Unterlinden Museum

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Exterior view of the museum before the renovation in 2012–2015
The Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald before the renovation in 2012–2015
View of the cloister

The Unterlinden Museum (French: Musée Unterlinden , formerly: Musée d'Unterlinden ) is an art museum in Colmar, Alsace . It has a large collection of objects from the Neolithic to the present day, especially from Upper Rhine sacred art from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance . The museum uses the building of the former Dominican -Klosters Unter den Linden , which had been built in the first half of the 13th century. After its dissolution during the French Revolution , most of the buildings were demolished. In 1853 the museum was opened in the remaining parts of the monastery complex.

Reopening of the Sinn Canal

history

When the church property was nationalized in the first year of the French Revolution and the Colmar Lower Linden monastery was dissolved, citizens of the city campaigned for the preservation of the buildings and works of art and left the movable cultural property for safekeeping in the Collège national (today Lycée Bartholdi) bring. The monastery buildings themselves finally became the property of the city of Colmar in 1792 and were first used as military barracks; In the course of the 19th century the south aisle of the church and almost all of the cloister buildings were demolished. It was not until 1847 that the Colmar archivist and librarian Louis Hugot (1805–1864) was able to bring about the end of the demolition and save the church and cloister from destruction by the "Schongauer Society" he founded calling for the monastery to be used again as a museum. The discovery of a Gallo-Roman mosaic in nearby Bergheim , which was stored in the church of the Unterlinden monastery, promoted these plans. On April 3, 1853, the new museum was opened in the still-preserved buildings of the old Dominican convent. A little later (1854) the entire complex was classified as a monument historique .

In 2012, the museum was expanded by the Basel architects Herzog & de Meuron in order to be able to show the museum's extensive collection in a complete and modern exhibition didactic concept. The adjoining former municipal bathing establishment was also included, an architecturally remarkable building from 1906 with style elements of Art Nouveau and an imposing neo-baroque facade. An underground gallery with three exhibition rooms runs under the Rue des Unterlinden and the Mühlbach . It leads to the new building, the Ackerhof, so named after the old monastery farm. After the extensive redesign of the entire museum complex, the museum reopened on December 12, 2015. The total cost of the project was € 44 million.

Collections

Annunciation at the Orlier Altar by Martin Schongauer (1470–1475)

The museum has an international reputation, especially because of its most important exhibit, the world-famous Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald (originated at the beginning of the 16th century). The collection of paintings and sculptures from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, including works by Martin Schongauer , his master Caspar Isenmann , Cranach the Elder and Holbein the Elder, is also considered excellent .

The encyclopedic dimension of the museum is evident in a collection of archaeological finds from the Neolithic to the Merovingian period , as well as in the collection of applied arts and folk art from the 16th to the 19th centuries and in a diverse collection of paintings from the 19th century. Furthermore, a collection of Far Eastern art by Florine Langweil . The very rich fund of modern and contemporary art was only displayed irregularly until 2012 due to lack of space, but has been an integral part of the permanent exhibition since the reopening of the 8,000 m² exhibition space at the end of 2015. The extension of the museum consists of the adjoining former swimming pool and a new building by Herzog & de Meuron .

The Unterlinden Museum has been recognized as a Musée de France . With around 200,000 visitors annually, it ranks second among the most visited French art museums outside of Paris.

The museum is located in downtown Colmar, Rue d'Unterlinden No. 1.

Former Dominican convent

The former Dominican convent is historically and structurally significant and the museum is now located in its preserved buildings. In 1232 two noble widows from Colmar, Agnes von Mittelheim and Agnes von Hergheim (Herenkheim), with the support of Dominicans from Strasbourg, founded a monastery on Unter den Linden ("sub tilia") , which was incorporated into the Dominican order in 1245. In the course of the 13th century an extensive monastery was built; the church, begun in 1252 and consecrated by Albertus Magnus in 1269 , also became a model for other monasteries. In 1289 the cloister was completed. The Sisters' Book of Unterlinden, which was probably written in Latin by the prioress Katharina von Gebersweiler († 1330/45) at the beginning of the 14th century, is significant in the history of religion and literature ; Influenced by mystical spirituality, it reports, hagiographically exaggerated, the striving for virtue, the hard ascetic practice and the grace experiences of deceased nuns. In the 15th century, the monastery joined the monastic reform movement as early as 1419 and subsequently participated in the reform of other monasteries both mentally and personally; in addition it considerably expanded its library.

Despite eventful historical events in the following centuries of modern times , the monastery did not experience any decline until it was enforced.

Exhibitions

  • 2016/2017: Otto Dix - the Isenheim Altarpiece .
  • 2017: Jean-Jacques Karpff - Visitez au sublime . Catalog.
  • 2017: Rodchenko - Pushkin Collection . Catalog.
  • 2018: Corpus Baselitz .

literature

  • Sylvie Lecoq-Ramond & Pantxika Béguerie: Le Musée Unterlinden de Colmar. Editions Albin Michel, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-226-05411-1 .
  • Jeanne Ancelet-Hustache (Ed.): Les "Vitae Sororum" d'Unterlinden. Édition critique du manuscrit 508 de la bibliothèque de Colmar. In: Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littèraire du Moyen Age 5 (1930), pp. 317-513.

Movies

  • The Unterlinden Museum in Colmar. TV report, Germany, 2015, 4:22 min., Book: Verena Knümann, camera: Thomas Schäfer, Siegfried Maier, production: SWR , series: Kunscht! , First broadcast: December 3, 2015 on SWR, table of contents by ARD .

Web links

Commons : Unterlinden Museum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Here and in the following essentially: Historical overview. ( Memento from June 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: Musée Unterlinden .
  2. ↑ Karin Leydecker : Sensitive total work of art. In: NZZ , December 19, 2015.
  3. ↑ architecture. In: Musée Unterlinden. Retrieved October 15, 2016 .
  4. ↑ See Ancelet-Hustache (see below: literature), p. 329f.
  5. ↑ Unterlinden Museum. In: arch INFORM ; Retrieved March 1, 2010.
  6. ↑ See Peter Dinzelbacher : Katharina von Gebersweiler. In: ²VL Vol. 4 (1983) Col. 1073-1075; s. also Karl-Ernst Geith: Kempf, Elisabeth. In: ²VL Vol. 4 (1983), col. 1115-1117 and Vol. 11 (2004), col. 836f.
  7. ↑ Monastère Saint Jean Baptiste d'Unterlinden. ( Memento from November 14, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). In: monialesdominicaines.net , (French).
  8. ↑ Unterlindener sister book. In: Wikisource .
  9. ↑ See Dominican convent Steinheim in the Ludwigsburg district. In: kloester-bw.de and Steinenkloster Basel. In: altbasel.ch .
  10. ↑ See also: Unterlinden, jardin clos de l'âme rhenane. ( Memento of August 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: bibliotheque.colmar.fr , (French).

Coordinates: 48 ° 4 ′ 47 "  N , 7 ° 21 ′ 20"  E