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Author:

Klaus H. Carl

With detailed text citations from:

Dr Dorothea Eimert, Art and Architecture of the 20th Century

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ISBN: 978-1-78310-793-3

Klaus H. Carl

GERMAN PAINTING

FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO NEW OBJECTIVITY

Contents

Art of the Middle Ages

From the Beginning to the Romanesque

The Romanesque

Illuminated Manuscripts

Stained Glass

Wall Painting

Panel Painting

Gothic Style

Stained Glass

Panel Painting

Wilhelm of Cologne and the Cologne School of Painting

Stephan Lochner

Art of the Early Modern Period

The Renaissance

From the Late Gothic to the Early Renaissance

Michael Wolgemut

Martin Schongauer

The High Renaissance

Albrecht Dürer

Hans Leonhard ächäufelin and Hans Süß von Kulmbach

Albrecht Altdorfer

Matthias Grünewald

Hans Baldung Grien

Hans Holbein the Elder

Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Burgkmair the Elder

Christoph Amberger

Bernhard Strigel

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Lucas Cranach the Younger

Baroque and Rococo

Adam Elsheimer

Joachim von Sandrart

Johann Heinrich Roos

The Rococo

Classicism

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki

Anton Raphael Mengs

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein

Asmus Jacob Carstens

Romanticism

Carl Anton Joseph Rottmann

Friedrich Preller the Elder

Caspar David Friedrich

Philipp Otto Runge

Johann Wilhelm Schirmer

The Nazarene Movement

Peter von Cornelius

Johann Friedrich Overbeck

Philipp Veit

Edward Ritter von Steinle

Biedermeier

Adrian Ludwig Richter

Carl Spitzweg

Wilhelm von Kaulbach

Georg Friedrich Kersting

Realism

Carl Blechen

Adolph Menzel

Anton von Werner

Arthur Kampf

Carl Theodor von Piloty

Franz von Lenbach

Wilhelm Leibl

Hans Thoma

Hugo von Habermann

Historicism of the 19th Century

Max Klinger

Anselm Feuerbach

Hans von Marées

Art of Modern Times

Impressionism

The End of the 19th Century

Käthe Kollwitz

Heinrich Zille

Max Liebermann

Franz Skarbina

Max Slevogt

Ludwig von Hofmann

Walter Leistikov

Lovis Corinth

Fritz von Uhde

Symbolism

Franz von Stuck

The Munich Draughtsmen

Expressionism

Taking a Look at Europe

The Art in Worpswede

Paula Modersohn-Becker

The Futurists

The Dissolution of Shape through Colour

Die Brücke (The Bridge)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Erich Heckel

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

Max Pechstein

Otto Mueller

Emil Nolde

Christian Rohlfs

Ludwig Meidner

Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider)

Karl Hofer - From the NKVM to Der Blaue Reiter

Franz Marc

Wassily Kandinsky

Alexej von Jawlensky

Marianne von Werefkin

Gabriele Münter

Rhenish Expressionism

The Exhibition Rhenish Expressionists

August Macke

Heinrich Campendonck

The ‘Degenerate’

The Exhibition Degenerate Art

Max Beckmann

New Objectivity

George Grosz

Otto Dix

Conrad Felixmüller

Bibliography

Index

Christ in Majesty, 1120. Fresco.

Apse, Church of Sts Peter and Paul,

Reichenau-Niederzell.

Art of the Middle Ages

From the Beginning to the Romanesque

When the Romans conquered most of the country north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Germanic tribes, built fortified camps for their troops, and founded colonies – which frequently evolved to cities – to secure their reign, they did not meet any noticeable resistance against the introduction of their culture. The art of construction and sculpture was unknown to the Germanic people, even in their original forms. It is even likely that they felt that as warriors this refined cultural practice of art was unworthy.

Only when the Romans began to build bathrooms and buildings, shelters, road systems, water lines, and other things, the attitude of the Germans may have gradually changed. More and more they exercised the advantages given to them by the foreign culture of the conquerors, which they initially rejected. It was then likely that the impulse of imitation would soon awaken among them. The Romans felt so sure of their property that they would build magnificent country houses, in particular on the banks of the Rhine and its tributaries, which they decorated with the usual artistic decor of their native soil, especially with sculptures and mosaics.

However, the artists who had followed the conquering armies did not progress beyond a modest degree of technical ability, which became noticeable as the demand for works of art in the Roman settlements increased. Most often the sculptors were engaged in the creation of a great number of grave monuments and gravestones which still remain today. From this it can be deduced that the artists mainly stuck to down-to-earth, concrete reproductions, creating portraits of the dead in rough, realistic ways without any artistic refinement.

The contact with Rome gradually broke off. But even without this distance, Roman art would not have flourished on the Germanic soil without more new blood, as the ancient art had become, even in Rome, unimaginative and homespun. However, this austere, realist art may have developed nonetheless in the new homeland, had the storms of tribal migration not destroyed the Roman Empire and at the same time the Roman culture.

When new states emerged out of the chaos and withstood the test of time, taking care of the art was probably the last concern of the respective ruler, and if they did care about it, then it was an art that first benefited them. It satisfied their love of splendour and their need to keep servants, warriors, and vassals happy through generous gifts.

From grave finds, we have some evidence about the original Germanic practice of art. In particular, numerous clips, clothes pins, belt fittings, necklaces and hair jewellery of gold, silver, and other metals have been found in Frankish graves dating to around the 3rd to the 8th century. Even though they take their inspiration from Roman models, they show independent jewellery ornamentation, a wonderful play of tangled lines and braided, interwoven bands, ending in grotesque human and animal heads. This ornamentation has by no means disappeared from the formal repertoire of the Germanic people and would later emerge once more in the Romanesque art of the Middle Ages.

Although the Merovingian rulers completed extensive activity in church-building, none of their buildings have been preserved. From written records it is known, however, that their churches were based on early Christian basilicas and usually had cruciform shapes. The national element of art was represented at that time by miniature painting only, brought by the first preachers of the gospel in north-western Germany: Irish and Scottish monks.

In contrast to the Byzantine illuminated manuscripts, where the emphasis was placed on the illustrations not text, the Irish monks aspired to develop writing artistically. They carried it out with the utmost cleanliness and neatness, allowing the development of the calligraphy, to which they added rich adornments of ornate initials, borders, border decorations, and other decors. Without foreign influences, they brought along their own unique, ornamental style, which was so closely related to the ancient Germanic ornamentation in its basic forms, especially in the strong disposition for splendour and in the inexhaustible variety of play with grotesque animal forms, that it found understanding and willing reception.

This calligraphic feature of the miniature painting was applied by the Irish monks, whose manuscripts were spread all over Germany up to the Swiss town of St Gallen, and thus influenced the art of the 7th and 8th centuries significantly. The latter finally lost all connection to nature and could therefore not serve as a model for the Frankish and Anglo-Saxon scribes who had already progressed much more in the depiction of the human form, though still standing under the influence of the after-effects of their idols of ancient art. Most likely, the Irish ornamentation had been adapted by them, and even enhanced.

Initial page of the Book of Daniel:Daniel in the Lion’s Den,

folio 105 (recto), Major Prophets, Old Testament,

Latin Bible, Swabia (Weingarten), c. 1220.

Parchment, 479 x 335 cm (text 335 x 205 cm).

Ada Gospels, Portrait of Matthew,

folio 15 (verso), c. 800. Parchment,

36.6 x 24.5 cm. Stadtbibliothek Trier, Trier.

The Romanesque

The painting was used to decorate either murals in churches or illuminated manuscripts. The themes and design features were the same for mural paintings and illuminated manuscripts. Through the Crusades, Byzantine style elements came to Central Europe. Because the majority of the population was illiterate, scenes from the Bible were presented figuratively in the form of cycles. In these images, different stories were told around one topic. Art not only had a decorative function, but also, and more importantly, a didactic one. In particular the apse and the walls of the nave of a church were painted.

In some regions, ornamentation and geometric patterns on the ceiling and the pillars of churches were common. Commonly, blue, red, white, and black were used. Only a few of the mural paintings in Romanesque churches have survived; they were in time either painted over or destroyed by fire. Paintings from the Carolingian period bearing resemblance to the ancient world went missing, and the works eventually became less pompous and representative. Common characteristics include flatness obtained through the elimination of depth, solid contours, symmetrical arrangement of objects, and an expressive sign language. The physicality of the figures is negated and replaced by a symbolic function of colour and proportion.

The people of the Middle Ages could neither read nor write, with the exception of the clergy. The Bible was only available in Greek or Latin and sermons during church services were exclusively held in Latin. In order to teach people the Scriptures, the walls of Romanesque churches were covered with monumental frescoes. It was described as the Biblia pauperum, the ‘Bible of the Poor’ (i.e. frescoes or illustrations on paper for the illiterate). Paintings on movable pictorial medium – primarily wood during the Romanesque period – gently began to make its way through the Western art world, especially large-scale tapestries which served as pictorial narratives for biblical and historical stories.

Codex Manesse, folio 219 (verso) and 220 (recto),

c. 1160/1170-1330. 426 parchment pages, 35.05 x 25 cm,

with 140 poems, 137 miniatures, and an ink drawing.

Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Heidelberg.

Illuminated Manuscripts

Important art forms in the Romanesque period included precious illuminated manuscripts, mostly executed by monks, and carved ivory book-cover ornaments. Illuminated manuscripts originated from monastic writing rooms as pictorial accompaniments to the text. Characteristics of illuminated manuscripts included initials (large, highly-decorated initials), ornamental borders, and figures.

The figures were simple and limited to the essentials. Vivid, bright colours and bold outlines were used. Gold and red symbolised the highest rank. The size of a person in a picture depended on the person’s importance; Jesus was therefore always depicted bigger than an angel. The eyes and hands, considered vehicles of expression, were often emphasised. The protagonists barely move and show few typical gestures. To a certain extent, they are arranged symmetrically and are only made livelier through small deviations. The representation of the halo was taken from Byzantine art and clothing was presented with a few stylised drapery folds. Shadows and spatial depth were omitted, as a naturalistic representation was not considered a requisite.

The development of the medieval regions of Italy during the Roman era can be understood in its context only through the works of miniature painting, i.e. through the illuminated manuscripts of Gospel songbooks and mass books, used in churches and monasteries, through early copies of works of Greek and Roman writers, and through textbooks for schools and monasteries. Around the middle of the 12th century, under the influence of chivalry, secular poetry emerged, which quickly took a brilliant upswing, culminating on the one hand in the lyric poetry of the troubadours and on the other hand in splendid, narrative poetry.

The manuscripts of this sort of poetry were also artistically arranged in the way of ecclesiastical manuscripts. Pen drawing was preferred to the coloured painting on a golden background, which permitted a greater speed of production, a freer movement, and expression that responded to the needs of the representation of contemporary figures and events better than working with the conventional means of miniature painting. The pen and ink drawings were sometimes slightly coloured and are therefore to be regarded as a precursor to the later wood engraving.

Stained Glass

The stained glass of Romanesque rose windows gives the faithful a taste of heavenly glory. The origin of stained glass probably goes back to the Old Persian Sassanids. Since around the early Middle Ages, it was used both in church and in secular constructions. Two different methods were used for their production: either the drawing was applied to coloured glass or colourless glass was painted with enamel paint. The colours initially existed in powdered form, and in addition to the said melting colours, there were also glass etchings with diffusion colours and precious metal colours.

Coloured glass windows were the only decorative element in church interiors, as painted surfaces would be interrupted by the light-giving windows. The so-called ‘stained glass of the Middle Ages’ is actually a branch of mosaic art, because the representations, designed at the outset on paper or parchment as a whole, were cut out of the mass like mosaics and assembled on trimmed glass plates which were connected by the outlines, forming lead frames at the same time. The finer details of the drawing were applied with black stain, and the latter was merged with the glass plates by burning.

When manufacturing glass and when composing it, one had to ensure full transparency, and that is where the glass makers of the later Middle Ages had a skill rarely attained. The enchantment of light effects, which the old stained glass would transmit into the medieval churches, has been rightly compared with the sparkle of precious stones, and this luminosity that seems to be coming from the depths has remained the mystery of ancient glassmaking and glass painting. Although, already in the 10th century, figurative representations were placed in the middle of their windows, which they then surrounded with an ornamental edging, it took a long time until they came to a freer treatment of the human form.

Since the glass windows were exposed to a much higher degree of destruction than the murals, only a few of the stained-glass windows of the Romanesque period have survived. Probably the oldest stained-glass windows are five windows in the Augsburg Cathedral of the 8th century, with its two towers visible from afar, which depict figures of prophets that, in their rigid attitude, stand behind the painting of this time because of the brittle technique of those years.

The subsequent time either contented with such single figures or was satisfied with ornamental patterns, reminiscent of oriental rugs. The stained glass of the Gothic period ventured to extensive compositions with many figures, competing with the murals and finally surpassing them with the closely huddled figures in a confined space.

Roman mural by a master of Regensburg,
Bishop Otto I of Bamberg, c. 1125/1130.

St George Minster, Prüfening Abbey, Regensburg.

Wall painting in the Chapel of the Holy Cross (detail), c. 1360.

Fresco with gold leaf. Karlštejn Castle, Karlštejn.

Wall Painting

No less important than the illuminated manuscript during the dominion of the Romanesque style was the mural painting. It is known that the interior of churches, and not only walls and vaulted ceilings, but also pillars and columns, were covered with figure and ornamental paintings. The figurative representations sometimes extended to contiguous series of images whose content was determined by the clergy of the churches in accordance with certain dogmatic considerations. Unfortunately, these murals have disappeared except for very few, and the small amount that have survived are disfigured by weathering or later repainting, so that a correct image of the importance and the rich content of Romanesque wall painting cannot be obtained. We can, however, still observe that just like architecture and sculpture, mural painting also emerged in its early days under the Carolingians from the Roman, early Christian art and has been further developed in a similar way to the miniature painting which, having reached maturity earlier, influenced the wall painting art in many ways.

The oldest surviving monument of medieval wall painting in Germany has been discovered under the whitewash of paintings in the nave of St George’s Church in Oberzell located on the island of Reichenau in Lake Constance. Executed at the end of the 10th century, it represents the eight miracles of Christ. The noble posture and movement of the figures, the treatment of garments, and the grandeur of the composition testify to the vivid connection with Carolingian art.

The second-oldest wall paintings are those in the lower church in Schwarzrheindorf and the chapter house of Brauweiler Abbey near Cologne, which belong to the mid-12th century. They show that artists had learned in the meantime to strive for greater richness and expressiveness, without losing the sense of solemn effect. This was enhanced in the subsequent period, whilst the shape of the figure became increasingly freer and livelier and the expression of the heads intensified. That which Romanesque wall painting in Germany accomplished in its highest stage of development is best witnessed through the wall paintings in Brunswick Cathedral done in the first half of the 13th century. Considerable remnants still remain in the choir and the transept, despite heavy repainting and partial amending.

Panel Painting

In Germany, panel painting was already treasured under the Romanesque style. A definitive but odd piece of evidence for this is the triptych from the Wiesenkirche in Soest that had originally served as the altarpiece, later transferred to the Berlin museums. It is painted on parchment mounted on oak and represents the crucifixion in the centre, on the left Christ before the Roman procurator appointed to the high priest and incumbent Caiaphas (translated as: interpreter or seer) from the years eighteen to thirty-seven, and on the right the three Marys at the grave of Christ. It is almost entirely under Byzantine influence. Subsequently, this art was either introduced in Germany by Byzantine artists or local artists reproduced it from Byzantine panel paintings, which often arrived in Germany through the Crusaders, who maintained active communication with Byzantium. The German artistic spirit awoke in the course of the 12th century, but it soon made itself free from foreign models and thrived in this area to find the true image of its substance.

St Lawrence and the Mother of God, 1508.

Donated by Dean Phillip of Daun and his parents,

from the stained-glass window The Passion of Christ,

in the northern aisle of Cologne Cathedral, Cologne.

Peter Hemmel von Andlau, Mystic Marriage of St Catherine,

c. 1481. Stained-glass window. Originally commissioned for the

Volckamer family for St Lawrence’s Church, Nuremberg.

Gothic Style

The painting of the Gothic Middle Ages became an independent art form faster than sculpture, which found a safe haven in wood carving which was less dominated by architecture. Self-preservation led to this freedom, as the basic laws of Gothic architecture were to bring about a gradual end to mural painting. Subsequent to the gradual removal of the pillars that quickly came too close together, there was no more space for mural paintings. At the beginning it fought for its preservation. But little remains from this last struggle for the existence of the mural. The most outstanding monument of the late period of medieval wall painting is an enthroned Christ in the apse of the church of Braunweiler on the Rhine. The mural found its last refuge in castles and town halls until there, too, the time for this kind of painting had elapsed.

Stained Glass

In the course of time, the role of the mural was gradually taken over by stained glass, which found another field of activity in both the windows of the aisles and in the choir. Their glory days were in the 14th and 15th centuries. Stained glass submitted less to architecture than developed in correlation. The monumental single figures of the Romanesque style were replaced by a wealth of representations rich in figures, which were joined together as one well-structured being through architectural binding. One representation stood with the other in textual connection, and as the content affects the reflection, so the beauty of the colours of the transparent glass sheets act on the senses.

Despite the sensitive, fragile material, relatively many glass windows have survived the storms of centuries. In France, these include those in the cathedrals of Reims, Beauvais, Chartres, and Strasbourg, and especially the Sainte-Chappelle in Paris. In Germany, the cathedral in Cologne, (which in 2007 received a beautiful new stained-glass window, 113 m2 in size, made from 11,273 colour plates and created by the Cologne artist Gerhard Richter, born in 1932), and the cathedrals in Freiburg and Regensburg are still rich in relatively undamaged glass windows.

The art of the ancient glass-makers and -painters can still be seen, and there remain archetypal patterns of this skill. But the fresh reception with which the people of the Middle Ages took up the narrative part of this pictorial art has been lost at the present time, in which we are oversaturated with information of all kinds. Therefore, the attempts to revitalise the old stained glass in their content will mostly attract archaeological interest only.

Portrait of Walther von der Vogelweide,
from the Codex Manesse, c. 1300-1340.

Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Heidelberg.

Panel Painting

When painting in the northern countries looked for a new field of activity, after the walls were no longer available, it worked together with sculptural art. The decoration of altars was the new target, and for a long time the fusion of arts worked together harmoniously. Sculpture created the architectural framework for the painting; whole constructions were erected on the altars and decorated with carved image work. Painting had at first a larger share in the development of these painted and gilded constructions than it did with wooden surfaces.

For a long time, carving formed the noblest part of the shrine or of the altarpiece, the execution of which was so precious and creative that it was showed to the devotees only during high church celebrations; they were deprived of it on other days by means of the collapsed wings. Only these wings were decorated on the exterior and interior with figurative paintings – a sign that painting was significantly less import than sculpture during the domination of the Gothic, which in many parts of Germany, in the north as well as in the south, was able to maintain its leading role in ecclesiastical art up to the 16th century.

Only from approximately the middle of the 15th century did painting win over the middle panel of the winged altars and thus conquer a field in which it could develop in full freedom, making itself independent from sculpture and architecture and developing proper panel painting. The first steps in this direction were made by painters in Cologne in the Lower Rhine region around the end of the 14th century, and also in the Netherlands.

The most important event in the field of painting in this period was therefore the advent of panel painting and its rapid development into an independent art form, which emerged out of the shadows of architecture and created its own laws. On the altar shrines on which they first appeared, they played only a minor role. The main representations on these altarpieces, carved in wood, looked more like paintings than plastic works of art, with their numerous figures. Painting, which served as an enhancement, wanted to compete with artistry by trying to represent the figures as sculpturally as possible without exploiting the inherent power of colour.

Master Heinrich Frauenlob,
from the Codex Manesse, c. 1300-1340.

Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Heidelberg.

Wilhelm of Cologne and the Cologne School of Painting

The beginning of this new painting in Cologne goes back to a Wilhelm of Cologne who was employed by the City Council in Cologne to complete paintings of any kind and any size, such as murals, images for flags and pendants, and book miniatures.

His performance must have been extraordinary for his time, as even a contemporary historian, the chronicler of the city of Limburg an der Lahn, remembered the artist and his work, and this is an unusual enthusiasm for chroniclers. There were no equals at that time in the entire Christendom, “[...] he painted everybody as if the person was alive”. But the Cologne school of painting had not sought and found their fame in the imitation of reality, but in a poetic idealism that aspired to break away from the nature of ordinary reality.

Of the works of Wilhelm of Cologne, possibly named Wilhelm von Herle, who was admitted to the Cologne Vine brotherhood in 1368 and “[...] received nine marks for paintings in 1370”, only sparse remnants of wall paintings from the upper town hall remain. The nine good heroes are presented as role models worthy of imitation, and some of these painted heads are now in a museum in Cologne. His name is also a collective term for a series of pictures that the Cologne school of painting, the school he founded, produced during his lifetime or soon after his death. Even if he had not personally participated, his mind continued to live in these pictures. They are, apart from a large altarpiece with scenes from the life of Jesus (now in Cologne Cathedral), from the convent of Franciscan nuns (the Clares) originating in Cologne, consistently small devotional images that were painted to decorate the altars in the private chapels of Cologne patricians. Extensive carvings of architectural character would have been misplaced in those tight spaces where silent prayers should enjoy communion.

Therefore painting came to the fore, and it knew so eloquently to speak a natural language to the worshippers that it was quickly understood merely by its favourite subject, the Madonna, who had become for people in medieval times even more venerable than Christ himself. The semi-romantic, semi-rough, and sensual female cult had so closely fused with the veneration of Mary, that the divine and the secular have become inseparable.

The Cologne painters saw the aim of their tireless work in the depiction of the ideal image of Mary, which at the same time represented the female ideal. They also experienced the satisfaction that their paintings, full of lovely grace, although often imitated would be rarely exceeded by the masters of later times despite extensive imitation.

The spiritual movement came to an artistic close around the same time as courtly love, the courtly epic, and didactic spiritual poetry. The courtly love song of the early days received an equal incarnation through the arts not in the miniatures of the older manuscripts, but in the pictures of the early days of the Cologne school.

Every flower, every blade of grass was represented true to nature by the Cologne painters, and these laboriously gathered glories were woven together like the threads of a carpet into each other in order to visually put them at the feet of the Blessed Mother.

It is thanks to this poetic urge that painting developed earlier than drawing and feelings developed stronger than the expression of the character. The Madonna herself evaporated into a very graceful, but impersonal creation that generally only embodied the popular beauty type, whereby the lack of knowledge of the body became increasingly obvious in the representation of the naked child.

Madonna with the Pea-BlossomHoly Virgin with the ChildSt Veronica with the Sudarium Christi