Masters of the German Renaissance
A Preview of Special Exhibitions by Stan Parchin
German Renaissance artists are the subjects of quite a few special exhibitions at museums on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean during Spring and Summer of 2007. Their works represent the dynamism of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century artistic expression north of the Alps. They also describe intriguing facets of Northern European culture and religion both before and during the turbulent years of the Protestant Reformation.
The Department of Prints and Drawings at Frankfurt, Germany's Städel Museum presently has on view Witches' Lust and the Fall of Man: The Strange Fantasies of Hans Baldung Grien (February 24-May 13, 2007). German painter, draftsman, printmaker and designer Hans Baldung Grien (1484/85-1545) apprenticed in the Nuremberg atelier (workshop) of Northern Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). Although traditional Christian imagery was prominent in Baldung's early works, he later increasingly used the naked female body as a visual metaphor for: Eve and the first sin; the transience of womanly youth and beauty overcome eventually by the spectre of Death; the existence of witches; and the threat of syphilis to the realization of true love. This special exhibition features more than 40 works by the artist and his contemporaries, centering on Baldung's Zwei Hexen (Two Witches) (1523). This rare painting, considered risqué by some, is no less disturbing than the haunted images of witches by Spanish Romantic artist Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) some three centuries later.
Hans Baldung Grien (German, 1484/85-1545)
Zwei Hexen (Two Witches), 1523
Oil and tempera on limewood
65.3 x 45.6 cm (25 11/16 x 17 15/16 in.)
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
© Ursula Edelman
The Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome, Italy is the site of Dürer and Italy (March 10-June 10, 2007), a major international loan exhibition that explores how German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was influenced by Italian masters of his time and vice versa. Famous works such as Saint Michael Killing the Dragon (1428), Christ Among the Doctors (1506) and Portrait of Bernhart von Reesen (1521) have made the pilgrimage to Rome for this special presentation. Italian artists represented in this show include Andrea Mantegna (1430/31-1506), Giovanni Bellini (act. by 1459, d. 1516), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Raphael (1483-1520), Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) and others. And in an unprecedented move, Florence's Galleria degli Uffizi has contributed all of its paintings by Albrecht Dürer to this effort, including his Adoration of the Magi (1504) that was restored for this event.
The Galleria degli Uffizi's general inventory of its prints by Dürer has recently been published. To coincide with the Florentine museum's accomplishment, it now presents Albrecht Dürer (March 29-June 10, 2007), 180 prints and drawings created by the German Renaissance master. The exhibition's highlight is the first edition of the artist's Triumphal Arch of Maximilian I (ca. 1514), his great series of woodcuts commissioned by the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1486-1519). Seeking to emulate the grandeur of classical Rome's imperial rulers, the impecunious Maximilian commissioned Dürer to create a paper version of a majestic stone gateway, replete with images of austere kings from the Hapsburgs' contrived semi-mythological genealogy. The prints from the Triumphal Arch's 192 separate blocks measure 11' x 9' when fully assembled.
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528): Woodcuts and Prints is on view at Hawaii's Honolulu Academy of Arts from March 29 through May 27, 2007. More than 70 works on paper are on loan from Germany's Konrad Liebmann Foundation. The exhibition is comprised mainly of complete woodcut series by Dürer, such as the Apocalypse (1498) and Life of the Virgin (1511). His famous etchings Adam and Eve (1504), Knight, Death and the Devil (1512), Melancholia I (1514) and St. Jerome in His Study (1514) are included in this show. The exhibition travels next to the New Orleans Museum of Art (June 16-August 26, 2007) and the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas (September 7-November 4, 2007).
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528)
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1498
From the Revelation of Saint John,
Second Latin Edition, 1511
Woodcut
15 3/8 x 11 in. (39.2 x 27.9 cm)
© Konrad Liebmann Foundation,
Stiftung Niedersachsen, Germany
London's Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery will be featuring two well-matched displays of Northern Renaissance art concurrently this Summer. Temptation in Eden: Lucas Cranach's "Adam and Eve" (June 21-September 23, 2007) is England's first special exhibition devoted to Lucas Cranach the Elder (ca. 1472-1553), court painter to Elector Frederick III the Wise of Saxony (1463-1525), the protector of Protestant reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546), and his successors. Cranach, like Hans Baldung Grien, took up the subject of Eve's role in the Fall of Man. Drawings, engravings, woodcuts and paintings will describe Cranach's ability to record the natural world around him as well as his refined sense of narrative. Results from recent scientific studies of his Adam and Eve will illustrate changes that Cranach made to his masterpiece while it was being painted.
Lucas Cranach the Elder
(German, ca. 1472-1553)
Adam and Eve, 1526
Oil on panel
117 x 80.5 cm (46 1/16 x 31 11/16 in.)
© Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery
At the same time that the Cranach show will be running in London, the Courtauld Institute will present a number of German Renaissance drawings from its extensive collection. Among them will be Albrecht Dürer's sensitive One of the Wise Virgins (1493) and Emperors Charlemagne and Sigismund (ca. 1510), supplemented by works on paper by lesser-known artists.
Renaissance to Contemporary: Recent Acquisitions in Works on Paper is a special exhibition on view through May 27, 2007 at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The most recent additions to the institution's world-class collection are also the earliest in date: Albrecht Dürer's Adam and Eve (1504) and The Virgin with Swaddled Child (1520). His engraving of the primordial couple from the Book of Genesis is particularly important because it reflects many of the artistic ideas of the Renaissance that Dürer absorbed during his wanderjahre (traveling years) to northern Italy in 1494-95.
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528)
Adam and Eve, 1504
Engraving
26.6 x 19.1 cm (10 15/32 x 7 1/2 in.)
Gift of an Anonymous Donor and
the Art History Department Fund
© Michael C. Carlos Museum
For further reading:
Bartrum, Guilia, et al.
Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy: The
Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist
(exh. cat.). London: The Trustees of The
British Museum, 2002.
Dackerman, Susan, et al. Painted Prints: The
Revelation of Color in Northern Renaissance &
Baroque Engravings, Etchings & Woodcuts
(exh. cat.). Baltimore: The Baltmore Museum
of Art, 2002.
Marrow, James H. and Alan Shestack (eds.).
Hans Baldung Grien: Prints & Drawings (exh. cat.).
Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art and New
Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1981.
Moser, Peter. Lucas Cranach: His Life, His
World and His Art. Bamberg: Babenberg Verlag
GmbH, 2005.
*************************
From your Guide: Stan Parchin, Senior Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions, is a specialist in ancient, late-medieval and Renaissance art and history, and a regular contributor to About Art History. You may read all of his Special Exhibition and Catalogue Reviews here.
