GRÜNEWALD, MATTHIAS

Grünewald, Matthias: translation

(d. 1528)

German painter, also active as an architect and engineer. Virtually nothing is known about his early life and training. He was probably born in Würzburg, but even this is uncertain. The growing fashion for italianate styles, evident in the work of his contemporaryAlbrecht Dürer, probably explains why this great painter, whose work is clearly Northern rather than Italian in inspiration, was largely overlooked in his own century and virtually forgotten until the 20th century. His earliest identifiable paintings, such as hisMocking of Christ, date from about 1504-1506. Between 1508 and 1514 he served as court painter to the archbishop of Mainz. By far his best-known work is the polyptich or altarpiece commissioned for the chapel of a monastery near Isenheim in Alsace, and its most famous segment is aCrucifixionscene. Unlike the works of Dürer, Grünewald's paintings do not reflect a direct influence from Italy. They continue many features of Northern art of the 15th century, yet they also show the sophisticated use of perspective, the physical treatment of the human figure, and the simplified, thematically unified composition that are generally taken to be signs of influence from Renaissance Italy.