Background

It is now held that Grunewald was born about 1475 in Wurzburg, Germany, since his style presupposes a knowledge of Italian Renaissance art, and he was probably of the same generation as Albrecht Durer. The real name of Matthias Grünewald was Mathis Neithart Gothart. Grünewald was the name given to "Mathis, painter of Aschaffenburg" by the German art historiographer Joachim von Sandrart in 1675.

Career

Grunewald's first datable picture is the Mocking of Christ (probably 1503). Beginning in 1509 Grunewald was active as a painter for Archbishop Ulrich von Gemmingen at Aschaffenburg, as well as architect and superintendent of building activity at the Aschaffenburg castle.

From 1510/1512 to 1516 Grunewald executed his masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece: a large folding altar for the church of the Anthonites at Isenheim in Alsace. He painted few other works, and some of these have disappeared.

From 1516 on he was court painter to Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg. The most important work Grunewald executed for him was the altarpiece for the new monastic church of Saints Moritz and Mary Magdalen at Halle on the Saale, the Meeting of Saints Erasmus and Maurice, painted before 1525, in which Cardinal Albrecht is represented as St. Erasmus.

In 1525 the Peasants' War disrupted the feudal order in the Mainz area. After the insurrection was put down, the Lutherans and those who sympathized with the reformers had to leave the area. Grunewald must have been strongly involved in the movement.

Dismissed from his post of court painter after the Peasants' War, he settled in the Protestant community of Halle, where he worked as a hydraulic engineer. He died there in August 1528.

Altogether, only about 10 works of painting (some composed of several panels) and about 40 drawings by Grunewald are known. Attempts to ascribe other works to him have been made, but these attributions have not been generally accepted.

In the Isenheim Altarpiece Grunewald reached a stage in his development similar to Italian artists in his ability to correctly represent three-dimensional objects rendered in perspective. But he wholly disregarded Italian ideals of harmony and beauty, which Durer accepted and sought to introduce into German art. For Grunewald, ugliness and deformity were fully justified artistic means to achieve his end: to move the spectator by the dramatic expressionism of the work. His main artistic preoccupation was not so much drawing as color. In contrast to almost all his German contemporaries, Grunewald had no interest in the graphic arts. He was not a linear-minded artist but first of all a painter. Of all his known drawings, only one is done in pen and ink; all the others are painterly drawings which the artist executed in soft chalk.

The only really outstanding picture executed by Grunewald outside of the Isenheim Altarpiece is the Meeting of Saints Erasmus and Maurice (now in Munich), which is equally individual in concept. Here he shows his mastery in contrasting various kinds of materials: the glittering apparel of Bishop Erasmus and the light-reflecting armor of the black saintly knight.

Grunewald was a unique artist. Outside of his immediate vicinity, in the Mainz region and the Middle and Upper Rhine, he had no influence whatsoever and his name was soon forgotten. Early in the 20th century the expressionists rediscovered his work; they were able to accept an art not intent upon esthetic beauty, and they valued his mysticism.

Achievements

• The Isenheim Altarpiece (now in Colmar, France) is by far his most important work, and it is the largest and most individual painted ensemble of the German Renaissance, exceptional in style and expression. His importance as an innovator lies above all in his masterly, free, and individual use of color, with which he achieved not decorative but expressive effects.
  
  Not only the expressionist painters were inspired by his work: the opera Mathis der Maler (1934) by Paul Hindemith deals with Grunewald's life, and he also wrote a symphony from three extracts of the opera whose movements have descriptive titles from the Isenheim Altarpiece.
  
  He is commemorated as an artist and saint by the Lutheran Church on April 6, as well as by the Episcopal Church (USA) on August 5.

Works

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  • The Meeting of St Anthony Abbot and St Paul in the Wilderness by Matthias Gruenewald - 7" x 11" Gallery Wrapped Giclee Canvas Art Print - Ready to Hang

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  • Establishment of the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome by Matthias Gruenewald - 12" x 23" Gallery Wrapped Giclee Canvas Art Print - Ready to Hang

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  • Meeting of St Erasm and St Maurice Detail by Matthias Gruenewald - 23" x 23" Gallery Wrapped Giclee Canvas Art Print - Ready to Hang

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  • Fourteen Saints Altarpiece Detail by Matthias Gruenewald - 7" x 15" Gallery Wrapped Giclee Canvas Art Print - Ready to Hang

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  • Benefactor with Bird Cage by Matthias Gruenewald - 10" x 15" Gallery Wrapped Giclee Canvas Art Print - Ready to Hang

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  • Carrying the Cross Detail by Matthias Gruenewald - 14" x 19" Gallery Wrapped Giclee Canvas Art Print - Ready to Hang

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  • Stuppach Madonna Detail by Matthias Gruenewald - 11" x 15" Gallery Wrapped Giclee Canvas Art Print - Ready to Hang

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  • Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Gruenewald - 6" x 11" Gallery Wrapped Giclee Canvas Art Print - Ready to Hang

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  • Stuppach Madonna by Matthias Gruenewald - 15" x 19" Gallery Wrapped Giclee Canvas Art Print - Ready to Hang

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  • Matthias Grünewald: 110+ Renaissance Paintings

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  • 112 Color Paintings of Matthias Grünewald - German Renaissance Painter (c. 1470 – August 31, 1528)

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Religion

Grunewald is considered to be a Lutheran, for after his death Lutheran books were found among his possessions.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "He never had a school, he never had a real pupil; it even seems that he never had an assistant. " - Guido Schoenberger

Connections

Records indicate he married Anna in 1512. The marriage was not happy and in 1523 she would be institutionalised with what is variously described as mental illness and demonic possession.

Wife:

Anna

References

• Matthias Gruenewald: Personality and Accomplishment
• Grünewald