GRÜNEWALD, MATTHIAS. – Probably born in Aschaffenburg in the second half of the 15th century, active from 1500 to 1528 in the cities of the Middle Rhine, especially Mainz, he was cited in 1531 by Melanchthon, alongside Dürer and Cranach, as one of the greatest German painters. Only one of his works is signed non-monogrammatically, and only recently was the identification of the artist with Mathis Gothardt-Neithardt proposed, based on some documents and his will.
His early works, including the Mocking of Christ of 1503, which already reveals an absolute artistic consistency, show, above all in the use of light figures against a dark blue background, affinities with the works of Holbein the Elder, traces of Mantegna’s and Leonardo’s influence, almost certainly filtered through Flemish painting with which G. seems closely connected, particularly in his love of the macabre and the fantastic derived from Bosch.
GRÜNEWALD, MATTHIAS – Christ Falls While Carrying the Cross.
Karlsruhe, State Art Gallery.
M. G. is in a certain sense the German painter most distant from Italian Renaissance taste; his painting is characterized by vivid colorism, a realism at times brutal, and exceptional expressive power. Of his works, several drawings and 14 panels remain, among which deservedly famous is the Isenheim Altarpiece (1511), the Madonna of Stuppach (1517–19), and the Crucifixion of Aachen (1520).