ernst gombrich - the new learning spreads (ch. 17)

8/17/2019 Ernst Gombrich - The New Learning Spreads (Ch. 17)

1/19

I7

THE

NEW LEARNING

SPREADS

ermany and

the

Netherlands

early

sixteenth century

The great

achieven1ents

and inventions of the

Italian masters

of the

Renaissance nude a

deep

irnpression on

the

peoples

north of

the Alps.

Everyone who

was

interested in the

revival

oflearning had become

accustorned

to

looking

towards

Italy

where the wisdmn

and

the

treasures

of

classical

antiquity were being

discovered.

We know very

well

that

in

art

we cannot

speak

of

progress

in

the

sense in

which we

speak

of

progress

in

learning.

A

Gothic

work

of

art

nuy

be

just

as

great

as

a

work

of

the

Renaissance. Nevertheless it is perhaps natural

that

to

the people

at that

time

who ca1nc

into

contact with

the nusterpicccs

fi·mn

the

south

their

own

art

seemed suddenly to be

old-£1shioned

and uncouth.

There

were

three

tangible

achievements of the

Italian masters

to which

they could

point.

One

was

the

discovery

of

scientific perspect ive

the second the

knowledge of anatomy- and with

it

the perfect

rendering

of the

beautiful

human

body-

and

thirdly

the knowledge of the

classical forms

ofbuilding

which seemed to the period

to stand

for

everything

that

was dignified

and beautifuL

It

is

a fascinating spectacle

to

watch

the

reactions

of

various artists

and

traditions

to the

in1pact

of

this

new knowledge

and to see how they

asserted then1s.elves-

or

as

son1etimes

happened

how they succumbed

according to

the

strength of their

character and

the breadth of their

vision.

Architects

were

perhaps in

the most

difficult position .

Both

the

Gothic

systern

to which they were accustomed

and

the new

revival

of ancient

buildings are at least in

theory

utterly

logical

and

consistent

but as

different fi·mn

each

other

in

ain1 and spirit

as

two styles

could

possibly

be.

It

took

a

long

time

therefore

before

the new £1.shion

in building

was

adopted north of the

Alps.

When

this

did

con1e

about it

was fi-cquently

on

the

insistence

of

princes

and

noblen1en

who

had

visited Italy

and

wanted

to

he up to

date.

Even

so architects

often

con1plied

only

very

superficially

with the requiretnents of

the new style.

They detnonstrated

their acquaintance with the new

ideas

by putting

a

column

here and

a

fi·ieze

there-

in other

words by adding sonte of

the classical fornts to

their

wealth

of

decorative

Jnoti£ 1. More often than not the body of the

building

remained

entirely untouched. There are

churches

in France

England and


2/19

342

Ti l NEW 1.1-'Al\N NC

SPI EADS

Gernuny

where

the

pillars

supporting the

vault arc superficially

turned

into colmnns

by having capitals affixed to thern, or

where the

Gothic

windows

are com_plete with tracery,

but the pointed

arch has

given

way

to a

rounded one figure

218

There

arc regular cloisters

supported by

fantastic

bottle-shaped columns

castles bristling with turrets

and

buttresses,

but adorned with

classical details, gabled

town

houses

with

classical fiiezes

and

busts,JiJ?UI e 219 An Italian artist, convinced

of the

perfection

of the

classical rules,

would

probably

have

turned away

from

these things

in

horror but if we do not n1.easure then1. by any

pedantic

acadcn1.ic standard

we

nuy often admire the ingenuity and wit with which

these

incongruous

styles

were

blended.

Things were rather differc;nt in

the

case

of

painters and sculptors,

because for

them it

was

not

a

~ n t t c r

of

taking

over

certa in de:finite forms

such

as

columns

or arches, piecemeal. Only minor painters could

be

content

whh

borrowing a figure or a gesture fi·on1

an

Italian

engraving

which had con1e their way. Any real artist was bound to feel

the urge

thoroughly to

understand

the new

principles

of

art

and to make up

his

mind

about their usefulness. We

can study

this dramatic process in

the

work of

the

greatest

German

artist,

Albrecht

DUrer

1471-

r 52S),

who

was

throughout

his life fully conscious

of

their vital

itnportance for

the

future

of

art.

Albrecht

Dlirer was

the

son

of

a distinguished nnster-goldsrnith

who

had come

frorn

Hungary

and

settled in

the

flourishing city

of Nuremberg.

Even

as a boy,

the young

DUrer

showed

an astonishing gift for drawing

-

smne of

his

works of

that

tin1.e

have

been preserved- and he

was

apprenticed

with

the

largest

workshop for

altars

and

woodcut illustrations.

This

belonged

to

the Nuremberg

1nastcr,

Michel Wolgemut. Having

Pierre Sohier

Choir 1 flhc d rdt if

St-Jlicrre

Cam

1518-45

Gothic lr.lmfmnwd


3/19

HJ

G l ~ MANY AND THE NETHERLANDS,

hAIU.Y

SlXTEENTII C.ENTUI\Y

completed his apprenticeship,

he

fo11owed

the

custom

of

all

young

n1cdieval craftsmen and travelled about as a journeyman

to

broaden

his

views

and to

look for a place in

which to

settle. Diirer s

intention

had

been

to

visit the

workshop

of

the

greatest

copper-engraver

of

this

period,

Martin

Schongauer,

pa.R CS 283-4

but when

he

arrived at Colmar

he found

that

the master had

died smne

months earlier. However, he stayed with

Schongauer s brothers,

who had

taken charge

of

the

workshop, and then

turned

to

l3asle in Switzerland, at that tin1e a centre

oflearning

and

of

the

book trade. Here he

nude woodcuts

for books,

and

then travelled

on,

across

the

Alps into

northern

Italy,

keeping

an open eye throughout his

journeys and making watercolours of the picturesque places in the Alpine

valleys,

and

studying

the

works ofMantegna,

p ges

256-g.

When

he

returned to Nurernberg

to

rnarry and open his

own

workshop, he

possessed

all the

technical accom_plishments a

northern

artist

could expect

to

acquire in the

South.

He

soon

showed

that

he had more than mere

technical knowledge

of

his difficult craft,

that he

possessed that intense

feeling and

inugination

which alone nuke the great artist. One of his first

t, Teat works was a series oflargc woodcuts illustrating the Revelation ofSt


4/19

34

Til

NEW

Llot\HNING S l I I ~ . 1 \ P S


5/19

Albre

cht Diirer

r \

i d w l : < _ f i . ~ l t r

~ ~ 1 j m · t

tilt•

dr({i tHI,

qyS

3 15

\Vuodnu J I J ~ x

. l:{.J

t·m

x '''"m

I

Albrecht Diirer

mll picc l

{rurj;

1503

\V,tll'rrohnlr, p


6/19


7/19


8/19

.J..J 8

I HI' Nl \V LEARNING SPREADS


9/19

349 C ~ _ l t J \ I N Y

AND

Till-

NETII.ERLANIJS,

EARLY .)IXTEENTH CENTURY

Arnong the first results of these studies, which were to engage him

throughout

his life, was the

engraving of

Ada1n and Eve, in which he

e1nbodied all his

new

ideas ofbeauty

and harmony,

and

which

he proudly

signed

with

his

fulltUlne

in

latin,

ALBRRTUS

DURER

NORTCUS f.ACIEBAT

1504

( Albrecht DUrer ofNureinberg n1ade lthis engravingl in

1504 ),

}\RIIre 22].

It may not be easy for

us

to sec irmuediately the

achievement

which

lay in this engraving. For the artist is speaking a language which is less

£tmiliar

to

hin1 than

that

which

he

used in our preceding example. The

hannonious forms at which he arrived by diligent n1easuring

and

balancing

with compass

and

ruler are not

as

convincing and beautiful

as

their Italian

and classical models. There is some slight suggestion

of

artificiality, not

only in their fonn and posture, but also in the synnnetrical composition.

But this first feeling

of

awkwardness soon disappears when

one

realizes that

DUrer has not abandoned his real self to worship new idols, as lesser artists

did.

As

we

let him guide

us

into

the

Carden

of

Eden,

where

the

ouse

lies

quietly beside the cat, where the elk, the cow, the rabbit

and

the parrot do

not fear the treJd ofhurnan feet,

as we

look deep into the grove where the

tree of knowledge grows, and watch the serpent giving

Eve

the f:ttal fmit

while Adam stretches out his hand to receive it, and as

we

notice how

DUrer has contrived

to let

the clear

outline

of their white and delicately

modelled bodies show up against the dark shade of the forest with its

rugged

trees, we

come to

admire the first serious attempt

to

transplant

the

ideals

of

the South into northern soil.

DUrer himself, however, was not easily satisfled. A year after he had

published this engraving, he travelled

to

Venice

to

broaden his

horizon

and

to learn tnore

about

the secrets

of

southern art. The arrival

of

so

eminent

a

con1petltor was

not

altogether

welcome

to

the

1ninor Venetian artists,

and

DUrer wrote a fi-icnd:

lluwe many ji·imds amoug the ltaliaus

who

wam me 11ot to

eat and

driuk

with their

paiuters. l\llany ofthern

are

my enemies; they copy rny works in thr churches and

whereuer

they wnjind them; and thm they decry

rny work

and

say

it was

110 in the

manner


10/19

1 i0

TILE NEW LEARNING S I U ~ A D S

wrote, here

I am a lord, at

honte

a parasite. But

Dilrer s

later life does

not quite bear

out

these apprehensions.

True,

at first he had

to

bargain

and

argue

with

the rich burghers ofNuremberg

and

Frankfur t like any

artisan. He had

to

pron1isc

them to

usc

only

the best-qua1ity paint for

his panels

and to

apply it in

many

layers. l3ut gradually his £m1e spread,

and the Em.peror Maximilian, who

believed

in the in1portancc

of

art

s an

instrument of

glorification,

secured

Dilrer s services for a

number

of ambitious schemes. When, at the age of fifty, DUrer visited the

Netherlands, he was, indeed, received like a lord. He himself, deeply

moved,

described

how

the painters

of Antwerp honoured

hin1

in

their

guild hall with a solctnn banquet, and when I was

led to

the table, the

people

stood, on

both

sides, s

if

they

were introducing

a great lord, and

atnong them

were

many persons of excellence who all

bowed

their heads

in the most humble manner . Even in the northern countries the great

artists had broken down the snobbery ·which led

people

to despise tnen

who

worked

with

their hands.

It is a strange and puzzling fact

that the only

Gennan painter

who

can be

cmnpared with DUrer for greatness and artistic power has been forgotten

to such an extent

that

we are not even quite sure

of

his

name.

A writer

of

the seventeenth century nukes

rather

confused

mention

of

one

Matthias

GrUnewald

of

Aschaffenburg.

He

gives a

glowing

description

of

son1e

paintings

of

this Gernun Correggio , s he calls him, and thenceforward

these paintings and others

wbkh

rnust have

been painted

by

the

same great

artist arc usually labelled GrUnewald . No record

or

document of the

period, however, tnentions any

painter

of the

nantc

of GrUne-wald,

and

we

must

consider

it

likely that the

author

had

mixed up

his facts. Since

smne

of the paintings ascribed

to

the master bear the initials M.G.N.,

and

since a

painter

Mathis

Gothardt Nithardt

is

known to

have lived and

worked

ncar

Aschaffenburg

i1 1

Gernuny

s

an approxirnate contemporary

of

Albrecht DUrer,

it

is now believed

that

this,

and not

GrUne-wald, was

the true

name of

the great nustcr. But this theory docs not

help

us

much,

since we do not know very much about

that

master Mathis. In short, while

DUrer stands before us like a living

hmnan being

whose habits, beliefs,

tastes and mannerisms are intinutely known to us, GrUnewald is

s

great a

mystery

to

us s Shakespeare. It is unlikely

that

this is entirely due

to mere

coincidence. The reason why we know so much about DUrer is precisely

that he

saw

himself

s a refornrer and

innovator of

the art ofhis country.

He reflected on

what

he was

doing and

why he did it, he

kept

records

of

his

journeys and

researches,

and he wrote books to

teach his own

generation. There is

no

indication

that

the painter

of

the GrUnewald

n1asterpieces saw

himself in

a sitnilar light.

On the

contrary.

The

few

paintings we have

of

his are altar-panels

of

the traditional type in m ~ o r


11/19

4

(;riincwald

5 r

nit

Crucifixioll

5

5

l .uu.·l from the lsenh('im

. 1 1 1 J J I ' n ~ c t '

oil on

wood.

~ f l l o X JOJ

Clll

1 % X

1

in Musl·l·

II Untl rlindc.·n.

Colmar

GCR

l

JANY AND Nl• I HhUI ANI>S, EAHLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY

and

minor

provincial churches,

in

cluding a large

number of

painted

wings for a great al ta r at the Alsatian village oflsenheim (the so-called

lse

nheim

altarpiece).

Hi

s

wo

rks afford no indication that he strove like

D i.irer to become something different fi·om a mere craftsman or that he

was hampered by the fi

xed

traditions of religious art as it had developed

in the late Gothic period. Though

he

was certainly familiar with son1e of

the great discoveries

oflta

lian art, he made use of them only

as

far

as

they

suited his ideas of what art should do. On this score, he docs

not

seem

to have felt any doubts. Art for him did n

ot

consist in the search for the

hidden laws of beauty- for him it could have only one aim, the aim of all

religious art in the Middle Ages - that ofproviding a se

rm

on in pictur es

of

proclaiming the

sac

red truths as taught by the

Churc

h.

The

central

panel

of

the lsenheim altarpiece,figure 224 shows that he sacrificed a

ll

ot

her considerations to this one

overr

iding aim. Of beauty, as the Italian

artists saw it, there is n

one

in the stark and cru

el

picture

of

the crucified

Saviou r. Like a preacher at Passiontide, Grun ewald left n

ot

hin g undone to

bring

home

to us the horrors of this scene ofsuffering: Christ s dying body


12/19

35 Il l

Nl-W

LEJ\UN NG S I IU iAOS


13/19

3.53 C -HMt\NY AN D TlH. Nl .1 HERLANDS, EARLY S XTI-I :N ' I H ~ N T U R Y

_5 _5

is

distorted

by

the torture of the

Cross;

the thorns of the

scourges stick

in

the festering

wounds which cover the whole f i g u ~ · e The

dark

red blood

forms a glaring contrast

to

the

sickly

green of the

flesh.

By I I is

features

and

the

impressive gesture

of

His hands, the

Man of Sorrows

speaks to us

of the n1eaning

of

His Calvary.

His

suffering

is

reflected

in the

traditional

group

of

Mary, in

the

garb

of

a

widow,

£tinting in

the

arn1s

of StJohn the

Evangelist, to whose care

the Lord

has commended her,

and

in

the smc11ler

figure

ofSt

Mary

Magdalene with her

vessel

of ointments, wringing her

hands in sorrow.

On the other

side

of

the Cross,

there

stands

the powerful

figure

ofStJohn the

Baptist

with the ancient

symbol

of the

Lunb

carrying

the

cross

and pouring out

its

blood into the

chalice

of the Holy

Con1n1union.

With

a

stern

and commanding

gesture

he points

towards

the

Saviour,

and over

hin1 arc

written the words that

he speaks (according

to the

gospel

ofStJohn

iii. 30):

He must

increase,

but

I

must

decrease.

There

is

little

doubt

that

the

artist

wanted the beholder of the

altar to

meditate

on

these

words,

which

he

em_phasizcd so strongly

by the

pointing

hand

ofStJolm

the

Baptist. Perhaps

he even wanted us to s

how

Christ

nmst

grow and we

diminish. For

in

this

picture,

in

which

reality seerns

to

be

depicted in

all its

unmitigated horror, there

is one

unreal

and

fmtastic

trait:

the

figures differ greatly in size. We

need

only

compare

the hands

of

StMary

Magdalene under the

Cross

with

those of

Christ to become

fully

aware of the

astonishing difference

in

their

dimensions. It

is

clear that in

these n1atters GrUnewald rejected

the

rules of modern art

as

it had

developed

since

the

Renaissance,

and that he

deliberately

returned to the

principles

of

n1.edieval and

primitive

painters, who varied

the

size of

their

figures

according

to

their itnportance in the

pictnre.Just JS

he

had

sacrificed the pleasing

kind of beauty

for

the

sake

of the

spiritual message

of

the

altar,

he

also disregarded

the

new

demand

for correct proportions,

since this heltled

hin1. to

express

the

mystic

truth of the words of StJohn.

GrUnewald s

work

may

thus

remind

us

once

n101T that

an artist

can

be

very

great

indeed

without being

progressive , because

the

greatness

of

art

does not lie in new discoveries. That Grl mewald was fa1niliar

with

these

discoveries he

showed

plainly

enough whenever they helped him to

express

what

he

wanted

to convey.

And

just

as

he used his brush

to depict

the

dead

and tonnented body of

Christ,

he

used

it on another

panel

to

convey

its transftguration at the

Resurrection

into an unearthly apparition

of

heavenly light,)I:J?ure

225

It

is

difficult

to

describe this

picture

because,

once 111orc

so

much

depends on its colours. It seems

as if Christ

has

just

soared

out

of

the

grave, leaving a trail

of

radiant

l ight-

the

shroud

in

which the

body

has

been swathed

reflecting

the coloured

rays

of the

halo.

There is

a

poignant

contrast

between the

risen

Christ,

who

is

hovering

over the

scene, and

the

helpless gestures

of the

soldiers

on the ground,


14/19

5

Ti lE NE\V LEAR

NING

SI I

IEADS

who are dazzled and overwhelmed by this sudden appat; tion ofl igh t

We

feel the violence

of

he s

ho

ck in the way in w hich they writhe

in

their armour As we canno t

assess

the distance

between

foreg

round

and

background, the two soldiers be

hind

the grave

look

like puppets who

have tumbled over, and their distorted shapes only serve to throw into

relief the

se

rene and majestic

ca

lm of the transfigured

body

ofCht;st .

A third famous German ofDUrer s generation, Lucas Cranach (1472-

1553), began as a

mo

st promising painter In his youth he

spent

several

years in southern Germany and Austria. At the time

when

Giorgionc,

who came fi·om the southern foothills

of

the Alps, discovered the beauty

of

mou

ntain scenery,

, ~ e

J28 Jig

ur

e

209,

this

you

ng

pa

i

nter

was

fasc

in

ated

by the

north

ern foothill s with their old forests and rom

an

tic vistas

In

a

painting dated 1504- the year w hen Di.irer published his

prints figures

222,

223 - Cranach represented the Holy Family on the Flight into Egypt, figure

226. They arc res ting near a spt;ng in a wooded moun tain region. It is a

charming pl ace in the w ildcm

ess

with shaggy trees and a wide view down

226

Lu

c

r ~ n a d

11u•

rest 11 rhe ( ~ / 1 (

ll

O

F . _ ~ ) f l ,

il n

wood 70 7

x

53

Cll • X lo-J h in:

(;l nJ:i ld

t.•b-:11C IiC .

StJJtl

iclw

Mus


15/19

355 Gt ltMANY AND TilE NE

'I HI-lt AND :i, EAitLY :iiXTEE

NTII CENTUUY

ll7

Albrecht Altdorfer

Uuulsrnp

e

r 1520 S

o

1

1

011

p.lrclnlll'lll.

mountl•d

on \\ 000.

· OK

22

em

12 x in:

Aht • l>in:tkothek

Mun

kh

a lovely green va

lley. Crowds oflittle

angels have

ga

thered

round

the

Virgin;

one

is

offer

ing berr

i

es

to

the Christ Child, another

is

fetching

water in a shell willie

ot

hers have settled down to re

fi·esh

the sp

ir

it of the

tired r

ef

ugees with a

concert of

pipes and Autes. This poetic

invention

has preserved something of the spirit ofLochner s lyrical art, page 27

2

fig11re 76.

In his later years Cranach

becam

e a rather slick and

fas

hionable

co

u

rt

painter in Saxony,

who owed

his

£1

me mainly to

his fi·i

e

nd

ship with

Martin

Lu

ther. l3ut it seems that

his

brief stay in the Danube region

had been suffici

en

t to open the eyes

of

the people who lived

in

the

Alpine districts to the beauty of heir surroundings. The painter Albrecht

Altdorfer,

ofRegensburg 1

480?-1538 , went

out

into the woods and

mountains to study the shape of weather-beaten p

in

es and rocks. Many

of

his watercolours and

etchin

gs, and at least

one of his

oi

l

paintings,

.fiJtllre 227

tell no story and contain

no hu m

an being.

This is

quite a

momentous change. Even the

Gr

eeks w ith all their love ofnature had


16/19

painted landscapes only

as

settings for theh· pastoral scenes, page 114

figure 72. In the Middle Ages a painting

which

did not clearly illustrate

a theme sacred

or

pro£1ne, was almost inconceivable. Only when the

painter s skill as such

began to

interest people was it possible for him

to

sell a painting which served no other purpose but

that

of recording his

enjuym_ent

of

a beautiful piece

of

scenety.

The Netherlands, at this great time of the first decades of the

sixteenth century, produced nut

as

many

outstanding

masters

as

they

had done during the flfteenth century, when masters like Jan

van

Eyck, pages

235-6

Rogier van der Weyden, paRe 276

and

Hugo van

der Goes, paRe 279,

were

L lmous throughout Europe. Those artists, at

least, who strove to absorb the

New

Learning

as

Dilrer had done in

Germany

were often

torn between

their loyalties

to

old methods and

their love for the new. 1- (gure 228 shows a characteristic exarnple by the

painterJan Gussaert, ca1led Mabuse (L478?-1532). According

to the

legend, St

Luke

the Evangelist was a

painter by

profession, and thus

be

is represented

here

making a

portrait of

the Virgin

and

her Child. The

way in which Mabuse painted these figures is quite in accordance

with the traditions of]an van Eyck and his followers, but the setting

is quite different. It seen1s

that

he wanted

to

show offhis knowledge

of the Italian achieven1ents, his skill in scientific perspective, his

fm1iliarity with classical architecture, and his mastery of

ight

and

shade.

The

result

is

a picture which certainly has great charm but

which

lacks

the

sin1plc hannony ofboth its northern

and

Italian

models. One wonders why St Luke found no n101T suitable place

in which to dra\V the Madonna than this ostentatious but presumably

draughty palace courtyard.

Thus

it came

about

that the greatest

Netherlandish

artist

of

the

period is not

found

among the ;1dhcrents

of

the New Style but

atnong

those

who

like

Gritnewald

in Germany, refused

to

be

drawn

into

the

modern n1ovement fi·orn

the South.

In the Dutch town

of

s Hertogenbosch there lived such a painter, who was called

Hieronymus

Bosch. Ve ty little is known

about

hin1. We do not

know how old he was \Vhen he died in T5 16 but he nmst have

been active for a considerable tin1e since he becan1e an independent

master in 1488. Like GrCtnewald, Bosch showed that the traditions

and achieven1ents of

painting

which had been

developed

to represent

reality rnost convincingly could be turned

round

as it

were to

give

us an equally plausible picture of things no human eye had seen.

He

became

[1mous for his terrifying represen tations of the powers of eviL

Perhaps it is

no

accident

that

the gloomy King Philip II of Spain, later

in the cen tury, had a special predilect ion for this artist, who was so

Mabme

St

L11kc

jiilil lins the

f / h ; ~ i 1 1

r 1515

Oil

11

\\ ()()(L

j_ l ) X

2 5

em,


17/19

357 ; ~ U ~ I 1 \ N Y AND I H ~ NETI

I

HlLANOS

1 .AUI

Y

SIX

l

tENTII C ~ N T U I < Y


18/19

5R

I HJ

NE\V LE

RNINGS I

1

U.

1

\ S


19/19

359 GERMANY

AND

THE

NETHERLANDS, EARLY S I X " " t ; ~ . N T H CENTUUY

Left antl right panel<

of

a tripcych; oil

on wood,

each panel

135

x ,(5 em,

53V. x

17 Y•

in; Pratlo,

Madrid

7Y. in; fi·om D iircr s

textbook on pocrspcctive

and proportion,

tJiuieniiCJ >llllg

dc1· IHCS51111X

mit de Zi

ernst gombrich - the new learning spreads (ch. 17)

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