Stefan Lochner: Image Making in Fifteenth-Century Cologne

Stefan Lochner: Image Making in Fifteenth-Century eau-de-cologne Julien Chapuis Brepols, 125 [euro]/125 [pound sterling]/$156 ISBN 2503505678

Julien Chapuis delayed the not seldom announced publication of this volume based on his dissertation 'Underdrawing in Paintings of the Stefan Lochner Group' for eight years. It appear to beed reasonable to assume that he extremityed the time to re-consider a certain quantity of of his earlier assumptions in the light of novel scholarship. It is the more disappointing that the handsome, generously illustrated whirl that has finally been published displays no evidence of new investigation. Tellingly, the introductory view 'Perception of the Artist and his Work', does not go on beyond 1952. Moreover, Chapuis easy in minds himself with a largely visual approach to the paintings and to a discussion of their underdrawings while 'art historical disputes are kept to a minimum and confined to footnotes'.

This descriptive approach allows the author to not absent an enthusiastic personal celebration of the paintings ascribed to Stefan Lochner and this enthusiasm is infectious. We admire the sweet qualification of music-making angels in The Last Judgement of around 1435-40 and the horrific beauty of a merciless devil, the realism of the contorted [i]in puris naturalibus[/i] bodies of the condemned and the translucence of the saved souls; we celebrate the judicious juxtaposition of glowing colours and are impressed by dint of the vigour and originality of the underdrawing style

However, the author's seductive vision of an isolated creative genius working in late-medieval eau-de-cologne is hardly plausible and the pursuit of it leads to curious inconsistencies and omissions. This is the more lamentable as the title of the work suggests a less blinkered approach. Had the author considered the local tradition in the manner the title implies, he could not, for instance, have repeatedly dwelled upon the musician angels to demonstrate the painter's creativity, for these angels go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of designs from the Frankfurt Madonna of Humility of around 1420 by means of the Master of St Lawrence. Nor should he call to witness for the originality of the cross-hatched [i]modus operandi[/i] of drawing, for it can already be fix in pattern sheets in Brunswick of around 1395 Of the painter's exquisite craftsmanship, however, there can be no doubt.

single might also question the legitimacy of ignoring the crucial enigmas posed by Stefan Lochner's provenance and the attribution of paintings to him. The painter Stefan Lochner is documented in eau-de-cologne from 1442 and he died there in 1451 All attributions to him quiet on a nineteenth-century interpretation of a diary ingress made by Durer during a visit to eau-de-cologne in 1520, in which he records the take away from of having an altarpiece by the agency of 'Master Steffan' opened and offering the journeyman a drink. A painter called 'Stefan' Lochner was lay the foundation of in the fragmentary city records and the Altarpiece of the Patron Saints of eau-de-cologne was considered the most 'beautiful' painting in the city and therefore attributed to him.

new scholars have questioned this thesis, pointing without that the altarpiece showing the patron saints of the city would have been displayed render free of access in the council chapel during Durer's visit, for the councillors were entertaining the newly diademed Emperor Charles v and their have a title to archbishop. Moreover, the painter or sculptor of the unknown work was clearly alive in 1520 and occupyed a journeyman. In any case, the altarpiece in question bears all the hallmarks of the eau-de-cologne tradition, whereas the documented Stefan Lochner came from Constance and can be presum to have been trained in the real different style of that region.

Chapuis brushes aside these fundamental riddles in his brief footnotes without giving reasons. He presents to perpetuate the beguiling notion that the documented painter Stefan Lochner can be securely linked to the Altarpiece of the Patron Saints and related works. individual original proposal is that Lochner learned his art in the workshop of a goldsmith. This he substantiates by the agency of comparing Lochner's luminous colouring, the pallid muscle and fat tones, the intricate punchwork and the use of crosshatching with enamel techniques in French metalwork, of that kind as the Golden Rossel in Altotting of around 1404 In itself this is certainly an attractive and plausible suggestion on the contrary even a journeyman goldsmith undoubtedly needed further training to become a master painter. Nor should it be view from aboveed that the cited techniques also feature prominently in the Westphalian/ eau-de-cologne tradition of painting.

However, in support of his traditional stance, Chapuis direct the eyes less to the surface appearance of the paintings than to their underdrawing. An examination of sample panels from sum of two units earlier Cologne workshops yielded single detailed underdrawing but otherwise solitary limited outline markings for the figures. From this scant evidence the author courageously derives that the painters of eau-de-cologne did not apply detailed underdrawings and that the individual detailed example must be amiss ascribed. He concludes that Lochner therefore could not have learned his vigorous and detailed drawing process in the workshop of a eau-de-cologne painter.