GERMAN PAINTING BEFORE 1800 IN PROMINENT
COLLECTIONS
An Illustrated Comprehensive Catalogue
Published by Gerhard Holland
Volume 1: German Painting before 1800 at the Städel
Edited by Jochen Sander and Bodo Brinkmann
340 pp., size: 24 x 30 cm, with 193 full-page colour plates and 138 half-page
black-and-white illustrations.
Cloth bound with a full-colour dust jacket.
ISBN 3-88284-006-4 (English edition)
ISBN 3-88284-003-X (German edition)
The present volume treats both the important collection of Old German painting
and all other paintings made by German, Austrian, and Swiss artists before 1800
in the Frankfurt Städel. Starting with the Altenberg altar dating from the
first half of the fourteen century and the "Paradise Garden" from the beginning
of the fifteenth century, this close succession of extraordinary creations
continues through paintings by Hans Holbein the Elder, Albrecht Dürer, Baldung
and Grünewald up to panels by Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Holbein the Younger, and
on to paintings by both the elder and younger Cranach. These highlights of the
early sixteenth century are followed in close order by outstanding examples of
German Mannerist painting and the Baroque. Philipp Uffenbach, a pupil of one of
Grünewald's disciples, is also represented, as well as the still-life painter
Georg Flegel, Hans Rottenhammer, Johann König, and the Roos family of painters.
First and foremost, the Städel possesses a unique ensemble of works by Adam
Elsheimer, the most important German painter around 1600. The eighteenth
century is also represented by important works, such as paintings by Januarius
Zick, Franz Anton Maulbertsch, and Paul Troger. Contributing significantly to
the bourgeois character of the Städel institute is the accent on Frankfurt
painting from the time of the young Goethe. Here are artists like Johann Ludwig
Ernst Morgenstern, Christian Georg Schütz the Elder, and Johann Conrad Seekatz.
The paintings of Philipp Hackert, a landscape painter highly esteemed by
Goethe, as well as the famous portrait by Tischbein, depicting the poet in the
Roman campagna, bring us close indeed to Goethe.
To an even greater extent than the volume on Netherlandish
painting before 1800 which has already been published, the present volume also
unites well-known and famous painters with those who are relatively obscure or
waiting to be discovered. This is after all the first time that the Städel
presents its German paintings from before 1800 in such an accurately
illustrated publication. It comprises the complete works in the possession of
the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, the Städelscher Museumsverein, and the
Städtische Galerie, as well as the paintings on permanent loan from the
Historisches Museum and the League of Catholic Congregations in Frankfurt. Of
the total of 360 paintings, almost all of the works permanently on display,
augmented by a selection of important works in the repository, are presented in
193 full-page colour plates. The rest of the 138 half-page black-and-white
illustrations reproduce works in storage that are not accessible to the public.
This also includes the painted reverse side of certain paintings, which are
seldom if ever reproduced. In the process of (re-)photographing the paintings,
their measurements were checked, and their provenance was systematized with the
help of the Getty Provenance Index, and attributions were made consistent with
the latest research. A bibliography with references to the painters as well as
the paintings facilitates the reader's access to all scholarship concerning the
works. First and foremost, however, this book serves as an invitation to view
this comprehensive series of reproductions: an invitation extended to the
interested visitor and the art lover as much as to the art historian in search
of specific information.
Similar in conception and layout are the volumes dedicated to
Netherlandish painting and the painting of the Romance countries before 1800 in
the Städel. There is also a CD-ROM in preparation, combining the updated
content of all three volumes.
The authors are Jochen Sander, director of the department of
painting, and Bodo Brinkmann, curator of Old Netherlandish and Old German
painting in the Städel.