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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 10, 2022
This is a book about a masterpiece that we stumbled upon by accident. In 2014 we went on a trip visiting the Western Front in NW France, from Ypres to Verdun with various battlefields in between. The war in the trenches was grisly in the extreme and we wanted to break up the battlefield by visiting something else. …but what to visit? We realized that our itinerary allowed us to “bookend” the drive in between two famous painted church altarpieces from the Northern Renaissance - The Ghent Altarpiece of the Van Eycks and the Isenheim Altarpiece of Matthias Grunewald and Nikolaus Hagenauer. We visited them and were greatly impressed.
Then, last month, we had the good fortune to visit Colmar again (near Strasbourg) in Alsace and we visited the Isenheim Altarpiece again at the Musee der Unterlinden. This complex piece had undergone a major restoration and was now fully exhibited in the museum to fabulous effect. I thought I had appreciated it the first time but in its current home, it provide an amazing experience for viewers. I wanted to know more about it, so I looked up this volume and read it, along with the full museum guide to the Altarpiece.
So what is the big deal?
To start with, altarpieces were popular in Europe north of the Alps when this work was made. These are complex sets of multiple works that can include sculpture, wood carvings, writings, jewelry, and lots of other media. They provide representations of theological topics, along with works tied to the local context behind a specific commission. The works had multiple panels that folded out and in as needed, as well as multiple levels, on which seemingly separate stories might be told depending on whether a piece was opened up or closed up.
So it is a large set of artistic masterworks - but the works are all related to each other in terms of the stories that they tell and the effects that the artist has sought to achieve. It not just a set of separate pictures but an integrated set of works that can and should be viewed on multiple levels. These works are also commissioned by an institution with a particular mission or set of missions. In this case, the commission was from a monastery that served as a sort of hospital (its complicated.). So the meanings of the works can differ depending on who is viewing them - the commissioning monks will interpret it one way while patients or contemporary tourists could easily view it in other ways. It is not a typical museum piece.
It that is not enough to complicate viewing this work, these altarpieces were popular throughout Europe at the time - but it was a time when the Reformation was just breaking out and the promotion of large complex and highly ornate altarpiece would soon merit the wrath of would be iconoclasts. Imagine an entire line of artistic creation peaking in its accomplishment just as a big negative reaction to overly ornate church was setting in. In fact, the key pieces of the Isenheim Altarpiece were finished at the same time that Luther was proclaiming his 95 theses. Good timing, right?
As a result, this wonderful work fell out of view and had to be rediscovered in the 19th century, long after Grunewald has passed away. It almost did not get rediscovered. (…and Grunewald was not even the artist’s real name …).
I do not regularly write about books about museum works and their associated guides. This is different and Colmar’s museum was well worth visiting to see Grunewald’s masterpiece.
Then, last month, we had the good fortune to visit Colmar again (near Strasbourg) in Alsace and we visited the Isenheim Altarpiece again at the Musee der Unterlinden. This complex piece had undergone a major restoration and was now fully exhibited in the museum to fabulous effect. I thought I had appreciated it the first time but in its current home, it provide an amazing experience for viewers. I wanted to know more about it, so I looked up this volume and read it, along with the full museum guide to the Altarpiece.
So what is the big deal?
To start with, altarpieces were popular in Europe north of the Alps when this work was made. These are complex sets of multiple works that can include sculpture, wood carvings, writings, jewelry, and lots of other media. They provide representations of theological topics, along with works tied to the local context behind a specific commission. The works had multiple panels that folded out and in as needed, as well as multiple levels, on which seemingly separate stories might be told depending on whether a piece was opened up or closed up.
So it is a large set of artistic masterworks - but the works are all related to each other in terms of the stories that they tell and the effects that the artist has sought to achieve. It not just a set of separate pictures but an integrated set of works that can and should be viewed on multiple levels. These works are also commissioned by an institution with a particular mission or set of missions. In this case, the commission was from a monastery that served as a sort of hospital (its complicated.). So the meanings of the works can differ depending on who is viewing them - the commissioning monks will interpret it one way while patients or contemporary tourists could easily view it in other ways. It is not a typical museum piece.
It that is not enough to complicate viewing this work, these altarpieces were popular throughout Europe at the time - but it was a time when the Reformation was just breaking out and the promotion of large complex and highly ornate altarpiece would soon merit the wrath of would be iconoclasts. Imagine an entire line of artistic creation peaking in its accomplishment just as a big negative reaction to overly ornate church was setting in. In fact, the key pieces of the Isenheim Altarpiece were finished at the same time that Luther was proclaiming his 95 theses. Good timing, right?
As a result, this wonderful work fell out of view and had to be rediscovered in the 19th century, long after Grunewald has passed away. It almost did not get rediscovered. (…and Grunewald was not even the artist’s real name …).
I do not regularly write about books about museum works and their associated guides. This is different and Colmar’s museum was well worth visiting to see Grunewald’s masterpiece.
September 22, 2008
This is one of the very best religious books I have ever read. It was in college for a humanities course. I underlined about the whole thing. So clear about the Savior's role. I am sad no cover is available. It is a brightly colored book inside and out.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews