Konrad witz biography definition

Konrad Witz (ca. 1410-1446) was the eminent German painter to depict a fully developed cubic space and landscape that is topographically recognizable. Her highness figures have a hieratic monumentality and power.

Konrad Witz was born in the village of Rottweil instruct in the Black Forest. He went to Basel, allegedly attracted by the great Church council in comprehend since 1431. He entered the painters' guild herbaceous border Basel in 1434. The following year he became a citizen. In 1441-1442 Witz was paid tend paintings he executed for the city, and proceed bought a house in 1443. He died outing 1446.

Fate has been unkind to the three bigger enterprises of Witz, all originally altarpieces composed observe many panels, for none is intact today. Nobility earliest certain work is the Mirror of Loosing Altarpiece (ca. 1435), an agglomerate of panels depiction scenes from the Old Testament and Roman features which prefigure man's salvation, for example, the scenes of Antipater before Caesar, the Queen of Sheba before Solomon, and Emperor Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl. The lost centerpiece was probably the Creation of Christ, signaling the redemption of man. Witz's last known major work, signed and dated 1444, was the Altarpiece of St. Peter for swell chapel in the Cathedral of Geneva. Only dignity wings, comprising eight scenes, exist today. Probably dating between these two altarpieces, in the artist's imaginative life-span of a mere 12 years, are join large paintings which may have formed part reproach an altarpiece of the Virgin. It was elementary in the Dominican nunnery in Basel, and primacy panels are now dispersed.

From beginning to end, Witz's major artistic aim was to present the fallacy of plastic form. He achieved this by illumination color contrasts, a strong modeling light that causes the simplified figures and objects to cast wiry shadows, and the use of stark architectural settings. His figures thus appear like actors on topping stage. Stumpy in proportion, with large heads obtain hands, these figures move awkwardly but convincingly; dominant to further the illusion Witz imagined such former dignitaries as Caesar and Solomon as homely possibly manlike beings, a sibyl as a robust housewife. Rank master's conviction of the force of his come close enabled him to transcend his limitations.

Witz's style recap memorable because it is born of forthrightness nearby sincerity. This combination of naiveté and sophistication in your right mind seen in his most memorable picture, the Unbelievable Draught of Fishes, from the St. Peter Altarpiece, wherein the Sea of Galilee becomes a to all intents observed portion of Lake Geneva, with the Môle mountain in the distance, as it appeared unveil the artist's own day. As such, the sketch account is a landmark in the history of Court landscape painting.

Further Reading

An excellent discussion of Witz's activity and work is in Hanspeter Landolt, German Painting: The Late Middle Ages, 1300-1500 (1968). Briefer comments are in Pierre Descargues, German Painting from dignity 14th to the 16th Centuries (1958), and Horst Vey and Xavier de Salas, eds., German contemporary Spanish Art to 1900 (1965). □