Michael Pacher

Wolfgang und der Teufel ("Saint Wolfgang and the Devil") panel of Pacher's Kirchenväteraltar ("Fathers of the Church" altarpiece, c. 1483), on display at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
The Wolfgang panel is on the outside right (i.e. on the back of the Augustine panel), and would have been only visible to church-goers when the altar was closed, i.e. when no service was being held.

Michael Pacher (c. 1435—August 1498) was an Austrian Tyrolean painter and sculptor active during the last quarter of the 15th century. His best-known work is the altarpiece at the church in the village of St. Wolfgang, Austria. This altarpiece contains scenes from the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. His influence is primarily North Italian, and his work shares characteristics with that of painters such as Andrea Mantegna; however, German influences are also evident in his work, especially in his wood sculpture. He was most active from 1462 until his death.

Pacher was one of the earliest artists to introduce the principles of Renaissance painting into Germany. He was a comprehensive artist with a broad range of skills: sculpting, painting, and architecture of complex wood and stone. He painted structures for altarpieces on a scale unparalleled in North European art. His work is frequently correlated with the work of Andrea Mantegna.

Pacher's masterpiece, The Altarpiece of St. Wolfgang (1471-1481), is considered one of the leading and most remarkable carved and painted altar shrines in all of European art. Pacher’s fusion of Italian Renaissance and Northern Gothic realism helped him to produce a uniquely personal style of painting.

Early life

Pacher’s exact date of birth is not certain. What is known is that he was born in the year of 1435 near Brixen on the southern slopes of the Alps in the County of Tyrol. The exact date of his birth is of comparative significance; there are credentials which confirm his attendance and actions at several periods of time and in specified regions.

Little is known of his training. The earliest recorded work that of Pacher was an altarpiece that was dated of 1465 and authorized with his signature, but which is now lost. Pacher visited Padua in northern Italy, where he became heavily influenced by the modern fresco work of Andrea Mantegna. Mantegna was considered the renowned master of perspective, whose stunning, low-set standpoint spatial compositions were important to the development of Pacher’s own style. Unlike most German artists of the late 15th century, Pacher’s inclination towards Italian influence set him apart from the rest of his counterparts.

Pacher is documented in 1467 as a distinguished artist/sculptor in Bruneck, some twenty-five miles east of Brixen in the Puster Valley, where he had a workshop for making altarpieces. His incredible skill of wood carving and painting provided him with employment for German style altars. They usually consisted of carved figural centerpieces, carved Gothic summits on top, a platform where the altar stands below, and painted scenes on panel wings. Pacher spent much of his time during the 1470’s in Neustift, where his work mainly consisted of painting frescoes. In 1484 he was commissioned to Salzburg by the Franciscan Order, to create an altarpiece, only portions of which are still conserved. Much of Pacher's works have been destroyed or badly damaged, some of them during the hostilities in the late 1600s, others in 1709. His most important surviving works are the St. Wolfgang Altarpiece and the Altarpiece of the Church Fathers.

Altarpiece of St. Wolfgang

Mary of Burgundy

Fortunately, his most famous work, the Altarpiece of St. Wolfgang remains secure at the Church of St. Wolfgang on the Abersee (the western end of lake Wolfgangsee) in Austria. The altarpiece is a polyptych, or Wandelaltar, where a painting is often divided into four or more segments or panels. There are two pairs of movable wings, and three clearly different viewpoints for use on different circumstances; one for every day views, Sunday views, and then views for special holy days. Commissioned for Abbot Benedict Eck of Mondsee in 1471 and completed in 1481, the giant polyptych has two sets of wings that can be closed across the inner corpus with the sculptured Coronation presenting a majestic array of huge Gothic figures dominated by the beautifully kneeling Madonna. The carved and painted gold centerpiece is visible when the inner panels are open, and represent the Coronation of the Virgin. The outer two pairs of painted wings represent four scenes from of Saint Wolfgang. Wolfgang was appointed as bishop Benedictine of Ratisbon, where he established himself radiantly for his revolutionary passions and also for his skills as statesman. The entire altarpiece is overshadowed by an elaborate wooden structure that is placed on top, enclosing the Crucifixion. In the centerpiece Christ is sitting on a throne sincerely blessing Mary, whom he has crowned as the Queen of Heaven. In keeping with the traditions of German Gothic art, angels are fluttering around while John the Evangelist looks on. The inner faces of the second panels, on both sides of the carved body, are painted with scenes from the life of the Virgin.

Keeping the size of the project in mind, it is believed that Pacher was not the only artist who has contributed to the altarpiece. It is supposed that his own brother Friedrich Pacher, painted the outer pieces of work depicting scenes from the life of Saint Wolfgang that are visible only when the altarpiece is closed shut. Nevertheless, the inner paintings all seem to have been completed by Michael Pacher himself.

Altarpiece of the Church Father

The Altarpiece of the Church Fathers, created in 1483 for Neustift Monastery, is probably Pacher’s second most famous work. The significance in this work by Pacher lies in that the boundary between painting and sculpture was no longer clear.

This altarpiece by Pacher is divided into four sections, each section depicting one of the four Great Doctors of the Western Church: Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Pope Gregory I. On the very left is the altarpiece of Saint Jerome, who is depicted in his cardinal’s attire. Jerome, who is well known for a story in which he drew a thorn from a lion’s paw, is indeed accompanied by the lion in Pacher’s work. To his right is the panel of Augustine, portrayed with the child from a legend about Augustine. According to this legend, Augustine was walking along a beach one day when he saw a child scooping up the water with a spoon. When Augustine asked the child what he was doing, the child replied by saying that his own activity was as pointless as Augustine’s attempts to understand the concept of the Holy Trinity with his rational mind. To Augustine’s right is Pope Gregory I, depicted with Emperor Trajan, for whom Gregory I is known to have prayed to restore dead Trajan’s soul and baptized his soul in order to deliver him from purgatory. On the very right is the archbishop Ambrose, shown with a baby in a cradle, which probably symbolizes a legend regarding his life: when Ambrose was in his cradle as a baby, a swarm of bees covered his face and left a drop of honey. Ambrose’s father took it as a sign of Ambrose’s future ability as an eloquent speaker (sweet-tongue). Each the four Church Fathers are depicted with a dove, symbolizing the presence of the Holy Spirit in order to represent their holiness.

Death

Michael Pacher died in the year of 1498. The location is not certain, but he died presumably in Salzburg, which is along the border of Germany and Austria.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Pacher

• Painting & Graphic Arts of Germany, 1350-1530, The Late 15th Century^{[dead link]}
• James Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art: painting, sculpture, the graphic arts from 1350 to 1575, p. 275
• Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Kren and Daniel Marx