The waves of Netherlandish influence
This picture was consolidated over the following decades as "Netherlandicizing"
currents increasingly gained ground across Europe. In the 1440s,
Barthelemy d'Eyck (doc. from 1444— c. 1476) produced his famous
Annunciation triptych for Aix cathedral, while in
Naples Colantonio (doc. 1440—1465) made the new style his own. In Barcelona,
Lluis Dalmau (doc. c. 1428—1461) set about
painting, in his 1444/45 Virgin of the Councillors for
Barcelona's town hall, one of the most faithful imitations of a
van Eyck anywhere to be found. In Cologne, the most densely populated
city in Germany,
Stefan
Lochner combined
Eyck formulae with clear
reminiscences of the Soft Style: the hems of the robes in his Virgin
of the Rose Garden undulate like waves. Particularly
striking here, as in his Darmstadt Presentation in the Temple, are the delicate, extraordinarily sophisticated harmonies
of his palette. In the retrograde handling of scale in their
figures, however, both panels lag far behind the
van Eyck. Pasty,
doll-like faces, overly large gold haloes and gilt grounds embossed
with ornate decoration complete the picture.
That
Lochner was nevertheless very familiar with developments in the
Netherlands can be seen from the Patron Saints of Cologne altarpiece
which he painted for the chapel in Cologne town hall, and which is
today housed in Cologne cathedral. The folds here are far more
angular than those of the Virgin of the Rose Garden executed a few
years later. The Annunciation on the altar's exterior
recalls the Ghent Altar even at the level of individual motifs in
the Virgin's spreading draperies. In continuing to deploy elements
from the past, however,
Lochner was not betraying his incompetence,
but was very consciously playing with the motifs and formal canons
of different styles and regions - an "un-Gothic", extremely modern
approach for which in the 15th century, significantly, parallels
existed only in Italy. That we are dealing not with some inferior
imitator, but rather with one of the most important Late Gothic
artists of all, is surely demonstrated best of all by the fame which
he enjoyed for generations to come. His design solutions and nature
studies were drawn upon by Schongauer, himself a master of
composition, and even
Rogier van der Weyden, at that point the most
important representative of the Early Netherlandish school. Over
half a century after
Lochner's death,
Albrecht
Durer went to the
chapel in Cologne town hall in order to admire for himself the
masterpiece which still survives today.
It was precisely the freedom with which Lochner created his art that
ensured he would remain an isolated phenomenon, however famous. The
Cologne painters of the following decades
(Master
of the Life of the Virgin, Master of the St. Bartholomew Altar) would
orientate themselves towards their Netherlandish contemporaries, in
the first instance primarily towards
Rogier's "successor",
Dieric
Bouts (c. 1410/20 —1475). Their borrowings were thereby
restricted to selected figural, drapery and landscape forms. Their
approach to composition and their techniques of preliminary drawing
and execution remained entrenched in local tradition — not just with
regards to such obvious features as gold grounds and nimbuses. A
constant "updating" of forms derived from the Netherlands can be
observed in other European regions, too. The latest trends in Bruges
and Antwerp were still being adopted even in distant Portugal right
up to the early years of the 16th century.
