Master of the Stauffenberg Altar

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Stauffenberger Altar: Pieta (detail), Upper Rhine around 1460

A Gothic painter who worked on the Upper Rhine in the middle of the 15th century is known as the master of the Stauffenberger Altar ( Fr. Maître du retable de Stauffenberger) . The artist, who is not known by name, probably had his workshop in Strasbourg and was given his emergency name after the so-called Stauffenberg Altar he created . Stylistically, he is a representative of painting influenced by the International Gothic , a new trend in the Middle Ages , which also and above all developed on the Upper Rhine. The master's work is a notable example of this style and shows similarities to that of Martin Schongauer .

The Stauffenberg Altar

The three-winged altar created by the master of the Stauffenberg Altar stood in the church of the Antonites of Isenheim until 1794 . It was donated by the Vogt von Ruffach, Hans Erhard Bock von Stauffenberg with his wife Anette von Oberkirchen. The couple is shown on the outside and identified by their coat of arms. According to records of their marriage, the altar can be dated between 1454 and 1460.

When closed, the altar shows John and Mary under the cross and in the open in the middle the Lamentation of Christ, on the left wing the Annunciation and on the right the birth of Christ. All pictures are painted on a golden background and without background images.

The Stauffenberg Altar is now in the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar.

Stylistic classification

The work of the master of the Stauffenberg Altar shows the typical, soft elegance of International Gothic in gestures, folds and lines . It is also influenced by Flanders , such as the painting by Rogier van der Weyden , whose style of painting is said to be particularly close to the angel of the Annunciation at the Stauffenberg Altar. The relationship to the art of Flanders shows that in the master’s era painters often traveled during their apprenticeship and for commissions, and so artistic innovations were probably able to spread throughout the wider empire. During the time of the master, commissions came mainly for pictures of the honoring of Mary and healing, and the Stauffenberg Altar is a typical example.

Despite external influences, the master of the Stauffenberg Altar followed a regionally uniform style in Alsace, at that time an economically flourishing part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation on the axis Prague - Paris . The style has already been started by important predecessors and representatives of late Gothic painting from the Upper Rhine, such as Hans Hirtz in Strasbourg, by Jost Haller , who can also be found in Strasbourg , Caspar Isenmann in Colmar and by Konrad Witz in Basel and later in the work of Martin Schongauer from Colmar was continued.

Attempts were made to identify the pictures of the master of the Stauffenberg Altar as early work by Schongauer, but he is mostly seen as an independent personality. It was also suggested that he had been Schongauer's teacher.

iconography

The way in which the master of the Stauffenberg Altar is depicted is very realistic. She takes an active part in what is happening. The approximately 1.3 by 1 meter large picture of the middle part of the Stauffenberg Altar when open shows a lifelike Pietà , Mary, the mother of Jesus in a delicate silhouette in clear sorrow, pain and tears. On the right and left wing paintings, she is surrounded by the Annunciation and the birth of Christ, i.e. the events that preceded her pain and were intended to bring the viewer in the Middle Ages closer to the meaning of the Christian expectation of salvation in the face of death. The master's narrative style is restrained and lyrical .

literature

  • Ch.Gatzweiler: Le muse de Colmar. Martin Schongauer es son ecole . Colmar, Paris 1875
  • K. Bauch: Martin Schongauer and the German engravers of the 15th century . Freiburg i. Br. 1941
  • K. Bauch: Portraits by Martin Schongauer . In: I. Schroth (Ed.): Studies on the art of the Upper Rhine. Festschrift for Werner Noack. Konstanz 1959, pp. 73-81.
  • A. Stange: German Gothic painting. Volume 7. Upper Rhine, Lake Constance, Switzerland and Middle Rhine in the period from 1450 to 1500 . German art publisher 1955
  • C. Sterling: Joost Haller. Painter from Strasbourg and Saarbrücken in the middle of the 15th century . In: Winer Yearbook for Art History 33 (1960), pp. 99–126.
  • S. Lüken: The Annunciation to Maria in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Göttingen 2000
  • P. Béguerie, G. Bischoff: Grünewald: le maître d'Issenheim . Colmar 2000 (French)
  • Martin Schongauer . In: J.-P. Cuzin (Ed.): Larousse Dictionnaire de la Peinture 1999 (French)
  • Musee d'Unterlinden (ed.): La Cruxifixion - Fiche élève . Colmar no year (French)