Upper Rhine master

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Master of the Upper Rhine, Paradise Garden , around 1410.

An unknown Upper Rhine master of the late Gothic period is known as the Upper Rhine Master (also Master of the Little Paradise Garden ) . His most famous work is the Frankfurter Paradiesgärtlein , after which he is also named. In addition, other works are ascribed to him or his workshop that have different things in common. In the long history of research there have been various localization hypotheses and identification attempts. While the localization on the Upper Rhine is now considered certain, no identification with a well-known painter of this time is generally accepted in the art-historical discourse. Stylistically, the Upper Rhine master belonged to the soft style .

Localization

The history of the localization of the Upper Rhine master largely corresponds to the localization of his most famous work. Franz Kugler carried out the first scientific treatment of the little paradise garden in 1841, even if the findings were only published in his writings History of Painting since Constatin the Great in 1847 and Small Writings and Studies on Art History, Part Two in 1854. Kugler located the panel in Cologne and ascribed it to a contemporary of Stefan Lochner , although at the same time he recognized echoes of the Veronica master's painting style in the picture. Even Heinrich Gustav Hotho and Johann David Passavant verorteten the Garden of Eden and its masters in Cologne. However, this localization was controversial. So put Alfred Lichtwark the painting to the altar of the Frankfurt Peterskirche related and situate its origin in the Middle Rhine. Carl Aldenhoven , however, considered the painting to be Westphalian.

In 1905 Carl Gebhardt localized the Paradiesgärtlein in the journal Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft for the first time on the Upper Rhine. This positioning only gradually gained acceptance. In 1911 , Karl Simon assumed that the picture was taken in Frankfurt am Main . And Curt Glaser also saw the picture in 1924 as being in the Middle Rhine with Burgundian influences. The localization on the Upper Rhine, on the other hand, was supported by Ernst Buchner and in 1926 by Ilse Futterer , who related the work to the pictures on the inside of the Tennenbach Altarpiece from Tennenbach Monastery . Futter favored Strasbourg as the place where the painting was created. The localization to the Upper Rhine and, more precisely, to Strasbourg has largely established itself on the basis of a comparison with other works, especially the two Strasbourg tablets, and is now generally recognized. In more recent publications, the master of the Paradiesgärtlein is mainly named as the Upper Rhine master .

Identification attempts

In research there have been repeated attempts to identify the Upper Rhine master with a well-known artist. However, none of these considerations met with greater approval. One of the suggested identifications made by Carl Gebhardt in 1905 refers to the painter Hans Tiefental , who is recorded in Schlettstadt , Basel and Strasbourg between 1418 and 1448 . However, this cannot be verified by examining the work of the Upper Rhine master. Tiefental was trained in Dijon , at the court of the Duke of Burgundy, but the Garden of Paradise shows no similarities with the painters who worked there and their works. A comparison with works by Jost Haller , whom Robert Suckale viewed as a pupil of Tiefental and whose works show some very superficial similarities to the group of works by the Upper Rhine master, does not support this hypothesis. Suckale has recently again vigorously advocated the Tiefental thesis. Karl Simon, who located the Paradiesgärtlein in Frankfurt in 1911, identified the painter with the Fyoll family of artists who lived there . In terms of time, he considered Sebald Fyoll to be the possible painter of the work. To do this, Simon listed the apple peel on the table that would form the crypto signature "SE". The violets depicted would also refer to the Fyoll family ("violets").

Work and work groups

The Frankfurt Paradiesgärtlein forms the center of the group of works attributed to the Upper Rhine master. He is accompanied by the pictures of Joseph's Doubt and the Birth of Mary in the Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame in Strasbourg , which Ilse Futterer attributed in 1928. These three works form the core group of the work. The two Strasbourg tablets are the worst-preserved works from the group of the Upper Rhine master and were probably created for a St. Mary's altar in a Strasbourg church. This is sometimes identified as the Church of the Dominican Convent of St. Marx. For a long time, the two paintings were dated to around 1420 or earlier, but due to the cast shadows that can be found in these two works, the 1430s are now assumed to be the time of their creation. Working with the shadows in the picture is reminiscent of Hans Multscher's Wurzacher Altar from 1437 and of old Dutch painting. The Birth of Mary follows a composition by Ambrogio Lorenzetti from Siena , of which it is not known how it got to the Upper Rhine. Alfred Stange disputed the association between the Strasbourg tablets and the Paradiesgärtlein , but this is generally demonstrated by the physiognomy, which is even more convincing in view of the different sizes of the paintings. A servant at Anna's puerperium, holding a water jug, and the cherry picker are very similar and are even painted through. The same applies to the heads of the newborn Mary and the baby Jesus. There are other similarities, for example, in the differently handled and chaotic foreshortenings in Joseph's Doubts and the different perspectives of the little paradise garden .

In addition to this narrower group of works, the Upper Rhine Master is often attributed the Madonna with the Strawberries in the Art Museum Solothurn , the Annunciation in the collection of Oskar Reinhart in Winterthur and the scenes from the life of John the Baptist in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe , their degrees the relationship and similarity is different.

In 1905 Carl Gebhardt first associated the little paradise garden with the picture Madonna with the strawberries . Ernst Buchner supported the assignment of the Solothurn Madonna, while Ilse Futterer pointed out that the two paintings were very similar, but did not certainly assume the same hand. The Solothurn Madonna is significantly larger. This results in a harder painting style, which leads to a significantly lower liveliness. The type and motif of the two Madonna heads largely match. Still, the eyes are proportionally oversized. The two panels also differ greatly in the way the animals are represented. The blue tit in the Paradise Garden is more natural in its posture and rounded shape than the flatter bird in the Madonna depiction. The plants on the large board also appear much more schematic. The Annunciation in Oskar Reinhart's collection in Winterthur introduced Walter Hugelshofer into the group of works in 1928 . The painting clearly shows old Dutch influences such as cast shadows and probably dates from the 1430s. With the figures that appear blocky and the spatial conception, the Winterthur table appears more modern than the Paradiesgärtlein despite the similar size of the tables and faces as well as the similar overall impression . The painting style of the Annunciation is much more free, so the dishes on the back wall are freely outlined with light and dark lines, without painting the shape completely. The face of the Madonna is less lovely and lively than in the Frankfurt picture. The four small panels of the Visitation of Mary in Karlsruhe show similarities in the execution of the faces as well as in the hair and hands, while their figures overall lack the delicacy of the paradise garden . The heads in the Karlsruhe tables are proportionally larger compared to the ones in Frankfurt compared to the body size, which makes the figures look heavy and sedate. The large and slightly staring eyes resemble those of the Solothurn Madonna.

The retable, known as the Tennenbach or Staufen Altar , with its scenes of the Virgin Mary in the Augustinermuseum in Freiburg im Breisgau has stylistic similarities, but it already belongs to the next generation of painters. Daniel Hess placed it in a row with some other panel paintings from the Upper Rhine and placed it in the period around 1440.

Works

image title Originated Size, material Exhibition / collection / owner
Master of the Frankfurt Paradise Garden 001.jpg Paradise garden 1410/20 26.3 cm × 33.4 cm, mixed media on wood Historisches Museum Frankfurt , permanent loan to the Städel in Frankfurt am Main
Upper Rhine Master - Madonna with the Strawberries.png Madonna with the strawberries 1420/30 Solothurn Art Museum in Solothurn
Upper Rhine Master - Annunciation.jpg Annunciation 1420/30 Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz” in Winterthur
Nativité de la Vierge (Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame de Strasbourg) .jpg Birth of Mary 1430/40 Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame in Strasbourg
Le Doute de Joseph.jpg Joseph's doubts 1430/40 Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame in Strasbourg

literature

Web links

Commons : Oberrheinischer Meister  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Bodo Brinkmann, Stephan Kemperdick (ed.): Das Paradiesgärtlein. 2002, p. 97.
  2. Bodo Brinkmann, Stephan Kemperdick (ed.): Das Paradiesgärtlein. 2002, p. 100.
  3. Bodo Brinkmann, Stephan Kemperdick (ed.): Das Paradiesgärtlein. 2002, pp. 109 and 110.
  4. Bodo Brinkmann, Stephan Kemperdick (ed.): Das Paradiesgärtlein. 2002, pp. 110 and 111.
  5. ^ Robert Suckale: Art in Germany. From Charlemagne to today. Cologne 1998, p. 177.
  6. a b Bodo Brinkmann, Stephan Kemperdick (Hrsg.): Das Paradiesgärtlein. 2002, p. 98.
  7. a b c Bodo Brinkmann, Stephan Kemperdick (ed.): Das Paradiesgärtlein. 2002, p. 106.
  8. Bodo Brinkmann, Stephan Kemperdick (ed.): Das Paradiesgärtlein. 2002, p. 107.
  9. a b Bodo Brinkmann, Stephan Kemperdick (Hrsg.): Das Paradiesgärtlein. 2002, p. 105.
  10. Bodo Brinkmann, Stephan Kemperdick (ed.): Das Paradiesgärtlein. 2002, p. 103.
  11. Städel