Master of the life of Mary

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Master of the Marian Life (part of the eponymous altar): Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the golden gate (around 1480). Munich, Alte Pinakothek WAF 618.
Master of the Life of Mary: Descent from the Cross . Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum

The Master of the Life of the Virgin Mary is an emergency name used to describe a complex of late Gothic panel paintings created in Cologne between 1473 and 1495 , which takes up inspiration from the Dutch Ars Nova and the local Cologne painting tradition. There are other panel paintings in close geographical, temporal and stylistic connection, which are referred to under the emergency names Master of the Lyversberg Passion (active from 1463) and Master of the legend of St. George . It is not entirely clear how many artists and workshops are involved. The artists had a decisive influence on the art production of the Cologne School of Painting during their active time.

Identification and dating problems

For a long time it was assumed that the master of the Marian life was identical with the master of the Lyversberg Passion and the master of the legend of St. George, who was also active in the region . In the meantime, however, research has identified the work that can be documented for the first time in 1473 in a fairly stable manner and the collaboration of a larger workshop has been accepted.

In 1902, the art historian Carl Aldenhoven suggested that the master of the life of Mary be identified with the painter Johann van Düren, who worked in Cologne from 1473 to 1495. This has remained an unproven hypothesis.

For a long time, the beginning of the activity of the master of the life of Mary was set around the year 1460. The oldest work was a triptych of the Passion of the Master of the Life of the Virgin in the chapel of the St. Nikolaus Hospital in Bernkastel-Kues, commissioned by Nikolaus von Kues . Somewhat more recent dates of the work have always been suggested here. In 2001 it was then possible to submit sources of invoice that suggest that it was not created until the hospital's "Second Foundation" around 1495 by Peter von Erkelenz .

In addition, the dendrochronology method has since been used to prove that the main work from which it was named, the St. Mary's Altar, which is now mainly kept in Munich, was not made before about 1475. In view of the usual storage time of the wood and historical arguments, it is likely to have originated around 1480.

Therefore there is little reason to start the activity of the master of the life of Mary in Cologne before the year 1473, when he painted the dated reredos today in Nuremberg. At that time the master of the Lyversberg Passion had already been established in the city of Cologne by 1462/63 at the latest.

Since after naming the master of the life of the Virgin Mary there are still other anonymous artists who also created a life of the Virgin as their main work (e.g. the master of the Aachen life of the Virgin Mary or to differentiate between pictures with the same motif (e.g. the painting cycle "Mainzer Marienleben" ) of other masters whose names are not known with certainty, it is sometimes performed with the addition of Kölner Meister .

Style and influence

Since the style of the master of the life of Mary shows strong Dutch influence through Rogier van der Weyden , an apprenticeship in the Netherlands was assumed earlier. From there he takes over the drawing and emphasis of the individual figures in the overall composition. He did not appropriate the new Dutch concepts for the construction of perspectively convincing interiors and three-dimensional figures.

At the same time, the influence of the older Cologne painter Stefan Lochner is clearly visible . The color scheme of the master of the life of Mary is also based on that of other painters of the so-called Cologne School of Painting of his time, but he begins to combine related colors into larger closed areas and thus to shape his own style with splendid coloring. Therefore it is assumed today that the painter comes from the Cologne handicraft tradition and that he only acquired the new Dutch style elements through a short tour and extensive drawings.

The eponymous altar with scenes of the life of Mary

Seven pictures of the cycle on the life of Mary from the Church of St. Ursula in Cologne, created by the Master of the Life of Mary , are in Munich today in the Alte Pinakothek (inventory WAF). Another is preserved in the London National Gallery (Inventory NG). The cycle was probably painted around 1480.

  • Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the golden gate , inv. No. WAF 618,
  • Birth of Mary , inv. No. WAF 619
  • Temple aisle Mariae , inv. WAF 620
  • Marriage of Mariae , inv. WAF 621
  • Annunciation to Mary , Inv.-No. WAF 622
  • Visitation of Mariae , inv. No. WAF 623 (with the founder Johann von Hirtz)
  • Assumption of the Virgin Mary , Inv.-No. WAF 624
  • Presentation of Jesus in the temple , inv. NG 706

  • Master of the life of Mary: Temple passage Mariae

  • Master of the life of Mary: Marriage of Mary

  • Master of the Life of Mary: Annunciation to Mary

  • Master of the life of Mary: Visitation of Mary

  • Master of the life of Mary: Presentation of Jesus in the temple

  • Master of the life of Mary: Assumption of Mary

Other works (selection)

Master of the Life of Mary: Mary with Child and St. Bernhard , around 1480. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum

In addition to the main works of Mary's life, a passion triptych by the Master of Mary's Life in the chapel of the St. Nikolaus Hospital in Bernkastel-Kues , as well as works in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, are of particular importance (Inv.No.WRM 136, WRM 128) . In addition, largely lost wall paintings in Cologne are attributed to the master or his school. One of the early independent, secular portraits in Germany, which the master created in Cologne around 1480, is also significant in terms of art history. The picture, which has been documented in the Karlsruhe collection since at least 1823, probably shows a scholar in front of a landscape.

  • Retable from 1473 (inscribed dated 1473), 4 preserved panels, donated by Johannes Huilshout von Mechelen, Nuremberg, Germanic National Museum
  • Visitation of Mary (around 1480?), Rotterdam, Boijmans-van Beuningen Museum
  • Portrait of a master builder (dating unclear). Munich, Alte Pinakothek Inv.-No. WAF 612
  • Portrait of a Scholar (around 1480). Karlsruhe, State Art Gallery
  • Crucifixion triptych , distributed in Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum
  • Te Steegen de Monte Triptych ( Descent from the Cross) (around 1487/90), Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum
  • Mary with the Child and St. Bernhard, around 1480 . Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum
  • Mary on the crescent moon . Bamberg , Residenzmuseum, inv. No. WAF 647
  • Passion triptych . Bernkastel-Kues, St. Nikolaus-Hospital (new dating around 1496)

literature

  • L. Scheibler and C. Aldenhoven : History of the Cologne School of Painting . Noehring 1902.
  • F. Burger et al. (Ed.): Handbuch der Kunstwissenschaft - German painting from the end of the Middle Ages to the end of the Renaissance . Vol. 11. Potsdam-Neubabelsberg 1924.
  • The master of the life of Mary . In: G. Goldberg and G. Scheffler: Old German paintings. Cologne and Northwest Germany . (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. Alte Pinakothek, painting catalogs 14). Munich 1972 p. 352ff.
  • Hans M. Schmidt : The master of the life of Mary and his circle: studies of late Gothic painting in Cologne . Schwann-Verlag Düsseldorf 1978.
  • F.-G. Zehnder: Gothic painting in Cologne, Old Cologne paintings from 1300 - 1550 . 2nd edition Cologne 1993.
  • A. Scherer: Three masters - one workshop. Cologne painting between 1460 and 1490 , diss. Phil. Heidelberg 1997 (microfiche) online version of the text part .
  • A. Scherer: News about the master of the life of Mary . In: FM Kammel and CB Gries: Encounters with old masters. Old German panel painting on the test stand (Anzeiger des Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Wissenschaftliche Beibände, 17), Nuremberg 2000, pp. 123–137.
  • Brigitte Corley: painter and founder of the late Middle Ages in Cologne 1300–1500. Kiel 2009, there chap. 8, pp. 223-276.
  • Till-Holger Borchert (ed.): Van Eyck to Dürer. Old Dutch Masters and Painting in Central Europe, Bruges 2010, there p. 247–275.
  • Hans M. Schmidt:  Master of the life of Mary. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 716 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Master of the Life of the Virgin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Scheibler / Aldenhoven 1902, p. 317.
  2. ↑ Schmidt 1978, pp. 32-38.
  3. ↑ Meike Hensel: Considerations on the dating of the Passion Altar in the St. Nikolaus Hospital . In: Horizons. Nikolaus von Kues in his world. Exhibition catalog. Trier 2001, pp. 215-217.
  4. ^ The dating according to Scherer 2000. Cf. also approvingly Corley 2009, p. 233.
  5. ↑ Katharina Liebetrau, LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn: Master of the Aachener Marienleben - Painting restoration: Examination and restoration report of a panel painting Inventory number: 22476 (GK 135 A)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , undated, Online, accessed April 30, 2011@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.landesmuseum-bonn.de  
  6. ↑ AL Plehn: Color symmetry and color change; Principles of German and Italian color distribution . Studies on German art history. Hkitz & Mündel 1911, pp. 81-82.
  7. ↑ Corley 2009, here chap. 8, pp. 223-276.
  8. ↑ BStGS KR inventory of Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen KR ,. no year
  9. ^ Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Foundation Corboud: Complete directory of the painting collection . 1986 and
    Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Foundation Corboud: Old Cologne     painting. Catalog of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum XI . 1990
  10. ^ The dating according to Corley 2009, p. 243.
  11. ↑ a b Portrait of a Scholar . Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle , inventory number 139 ( memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) in the Internet Archive at archive.org, as of September 28, 2007
  12. ↑ New late dating according to Scherer 2000, p. 133.
personal data
SURNAME Master of the life of Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter of the Middle Ages
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: before 1460
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: after 1490