Konrad Witz

The miraculous fishing trip from St. Peter's Altar in Geneva , 1444

Konrad Witz (* around 1400 probably in Rottweil ; † around 1446 in Basel ) was an Upper German painter in the first half of the 15th century . Together with Hans Hirtz, he is one of the most important representatives of late Gothic painting on the Upper Rhine and the ars nova (new art, i.e. the early Renaissance north of the Alps) influenced by the Dutch ( Robert Campin , Jan van Eyck , Rogier van der Weyden ).

Life

It is still unclear where Witz received his training. In art historical research it is assumed that he spent his wandering years in Burgundy and the Netherlands . The art historian Florens Deuchler suspects a study trip to Italy , which took him to Ferrara and even to Florence . In Florence, according to Deuchler, he is said to have come into contact with the art of the Italian early Renaissance and thus assumed a "hinge function" between art south and north of the Alps . In any case, Basel was a center of international exchange at the time of Witz, as the Basel Council took place there from 1431 to 1449 . Witz was able to come into contact with wealthy patrons and important artists.

It was not until 1897 that Konrad Witz's signature was discovered on the original frame of the Petrus altar, which Witz had created for St. Peter's Cathedral in Geneva , by Daniel Burckhardt-Werthemann, a scientist from the Basel Public Art Collection. The frame reads: This work was painted by Master Konrad Witz from Basel in 1444 (in the Latin original: hoc opus pinxit magister conradus sapientis de basilea mccccxliiii ). Witz was quickly brought into connection with a certain master Konrad von Rottweil in Basel .

The oldest source that mentions him can be found in Basel, where he was accepted into the Guild of Heaven there on June 21, 1434 as Konrad von Rottweil . This guild also included painters, among others. In 1435 he was granted citizenship in Basel. He was also a member of the local Guild of Luke .

Only works from the last twelve years of his life are known. In 1443 he bought the Zum Pflug house in Basel . The latest sign of life is the inscription in the painting The Miraculous Fish Train , which gives the date 1444. In 1447 his wife Ursuline was mentioned as a widow.

plant

St. Bartholomew from the salvation mirror altar , around 1430/1435

The Petrus Altar (also Geneva Altar ) with its four panels is the only signed work by Witz, from which the further attributions of the art historians are based.

Witz boldly tackled the problems of transforming three-dimensional reality into two-dimensional painting and portraying indoor and outdoor spaces in the correct perspective . Although his inner perspective is not mathematically correct, it shows a remarkable depth. In the Wunderbaren Fischzug , a panel of the Petrus Altar, Witz relocates the scenery of the Sea of ​​Galilee into the faithfully reproduced landscape of Lake Geneva with the mountains Le Môle and Petit Salève in the background. It represents the first topographically precisely definable landscape representation in European painting. Characteristic is its realistic representation of materials, especially the sheen of metal, as in the armor of knights and goldsmiths in his pictures.

Salvation mirror altar

The healing mirror altar (around 1430/1435, painted on oak panels covered with canvas) is the artist's main work. He probably created it for the Augustinian canons collegiate church of St. Leonhard in Basel . The work is now sawn into individual panels, with the front and back sides being separated. Not all panels have been preserved, so that a complete reconstruction is not possible. The surviving panels are apparently remnants of the altar wings. The central shrine, which may have contained carved figures or reliefs that may have been made by another artist, is lost. The topics are taken from the Salvation Mirror , a medieval book of edification in which the events of the Old Testament and ancient history are presented as precursors to the events of the New Testament. For example, the three heroes before King David are considered to be the forerunners of the Magi in the adoration of the Baby Jesus. This topic is symbolically exaggerated by the juxtaposition of the Ecclesia and the synagogue as representatives of Christianity (New Testament) and Judaism (Old Testament). There are also saints ( Augustine , Bartholomäus ).

image	Part / panel	Height (in cm)	Width (in cm)	Exhibition / collection / owner
	Outside, left wing
	top left: Ecclesia	86.3 ( l. ), 86.0 ( r. )	80.4 ( above ), 80.1 ( below )	Art Museum Basel
	top right: Angel of the Annunciation	86.4 (l.), 86.4 (r.)	69.1 (above), 68.7 (below)	Art Museum Basel
	bottom left: St. Augustine	103.0	81.5	Musée des Beaux-Arts , Dijon
	Outside, right wing
	top right: synagogue	86.1 (l.), 86.1 (r.)	80.7 (above), 80.6 (below)	Art Museum Basel
	bottom left: Saint Bartholomew	99.5 (l.), 99.5 (r.)	70.0 (above), 69.7 (below)	Art Museum Basel
	Inside, left wing
	top left: Antipater before Julius Caesar	86.0 (l.), 86.0 (r.)	69.6 (l.), 69.8 (r.)	Art Museum Basel
	above right: Esther before Ahasver	85.4 (l.), 85.2 (r.)	79.4 (above), 79.5 (below)	Art Museum Basel
	below right: Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl	103.3	82.0	Musée des Beaux-Arts , Dijon
	Inside, right wing
	top left: The Queen of Sheba before Solomon	84.5 (l.), 84.5 (r.)	80.1 (above), 79.9 (below)	State museums in Berlin
	top right: Abraham before Melchizedek	84.4 (l.), 84.8 (r.), Original: 77.5 (l.), 78.0 (r.)	68.7 (above), 68.5 (below)
	bottom left: Sibbechai and Benaja	99.3 (l.), 99.2 (r.)	70.3 (above), 70.4 (below)	Art Museum Basel
	bottom right: David and Abisai	101.5 (l.), 101.7 (r.)	81.4 (above), 80.9 (below)	Art Museum Basel

Other works

image	title	Dating	Dimensions, material	Exhibition / collection / owner
	St. Christopher	1435	102 × 81 cm, tempera on oak wood	Art Museum Basel
	Saints Catherine and Mary Magdalene	around 1440	161 × 131 cm, tempera on wood	Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame , Strasbourg
	The Annunciation to Mary	around 1437/1440	157 × 120 cm, tempera on fir wood	Germanisches Nationalmuseum , Nuremberg
	crucifixion	1444	34 × 26 cm, walnut wood, transferred to canvas	Gemäldegalerie , Berlin
	Petrus altar
	The miraculous haul of fish (left outer wing of the Petrine altar)	1444	132 × 154 cm, tempera on fir wood	Musée d'art et d'histoire , Geneva
	Liberation of Peter (right outer wing of the Peter altar)	1444	132 × 154 cm, tempera on fir wood	Musée d'art et d'histoire , Geneva
	Adoration of the Magi (left inner wing of the Petrine altar)	1444	132 × 154 cm, tempera on fir wood	Musée d'art et d'histoire , Geneva
	St. Peter and the Donor, François de Metz (right inner wing of the Peter altar)
[1]	The meeting at the Golden Gate (back of the Annunciation to Mary in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg)		158 × 121 cm, fir wood	Art Museum Basel
	Madonna from Olsberg near Rheinfelden			Art Museum Basel
[2]	St. Family with saints in the church		63.5 × 44.3 cm, wood	Museo di Capodimonte , Naples
	Wall paintings of the Basel Dance of Death			Historical Museum Basel (fragments)

Workshop

• Six cards from the Ambraser Hofjagdspiel
• The intercession altar ( State Museums in Berlin / Kunstmuseum Basel )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Florens Deuchler : Konrad Witz, la Savoie et l'Italie. Nouvelles hypothéses à propos you retable de Genève. In: Revue de l'art , 71 (1986), pp. 7-16.
2. ↑ Daniel Burckhardt, In: Festschrift in memory of Basel's entry into the Confederation. Painting section, Schweighauser, Basel 1901, p. 273.
3. ↑ The surname "Witz" is translated into Latin as sapientia 'wisdom' in this sense.
4. ↑ Jan Bialostocki: Propylaen Art History , Vol. 6. Berlin 1967, p. 212.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Bodo Brinkmann: Konrad Witz (on the occasion of the Konrad Witz exhibition, Kunstmuseum Basel, March 6 - July 3, 2011) . Hatje Cantz, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-7757-2760-0 .
6. ^ Germanisches Nationalmuseum : Online object catalog "The Annunciation to Maria".

literature

• Jana Lucas: Europe in Basel. The Council of Basel 1431–1449 as a laboratory for art . Basel 2017.
• Karin Althaus: Konrad Witz. A pioneer of painting in the 15th century. Langewiesche, Königstein i. Ts. 2011. ISBN 978-3-7845-1901-2
• Bodo Brinkmann: Konrad Witz (on the occasion of the Konrad Witz exhibition, Kunstmuseum Basel, March 6 - July 3, 2011) . Hatje Cantz, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-7757-2760-0 .
• Harriet Brinkmöller-Gandlau:  Joke, Konrad. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 13, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-072-7 , Sp. 1440-1443.
• Daniel Burckhardt-Werthemann: How Konrad Witz was torn from oblivion , in: ders .: Vom old Basel and its guests, Basel undated, pp. 88–111.
• Dorothee Eggenberger: The Basel healing mirror images. A work commissioned by King René d'Anjou and cardinal Giuliano Cesarini? In: Journal for Swiss Archeology and Art History 67, 2010, pp. 83–112.
• Frédéric Elsig, Caesar Menz (dir.): Konrad Witz. Le maître-autel de la cathédrale de Genève. Slatkine, Geneva 2013.
• Joseph Gantner (introduction): Konrad Witz. The healing mirror altar . Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart, 1969.

Web links

Commons : Konrad Witz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Konrad Witz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Dorothee Eggenberger ,: Witz, Konrad (Conrad). In: Sikart
• Works by Konrad Witz at Zeno.org .
• Konrad Witz at artcyclopedia.com
• Exhibition Konrad Witz from March 6 to July 3, 2011 at the Kunstmuseum Basel