WOLGEMUT, Michael

The picture shows an illustration for the Nuremberg Chronicle. It depicts an episode from the Odyssey (Bk 10). On their journey home after the Trojan War, Ulysses and his companions came upon the island of the sorceress, Circe. With a magic potion, she transformed the men into swine; however Ulysses, having been forewarned by Mercury and having taken an antidote, was able to resist her magic.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 13 minutes):

Claudio Monteverdi: Il ritorno d’Ulisse, Act I, Duet of Odysseus and Pallas Athene

The picture shows an illustration for Hartman Schedel’s Chronicle of the World (Nuremberg, 1493).

This woodcut is from the Weltchronik, published by Hartmann Schedel in Latin and German editions. It is a large and profusely illustrated book with some 1.800 illustrations of biblical events, genealogies, maps and views of towns. The present woodcut, one of the larger and inventive illustrations, is attributed to Michael Wolgemut.

The picture shows the frontispiece of Hartman Schedel’s Chronicle of the World (Nuremberg, 1493).

Netherlandish influence is evident in this portrait of Levinus Memminger, a Nuremberg judge. The artist adopted the general pose, the stone parapet and the window opening on to a landscape from Dirk Bouts or another master, yet the overall feel is decorative rather than naturalistic. The face lacks the detail and careful shading that characterize Netherlandish portraits. The meaning of the HMH initials is uncertain, though the letters may allude to a personal motto or to his wife.

Hans Pleydenwurff died at the height of his career in 1472. Michael Wolgemut, his gifted assistant, married his widow and inherited Pleydenwurff’s workshop. One of the last commissions that Pleydenwurff contracted was the so-called Hofer Altarpiece for the church of the Holy Trinity in Hof, which featured painted wings with the Life of Christ for a sculptured central shrine. It is generally assumed that Wolgemut and his shop were responsible for the paintings after the death of Pleydenwurff. The panel depicting the Resurrection has been attributed to Wolgemut’s hand, and while the attribution is not certain, the style of this colourful panel represents the fine fusion of Flemish and Germanic that characterizes the heritage of Pleydenwurff. The composition is based on panels by Dieric Bouts, such as that on the right wing of altarpiece in Granada and the Resurrection in Pasadena.

The picture shows an illustration for Hartman Schedel’s Chronicle of the World (Nuremberg, 1493).

The Antichrist was a very popular subject in the fifteenth century, one depicted with particular frequency in the graphic art of the North. The woodcut by Wolgemut in the widely popular Liber chronicarum or the Nuremberg Chronicle was an inspiration for later depictions of the subject.