Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531), Portrait of a Young Man, 1506. Poplar panel, 41,1 x 28 cm. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

WIEN - The Kunsthistorisches Museum is dedicating its major spring exhibition to three pioneers of the Renaissance in the North: Hans Holbein the Elder (c.1464–1524), Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531) and Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). The show focuses on a hitherto littlenoticed centre of this turning point in art: the free imperial and trading city of Augsburg.

Over 170 top-class paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, goldsmiths’, and platers’ works from the rich holdings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and leading international museum collections illustrate the innovative power that emanated from the metropolis of Augsburg. Hans Burgkmair the Elder and Hans Holbein the Elder can be regarded as its most important painters around 1500. Burgkmair in particular played a key role in the adoption of modern Italian art forms, the development and perfection of new printing techniques, and the first largely authentic depictions of non-European peoples.

At the Kunsthistorisches Museum, a significant selection of Holbein the Elder’s most important panel paintings, drawings, and prints will be juxtaposed with Burgkmaier’s for the first time. Among the highlights are Holbein’s portrait of Jakob Fugger and his Saint Catherine, Burgkmaier’s portraits of the Schellenberger Couple, his magnificent Story of Esther and the colour woodcut Death Assaults a Pair of Lovers. These works are complemented by early works by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98–1543), including the double portrait of Jacob Meyer zum Hasen and his Wife Dorothea Kannengießer. They are accompanied by works by Albrecht Dürer, such as his design Resurrection of Christ, which was created for the Fugger Chapel in Augsburg. There are also works by other (not only Augsburg) artists of the time, such as the painter Ulrich Apt the Elder, the painter and draughtsman Jörg Breu the Elder and the sculptor Hans Daucher, who created the Two putti from the Fugger Chapel near St. Anna in Augsburg.

The exquisite loans come from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen – Alte Pinakothek, Munich; Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha; Städel Museum Frankfurt a. M.; Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Cologne; Kunstmuseum Basel; Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg; Kunsthalle Hamburg; Kunstsammlungen & Museen Augsburg, Maximilianmuseum; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, among others.

Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531), Portrait of Hans Schellenberger, 1505. Limewood panel, 41,5 x 28 cm. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud. © Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Köln.

Augsburg: Boom town with a past

In the early sixteenth century, the free imperial city experienced an unparalleled cultural and economic heyday that made it second only to Nuremberg amongst the leading artistic centres of southern Germany. Thanks to its own ancient Roman past and close trading links with northern Italy, it was influenced by the new currents in the art and humanist culture of Italy to a greater degree than any other city north of the Alps. In the fifteenth century, these connections had led to Italian works making their way into Augsburg collections assembled as a result of the growing interest in antiquities.

The epochal change from the late Gothic to the modern period or Renaissance north of the Alps became evident, among other things, in the gradually shifting coexistence of ‘German’ and ‘foreign’ (‘welsch’, i.e., Italian) stylistic elements and the varying ways that artists reacted to and deployed the (new) southern notions of form, ranging from the simple adoption of novel ornamental forms to the adaptation of motifs and styles.

Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531), Portrait of Barbara Schellenberger, née Ehem, 1507. Limewood panel, 41.5 x 28,8 cm. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud © Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Köln.

Hans Holbein d.Ä., Hans Burgkmair d.Ä., and the next generation

Hans Holbein the Elder (c.1464–1524) and Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531) tested and developed their artistic positions in this extraordinarily stimulating environment. Today, they are regarded as the most important painters of this era, although they took different artistic paths. While Holbein’s painting is more strongly indebted to local and early Netherlandish models and he only opened up to the new artistic movement coming from Italy late and selectively, Burgkmaier’s works, in contrast, reveal an intensive engagement with the southern Renaissance, presumably also inspired by a trip to Italy. Almost all of Burgkmaier’s known (self-)portraits, which are only shown in this abundance in Vienna, demonstrate his modern self-image as a creative artist. Both painters – in other respects, too, very opposing figures – ultimately stand for stylistic alternatives that were taken up by other Augsburg artists of the early sixteenth century to varying degrees, depending on the aspirations and tastes of their patrons.

One major figure born into this exceptionally inspiring ambience was Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98–1543), who received his early artistic training in his father’s workshop but was also shaped by his study of the works of other Augsburg painters such as Burgkmair. Even though the young artist left to try his luck in Basel from 1515, he remained substantially influenced by these formative experiences.

Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531), Lovers Surprised by Death, 1510. Chiaroscuro woodcut, 213 x 151 cm. Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, Graphic Collection © Public Domain, Städel Museum, Frankfurt a.M.
 

New media, new topics

The exhibition shows how Renaissance Augsburg abounded in new things both artistic and technical. Thanks to its location on the most important European trading routes and near to the Alpine passes it became a hub for goods and ideas from all over the known world. New printmaking techniques such as the colour (or ‘chiaroscuro’) woodcut and the iron-plate etching were invented or at least perfected in Augsburg, where the small-scale relief also enjoyed a heyday.

Burgkmair, who was a pioneer of the colour woodcut and one of the first artists north of the Alps to discover the red chalk pencil as a drawing medium, excelled in many of these fields. We also have him to thank for sensational mythological depictions and the first largely authentic images of non-European peoples, which in turn reflect the long-distance trade relations of Augsburg's economic elites.

Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531), Portrait of Emperor Frederick III, c.1510. Spruce panels, 79.4 x 51.9 cm. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

Augsburg artists and their patrons

Last but not least, the show also sheds light on the important role of clients and patrons. Innovations in art not least reflect a need of clients for representation, display of status, and a sense of historical significance. In particular, such works were commissioned by the imperial court, clergy, art advisers, and members of financially powerful merchant families with farreaching connections such as the Welsers and the Fuggers, who also commissioned works from Italian and German artists of the likes of Bellini or Dürer.

There was no other city in the empire besides Augsburg where the indefatigably itinerant emperor Maximilian I stayed so often and for such long periods. The emperor had a fine understanding of how to best exploit the arts for the public representation of his person and family. Particularly Burgkmair the Elder enjoyed his special favour. Many of the emperor’s projects were facilitated by the Augsburg humanist Konrad Peutinger, who was perhaps Maximilian’s most important adviser in matters of both politics and art. In this context, an important role was also played by major events such as the imperial diets. With their numerous international participants, they functioned as impulse-givers for processes of cultural exchange and thus contributed to the triumph of the Renaissance in the North.

The exhibition is mounted in cooperation with the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, where it was presented from 2 November 2023 to 18 February 2024 under the title Holbein and the Renaissance in the North.

Guido Messling, Curator of German Painting at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, curated the exhibition. Together with Jochen Sander, Deputy Director of the Städel Museum and Head of the Collection of German, Dutch and Flemish Painting before 1800, he edited the accompanying publication Renaissance in the North. Holbein, Burgkmair, and the Age of the Fuggers. The exhibition was designed by Martin Kohlbauer.

19 March to 30 June

Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531), The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, 1520. Limewood panel, 62 x 53 cm. Hanover, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Landesgalerie © Landesmuseum Hannover – ARTOTHEK

Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531), The Story of Esther, 1528. Spruce panel, 103 x 156.3 cm. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen – Alte Pinakothek München

Hans Holbein the Elder (1464–1524), Christ as Man of Sorrows, c.1500/05. Spruce panel, 115 x 55 cm. Zurich, Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum © Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum, IN-53.1-2

Hans Holbein the Elder (1464–1524), Portrait of Jakob Fugger, c.1509. Silverpoint drawing, 135 x 89 cm © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Kupferstichkabin ett. Foto: Dietmar Katz

Hans Holbein the Elder (1464–1524), St Catherine (portrait of Katharina Schwarz?), c.1509/10. Maple panel, 39,5 x 28,4 cm © Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha, Inv. SG 692

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98–1543), Paired Portraits of Jacob Meyer zum Hasen and his Wife Dorothea Kannengießer, 1516. Limewood panels, each 39,5/39,7 x 31,9 cm. Kunstmuseum Basel, Online Collection © Public Domain

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), Portrait Emperor Maximilian I, 1519. Limewood, 74 x 62 cm. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), The Rhinozeros, 1515. Woodcut. Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, Graphische Sammlung, Inv-Nr. 31588 D © Public Domain

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), The Resurrection of Christ (Design for the memorial relief of Ulrich Fugger in the Fugger Chapel at St Anne’s in Augsburg), c.1510. Pen-and-ink drawing, 268 x 135 mm. Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum © Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Photo: Monika Runge.

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), Design for the tomb of Jakob and Sibylla Fugger (?), c.1510. Pen-and-ink drawing. Oxford, Christ Church Picture Gallery, Inv. 1109 © Christ Church Picture Gallery

Ulrich Apt the Elder (1460–1532), The Adoration of the Magi, 1510. Softwood panels, 125 x 71 cm. Paris, Musée du Louvre. © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) – photo: Mathieu Rabeau

Leonhard Beck (1480–1542), St George and the Dragon, c.1513/14. Spruce panel, 136.7 x 116 cm. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

Jörg Breu the Elder (1475–1537), Shutters for the small organ in the Fugger Chapel at St Anne’s in Augsburg, c.1512–1522. Wood panels, 144 x 67 cm. Augsburg, St Anne’s, Fugger Chapel Fuggersche Stiftungen. Photo © Eckhart Matthäus

Hans Daucher (1486–1538), Two putti from the Fugger Chapel at St Anne’s in Augsburg, c.1518. Limestone, 29 x 27 x 15,5 cm resp. 27 x 28 x 15 cm. Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg, Maximilianmuseum. © sotheby’s / art digital studio.

The acquisition was funded by: Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung – Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien – Kulturstiftung der Länder.

Hans Daucher (1486–1538) and workshop of Adolf Dauchers the Elder (1460/65–1523/1525), Shield bearer from the portal of the Ducal Chapel of Meissen Cathedral, 1520/21. Jurassic limestone, polychromed, 49.2 x 16.8 x 14.1 cm. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Purchase, Gifts of the Hearst Foundation, Alexander Smith Cochran, Mrs. Russell Sage, Mr. and Mrs. William Randolph Hearst Jr., and Bequest of Emma A. Sheafer, by exchange, 1999) © bpk/The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gregor Erhart (1469/70–1540), Christ Child with a Globe, Augsburg, c.1500. Limewood, polychromed, 56.8 x 25 x 20.5 cm. Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe © Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, acquired with funds from the Campe'sche Historische Kunststiftung, Photo: Joachim Hiltmann/Stanislaw Rowinski/Andreas Torneberg