Page 257 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

THE HUMAN FIGURE

In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth cen- schema laid down by the Roman architect of the exploits of Hercules, reintegrated heroic
tury, first in Italy and then in Northern Vitruvius. Renaissance theorists also required classical form and subject matter. The nude
Europe, the nude figure became a central ve- the painter and sculptor to master human anat- could also serve the very different aims of
hicle of artistic expression. The art of classical omy, though evidently only at the end of the Christian art, as is so eloquently attested by
antiquity supplied the Renaissance masters century did artists like Leonardo and Michel- moving representations of the Crucifixion. This
with actual sculptural prototypes and with a angelo actually begin to conduct dissections. breadth of potential is reflected in renderings of
theoretical ideal, the notion that perfect human What is remarkable is the broad range of the female nude, as well. An unclothed woman
beauty followed a mathematical canon of pro- meanings with which the nude figure could be could represent a classical goddess, an alluring
portions. The most famous expression of this endowed in Renaissance art, a variety that far nymph, or even a threatening temptress, allied
belief is Leonardo da Vinci's constructed figure exceeded its expressive possibilities in antiquity. with the forces of evil in a Christian universe.
of a man who conforms to the proportional Artists like Pollaiuolo, in his series of paintings

152 reality than all the Crucifixions when one con- art in the Basel painting, which can be dated, on
stylistic grounds, to the early years of the
six-
Matthias Griinewald templates it with thoughtful patience for a long teenth century. The Washington version appears
time.
For this reason it was, on the gracious order
German, c. 1465-1528 of the honorable duke, engraved half a sheet large to postdate the harrowing depiction on the outside
CRUCIFIXION on a copper plate in the year 1605 by Raphael of Griinewald's immense Isenheim Altarpiece
Sadeler; and I greatly pleased His Highness, the (Musee d'Unterlinden, Colmar), where Christ's
c. 1516 Great Elector Maximilian of blessed memory, by bodily ravages are extended to include the disfig-
oil on limewood panel making known the artist's name" (Sandrart 1675, ured joints occasioned by "St. Anthony's fire"
15
61.6 x 46 (24 x iy /i6) 82). Sandrart correctly identified the painting as (ergot poisoning), the illness the Anthonite mon-
inscribed: mg at top of cross an autograph work by Matthias Griinewald (more astery that commissioned the altarpiece was
references: Sandart 1675, 82; Schonberger 1922; properly, Mathis Gothardt Nithardt). His account particularly dedicated to treating. The dependence
Ziilch 1938; Franger 1946, 11; Kress 1956, no. 36; conveys a clear sense of the way in which the of the painting on the Isenheim image would sug-
Ruhmer 1958; Suida and Shapley 1975; Walker
1975,144, no. 3152; Eisler 1977 contemplative spectator was expected to absorb gest a date of 1516 or shortly thereafter for the
the striking corporeality of Christ's suffering. Washington picture. The translation of the subject
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. The composition of the painting is related to a to a small panel for intimate devotion inevitably
Kress Collection drawing by Griinewald (Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe), entailed some scaling down of the rhetoric —the
which is close in scale to the painted image; grief of Mary Magdalen is notably less overt—but
Until comparatively recently, this image was X-rays of the panel show that in the underpaint- without compromising expressive intensity. No
known only through an engraving made in 1605 ing the thumb of Christ's left hand was bent other artist has ever used an unremitting emphasis
by Raphael Sadeler, through copies, and through towards the palm, as in the drawing. The Karls- upon the physical description of injury more effec-
Joachim von Sandrart's perceptive description of ruhe drawing is in other respects closer to another tively for spiritual ends, providing a visual coun-
the painting when it was owned by Duke Wilhelm painting by Griinewald in the Offentliche Kunst- terpart to Saint Bridget of Sweden's visionary
v of Bavaria: "He had a small Crucifixion with sammlung, Basel. The monogram signature, mg, descriptions of Christ's agonies (Eisler 1977). The
our Dear Lady and St. John, together with a at the top of the cross in this painting seems not other details of the composition, such as the torn
kneeling and devoutly praying Mary Magdalen, to be original and was probably added after Sand- clothes and jagged rocks, all reinforce the central
most carefully painted by Griinewald's hand, and rart had identified the author of the panel. There meaning of the image. The eclipse of the sun,
he loved it very much, even without knowing who have been numerous paint losses which have been which ominously darkens the scene, has been
it was by. On account of the wonderful Christ on infilled, but these are for the most part in subsid- related to an actual eclipse in 1502 (Ziilch 1938),
the Cross, so suspended and supported on the iary areas of the composition (Eisler 1977). but can be seen in more general terms as referring
feet, it is so very rare that real life could not sur- The Crucifixion, which became the archetypal to the Gospel accounts and the prophecy of
pass it, and certainly it is more true to nature and Griinewald subject, probably first appeared in his Amos (819). M.K.

256 CIRCA 1492