Skovgaard-Pedersen, Inge. Da Tidernes Herre var nær. Studier
i Saxos historiesyn. Copenhagen: Den danske historiske
Forening, 1987.
(c) Latinity, Verse, and Manuscripts: Blatt, Franz
[Indledning and Præfatio to the Index (vol. 2) of
Olrik and Ræder’s 1931 edition]
Saxostudier, pp. 1–114, contains thirteen articles in Danish on the
language, construction, and analogues of Saxo’s work
Friis-Jensen, Karsten. Saxo og Vergil. Copenhagen: Museum
Tusculanum, 1975 [French summary].
Boserup, Ivan. “The Angers Fragment and the Archetype of Gesta
Danorum.” Saxo-Culture, pp. 9–26.
Friis-Jensen, Karsten. “The Lay of Ingellus and Its Classical
Models.” Saxo-Culture, pp. 65–78.
Friis-Jensen, Karsten. Saxo Grammaticus as Latin Poet: Studies in
the Verse Passages of the Gesta Danorum. Analecta Romana;
Instituti Danici, Supplementum 14. Rome: Bretschneider,
1987.
Friis-Jensen, Karsten. “Was Saxo a Canon of Lund?” Cahiers de
I’institut du moyen- ge grec et latin 59 (1989), 331–57.
Eric Christiansen
SCHONGAUER, MARTIN (ca. 1450–1491)
Known today primarily as an engraver, this artist, active
in Colmar and the Upper Rhine area from circa 1470
until about 1491, was nicknamed Hübsch Martin (Fair
Martin) by his contemporaries in praise of his abilities
as a painter. He is important as an assimilator of Nether-
landish art. His work was infl uential in Germany, and he
attracted many followers, including Albrecht Dürer.
Martin Schongauer was probably born circa 1450
in Colmar, a town south of Strasbourg. Although some
have proposed a birth date of about 1430, this view has
not found widespread acceptance. His father, Caspar,
was a goldsmith, and Martin probably fi rst trained in his
shop. His rather apparently wanted his son to become
a cleric, for Schongauer’s name appears in the 1465
matriculation records of the University of Leipzig. After
only one semester, however, he returned to Colmar and
began training as a painter. Caspar Isenmann, active in
Colmar circa 1435–1472, is often cited as his teacher,
but no evidence, documentary or stylistic, supports this
assumption. As a journeyman, Schongauer likely trav-
eled to Cologne, then to the Netherlands. His experience
of works by the major Netherlandish masters—Roger
van der Weyden, Robert Campin, Dieric Bouts, and
Hugo van der Goes—is evident in his overall style and
in his appropriation of Netherlandish compositions,
motifs, and fi gure types. After his travels, Schongauer
settled in Colmar, where he purchased a house in 1469
and again in 1477. He remained there until 1489, when
he became a citizen of nearby Breisach. He died there
in 1491.
None of Martin Schongauer’s paintings are signed.
The only dated work attributed to him is the Madonna
of the Rose Arbor (Colmar, church of St. Martin), dated
1473 on the reverse. The fi gure types and detailed,
naturalistic rendering of plants and birds are inspired
by Netherlandish art. This work’s date has been used
to establish Schongauer’s chronology.
Scholars agree that the earliest preserved works by
Schongauer are two wings from the altarpiece com-
missioned by Jean d’Orlier, preceptor of the Antonite
monastery of Isenheim, about 1470 (Colmar, Musée
d’Unterlinden). They feature an Annunciation on the
exterior, and on the interior, an Adoration and Jean
d’Orlier presented by St. Anthony. Schongauer painted
several small devotional paintings in the 1480s: two
Holy Families (Munich, Alte Pinakothek; Vienna, Kun-
sthistorisches Museum), an Adoration of the Shepherds
(Berlin, Gemäldegalerie), and two versions of the Virgin
and Child at a Window (private collections). His last
painting, a Last Judgment fresco in Breisach Minster, is
based on Roger van der Weyden’s Last Judgment Altar-
piece of about 1445 (Beaune, Musée de l’Hôtel Dieu).
One-hundred sixteen monogrammed engravings sur-
vive, which include both religious and secular subjects.
Schongauer’s great contributions to the medium were his
innovative use of stipling (dots), hatching (fi ne lines),
and crosshatching to create tonal effects like those in
paintings, and his adoption of complex compositions
derived from paintings. The works are divided into two
periods. The early engravings date to the early 1470s.
Compositions, as in Christ Carrying the Cross, tend to
be intricate and crowded with fi gures, and the system
of modeling inconsistent. Mature works, from the late
1470s until his death, contain smaller groups, or single
fi gures, and the modeling is more controlled and logical,
as in the Wise and Foolish Virgins.
A number of drawings attributed to Schongauer also
survive. The recent attribution of a watercolor Study of
Peonies (private collection) provides insight into Schon-
gauer’s working methods (Koreny 1991: 591–596). It
was probably executed as a preparatory study from
nature for the 1473 Madonna of the Rose Arbor.Further Reading
Baum, Julius. Martin Schongauer. Vienna: A. Schroll, 1948.
Le beau Martin: Gravures et dessins de Martin Schongauer vers
1450–1491. Colmar: Musée d’Unterlinden, 1991.
Châtelet, Albert. “Martin Schongauer et les primitifs fl amands.”
Cahiers alsaciens d’archéologie, d’art et d’histoire 22 (1979):
117–142.
Dvorak, Max. “Schongauer und die niederländische Malerei,”
in Kunstgeschichte als Geitstesgeschichte: Studien zur
abendländischen Kunstentwicklung. Munich: Piper, 1924,
pp. 151–189.
Koreny, Fritz. “A Coloured Flower Study by Martin Schongauer
and the Development of the Depiction of Nature from van
der Weyden to Dürer,” Burlington Magazine 133 (1991):
588–597.SAXO GRAMMATICUS