Martin Schongauer

Martin Schongauer – 
The Beautiful Immortal
at the Louvre
8 April – 20 July
Monday 18 May at 6:00pm

I’m heading to Colmar later this year with Artemisia, and so I am more than usually interested in learning about the local artists – those who, thanks to the contested nature of this part of the world, could be considered either French or German. Martin Schongauer was born in Colmar in the middle of the 1440s, and died in Alt Breisach – on the Rhine – in 1491. On the whole, he is considered “Germanic”, and renowned, more than anything else, for his development of the art of engraving. Collaborating with the Musée Unterlinden, Colmar’s primary museum (and home to the Isenheim Altarpiece, which I will talk about in a couple of weeks), the Louvre is mounting an exhibition which will include almost all of his surviving paintings – including the only securely dated example, the spectacular Madonna of the Rose Bower of 1473.
 
The exhibition will also feature an impressive selection of his drawings and engravings – which were widely circulated and enormously influential. His fame was such that, shortly after completing his apprenticeship, Albrecht Dürer travelled from Nuremberg to see this renowned master – a journey of some 400km – only to be greeted by Martin’s goldsmith brothers, the painter and engraver having died shortly before Dürer’s arrival. This promises to be a superb exhibition, and the perfect opportunity to get to know the work of such an important and influential artist. 

Please remember, I do not record my talks.