Panel Painting
As in Flanders, large-scale altarpieces featuring naturalistically painted
biblical themes were familiar sights in the Holy Roman Empire.
KONRAD WITZAmong the most notable 15th-century Ger-
man altarpieces is the Altarpiece of Saint Peter,painted in 1444 for
the chapel of Notre-Dame des Maccabées in the Cathedral of Saint
Peter in Geneva, Switzerland.Konrad Witz(ca. 1400–1446), whose
studio was in Basel, painted one exterior wing of this triptych with a
representation of the Miraculous Draught of Fish (FIG. 20-20). The
other exterior wing (not illustrated) depicts the release of Saint Peter
from prison. The central panel is lost. On the interior wings, Witz
painted scenes of the adoration of the magi and of Saint Peter’s pre-
sentation of the donor (Bishop François de Mies) to the Virgin and
Child.Miraculous Draught of Fishshows Peter, the first pope, unsuc-
cessfully trying to emulate Christ walking on water. Some scholars
think the detail is a subtle commentary on the limited power of the
pope in Rome on the part of the Swiss cardinal who commissioned
the work. The painting is particularly significant because of the
landscape’s prominence. Witz showed precocious skill in the study
of water effects—the sky glaze on the slowly moving lake surface, the
mirrored reflections of the figures in the boat, and the transparency
of the shallow water in the foreground. He observed and depicted
the landscape so carefully that art historians have determined the ex-
act location shown. Witz presented a view of the shores of Lake
Geneva, with the town of Geneva on the right and Le Môle Moun-
tain in the distance behind Christ’s head. This painting is one of the
first 15th-century works depicting a specific site.Graphic Arts
A new age blossomed in the 15th century with a sudden technologi-
cal advance that had widespread effects—the invention by Johannes
Gutenberg (ca. 1400–1468) of movable type around 1450 and the de-
velopment of the printing press. Printing had been known in China
centuries before but had never fostered, as it did in 15th-century Eu-
rope, a revolution in written communication and in the generation
and management of information. Printing provided new and chal-
lenging media for artists, and the earliest form was the woodcut (see
“Woodcuts, Engravings, and Etchings,” page 537). Using a gouging
instrument, artists remove sections of wood blocks, sawing along the
grain. They ink the ridges that carry the designs, and the hollows re-
main dry of ink and do not print. Artists produced woodcuts well be-
fore the development of movable-type printing. But when a rise in
literacy and the improved economy necessitated production of illus-
trated books on a grand scale, artists met the challenge of bringing
the woodcut picture onto the same page as the letterpress.
MICHEL WOLGEMUTThe so-called Nuremberg Chronicle,a
history of the world produced in Nuremberg by Anton Koberger
(ca. 1445–1513) with more than 650 illustrations by the workshop of
Michel Wolgemut(1434–1519), documents this achievement. The
hand-colored page illustrated here (FIG. 20-21) represents Tarvi-
sium (modern Tarvisio), a town in the extreme northeast of Italy, as
it was in the “fourth age of the world” according to the Latin inscrip-
tion at the top. The blunt, simple lines of the woodcut technique give
a detailed perspective of Tarvisium, its harbor and shipping, its walls
and towers, its churches and municipal buildings, and the baronial536 Chapter 20 NORTHERN EUROPE, 1400 TO 150020-20Konrad Witz,
Miraculous Draught of Fish,
from the Altarpiece of Saint
Peter,from the Chapel of
Notre-Dame des Maccabées,
Cathedral of Saint Peter,
Geneva, Switzerland, 1444.
Oil on wood, 4 3 5 1 .
Musée d’Art et d’Histoire,
Geneva.
Konrad Witz set this Gospel
episode on Lake Geneva.
The painting is one of the first
15th-century works depicting
a specific landscape and is
noteworthy for the painter’s
skill in rendering water effects.1 ft.20-20ALOCHNER,
Madonna in the
Rose Garden,
ca. 1440.
20-21A
Buxheim
Saint
Christopher,
1423.