The Städel Museum – Old Masters collection is part of the Städel’s art museum and gallery located in Frankfurt, Germany. It is one of the most important and renowned art museums in the country, housing a vast collection of artworks from the Middle Ages through to contemporary art. The museum showcases paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings, with works by artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Monet, Degas, Picasso, and many others.
Old Masters
The Städel Museum – Old Masters painting exhibit takes place across 20 interconnected rooms and spaces. The museum’s collection of Old Master paintings from renowned artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Botticelli, Dürer, Rubens, and Titian spanning the 14th through to the 19th century. The display retraces the development of the most important schools of European painter from the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance and Baroque to Neo-Classicism.
I seek out to discover some highlights, learning a bit more about each painting of the Städel Museum – Old Masters collection and its artist as I go.
Meister
This small scale masterpiece by Meister is in the international Gothic style. It is set in a castle garden, yet represents an idealised picture of paradise with the Virgin Mary and Christ at its center.
Symbols are rife, not only with the saints which includes St. George (front right in chainmail), with his tiny dragon in the foreground. Next to St. George is the the archangel Michael with an ape next to his foot representing the devil, reduced to a tame pet in the garden of paradise. These figures both represent evil being powerless in the company of the Virgin, Christ and the Saints.
The tree stump between Jesus & the devil represents the old tribe of David and the Jewish people’s covenant with God while the fresh branches are indicative of the new covenant with God, sealed by the Virgin Mary and Christ.
The realism of the painting is unusual for the time. Incredibly, there are 24 plants and 12 birds in the garden, all accurately depicted. A little Kingfisher perched on water channel, has just dived in, fish in beak.
Van Eyck
As we move through time, the perspectives and the representations change. Van Eyck’s Lucca Madonna mirrors the theme of Mary and Child, though this time in a much more intimate setting. Here the perspective allows the viewer to feel like they are in the room, looking up to the Virgin and Child on a throne and standing on the carpet that rolls out from the platform.
The painting is vastly different to the international Gothic style of the time. Painters were in the process of moving from craftsman to artist. True to this, Van Eyck was the first artist to sign and date his work.
Botticelli
Botticelli’s Italian Renaissance masterpiece Idealised Portrait of a Lady, is of Simonetta Vespucci, the woman once considered the most beautiful woman in all of Florence. She was the lover of Giuliano de’ Medici and on closer inspection, the pendant on her necklace ties her to the family as it was part of the Medici collection. Her hairstyle, known as a “vespaio” (wasp’s nest), is a reference to her name. The idealised style of the portrait is in the mythological guise of a nymph, rather than a strict likeness. This perhaps accounts for the extravagance of hairstyle. The beads, ribbons, feathers and artificial hairpiece woven in was too extravagant even by Florentine standards. Sounds like the original Disney princess.
Bronzino
Painted in the Italian Mannerism style, Bronzino’s Portrait of a Lady in Red, depicts another Florentine lady. Unlike Boticelli’s, she is unidentified but nevertheless, exudes a similiar self confidence and an air of the elite. Her posture and the picture’s composition support her claim to a leading social rank. This can be deduced from the arrangement of armchair with the viewer being kept at a fitting distance from the subject. I like her little dog backing into her arm. I can almost feel its timidity and protectiveness through the paint.
Elsheimer
This altarpiece tells a story with the combination of the seven miniatures depicting the Empress Helena of Constantinople and how she finds the Cross of Christ in the fourth century.
The central panel of the triptych depicts the Exaltation of the Cross in heaven with the Virgin Mary being crowned Queen of Heaven, numerous saints are in attendance. The man seated at the foot of the cross on the right has his back turned but the sea monster he is on reveals him as Jonah of the Old Testament’s Jonah and the whale fame. King David has his harp.
Purchased in 1950, the central panel was restored by the museum. Once on display the remainder of the panels came to light and it was eventually reconstructed thanks to sketches from the 17th century.
Rembrandt
The violence and drama of The Blinding of Samson by Rembrandt is considered one of his greatest works. Attributed to the Dutch Golden Age, in this painting, Delilah has made her agreement with Samson’s enemies, the Philistines, to find his weakness, his hair. She has since teased the truth out of him and has betrayed him, cutting off his magic locks we see both scissors and tuft of hair in her hands. Her countrymen then dive onto the weakened hero, brutally blinding him with a dagger.
Rembrandt reflects the scene as if in a spotlight. The Philistines caught in the act carrying looks of both triumph and determination. Delilah’s expression depicts horror, fear and morbid fascination as she glances back. From this painting Rembrandt became known as a master of the emotional genre. The array of emotions, the use of light and dark, the different expressions of all the parties in this painting is exquisite. The range of thoughts written plainly across each face translates almost seamlessly across to the viewer.
I feel the intensity of my own response to the wave of emotions across the character’s faces. It is hard to draw my eyes away, despite there being so much more to see.
Poussin
Landscape During a Thunderstorm depicts an interesting story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Similar to Romeo and Juliet, a tragic turn of events complete with a run in with a lion, leaves Pyramus dead and Thisbe mourning him. For me this narration, which takes place in the foreground, along with said lion then attacking a horse and rider in the midst of a thunderstorm is too busy. There is too much happening and too much wound up in the same canvas. I like the drama of the thunderstorm but for me, that would have been enough.
Nevertheless, the use of light and dark is true to reflecting the ‘dramatic turmoil’ of the lovers. The stillness of the lake reflects love’s constancy.
Vermeer
Unlike the turmoil of Poussin’s thunderstorm, I like the sense of calmness the Vermeer’s The Geographer imposes. Apart from the intensity of his thoughts, the intricacy and simplicity of the room are extraordinary. Each instrument – globe, map, compass, utensils – are wonderfully depicted. The cloth in the foreground is incredible cloth in both color and detail. Yet its the stillness of the man and the volume of his thoughts that make this portrait a weighty contender for my favorite thus far.
Watteau
Another artist that mixes the everyday with a fantastical portrayal. Watteau’s Embarkation for Cythera is set in sight of the island of Cythera. Cythera is Greek mythology’s island of love, which appears in the distance. Yet the early 18th century crowd waiting to board the awaiting gondola appear somewhat unhurried in reaching their destination. This is despite the cherubs that seem to be enticing the party into their world.
Another interesting use of light an luminous color but without the focused emotional intensity of Vermeer.
Tiepolo
Tiepolo also uses an incredible palette of color in this depiction of The Patron Saints of the Crotta Family. In this scene, the family’s matirarch is seated with all attention on him. St. Grata presents her father with St. Alexander’s head. The head has been cut off at his command and right at this moment, the heathen father becomes convinced of the Christian faith as the head sprouts flowers, rather than blood.
Commissioned by the Crotta family, this portrait was painted with the intention of increasing the family’s renoun in their new home of Venice. The story bears witness to the role the family played in the Christianisation of the city of Bergamo where they have since relocated from.
I like the intensity of color and character in this painting and the wonderful way that light is used to bring forth the players.
Good To Know
The Städel Museum’s Old Masters collection is just a fraction of the extensive collection that this gallery has to offer. Located in Frankfurt, Germany, there is much more to the museum and the city, try to save time for more:
Check the museums website for opening times and important information as well as further information on each of the paintings described above.
Would I Return?
Yes. These are masterpieces that never grow old.
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