A triptych of ancient painting exhibitions

About the three parts of the exhibition subtitled “Germanic paintings from French collections”, visible in Dijon (21), Besançon (25) and Colmar (68) until September 23, 2024.

You have to see it to believe it ! In a fireworks display of colors and skits not devoid of humor, Germanic works of art from French collections dating from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance display their truly irresistible charms in three fine arts museums: in Dijon, Besançon and Colmar. I won't hide from you that I wasn't immediately convinced, as the subject seemed so dry to me. But as I had been invited by a communications agency and I am curious by nature, I made the trip with enthusiasm. And frankly, I don't regret having parked my caravan for a few days in these three cities which, what's more, are charming to visit.

For the cultural mediators of the museums, this was not a given a priori either. Far from the modern and contemporary art which delights the media, we cannot say that the Germanic painting of this period panicked the art market and brought major collectors to art galleries. Obviously: it is rather in churches... Seduce the general public based on the ambitious research program carried out since 2019 by Isabelle Dubois-Brinkmann at the National Institute of the History of Art to catalog Middle Germanic paintings Age and Renaissance which are preserved on French soil… so you had to dare! And yet, it works. It’s even fascinating, as these paintings with a strong taste for anecdote are teeming with amusing details, priceless faces and sumptuous colors. Here the incredible story of two saints, one of whom robbed the other at his death, and who finds himself in court with the hilarious skeleton of the usurped person, there an innocuous portrait of a child which takes on its full dimension when we learns that the little pear he holds in his hand symbolizes the germinated seed, which solemnly designates him as the male heir of the family. Elsewhere, Saint Marguerite escapes by piercing the belly of the monster that has just engulfed her, another saint defeats a dragon, a horde of men have smiles on their faces as they throw themselves on stakes which will pierce them, jets of blood spurt very cleanly from cleanly severed necks while heads roll alongside without losing their pleasant expression... Frankly, it looks like comic strips before their time! And more golden. Because the painters of the Holy Roman Empire obviously liked gold! Unless it is their sponsors, always eager to show off, going so far as to be represented in biblical episodes, as we can observe at the Unterlinden museum in Colmar which devotes an entire section to it. Because there were no works of art for sale at the time. Contemporary artists of princes and prelates painted works of art that had already been sold.

As Daphné Bétard writes in the June issue of Beaux Arts Magazine: “The nudes are grating, the gazes piercing, the scenes like hallucinatory visions when the settings reveal themselves to be both familiar and improbable like those of bad dreams... Oscillating between artificial realism and distortion of reality, the style is bizarre, slightly tense, sometimes dissonant, defying the logic of the gaze like a sort of visual oxymoron. Despite a somewhat harsh and distressing exterior, the Germanic painting of the end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance which is revealed to us in the tripe exhibition organized at the Museums of Fine Arts of Besançon and Dijon as well as at the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar turns out to be fascinating, intriguing to the highest degree because it is multiple, complex, refusing ease, shortcuts. »

Yes, it would have been a real shame if these years spent by Isabelle Dubois-Brinkmann crisscrossing the territory, to identify and study the slightest painting or altarpiece panel unearthed in the museum reserves or the small obscure churches of deep France, did not come to fruition. than a scientific database. “I wanted to make this research work visible by simultaneously presenting it to the general public in three exhibitions: in Dijon for the 15th century, in Besançon for the Renaissance and in Colmar for the painting of the Upper Rhine, that is to say roughly say Alsace,” explains the brilliant heritage curator and director of the municipal museums of Mulhouse. “It is true that the Holy Roman Empire is a notion which is not necessarily very precise in the mind of the French public, hence the maps, in the same way as the references of painting of the 15th and 16th centuries. centuries are also a bit distant. So we really tried to be fun and educational, in particular by showing its functions, its uses, its technique..." The whole secret is there: not only do we feast on beauty, we have fun, but we also have the impression of understanding lots of things by visiting these three exhibitions. So obviously we come away feeling happy.

No wonder, however, that each partner museum has racked its brains to find a title for the temporary exhibition it houses, a little sexier than just “Germanic paintings from French collections (1370-1550)”.

So we have “Masters and Wonders” at the Museum of Fine Arts in Dijon, “Made in Germany” at the Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology in Besançon, and “Color Glory and Beauty” at the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar. With a few headliners of course. We will be very happy to spot Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), Martin Schongauer (around 1450-1491) or Matthias Grünewald (around 1475-1528) for example. The sumptuous scenographies make the subject attractive at first glance, contributing greatly to the appreciation today of this painting of yesterday. Not to mention the themes allowing for some focus, like in Besançon on portraits for example. It is truly fascinating to see how the representation of people evolved throughout the first half of the 16th century with the rise of humanism. And how sometimes we no longer even have the words to name certain pieces of their flamboyant costumes! To also note the omnipresence of the male portrait, before the female portrait slowly intruded with the advent of family representation...

It’s impossible not to think of the three parts of an altarpiece when talking about this triptych of exhibitions. Because there are altarpieces in abundance! Some were also able to put their pieces together thanks to the discoveries of real treasures made possible by this census work. Many have been renovated, recovering their underlying designs which had faded over time. And some masterpieces have even been reattributed to their hypothetical authors by specialists. Like this nugget from La Fère, a town in the Hauts-de-France region: a small crucifixion which could well be the 7th work of the illustrious Albrecht Dürer preserved in France!

Article written by Valibri in Roulotte

Illustration: Orlier Altarpiece by Martin Schongauer