ARTIN SCHONGAUER MAX GEISBERG M. KNOEDLER & CO., INC. 14 EAST 57TH STREET NEW YORK 1928 CHRIST AS A GARDENER APPEARING TO MARY MAGDALEN Size of the original engraving 161 x 160 mm. _nong his prints I should award the prize to Christ und the Magdalen, for here the contents of the com- position have received an embodiment, the fervor, depth and delicacy of which have never been sur- Pesca 20 ae, Max GEIsBERG From an impression in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc, MARTIN SCHONGAUER BY MAX GEISBERG Director of the Landes Museum, Minster, Westphalia Translated from the German by EMIL H. RICHTER f Mera OEeOLER & CO. INc ~ I4 EAST 57TH STREET NEW YORK Martin Scooncaurr by Max GEIsBERG is number Two of The Knoedler Booklets. It is translated from the German by Emil H. Richter, formerly Curator of Prints at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is reprinted from Tur Print- CoLiEctor’s QuarTERLY (VoLuMEIV,No. 2 pp. 102-128), by permission of the publishers J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., London, for pres- entation only, and is not for sale. The illustrations have been made, in every case, from original engravings in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. The dimensions are those given by Max Lehrs: Geschichte und Kritischer Katalog Volume V. Vienna 1925), since tt seemed inadvisable to record minute vari- ations, save in the case of MADONNA WITH THE APPLE. M. Knoedler &% Co., Inc. January, 1928. THE GETTY CENTER LIBRARY List of Illustrations Christ as a Gardener Appearing to Mary PAGE Magdalen Frontispiece The Annunciation 9 Death of the Virgin IO Christ Taken Captive 13 Christ Crowned with Thorns 14 Christ Before Pilate iz Christ on the Cross 18 The Entombment ; 21 The Resurrection 22 The Redeemer 25 Madonna Standing 26 Virgin Seated in a Courtyard 29 Madonna with the Apple 30 St. James the Greater Overcoming the Saracens 33 St. Anthony Tormented by Demons 34 Angel Holding a Shield with a Lion 37 Woman Seated Holding a Shield with aSwan 38 Wild Man Holding a Shield with a Greyhound 41 Wild Man Holding a Shield with a Stag 42 Wild Man Holding Two Shields 43 A Foolish Virgin 45 MARTIN SCHONGAUER 14452-1491 ‘‘Schongauer’s productions all breathe a nobility and a perception of beauty which place him among the very greatest masters of the graphic arts.”? Max GEIsBERG MARTIN SCHONGAUER BY MAX GEISBERG Director of the Landes Museum, Muinster, Westphalia (Translated from the German by Emil H. Richter) HE cheery golden sky which arched over the 6 eae ae artists of the fifteenth century, rejoicing in their success and fame, was denied to their Ger- man contemporaries. Petty conditions of life — the lack of encouragement and of large commissions, the narrow spirit of the guild — these and many other causes were to blame. Rarely did a man’s ar- tistic personality cause a ripple beyond the walls of his native town. Martin Schongauer, without a doubt the most eminent painter and engraver in the latter third of the fifteenth century, is one of the few exceptions. If we consider that in his lifetime his fame had spread from Kolmar, in Alsace, to Augsburg, causing young Burgkmair, while a journeyman, to seek employ- ment in his workship; if in later years young Diirer wended his way to the upper Rhine with like inten- tions, it is difficult to believe that it was the paint- 7 ings alone of Schongauer which carried his fame as far as Suabia and Franconia. It is far more likely that his engravings, numbering 115, and bearing, without exception, the well known mark (\ ¢&-‘§ no sooner left the press than they began their fruitful wander- ing from workshop to workshop and fair to fair. Countless copies in engraving and wood-cut multi- plied their numbers; welcome, inexhaustible sources of inspiration not only to painters and engravers, but to every artisan: to the carver of images, to the brass- founder and glass painter, to the goldsmith and the tapestry weaver, to the faience painter and to the embroiderer in beads—far beyond the confines of Germany. By means of the multiplying arts he was enabled to exert a far-reaching influence on the art of his time. And, as in Durer, we find the loftiest flights of his genius in his engravings, not in the few oil paintings which can claim to be authentic. Among these latter the most important, the life size Madonna in the Rosegarden, at present in the sacristy of the Church of St. Martin in Kolmar, bears the date 1473, thus providing an important item re- garding his life, concerning which our information 8 THE ANNUNCIATION Size of the original engraving 162 x 112 mm. From an impression formerly i in the British Museum, now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. Ee asia: is ‘* DEATH OF THE VIRGIN Size of the original engraving 255 x 169 mm. From an impression on paper with the watermark Little Bull’s Head, now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. is scanty enough. And yet Schongauer, who so suc- cessfully exerted his influence in shaping the vast and speedy development of adolescent engraving, is just the man of whose life we eagerly wish to know more. His father, Caspar, a goldsmith of Augsburg, settled in Kolmar with his wife before 1440, and was formally admitted to citizenship in 1445. Here their son Martin was born, presumably in that same year, or earlier, rather than later. He never married nor did he ever become a citizen of Kolmar. We know scarcely anything regarding his youth and his education. In 1465 he was matriculated at the Uni- versity of Leipzig, not as a student, most likely, but in some other capacity, possibly as a book-illumina- tor. His earliest engravings must have been made very soon thereafter, since we know that an engraver from Lower Germany, Israhel van Meckenem, made several copies of Schongauer’s monogram, probably about 1468, but surely before 1470, as he then had proceeded in his journeyings from the Upper Rhine into Franconia. It seems reasonable to suppose that this was done with the intention of increasing the sale of his copies by affixing to them a mark well Il known to the public. Now the letters in Schongau- er’s monogram are not always of the same shape; in his earliest twelve engravings the shanks of the M are drawn vertically, whereas they slant in all his later prints. Note that even at that early date Meckenem had already copied the later version of the mono- gram; it may be well, therefore, to assume from the earliest engravings of our artist a date somewhat earlier than heretofore accepted, say about 1465. The large painting above mentioned was done seven years later. In 1488 Schongauer took up his abode in Brisach, close by Kolmar, and there he died Feb- ruary 2, 1491. Durer arrived at his workshop a lit- tle later, only to find that he had passed away. If one considers that a man like Meckenem exe- cuted over 600 plates in forty years, it would seem as though the twenty-six working years, approxi- mately, of Schongauer, were but imperfectly filled | by his one hundred fifteen engravings. Either his ac- tivities as a painter were engrossing or, in later years, he no longer handled the graver. Several copies by Meckenem, which for reasons of technique can hard- ly be dated as late as the eighties, are done after I2 ce tm et CHRIST TAKEN CAPTIVE Size of the original engraving 164 x 116 mm. From an impression in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. ‘ ; eR on ay Na a SSS, TLE aac ee ee NE aa Saat eae ee CHRIST CROWNED WITH THORNS Size of the original engraving 161 x 113 mm. From an impression formerly in the collection of Fried- rich August II (Dresden), now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. Schongauer’s engravings which must be placed rel- atively late in his career. In other words, it would seem as though the large majority of the master’s plates must have been engraved between 1466 and 1480. II Our first sensation in looking at the engravings of Schongauer will be one of strangeness. The man- ner of presentation has about it something unnat- ural, unreal, to which we must become accustomed. His saints are pictured with emaciated bodies, with frail spider-like fingers, curls spreading and rigid, garments draped with excessive fullness, folds with wrinkled breaks and edges of the cloth swinging in great curves, veil-ends whipping as in a gale, queerly proportioned figures, with diminutive busts, mincing gait, and timid affected movements. This, together with unwonted forms in the landscape and restless- ness in all the elements of the composition, sums up one’s first impression. Whoever is familiar with Ger- man art of the late Gothic period will realize that these are peculiarities which, in a degree, are com- mon to all forms of art at that time, but he also will a5 perceive, that in this respect, Schongauer is an ex- tremist outvying others in his devotion to the ideals of beauty current at his time. All his creations breathe a predilection for refinement, gracefulness and exces- sive richness of form, verging on mannerism. There is little room left for impressive grandeur, simplicity or strong emotion. There is hardly a trace of the wonderful feeling for nature which marks the work of Witz or Van Eyck less than a generation earlier. Nowhere in the landscape of Schongauer have we the sensation of looking out upon the actual world, a feeling evoked by Diirer’s smallest picture. The | master of Kolmar does not seem to have carried a sketch book when out of doors. How entirely differ- ent are his clouds in Christ bearing his Cross—the one instance in which they are not conventionalized —from those in the 4 pocalypse. Wherever he has followed nature closely, as in the minute branching of the bare little trees, one sees that he was inter- ested only in the play of lines which he reproduced. The greatest realism is found in his rendering of animals, and the genius displayed in welding com- ponent parts of various animals into living, fantastic 16 CHRIST BEFORE PILATE Size of the original engraving 162 x 115 mm. From an impression formerly in the collection of K. E. von Liphart, now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. CHRIST ON THE CROSS Size of the original engraving 162 x I15 mm. From an impression on paper with the watermark of Small Bull’s Head, now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co,, Inc. creatures in his Temptation of St. Anthony,is a mat- ter of admiration for all time to come. In contrast with this, the lack of realism in his human figures is all the more striking. He seems to have drawn from life only in his earliest years, contenting himself, later on, with a general command of bodily forms, subjected, in accordance with his ideals of beauty, to radical changes. Portrait-like, characteristic heads, though generally in great favor in late Gothic times, are not to his taste and he uses them—violently car- icatured — only in the executioners of the Passion scenes. It is surprising how well this master, who rarely succeeds in correctly drawing a limb with its joints, can, at times, convincingly express the most violent action. Whatever shortcomings may exist in Schongau- er’s prints, are outweighed by his inexhaustible cre- ative power. This reveals itself even in his draping of the figures, which, apart from his earliest produc- tions——still reminiscent of the study of the model— assumes the role of a decorative element born of the imaginative resources of the artist. Even the stiffest silk, if draped on the model, will not produce such Se a diversified play of fold-hills and veils, fold-breaks, and eye-shaped twists of the cloth. Nor does precise- ly the same draping occur in any two figures, kneel- ing, sitting or standing, and doubtless the engray- ings of Schongauer owed much of their vogue and wide distribution to this versatility. They must have been intended as models for fellow-artists less well endowed with the inventive faculty; there is no other explanation possible for series like the 4 postles or its feminine parallel—the Wise and Foolish Virgins. It is noteworthy that models of drapery, as those in the last-named set, constitute really the only novel theme in Schongauer’s prints. Other subjects, such as Saints and Evangelists, fancy armorial designs, ornaments, genre pictures, animal subjects, even designs for gold- smith’s ware, all are things which already had been done. But just because of this limitation, the rich inventiveness of the master achieves its greatest tri- umphs by repeated treatment of the same themes; that of Christ on the Cross occurring no less than six times. These versions are identical in their essen- tials; the same helpless grief in the figures of Mary and John, in Christ an unchanged “tempered piti- 20 Pm, %. LS gill we THE ENTOMEBMENT Size of the original engraving 163x116 mm. From an impression on paper with the watermark D with a double cross, now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. THE RESURRECTION Size of the original engraving 163 x 116 mm. From an impression on paper with the matermark D with a double cross, now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. ableness”’ to use Wolfflin’s harsh but striking phrase. These pictures illustrate successive stages in Schon- gauer’s development. We see the master busy on the same theme time after time, with the same inexhaus- tible powers of imagination and the same ease which we have just admired in the draping of garments, al- ways bent on finding some new form of expression, some new and more perfect solution of the problem. In the history of engraving this was an entirely new phase, for in the only analogous case, the Annuncia- tion prints of Master E. S., the artist is preoccupied, not with questions of perfection of form, but with matters of perspective. Let us place an earlier en- graving, say a late Madonna of Master E. S., side by side with the Virgin of the Annunciation of Schon- gauer. We note that the latter assumes plastic round- ness like a statue, against a white indeterminate sur- face. The lily and the tankard near her seemingly owes its existence to the fact that, as an afterthought, the master decided, for reasons of composition, to let the veil flutter to the right instead of the left, as first intended, and of which faint traces are still dis- cernible. Master E. S., on the other hand, gives us a es glimpse of a cozy chamber, with beamed ceiling, pat- terned floor slabs, leaded windows, a vaulted altar niche and a house-altar with figured side curtains, in short, an almost endless array of details. The same holds true of the landscapes; the print by E. S., rep- resenting St. John in Patmos, even shows us St. Christopher in the background, crossing the stream. In a print of the same subject, by Schongauer, a boat and a ship on the horizon are the only accessories, and they are needed to explain the nature of the dis- tant expanse. This elimination of all non-essentials, in which German art of the fifteenth century is usu- ally so rich, should not, of course, be taken as con- trasting with his richness of imagination and of form. It is a matter of artistic policy carried out by the master with more and more thoroughness. All the genre-like details, disclosing his astounding pow- ers of observation and of refreshing Teutonic hu- mor, are discarded before long. Brocade, velvet, the spectacles used by the Apostle for tracing the lines while he reads (Death of the Virgin), the small fig- ures in the distance, dogs, lizards, stags and other animals — none of these are found in later plates. 24 THE REDEEMER Of the same size as the original engraving From an impression in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. MADONNA STANDING Of the same size as the original engraving From an impression on paper with watermark Triple Mountain, with full margins (115 x 112 mm.) in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. Schongauer focusses the attention more and more closely, concentrating all his powers on the perfec- tion of the form, according to his ideal of beauty. We need not wonder, therefore, that finally the sin- gle figure replaces former groups of figures and ex- clusively enlists his energies, just as Durer ends his career with the four grand figures of Apostles and Evangelists. These are tendencies which, in a gen- eral way, point unmistakably to Italian rather than German art. The possibility that the Master of Kol- mar came in touch with southern influences can cer- tainly not be denied, but an endeavor to guess how this might have occurred would be rash indeed. Were it true we would then have to admit that he remained more staunchly true to his German self than his great fellow-artist in Nurnberg. Whoever attempts the chronological arrangement of the engraving —undated without exception— of the predecessors of Schongauer, must pay close heed to the increasing power of observation of the differ- ent artists, to changes in their rendering of objects, in their perspective and their technique. Nearly all these props fail when we approach Schongauer, the 27 more so because his prints were produced within a comparatively short space of time. Yet from his ar- tistic evolution we can form, as shown above, a fairly clear idea of his development. In him we see the first painter who enters the field of engraving, heretofore an exclusive domain of the goldsmiths. To these— with their subtle, painstaking manner, ingrained in them by their craft — engraving owes its purity of style, which consists in using to the best advantage the possibilities based upon and limited by material and tools: Semper’s “justification of material.” In- deed, these productions of the early period are un- equaled to this day and will remain models of style for all time to come; models which must be con- sulted if graphic art is to preserve its proper techni- cal expression and its purity. With the advent of the first painter in the ranks of engravers on copper many things which have be- come second nature to the painter, but which are more or less foreign to the goldsmith, now enter into engraving. One item already mentioned is the stronger assertion of a purely artistic intention in composition; a second is a greater assurance and 28 ERE Sa BONE OA SEA SS St RE i VIRGIN SEATED IN A COURTYARD Size of the original engraving 166 x 119 mm. From an impression in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. a onl Ss Os oa MADONNA WITH THE APPLE A portion of the blank paper has been trimmed in this impression. It now measures 161 x 80 mm. Formerly in the Albertina (Vienna), now in the pos- session of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. greater practice in drawing and in seeing, the habit of study from the model; a third and very import- ant item is a sense of the plastic roundness of the figures represented, a point which the painter com- monly endeavors to emphasize with all available col- oristic means, to the point of allusion. One need but make a comparison with draped figures of Master E. S. to realize how flat the fullness of his folds ap- pears and how real are Schongauer’s figures. It is as though the third dimension suddenly had been re- vealed in his engravings. It would be unfair to say that the pictorial character of the compositions is likewise a new achievement not in evidence before Schongauer, or that he is the first to remove his fig- ures from the immediate foreground. All these are characteristics of Master E. S. but intensified in Schongauer, thanks to his greater knowledge of per- spective, his keener perception of light and shade, and also owing to the plastic element in his figures and the constant striving for unified lighting. He | obviously strives to differentiate foreground, middle distance and background by means of variations in the manner of graver work; in his later prints, for 31 the sake of stronger contrasts, he is apt to eliminate the middle distance. While color gives to the painter an easy means for contrasting various objects, the only resource which the engraver commands is the scale of tones pro- duced by his system of lines. Schongauer seeks much more definitely than his predecessors to de- tach the individual figure from its surroundings; he achieves his purpose by toning the background. Fur- thermore he also attempts to bind together entire groups of figures by means of similar values in tone, and thereby to provide repose and an easy survey of the whole diversified composition. This reveals it- self surprisingly in the large plate, Christ bearing his Cross,in which it is true, the master has lavished all his strongest effects on the main group in the middle, where Christ is falling under the cross, leay- ing only a like tone for the background at the left and a lighter one for the immediate foreground at the right. Later on he has succeeded in brilliantly solving similar problems in scenes of the Passion, such as Christ on the Cross and the Entombment. Another very curious fact, closely connected with 32 ‘DUT “'09 X& Io[psouy “pw Jo uorssassod ay) ut mou ‘(euusTA) evunIog;y ey ut Aprouioy ‘uorssoidut ue Woy ‘uu TEP X 6QT SutAvssUD [BUISIIO DY) JO 9ZIS SNAOVUVS AHL ONINOOUAAO YALVAUO AHL sAWvl “Ls —— ee eae aaa eae meee Oe, ST. ANTHONY TORMENTED BY DEMONS Size of the original engraving 312 x 230 mm. From an impression on paper with the watermark Gothic P, now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. Schongauer’s activities as a painter, has never yet been mentioned, strange to say, namely his endeavor to render textures and colors. We are not concerned, just now, with the color illusion produced by associ- ation of ideas, the suggestion to the eye of the be- holder of certain definite hues, such as black or blue, which is an important innovation of French por- trait engravers of the seventeenth century. We refer to a rendering of the relative value of different col- ors, a discovery heretofore universally claimed for Diirer. In this connection the glittering coat of the kneeling king in the Adoration of the Magi, the doublet of St. Martin, the pillow in the Crowning of the Virgin should be examined. One might also study the shimmering trunks of the birches, the dark garment of Christ, in the Taking of Christ, the cloak of the Magdalen in the Entombment, and many other instances. I hardly need to dwell upon the fact that Diirer afterwards left his predecessor far behind in both respects, and that he is the first to undertake the interpretation of atmosphere filling and deepening his pictures. The birth of such po- tentialities, however, is found in Schongauer. 35 To differentiate between painter and engraver by the terms artist and artisan most assuredly would be a mistake. In medieval Germany they are synony- mous. Yet certain peculiarities which we are pleased to call artistic, are found in Schongauer and his prints. For instance the self-consciousness, unknown till his day, which finds expression in the signing of all his engravings with the initials of his name. The few cases in which we can trace corrections on the plates, viz: the strengthening of shadows, etc., show these to have been guided by artistic considerations, never by the desire to increase the number of im- pressions the plate might yield, which is a common practice with Meckenem. Schongauer seems not to have printed from his plates after they had reached a certain degree of wear; whatever worn impres- sions there are, must date from subsequent owners of his copper plates who made capital out of his fame. As a matter of fact, there is even a portrait of Luther with the monogram of Schongauer! While trial proofs of Diirer’s prints reveal the careful prep- arations made for his engravings, the essential out- lines of the composition drawn in with the dry- 36 ANGEL HOLDING A SHIELD WITH A LION Diameter of the original engraving 78 mm. From an impression in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc, WOMAN SEATED HOLDING A SHIELD WITH A SWAN Diameter of the original engraving 78 mm. From an impression, formerly in the collection of Fried- rich August II (Dresden) now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. point, Schongauer apparently seems to have no such preliminary outline, judging from corrections which were evidently made subsequently on the plates. In the Resurrection, for instance, the rise of ground un- der the Magdalen has only been added to bring the kneeling figure into the foreground. If the hills are covered up with the hand, the figures represented no longer look at each other. In the scene on the Mount of Olives one sees a rejected outline of Christ’s profile in the air; the position of the angel having made it impossible. If all the above peculiarities seem due to the fact that Schongauer was a painter, it must likewise be borne in mind that he himself was familiar with the goldsmith’s craft. His father, Kaspar, who was liv- ing in 1481, as well as three of his brothers, Paul, George and Kaspar, were all goldsmiths, and it seems not impossible that Martin fared like young Diirer, whose father, likewise a goldsmith, first ap- prenticed him in this craft and gave his sanction to his becoming a painter only after he had learned neatly to practice the craft first learned. That Mar- tin was as familiar with hammer and pincers as with = pe) the brush might well be considered proven by his masterly and workmanlike designs for the Crosier, the Censer, and by the splendid chandelier in the Death of the Virgin. Ill A subject of no small importance is Schongauer’s technique and the advance in the art of engraving to be ascribed to him. This is not easy to define. En- graving on copper commences with parallel shade strokes, extremely delicate shadings, blending, to the naked eye, into an effect similar to an India ink wash. In the hands of Master E. S. the separate lay- ers of lines become clear, distinct and assume an in- dividual réle. Cross-hatchings are often found in his plates, but usually there are several layers criss- crossed over each other in the deep shadows. Par- tial shadows are dissolved into little dashes near the light; the rounding of bodies is modeled by short lines in contiguous rows. In the matter of technique Schongauer, without doubt, is a pupil of Master E. S. who may have lived in Basle or in Strassburg, even though there is no evidence of their having 40 WILD MAN HOLDING A SHIELD WITH A GREYHOUND Diameter of the original engraving 78 mm. From an impression in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. SEN MC SS WN AS \\ WN Ws an, N aN Pa Dy s fez WILD MAN HOLDING A SHIELD WITH A STAG Diameter of the original engraving 78 mm. From an impression, formerly in the William Esdaile, Robert Balmanno, and British Museum collections now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. > WILD MAN HOLDING TWO SHIELDS Diameter of the original engraving 78 mm. From an impression formerly in the William Esdaile, Robert Balmanno, and British Museum collections; now in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. been in personal contact with each other. No trace is found of any influence of the great monogramist in the earliest engravings of Schongauer, the Ma- donna crowned by Angels, the Small Crucifixion and the Man of Sorrows. In later plates such influ- ences become clearly evident. The strange parallel lines in the sky in the Temptation of St. Anthony, increasing in depth toward the top, can only be ex- plained by comparison with two corresponding plates of Master E. S. The posture and forms of Christ, in the early Crucifixions, in like manner seem influ- enced by his predecessor, but, to my mind, the echo of the elder master is nowhere more clearly evident than in the Madonna with the Parrot, which is closely related — in facial form —to the latest Ma- donna pictures of Master E. S. Finally, as we know, there is— among the fancy armorial designs —a Schongauer engraving actually copied after Master E. S., the only copy among his prints. In another figure of that series the costume is of the kind we are wont to find in the engravings of the mono- gramist. Schongauer starts out, in regard to technique, 44 A FOOLISH VIRGIN Size of the original engraving 147 x 108 mm. From an impression in the possession of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. from the height to which his. predecessor had car- ried graver work. Thence he, in turn, progresses. With him, for the first time, the lines in their entire length follow the curves of the body; another series crossing the first, indicates the rounding of the form. The transition from dark to light is effected by breaking the lines into little hooks. Extensive use is made of simple, plain cross-hatching, but in the depths of shadow, he is obliged to add a third, fourth and additional series of shading strokes. However consciously he may differentiate the strength of his graver lines (for instance, in fore- and background), the idea never occurs to him to infuse dynamic differences into each separate stroke; that was a stride in technical development reserved for his heir. Schongauer’s productions all breathe a nobility and a perception of beauty which place him among the very greatest masters of the graphic arts. Among his prints I should award the prize to Christ and the Magdalen; for here the contents of the composition have received an embodiment, the fervor, depth and delicacy of which have never been surpassed in art. 46