Brigitte Corley Livres

The Westphalian artist Conrad von Soest played a significant role in the development of North European art around 1400 and his elegant and luxurious altarpieces highlight a fascinating period of German social and economic history. He lived and worked in Dortmund, where he found his patronage among the well-educated and cosmopolitan merchant-princes of the Hanseatic cities whose 'Medici'-like life-style, affluence and influence permeated the cultural life of Northern Germany. In reflecting the chivalric tastes of his patrons, Conrad developed an oeuvre that established him as a major exponent of the International Courtly Style. His complete output is discussed, catalogued and reproduced in this the illustrations include striking details, infra-red photographs and comparative material. Dr.Corley analyses the subject, iconography, style and technique of the famous Niederwildungen and Dortmund altarpieces as well as the smaller scale panels, and she examines the artist's influence over later German masters of the School of Cologne. The book provides students of Northern European art with the first comprehensive monograph on this highly-skilled master, and should make a significant contribution to the reference literature on International Gothic. Conrad van Soest's complete output is discussed, catalogued and reproduced in this the illustrations include striking details, infra-red photographs and comparative material.

Cologne in the later Middle Ages was an elegant and wealthy mercantile city much favoured by popes and emperors. The largest town in Northern Europe, the site of an important university and seat of a major archbishopric, it had a cosmopolitan population of painters, illuminators, sculptors and goldsmiths and a patrician class who were sophisticated collectors and knowledgeable patrons of art. This book - the first such study in English - traces the development of the Cologne school of painting over two centuries. It begins with the period before 1400, when the adaption of French ideas to the indige- nous tradition produced an elegant, genteel art, characterized by elongated figures and graceful gestures. A change was heralded by the Veronica Master's introduction of the International Courtly Style around 1400, with its sophisticated iconography, costly pigments, exquisite punchwork, gesso jewels and precious brocade fabrics, and by the Dombild Master's introduction around 1440 of Eyckian proportions and realism. In the final phase of this development, the Master of the St Bartholomew Altarpiece opened the door to the Renaissance with his highly distinctive style and innovative iconography. The book is fully illustrated and accompanied by a translation of the guild regulations; a biographical index of archbishops and lay patrons; and a hand- list of cited panels grouped according to location.

Das spätmittelalterliche Köln war eine elegante und wohlhabende Hansestadt. Als größte Stadt Nordeuropas stellte sie ein international bedeutsames Bildungs-, Handels- und Wallfahrtszentrum dar. Mächtige Erzbischöfe, namenhafte Gelehrte sowie sachkundige Patrizier und Ratsherren wetteiferten um die Gunst einer internationalen Riege von hoch begabten Malern, Buchmalern, Bildhauern und Goldschmieden. Dank außergewöhnlicher Umstände ist ein stattlicher Korpus repräsentativer Gemälde und Retabel dieser Zeit erhalten geblieben. Die Entwicklung dieser einzigartigen Malerei über zwei Jahrhunderte wird vor dem Hintergrund eines politischen und künstlerischen Klimawechsels dargestellt und gibt faszinierende Einsicht in die Werkstätten der Maler und die Motive der Stifter. Das vorliegende Werk erschien ursprünglich in englischer Sprache und fand international positiven Anklang. Erstmalig liegt es nun in deutscher Übersetzung vor. Reich, teils farbig bebildert und mit einem umfangreichen Anhang ausgestattet gewährt es jedem kunstinteressierten Leser einen gut verständlichen Zugang zu diesem spannenden Thema.