Master of the Wimpfen Quirinus Altar

The Quirinus altar in the closed state with the panel paintings (photography around 1898)

Master of the Wimpfen Quirinus Altarpiece is an emergency name for an unknown artist, to whom the design of several altars in southwest Germany around 1500 is ascribed. The name is derived from the Quirinus altar of the Evangelical town church in Bad Wimpfen , which is considered a safe and typical work of the master.

origin

Since there are no written documents in Bad Wimpfen for the period around 1500 and earlier, the question of the painter's origin, training and whereabouts must remain unanswered. Due to the lack of source material, neither an exact dating nor a chronological division of his paintings into different work phases is possible. It is worth highlighting two completely traditional altars, the Gangolf altar in the Gangolf chapel in Neudenau and the side altar in the Evangelical City Church in Wimpfen , from which the emergency name of the painter who worked around 1500 is derived. An altar inscription has been preserved on the inside of the left wing, which has given rise to numerous speculations about the artist's identity. The historian Georg Schäfer spoke in the publication Kunstdenkmäler im Großherzogtum Hessen , published in the 19th century, of a presumed foundation of the altar and identified the symbol as the house coat of arms of the influential Moler family, verifiable around 1500. Since family names are often derived from activities or job titles (Moler = painter), Schäfer also advocated the possibility of an artist's monogram immortalized on the altar.

plant

The few panel paintings attributed to him are dated to the beginning of the 16th century. They illustrate the work of an artist whose painting, in formal terms, far surpassed the individual artistic achievements of some of his contemporaries: the soft plastic modeling of the facial expressions makes his almost entirely youthful saints look like human portraits. Formally, the depictions of the saints culminate in their precious robes. Through the use of finely graduated, colored chiaroscuro hatchings and the rich use of pressed brocades, the impression of the actual materiality of wool, velvet, brocade and silk is created. The painter also understands the illusion of a painted architectural space and places the figures of saints in altar niches specially designed for them. The figures are presented in a slightly oblique view of the viewer's point of view in the then typical step sequence of counter post, which gives the impression of a sometimes courageous approach to the viewer.

At the time, the concept of intellectual property was by no means as common as it is today. There was no idea of ​​the inalienability of artistic achievements. Copper engravings and hand drawings by contemporary graphic artists and painters were not just visual models. They were understood as aesthetic guidelines and used as the basis for our own altar designs. The master of the Wimpfen Quirinus altar took over a lot from his predecessors and contemporaries: He was inspired by the copperplate engravings by the master ES, Martin Schongauers and also the drypoint engravings by the house book master from the Middle Rhine region. The copperplate engraving B 63 by Martin Schongauer (9.9 cm × 5.9 cm; graphic collection, Albertina, Vienna) may have been the inspiration for the depiction of Saint Catherine on the right working day side of the Quirinus altar. Both figures of saints largely agree in their postures as well as in the draperies.

As an artist, the painter grew up at a time when naturalistic rendering was becoming increasingly important. The formal language of the Wimpfen painter does not mean a final break with the tradition of the Middle Ages. But the painterly implementation of the saints on the copperplate engravings reveals an increasing realism thanks to his extraordinary sense of color and form.

Secure attributions

• Quirinus altar, around 1500, side altar of the Protestant town church in Wimpfen am Berg
• Gangolf altar, around 1500, main altar of the pilgrimage church St. Gangolf in Neudenau
• two former side wings painted on both sides in the Hessian State Museum Darmstadt
• five altar wings in the Rottenburg Diocesan Museum
• Lichtenstein Castle: Fragments of two wing sides with Pope Gregor and Quirinus

literature

• Master of the Quirinus Altar by Wimpfen . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 37 : Master with emergency names and monogramists . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1950.
• Anke Friederichs: The master of the Wimpfen Quirinus altar. Bad Wimpfen 2005.