Martin Schongauer

For more information on Martin Schongauer, visit Britannica.com.

(b Colmar, c. 1435-50; d Breisach, 2 Feb 1491). Painter and engraver. A leading figure in the art of the late Middle Ages north of the Alps, he acquired during his own lifetime an influence that went far beyond the limits of the Rhine Valley. He revitalized German painting through a clever assimilation of Netherlandish art and a sense of local tradition and succeeded in combining precision and assurance of line with a strong sense of volume. From his painting of the Virgin of the Rose Bower (1473; Colmar, Dominican church), which unites refined draughtsmanship and monumentality, to his engravings, which are delicate yet convey a sense of solid form, he represents the splendid flowering of the Late Gothic style in the Upper Rhine.

Part of the Schongauer family

See the Abbreviations for further details.

The German engraver and painter Martin Schongauer (ca. 1435-1491) was the first identifiable maker of fine prints in Germany and the finest master of this medium before Dürer.

Martin Schongauer was the son of Caspar Schongauer, a goldsmith who moved from Augsburg to Colmar, on the upper Rhine, where he became a citizen in 1445. The earliest paintings of Martin have not been identified with certainty, but he apparently worked near Ulm about 1462. He is documented in 1465 as matriculating for a semester at the University of Leipzig, either to study or else to undertake some artistic commission; between that year and his reappearance in the records of Colmar in 1469, art historians have assumed a trip to the Netherlands.

The records show that Schongauer owned a house in Colmar in 1477. After 1488 he was working on the Last Judgment fresco, traces of which were uncovered in 1932, in the church at Breisach, where he died in 1491.

His Paintings

Schongauer's one certain extant panel painting is the magnificent Madonna in the Rose Garden (1473), a life-sized image commissioned by the church of St. Martin in Colmar. Monumental yet intimate, Mary bends her head in humility as two angels hover above with a golden crown, her attribute as Queen of Heaven. The figure style is based on that of the Dutch painter Dirk Bouts, but the dense and minutely described trellis of rose vines and birds which enclose her betray the hand of an engraver.

Two other paintings, both small, reveal Schongauer's characteristic style and, because of their high quality, are probably by his own hand: a Nativity and a Holy Family. Both seem to reflect the mature style of his engravings from the late 1470s.

Late Gothic Master

It is as engraver that Schongauer's importance in the development of European art justly lies. Since original prints may exist in many "originals" and are highly mobile, the master's fame quickly spread in his own lifetime. The young Albrecht Dürer journeyed to Colmar to meet him - in vain, as it turned out, for the master had recently died.

Schongauer forms a link between the early engravers, as represented by Master E. S., and the Renaissance ideals first forcibly expressed by Dürer. In both subject matter and style his prints manifest the quintessence of the late Gothic spirit in a special way, as do the sculptures of Tilman Riemenschneider and the paintings of Rogier van der Weyden.

All of Schongauer's 115 engravings bear his monogram, but none is dated, so that time sequence is based on stylistic grounds. There is, however, a distinction between early and late in the rendering of the "M" of the monogram: in the earlier the lines of the "M" are vertical, and in the later they are flared. The first period dates from about 1465 to 1475, the second from about 1475 until his death.

Quite a number of Schongauer's religious compositions were derived from paintings by the Flemish masters Jan van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Bouts, and especially Van der Weyden. Schongauer never slavishly copied but recreated their world of concrete forms, based on realistic observation, into a wonderfully spiritualized, late Gothic form world that is abstracted in the pure terms of black and white lines.

His Engravings

The Virgin and Child with a Parrot, one of his earliest engravings and dating possibly about 1465, with a half-length Madonna and nude Child in an abstracted architectural setting, is related to a painting by Bouts. Schongauer's progress in the technique of engraving over his predecessor, Master E. S., is evidenced by the use of modeling lines that follow the forms and reveal their shapes and of cast shadows and reflected lights. Whereas the background in this print is merely a filler, Schongauer soon developed this space so that it is filled with exciting and varied passages, as in the early Nativity, the figures of which are inspired by Van der Weyden's Bladelin Triptych. Schongauer's Death of the Virgin presents a dramatic perspective rendering which has a parallel in design and emotion in the painting by Van der Goes, dating about 1480. Finally, a lost painting by Jan van Eyck, the Road to Calvary, was the inspiration for Schongauer's largest and most famous print. The composition teems with caricatured figures in a dramatically pictorial landscape setting.

Strictly Schongauer's own invention is the famous Temptation of St. Anthony print, in which the resolute man of God is shown airborne, being assaulted by wildly imaginative zoomorphic creatures. Also original and unprecedented is the greatly detailed rendering of the Censer, a reminiscence in the artist's later years of his earliest years in his father's goldsmith shop.

Schongauer made series of prints unified in theme and size. In his late style are the 10 exquisite figures of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, silhouetted against the pure whiteness of the paper sheet. In his own day, and down to the present, the most famous series is the Passion of Christ, a set of 12 plates. Innumerable copies of these designs were made throughout Europe, and they achieved almost canonical importance in the art of the time.

Among other prints in Schongauer's mature style is the stunning pair of the Annunciation, with Gabriel and Mary on separate sheets. These decoratively abstracted figures possess a refined metallic brilliance and subtle tone expressive of the particular nature of engraving that can only be called classic. Schongauer's art, especially his prints, marks a milestone in the history of draftsmanship.

Further Reading

There is no book-length study of Schongauer in English. The paintings and engravings are most conveniently reproduced in the German edition by Julius Baum, Martin Schongauer (1948). For the engravings alone, and for a fine text in English, see Alan Shestack, The Complete Engravings of Martin Schongauer (1969).

Ecce Homo, engraving from the Passion series by Martin Schongauer.

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009)

Martin Schongauer (c. 1448 – 2 February 1491) was a German engraver and painter. He was the most important German printmaker before Albrecht Dürer.

His prints were circulated widely and Schongauer was known in Italy by the names, Bel Martino and Martino d'Anversa.

Biography

His father was a goldsmith named Casper, a native of Augsburg, who had settled at Colmar, where the chief part of Martin's life was spent. He may well have been trained by Master E. S.; A. Hyatt Mayor saw both their styles in different parts of one engraving, and all the works with Schongauer's M†S monogram show a fully developed style. Schongauer established at Colmar a very important school of engraving, out of which grew the "Little Masters" of the succeeding generation, and a large group of Nuremberg artists.

As a painter, Schongauer was a follower of the Flemish Rogier van der Weyden, and his rare existing pictures closely resemble, both in splendour of color and exquisite minuteness of execution, the best works of contemporary art in Flanders.

Porträt einer jungen Frau, by Martin Schongauer, c. 1478, located in Sammlung Heinz Kisters, Kreuzlingen (Schweiz) in Germany

Among the very few paintings which can with certainty be attributed to him, the chief is a magnificent altar-piece in the church of Saint Martin at Colmar. The Musée d´Unterlinden in Colmar possesses eleven panels by him, and a small panel of David with Goliath's Head in the Munich Gallery is attributed to him. The miniature painting of the Death of the Virgin in the National Gallery, London is probably the work of some pupil. In 1488 Schongauer died at Colmar, according to the register of Saint Martin Church. Other authorities state that his death occurred in 1491.

The main work of Schongauer's life was the production of a large number of beautiful engravings, which were largely sold, not only in Germany, but also in Italy and even in England and Spain. Vasari says that Michelangelo copied one of his engravings, in the Trial of Saint Anthony. His style shows no trace of Italian influence, but a very clear and organised Gothic.

His subjects are mainly religious, but include comic scenes of ordinary life such as the Peasant family going to market or the Two apprentices fighting[1]. one hundred and sixteen engravings are generally recognised as by his hand, and since several are only known from a single impression, there were probably others that are now lost. Many of his pupils' plates as well as his own are signed, M†S, as are many copies probably by artists with no connection to him.

Crucifixion by Schongauer.

Among the most renowned of Schongauer's engravings are the series of the Passion and the Death and Coronation of the Virgin, and the series of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. All are remarkable for their miniature-like treatment, their brilliant touch, and their chromatic force. Some, such as the Death of the Virgin and the Adoration of the Magi are richly-filled compositions of many figures, treated with much largeness of style in spite of their minute scale.

He established the system of depicting volume by means of cross-hatching (lines in two directions) which was further developed by Dürer, and was the first engraver to curve parallel lines, probably by rotating the plate against a steady burin. He also developed a burin technique producing deeper lines on the plate, which meant that more impressions could be taken before the plate became worn.

The British Museum and other major print rooms possess fine collections of Schongauer's prints.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• A. Hyatt Mayor, Prints and People, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Princeton, 1971, nos 455-460.ISBN 0-691-00326-2
• Alan Shestack; Fifteenth Century Engravings of Northern Europe; 1967, National Gallery of Art (Catalogue), LOC 67-29080
• Maria del Carmen Lacarra Ducay. “Influencia de Martin Schongauer en los primitivos aragoneses,” Boletin del Museo e Instituto ‘Camon Aznar’, vol. xvii (1984), pp. 15–39.

External links

• [2] -Links to online museum images of most of Schongauer's engravings (NOT Public Domain images) See section B.
•  "Martin Schongauer". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Martin_Schongauer. 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martin Schongauer

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)