram. Alfred Lichtwark , director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, then acquired the Grabower Altar for their collection. In February 1903 the altar was brought to the Hamburger Kunsthalle. The discovery of the altar in the Grabow church only started research into late medieval panel painting in northern Germany.

In its basic features, the Landkirchen reredos from Master Bertram's environment corresponds to the Grabower Altar.

description

The folding or winged altar was originally set up in the choir of St. Petri. When open, it is 7.26 meters wide and 2.77 meters high. The altar consists of a central shrine, four wings, a predella and a crowning tracery bar. The altar includes 79 carved figures and 24 individual panel paintings.

The outer sides of the outer pair of wings, which are visible when closed, have lost their original painting, only remnants of a subsequent overpainting are preserved. When you open it, the painted insides appear, in the middle you can see the painted backs of the two inner wings. If you unfold the inner wings, you can see their carved insides and the carved central shrine. The predella and the crowning tracery comb are decorated with further carved figures. When open, the winged altar is completely decorated with carved figures, while the closed state and the first opening show (s) paintings.

Panel paintings

In today's presentation of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the sides of the panels are separated from each other so that all sides of the panels can be viewed at the same time. To do this, the paintings were split off from the inner wings. The first opening shows on the painted panels the famous, iconographically very rich picture cycle of the creation story , the story of the patriarchs of the Old Testament and the childhood of Christ.

Upper register:

First board
Second panel
Third panel
Fourth panel
“Adoration of the Magi”, detail of the altar by Master Bertram, on a 1982 stamp
  1. Light and darkness, angel fall
  2. Divorce the waters
  3. Creation of the stars
  4. Creation of Plants
  5. Creation of Animals
  6. Creation of Adam
  7. Creation of Eve
  8. Tree of knowledge
  9. Fall of Man
  10. God admonishes Adam and Eve
  11. Expulsion from Paradise
  12. The work of the first parents

Lower register

  1. Sacrifice of Cain and Abel
  2. Cain murders Abel
  3. Noah builds the ark
  4. Abraham sacrifices Isaac
  5. Isaac refuses Esau the blessing
  6. Isaac blesses Jacob
  7. Annunciation to Mary
  8. Birth of Christ
  9. Adoration of the Magi
  10. Offering in the temple
  11. Bethlehemite child murder
  12. Escape to Egypt

The opened altar

Only the crucifixion group in the middle extends over the full height of the shrine, otherwise the altar is divided into two registers. They are provided with a series of standing individual figures, which are crowned by canopies on buttresses. The central shrine shows five figures on each floor to the left and right of the central group, making a total of 20 figures. The wings each have six figures per floor, so a total of 24 figures. The predella has twelve seated figures. In total, the altar has 56 figures plus the three figures of the crucifixion group. There are also 20 half-length busts in the upper tracery balustrade.

Upper register: Left:

  1. Ursula of Cologne
  2. Gereon of Cologne
  3. Caspar
  4. Melchior
  5. Balthazar
  6. Mary Magdalene
  7. Apollonia of Alexandria
  8. Agatha of Catania
  9. Agnes of Rome
  10. Cecilia of Rome
  11. Christina

Right:

  1. Dorothea (saint)
  2. Margaret of Antioch
  3. Catherine of Alexandria
  4. Barbara of Nicomedia
  5. Gertrud von Nivelles
  6. Elisabeth of Thuringia
  7. archangel Michael
  8. Stephen
  9. Erasmus of Antioch
  10. Lawrence of Rome
  11. Prophet Micah

Lower tab left:

  1. Prophet Hosea
  2. Prophet daniel
  3. Prophet Ezekiel
  4. Prophet Isaiah
  5. Prophet Jeremiah
  6. Thomas (Apostle)
  7. Bartholomew (Apostle)
  8. James, son of Alphaeus
  9. John (Apostle)
  10. Andrew (apostle)
  11. Simon Peter

Right:

  1. Paul of Tarsus
  2. James the Elder
  3. Matthias
  4. Philip
  5. Matthew (Evangelist)
  6. Simon Zelotes
  7. Jude Squidward
  8. Prophet Joel
  9. Prophet Amos
  10. Prophet Obadiah
  11. Prophet Jonah

Predella:

  1. Origen : Oboedentia est janua celestis regni - obedience is the gateway to the kingdom of heaven
  2. Ambrosius of Milan : Nescimus quo fine (claudemur) in hoc exilio - We do not know to what end we are in this exile.
  3. Augustine of Hippo : Habe (caritatem) et fac omnia quae vis : love, and then do what you want
  4. Hieronymus (church father) : Cui (que) dolori remedium est patientia - patience is the remedy for every pain
  5. Gregory the Great : (Gratia non) negligit quos possidet - grace does not leave those who own it (meaning: who is in grace, also grows in it.)
  6. Angel
  7. Maria
  8. John the Baptist : Facite fructum dignum penitentiae - Bears fruits worthy of repentance
  9. Dionysius of Alexandria : Verus deus inter deos non est demonstratus - The true God is not proven among gods
  10. Johannes Chrysostomos : Necesse est ut (scientiam?) Habeat humana cum tractantur divina - One has to possess the human (wisdom?) If one is dealing with the divine
  11. Bernhard von Clairvaux : Quasi de facie colubri fuge peccatum - Like the sight of the snake, sin flees
  12. Benedict of Nursia : (Convertite) linguas vestras atque mores - Convert your speeches and customs

Upper bar: Left:

  1. Joel
  2. Amos
  3. Jonah
  4. Obadja
  5. Micha
  6. Wise virgin
  7. Wise virgin
  8. Wise virgin
  9. Wise virgin
  10. Wise virgin

Right:

  1. Foolish virgin
  2. Foolish virgin
  3. Foolish virgin
  4. Foolish virgin
  5. Foolish virgin
  6. Hosea
  7. Daniel
  8. Ezekiel
  9. Jeremiah
  10. Isaiah

Changes

The order of the figures has changed more than once over the years. Some of the sculptures date from the 16th century. The numbers II-XXXXIV carved on the back of all figures (except for St. Ursula, a figure from the 16th century), followed by the current presentation of the altar, were used to reconstruct the current order. But it is not certain that these numbers were already carved when the altar was made. It is possible that the female figures were originally in the lower register, the apostles at the top. The figure of Christ on the cross poses difficulties; it could be an older corpus from the late 13th century that was integrated into the altar, with revisions being made. While many researchers assume that this happened under Master Bertram, others ( Christian Beutler ) see it as a change to the altar in the post-Reformation period. In any case, the carved Calvary on which the cross stands was added in the 16th century. According to this, there was originally a representation of an allegorical mystical wedding in the center of the altar , for which comparative examples are given in late Gothic altar art (altars from Marienstatt and Oberwesel). However, numerous altars with a central crucifixion group can also be cited. The cross was possibly removable for liturgical worship on Good Friday from the start. What was originally painted on the outer wings is unknown. Representations of the apostles Peter and Paul are assumed.

Benefactor

As founder of the altar apply Bertram Horborch , the 1366-1396 Mayor was from Hamburg, and his brother, theology professor Wilhelm Horborch . The brothers came from an old Hamburg councilor family . The father of the two had already been mayor. For decades, Bertram Horborch took care of the new construction and expansion of the citizens' first parish church. The mayors of Hamburg called themselves "Patrone von St. Petri" even later.

The theologian Wilhelm Horborch belonged to the cathedral chapter of the Hamburg Mariendome . He had studied theology in Paris and pursued politics in the interests of the city of Hamburg with the Pope in Avignon . In 1361 Pope Innocent VI appointed him . to the papal nuncio and collector in the archdiocese of Bremen and in the dioceses of Verden and Kammin . A year later he received a papal letter of protection to the population of Hamburg from the Pope in order to curb the beach robbery. In 1367, Horborch obtained his doctorate at the University of Bologna , and finally he gained an international reputation as a legal scholar. In 1384, a year after the high altar was erected, he died in Rome .

Since the church was consecrated to the apostles Peter and Paul in the 14th century , relics of the two apostles must have been kept in the altar block .

Changes

With the introduction of the Reformation , the veneration of saints lost its importance. In 1556 the now Protestant parish of St. Petri sold the silver statues of the apostles.

In 1595, Johannes Schellhammer (1540-1620), pastor of the parish from Thuringia , had the two outer wings of the altar created by Master Bertram dismantled. In the same year they were made available to the painter Aegidius Coignet from the Netherlands, who painted pictures in the style of the time on Bertram's Gothic paintings. Coignet had fled his homeland for religious reasons. One of the panels he had overpainted had reached the Church of St. Jakobi, where the city archivist Dr. Lappenberg discovered. Through its publication about the find, Alfred Lichtwark was able to locate Bertram's work in Grabow. In Lappenberg's publication it was stated that the baroque painting still had a gold background and a naked figure on the back with the sun, moon and stars.

In 1596 Jost Rogge renewed the crucifixion scene in the center of the altar. The Golgotha hill is therefore today signed on the back of the altar with Rogges initials "IR" and the year "1596". Beutler even assumes that the crucifixion is not the original scene from the time it was made. Instead, the representation of Mary and Jesus is said to have stood in the center of the altar. This assumption is doubted by other art historians. Ultimately, there is no certainty about the central original scene.

meaning

The Grabower Altar is especially famous for the detailed creation cycle. Such iconography is unique to medieval altars. In its comprehensive theological program it is reminiscent of the great portals of the Gothic cathedrals of France. Master Bertram could have found templates in book illumination. In the cycle of paintings, creation and Old Testament history are seamlessly linked with the incarnation of God in Christ. This makes the "history of salvation", the consequent consequence of creation, the fall of man and redemption, clear. The birth of Jesus Christ is part of God's comprehensive plan of salvation.

Web links

Commons : Petri-Altar (Grabower Altar)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Reinitzer, Heimo: Creation, Fall and Restoration of Light: on the image program of the St. Petri Altar in the Hamburger Kunsthalle , Hamburg 2002 (publication is essential for understanding the subject)
  • Dube, Elizabeth Healy: The Grabow Altar of Master Bertram von Minden , Providence, Brown Univ., Diss., 1982
  • Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch : The altar of the church in Grabow in: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology, Vol. 38 (1873), pp. 200-208 digitized
  • Christian Beutler : The high altar of Sankt Petri. Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-596-23912-5 .
  • Stephanie Hauschild: Master Bertram von Minden , in: Uwe M. Schneede (Hrsg.): Goldgrund und Himmelslicht. The art of the Middle Ages in Hamburg. Exhibition catalog Hamburger Kunsthalle 1999, pp. 98–117. ISBN 3-933374-48-0 .
  • Stephanie Hauschild: The Petri Altar by Master Bertram . Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-922909-65-5