The painter and engraver Martin Schongauer (c. 1445–91) slipped into relative obscurity in the early 17th century, but his admirers included the greatest of artists. When Michelangelo was 12 or 13 he made a colourful copy of Schongauer’s The Torment of Saint Anthony (c. 1469–73), an engraving full of fantastical demonic beasts that also had an impression on Hieronymus Bosch. Dürer, too, was a keen collector of Schongauer’s work. This exhibition at the Louvre gathers some rare drawings and many of the engravings that made Schongauer famous, but its most eye-opening elements are the many altarpieces and easel paintings shown together for the first time (8 April–20 July). Among the most striking works is Madonna of the Rose Bower (1473), Schongauer’s only painting to have a confirmed date. One of his larger pieces, at two metres high and more than a metre wide, it shares with his smaller paintings a mastery of naturalism and ornamentation, and an intimacy in the rendering of Virgin and Child.
Find out more from the Louvre’s website.
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