GERMAN PAINTING.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: Colvin, _A. Durer, his Teachers, his
Rivals, and his Scholars_; Eye, _Leben und Werke Albrecht
Durers_; Förster, _Peter von Cornelius_; Förster,
_Geschichte der Deutschen Kunst_; Keane, _Early Teutonic,
Italian, and French Painters_; Kügler, _Handbook to German
and Netherland Schools, trans. by Crowe_; Merlo, _Die
Meister der altkolnischer Malerschule_; Moore, _Albert
Durer_; Pecht, _Deutsche Kunstler des Neunzehnten
Jahrhunderts_; Reber, _Geschichte der neueren Deutschen
Kunst_; Riegel, _Deutsche Kunststudien_; Rosenberg, _Die
Berliner Malerschule_; Rosenberg, _Sebald und Barthel
Beham_; Rumohr, _Hans Holbein der Jungere_; Sandrart,
_Teutsche Akademie der Edlen Bau, Bild-und Malerey-Kunste_;
Schuchardt, _Lucas Cranach's Leben_; Thausig, _Albert Durer,
His Life and Works_; Waagen, _Kunstwerke und Kunstler in
Deutschland_; E. aus'm Weerth, _Wandmalereien des
Mittelalters in den Rheinlanden_; Wessely, _Adolph Menzel_;
Woltmann, _Holbein and his Time_; Woltmann, _Geschichte der
Deutschen Kunst im Elsass_; Wurtzbach, _Martin Schongauer_.
EARLY GERMAN PAINTING: The Teutonic lands, like almost all of the
countries of Europe, received their first art impulse from
Christianity through Italy. The centre of the faith was at Rome, and
from there the influence in art spread west and north, and in each
land it was modified by local peculiarities of type and temperament.
In Germany, even in the early days, though Christianity was the theme
of early illuminations, miniatures, and the like, and though there was
a traditional form reaching back to Italy and Byzantium, yet under it
was the Teutonic type--the material, awkward, rather coarse Germanic
point of view. The wish to realize native surroundings was apparent
from the beginning.
It is probable that the earliest painting in Germany took the form of
illuminations. At what date it first appeared is unknown. In
wall-painting a poor quality of work was executed in the churches as
early as the ninth century, and probably earlier. The oldest now
extant are those at Oberzell, dating back to the last part of the
tenth century. Better examples are seen in the Lower Church of
Schwarzrheindorf, of the twelfth century, and still better in the
choir and transept of the Brunswick cathedral, ascribed to the early
thirteenth century.
[Illustration: FIG. 87.--LOCHNER. STS. JOHN, CATHERINE, AND MATTHEW.
NAT. GAL. LONDON.]
All of these works have an archaic appearance about them, but they
are better in composition and drawing than the productions of Italy
and Byzantium at that time. It is likely that all the German churches
at this time were decorated, but most of the paintings have been
destroyed. The usual method was to cover the walls and wooden ceilings
with blue grounds, and upon these to place figures surrounded by
architectural ornaments. Stained glass was also used extensively.
Panel painting seems to have come into existence before the thirteenth
century (whether developed from miniature or wall-painting is
unknown), and was used for altar decorations. The panels were done in
tempera with figures in light colors upon gold grounds. The
spirituality of the age with a mingling of northern sentiment appeared
in the figure. This figure was at times graceful, and again awkward
and archaic, according to the place of production and the influence of
either France or Italy. The oldest panels extant are from the
Wiesenkirche at Soest, now in the Berlin Museum. They do not date
before the thirteenth century.
FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES: In the fourteenth century the
influence of France began to show strongly in willowy figures, long
flowing draperies, and sentimental poses. The artists along the Rhine
showed this more than those in the provinces to the east, where a
ruder if freer art appeared. The best panel-painting of the time was
done at Cologne, where we meet with the name of the first painter,
Meister Wilhelm, and where a school was established usually known as
the
SCHOOL OF COLOGNE: This school probably got its sentimental
inclination, shown in slight forms and tender expression, from France,
but derived much of its technic from the Netherlands. Stephen Lochner,
or Meister Stephen, (fl. 1450) leaned toward the Flemish methods, and
in his celebrated picture, the Madonna of the Rose Garden, in the
Cologne Museum, there is an indication of this; but there is also an
individuality showing the growth of German independence in painting.
The figures of his Dombild have little manliness or power, but
considerable grace, pathos, and religious feeling. They are not
abstract types but the spiritualized people of the country in native
costumes, with much gold, jewelry, and armor. Gold was used instead of
a landscape background, and the foreground was spattered with flowers
and leaves. The outlines are rather hard, and none of the aërial
perspective of the Flemings is given. After a time French sentiment
was still further encroached upon by Flemish realism, as shown in the
works of the Master of the Lyversberg Passion (fl. about 1463-1480),
to be seen in the Cologne Museum.
[Illustration: FIG. 88.--WOLGEMUT. CRUCIFIXION. MUNICH.]
BOHEMIAN SCHOOL: It was not on the Lower Rhine alone that German
painting was practised. The Bohemian school, located near Prague,
flourished for a short time in the fourteenth century, under Charles
IV., with Theodorich of Prague (fl. 1348-1378), Wurmser, and Kunz, as
the chief masters. Their art was quite the reverse of the Cologne
painters. It was heavy, clumsy, bony, awkward. If more original it was
less graceful, not so pathetic, not so religious. Sentiment was
slurred through a harsh attempt at realism, and the religious subject
met with something of a check in the romantic mediæval chivalric
theme, painted quite as often on the castle wall as the scriptural
theme on the church wall. After the close of the fourteenth century
wall-painting began to die out in favor of panel pictures.
NUREMBERG SCHOOL: Half-way between the sentiment of Cologne and the
realism of Prague stood the early school of Nuremberg, with no known
painter at its head. Its chief work, the Imhof altar-piece, shows,
however, that the Nuremberg masters of the early and middle fifteenth
century were between eastern and western influences. They inclined to
the graceful swaying figure, following more the sculpture of the time
than the Cologne type.
FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES: German art, if begun in the
fourteenth century, hardly showed any depth or breadth until the
fifteenth century, and no real individual strength until the sixteenth
century. It lagged behind the other countries of Europe and produced
the cramped archaic altar-piece. Then when printing was invented the
painter-engraver came into existence. He was a man who painted panels,
but found his largest audience through the circulation of engravings.
The two kinds of arts being produced by the one man led to much
detailed line work with the brush. Engraving is an influence to be
borne in mind in examining the painting of this period.
[Illustration: FIG. 89.--DÜRER. PRAYING VIRGIN. AUGSBURG.]
FRANCONIAN SCHOOL: Nuremberg was the centre of this school, and its
most famous early master was Wolgemut (1434-1519), though Plydenwurff
is the first-named painter. After the latter's death Wolgemut married
his widow and became the head of the school. His paintings were
chiefly altar-pieces, in which the figures were rather lank and
narrow-shouldered, with sharp outlines, indicative perhaps of the
influence of wood-engraving, in which he was much interested. There
was, however, in his work an advance in characterization, nobility of
expression, and quiet dignity, and it was his good fortune to be the
master of one of the most thoroughly original painters of all the
German schools--Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528).
With Dürer and Holbein German art reached its apogee in the first half
of the sixteenth century, yet their work was not different in spirit
from that of their predecessors. Painting simply developed and became
forceful and expressive technically without abandoning its early
character. There is in Dürer a naive awkwardness of figure, some
angularity of line, strain of pose, and in composition oftentimes
huddling and overloading of the scene with details. There is not that
largeness which seemed native to his Italian contemporaries. He was
hampered by that German exactness, which found its best expression in
engraving, and which, though unsuited to painting, nevertheless crept
into it. Within these limitations Dürer produced the typical art of
Germany in the Renaissance time--an art more attractive for the charm
and beauty of its parts than for its unity, or its general impression.
Dürer was a travelled man, visited Italy and the Netherlands, and,
though he always remained a German in art, yet he picked up some
Italian methods from Bellini and Mantegna that are faintly apparent in
some of his works. In subject he was almost exclusively religious,
painting the altar-piece with infinite care upon wooden panel, canvas,
or parchment. He never worked in fresco, preferring oil and tempera.
In drawing he was often harsh and faulty, in draperies cramped at
times, and then, again, as in the Apostle panels at Munich, very
broad, and effective. Many of his pictures show a hard, dry brush, and
a few, again, are so free and mellow that they look as though done by
another hand. He was usually minute in detail, especially in such
features as hair, cloth, flesh. His portraits were uneven and not his
best productions. He was too close a scrutinizer of the part and not
enough of an observer of the whole for good portraiture. Indeed, that
is the criticism to be made upon all his work. He was an exquisite
realist of certain features, but not always of the _ensemble_.
Nevertheless he holds first rank in the German art of the Renaissance,
not only on account of his technical ability, but also because of his
imagination, sincerity, and striking originality.
[Illustration: FIG. 90.--HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER. PORTRAIT. HAGUE MUS.]
Dürer's influence was wide-spread throughout Germany, especially in
engraving, of which he was a master. In painting Schäufelin
(1490?-1540?) was probably his apprentice, and in his work followed
the master so closely that many of his works have been attributed to
Dürer. This is true in measure of Hans Baldung (1476?-1552?). Hans von
Kulmbach (?-1522) was a painter of more than ordinary importance,
brilliant in coloring, a follower of Dürer, who was inclined toward
Italian methods, an inclination that afterward developed all through
German art. Following Dürer's formulas came a large number of
so-called "Little Masters" (from the size of their engraved plates),
who were more engravers than painters. Among the more important of
those who were painters as well as engravers were Altdorfer
(1480?-1538), a rival rather than an imitator of Dürer; Barthel Beham
(1502-1540), Sebald Beham (1500-1550), Pencz (1500?-1550), Aldegrever
(1502-1558), and Bink (1490?-1569?).
SWABIAN SCHOOL: This school includes a number of painters who were
located at different places, like Colmar and Ulm, and later on it
included the Holbeins at Augsburg, who were really the consummation of
the school. In the fifteenth century one of the early leaders was
Martin Schöngauer (1446?-1488), at Colmar. He is supposed to have been
a pupil of Roger Van der Weyden, of the Flemish school, and is better
known by his engravings than his paintings, none of the latter being
positively authenticated. He was thoroughly German in his type and
treatment, though, perhaps, indebted to the Flemings for his coloring.
There was some angularity in his figures and draperies, and a tendency
to get nearer nature and further away from the ecclesiastical and
ascetic conception in all that he did.
At Ulm a local school came into existence with Zeitblom (fl.
1484-1517), who was probably a pupil of Schüchlin. He had neither
Schöngauer's force nor his fancy, but was a simple, straightforward
painter of one rather strong type. His drawing was not good, except in
the draperies, but he was quite remarkable for the solidity and
substance of his painting, considering the age he lived in was given
to hard, thin brush-work. Schaffner (fl. 1500-1535) was another Ulm
painter, a junior to Zeitblom, of whom little is known, save from a
few pictures graceful and free in composition. A recently discovered
man, Bernard Strigel (1461?-1528?) seems to have been excellent in
portraiture.
[Illustration: FIG. 91.--PILOTY. WISE AND FOOLISH VIRGINS.]
At Augsburg there was still another school, which came into prominence
in the sixteenth century with Burkmair and the Holbeins. It was only a
part of the Swabian school, a concentration of artistic force about
Augsburg, which, toward the close of the fifteenth century, had come
into competition with Nuremberg, and rather outranked it in splendor.
It was at Augsburg that the Renaissance art in Germany showed in more
restful composition, less angularity, better modelling and painting,
and more sense of the _ensemble_ of a picture. Hans Burkmair
(1473-1531) was the founder of the school, a pupil of Schöngauer,
later influenced by Dürer, and finally showing the influence of
Italian art. He was not, like Dürer, a religious painter, though doing
religious subjects. He was more concerned with worldly appearance, of
which he had a large knowledge, as may be seen from his illustrations
for engraving. As a painter he was a rather fine colorist, indulging
in the fantastic of architecture but with good taste, crude in
drawing but forceful, and at times giving excellent effects of motion.
He was rounder, fuller, calmer in composition than Dürer, but never so
strong an artist.
Next to Burkmair comes the celebrated Holbein family. There were four
of them all told, but only two of them, Hans the Elder and Hans the
Younger, need be mentioned. Holbein the Elder (1460?-1524), after
Burkmair, was the best painter of his time and school without being in
himself a great artist. Schöngauer was at first his guide, though he
soon submitted to some Flemish and Cologne influence, and later on
followed Italian form and method in composition to some extent. He was
a good draughtsman, and very clever at catching realistic points of
physiognomy--a gift he left his son Hans. In addition he had some
feeling for architecture and ornament, and in handling was a bit hard,
and oftentimes careless. The best half of his life fell in the latter
part of the fifteenth century, and he never achieved the free
painter's quality of his son.
Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) holds, with Dürer, the high place
in German art. He was a more mature painter than Dürer, coming as he
did a quarter of a century later. He was the Renaissance artist of
Germany, whereas Dürer always had a little of the Gothic clinging to
him. The two men were widely different in their points of view and in
their work. Dürer was an idealist seeking after a type, a religious
painter, a painter of panels with the spirit of an engraver. Holbein
was emphatically a realist finding material in the actual life about
him, a designer of cartoons and large wall paintings in something of
the Italian spirit, a man who painted religious themes but with little
spiritual significance.
It is probable that he got his first instruction from his father and
from Burkmair. He was an infant prodigy, developed early, saw much
foreign art, and showed a number of tendencies in his work. In
composition and drawing he appeared at times to be following Mantegna
and the northern Italians; in brush-work he resembled the Flemings,
especially Massys; yet he was never an imitator of either Italian or
Flemish painting. Decidedly a self-sufficient and an observing man, he
travelled in Italy and the Netherlands, and spent much of his life in
England, where he met with great success at court as a portrait-painter.
From seeing much he assimilated much, yet always remained German,
changing his style but little as he grew older. His wall paintings have
perished, but the drawings from them are preserved and show him as an
artist of much invention. He is now known chiefly by his portraits, of
which there are many of great excellence. His facility in grasping
physiognomy and realizing character, the quiet dignity of his
composition, his firm modelling, clear outline, harmonious coloring,
excellent detail, and easy solid painting, all place him in the front
rank of great painters. That he was not always bound down to literal
facts may be seen in his many designs for wood-engravings. His portrait
of Hubert Morett, in the Dresden Gallery, shows his art to advantage,
and there are many portraits by him of great spirit in England, in the
Louvre, and elsewhere.
SAXON SCHOOL: Lucas Cranach (1472-1553) was a Franconian master, who
settled in Saxony and was successively court-painter to three Electors
and the leader of a small local school there. He, perhaps, studied
under Grünewald, but was so positive a character that he showed no
strong school influence. His work was fantastic, odd in conception and
execution, sometimes ludicrous, and always archaic-looking. His type
was rather strained in proportions, not always well drawn, but
graceful even when not truthful. This type was carried into all his
works, and finally became a mannerism with him. In subject he was
religious, mythological, romantic, pastoral, with a preference for
the nude figure. In coloring he was at first golden, then brown, and
finally cold and sombre. The lack of aërial perspective and shadow
masses gave his work a queer look, and he was never much of a
brushman. His pictures were typical of the time and country, and for
that and for their strong individuality they are ranked among the most
interesting paintings of the German school. Perhaps his most
satisfactory works are his portraits. Lucas Cranach the Younger
(1515-1586) was the best of the elder Cranach's pupils. Many of his
pictures are attributed to his father. He followed the elder closely,
but was a weaker man, with a smoother brush and a more rosy color.
Though there were many pupils the school did not go beyond the Cranach
family. It began with the father and died with the son.
[Illustration: FIG. 92.--LEIBL. IN CHURCH.]
SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES: These were unrelieved centuries
of decline in German painting. After Dürer, Holbein, and Cranach had
passed there came about a senseless imitation of Italy, combined with
an equally senseless imitation of detail in nature that produced
nothing worthy of the name of original or genuine art. It is not
probable that the Reformation had any more to do with this than with
the decline in Italy. It was a period of barrenness in both countries.
The Italian imitators in Germany were chiefly Rottenhammer
(1564-1623), and Elzheimer (1574?-1620). After them came the
representative of the other extreme in Denner (1685-1749), who thought
to be great in portraiture by the minute imitation of hair, freckles,
and three-days'-old beard--a petty and unworthy realism which excited
some curiosity but never held rank as art. Mengs (1728-1779) sought
for the sublime through eclecticism, but never reached it. His work,
though academic and correct, is lacking in spirit and originality.
Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) succeeded in pleasing her inartistic age
with the simply pretty, while Carstens (1754-1798) was a conscientious
if mistaken student of the great Italians--a man of some severity in
form and of academic inclinations.
NINETEENTH CENTURY: In the first part of this century there started in
Germany a so-called "revival of art" led by Overbeck (1789-1869),
Cornelius (1783-1867), Veit (1793-1877), and Schadow (1789-1862), but
like many another revival of art it did not amount to much. The
attempt to "revive" the past is usually a failure. The forms are
caught, but the spirit is lost. The nineteenth-century attempt in
Germany was brought about by the study of monumental painting in
Italy, and the taking up of the religious spirit in a pre-Raphaelite
manner. Something also of German romanticism was its inspiration.
Overbeck remained in Rome, but the others, after some time in Italy,
returned to Germany, diffused their teaching, and really formed a new
epoch in German painting. A modern art began with ambitions and
subjects entirely disproportionate to its skill. The monumental, the
ideal, the classic, the exalted, were spread over enormous spaces, but
there was no reason for such work in the contemporary German life, and
nothing to warrant its appearance save that its better had appeared in
Italy during the Renaissance. Cornelius after his return became the
head of the
MUNICH SCHOOL and painted pictures of the heroes of the classic and
the Christian world upon a large scale. Nothing but their size and
good intention ever brought them into notice, for their form and
coloring were both commonplace. Schnorr (1794-1872) followed in the
same style with the Niebelungen Lied, Charlemagne, and Barbarossa for
subjects. Kaulbach (1805-1874) was a pupil of Cornelius, and had some
ability but little taste, and not enough originality to produce great
art. Piloty (1826-1886) was more realistic, more of a painter and
ranks as one of the best of the early Munich masters. After him Munich
art became _genre_-like in subject, with greater attention given to
truthful representation in light, color, texture. To-day there are a
large number of painters in the school who are remarkable for
realistic detail.
DUSSELDORF SCHOOL: After 1826 this school came into prominence under
the guidance of Schadow. It did not fancy monumental painting so much
as the common easel picture, with the sentimental, the dramatic, or
the romantic subject. It was no better in either form or color than
the Munich school, in fact not so good, though there were painters who
emanated from it who had ability. At Berlin the inclination was to
follow the methods and ideas held at Dusseldorf.
The whole academic tendency of modern painting in Germany and Austria
for the past fifty years has not been favorable to the best kind of
pictorial art. There is a disposition on the part of artists to tell
stories, to encroach upon the sentiment of literature, to paint with a
dry brush in harsh unsympathetic colors, to ignore relations of
light-and-shade, and to slur beauties of form. The subject seems to
count for more than the truth of representation, or the individuality
of view. From time to time artists of much ability have appeared, but
these form an exception rather than a rule. The men to-day who are the
great artists of Germany are less followers of the German tradition
than individuals each working in a style peculiar to himself. A few
only of them call for mention. Menzel (1815-1905) is easily first, a
painter of group pictures, a good colorist, and a powerful pen-and-ink
draughtsman; Lenbach (1836-1904), a forceful portraitist; Uhde
(1848-), a portrayer of scriptural scenes in modern costumes with much
sincerity, good color, and light; Leibl (1844-1900), an artist with
something of the Holbein touch and realism; Thoma, a Frankfort painter
of decorative friezes and panels; Liebermann, Gotthardt Kuehl, Franz
Stuck, Max Klinger, Greiner, Trübner, Bartels, Keller.
[Illustration: FIG. 93.--MENZEL. A READER.]
Aside from these men there are several notable painters with German
affinities, like Makart (1840-1884), an Austrian, who possessed good
technical qualities and indulged in a profusion of color; Munkacsy
(1846-1900), a Hungarian, who is perhaps more Parisian than German in
technic, and Böcklin (1827-1901), a Swiss, who is quite by himself in
fantastic and grotesque subjects, a weird and uncanny imagination, and
a brilliant prismatic coloring.
PRINCIPAL WORKS: BOHEMIAN SCHOOL--Theoderich of Prague,
Karlstein chap. and University Library Prague, Vienna Mus.;
Wurmser, same places.
FRANCONIAN SCHOOL--Wolgemut, Aschaffenburg, Munich,
Nuremberg, Cassel Mus.; Dürer, Crucifixion Dresden, Trinity
Vienna Mus., other works Munich, Nuremberg, Madrid Mus.;
Schäufelin, Basle, Bamberg, Cassel, Munich, Nuremberg,
Nordlingen Mus., and Ulm Cathedral; Baldung, Aschaffenburg,
Basle, Berlin, Kunsthalle Carlsruhe, Freiburg Cathedral;
Kulmbach, Munich, Nuremberg, Oldenburg; Altdorfer and the
"Little Masters" are seen in the Augsburg, Nuremberg,
Berlin, Munich and Fürstenberg Mus.
SWABIAN SCHOOL--Schöngauer, attributed pictures Colmar Mus.;
Zeitblom, Augsburg, Berlin, Carlsruhe, Munich, Nuremberg,
Simaringen Mus.; Schaffner, Munich, Schliessheim, Nuremberg,
Ulm Cathedral; Strigel, Berlin, Carlsruhe, Munich,
Nuremberg; Burkmair, Augsburg, Berlin, Munich, Maurice chap.
Nuremberg; Holbein the Elder, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Basle,
Städel Mus., Frankfort; Holbein the Younger, Basle,
Carlsruhe, Darmstadt, Dresden, Berlin, Louvre, Windsor
Castle, Vienna Mus.
SAXON SCHOOL--Cranach, Bamberg Cathedral and Gallery,
Munich, Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, Stuttgart, Cassel; Cranach
the Younger, Stadtkirche Wittenberg, Leipsic, Vienna,
Nuremberg Mus.
SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTERS: Rottenhammer,
Louvre, Berlin, Munich, Schliessheim, Vienna, Kunsthalle
Hamburg; Elzheimer, Stadel, Brunswick, Louvre, Munich,
Berlin, Dresden; Denner, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Berlin,
Brunswick, Dresden, Vienna, Munich; Mengs, Madrid, Vienna,
Dresden, Munich, St. Petersburg; Angelica Kauffman, Vienna,
Hermitage, Turin, Dresden, Nat. Gal. Lon., Phila. Acad.
NINETEENTH-CENTURY PAINTERS: Overbeck, frescos in S. Maria
degli Angeli Assisi, Villa Massimo Rome, Carlsruhe, New
Pinacothek, Munich, Städel Mus., Dusseldorf; Cornelius,
frescos Glyptothek and Ludwigkirche Munich, Casa Zuccaro
Rome, Royal Cemetery Berlin; Veit, frescos Villa Bartholdi
Rome, Städel, Nat. Gal. Berlin; Schadow, Nat. Gal. Berlin,
Antwerp, Städel, Munich Mus., frescos Villa Bartholdi Rome;
Schnorr, Dresden, Cologne, Carlsruhe, New Pinacothek Munich,
Städel Mus.; Kaulbach, wall paintings Berlin Mus., Raczynski
Gal. Berlin, New Pinacothek Munich, Stuttgart, Phila. Acad.;
Piloty, best pictures in the New Pinacothek and
Maximilianeum Munich, Nat. Gal. Berlin; Menzel, Nat. Gal.,
Raczynski Mus. Berlin, Breslau Mus.; Lenbach, Nat. Gal.
Berlin, New Pinacothek Munich, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Zürich
Gal.; Uhde, Leipsic Mus.; Leibl, Dresden Mus. The
contemporary paintings have not as yet found their way, to
any extent, into public museums, but may be seen in the
expositions at Berlin and Munich from year to year. Makart
has one work in the Metropolitan Mus., N. Y., as has also
Munkacsy; other works by them and by Böcklin may be seen in
the Nat. Gal. Berlin.