4/4/24, 11:03 AM Matthias Grünewald - Wikipedia

Matthias Grünewald
Matthias Grünewald (c. 1470 – 31 August 1528) was a
German Renaissance painter of religious works who ignored
Renaissance classicism to continue the style of late medieval
Central European art into the 16th century. His first name is
also given as Mathis and his surname as Gothart or
Neithardt.

Only ten paintings—including several polyptychs—and thirty-

five drawings survive, all religious, although many others were
lost at sea on their way to Sweden as war booty. He was
obscure until the late nineteenth century, when many of his
paintings were attributed to Albrecht Dürer, who is now seen
as his stylistic antithesis. His largest and most famous work is
the Isenheim Altarpiece created c. 1512 to 1516.

Life Grünewald's John the Evangelist.

This work was long thought to be a
He was recognised in his own lifetime, as shown by his self-portrait.
commissions, yet the details of his life are unusually unclear for
a painter of his
significance at this
date. The first source to
sketch his biography
comes from the
German art historian
Joachim von Sandrart,
who describes him
around 1505 working
on the exterior
decoration of an
altarpiece by Albrecht
Dürer in Frankfurt.
This is the sort of work
typically performed by
Second state of the Isenheim Altarpiece, Colmar, Unterlinden Museum
apprentices and
therefore an estimate of
his age can be reached, suggesting he was born in 1475.[1] Sandrart records that Grünewald had as
an apprentice the painter Hans Grimmer, who became famous in his time, but most of whose
works were lost in the Thirty Years' War.[2] Sandrart describes Grünewald as leading a withdrawn
and melancholy life, and marrying unhappily.[3]

More recent investigations have provided further information on Grünewald's life. In 1511 he
became court artist of Uriel von Gemmingen, Archbishop of Mainz, and he also worked for the next
archbishop, Albert of Brandenburg. About 1510 he received a commission from the Frankfurt
merchant Jacob Heller[4] and settled in nearby Frankfurt where records indicate he bought a house
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