Sixteenth century german panel paintings [antikvár]

"Dan dy kunst des molens wiirt geprawcht jm dinst der kirchen und dodurch angetzeigt der leiden Christi, behelt awch dy gestalt der menschen nach jrem absterben."*DürerIt was with this phrase ihat Dürer, in the prime of his life, summed up his notion of the mission of art, having reached his conclusions after considerable thought. Five hundred years after his birth, with enough literature dealing with him and his age to fill an imposing library, we are still unable to find a better definition for the forces which activated German painters of the early sixteenth century. Profound religiousnesswhich soon led to the Reformation in Germanywas also characteristic of Dürer, with the Passion of Christ as the focus of religious consciousness. He devoted to the representation of the Passion no fewer than three magnificent, completely finished series and two which have come down to us as sketches. Moreover, he was so engrossed in the subject that in a 1522 drawing he gave his own features to the face of the tortured figure of Christ holding two scourges in his hands (Kunsthalle, Bremen). On the other hand, such emphasis on the importance of the image, and especially the idea that the likeness of a man should be preserved after his death, indicate the gradual acceptance of the Renaissance attitude. The idea expressed in this form obviously came to Dürer from an Italian source. His quotation reveals the relationship of his art to the medieval past, with its powerful religious motives, and to the more worldly present of the sixteenth century.What has been said about Dürer applies also to the other contemporary German painters, although Dürerthe most important of allstands midway in this respect as well. Apart from his alleged self-portrait, the art of Grünewald nearly always served religion. Holbein's pictures, even when they represent a religious subject, give hardly any intimation of the painter having attached any particular importance to the fact. Dürer was the only artist among his contemporaries who, though a devout worshipper, was deeply absorbed in the undeniably worldly problems of beauty and artistic form.This generation also deserves attention for other reasons. It rose to heights which have not been achieved by German painting before or since. Panel painting blossomed into full splendour in the life-span of a single generation. In general, it may be said that its members were born about 1470 and only a few lived to the 1540s. Their period of activity and creative work was limited to even fewer years. Except for Dürer's, no significant works are known*"For the art of painting is used in the service of the Church whereby the sufferings of Christ are shown, but it also perpetuates the figures of men after their death."5