The Ascension
Johann Koerbecke·1456/1457
Historical Context
Johann Koerbecke painted this Ascension as part of a major altarpiece dated 1456-57, one of the most important surviving works of Westphalian late Gothic painting. Koerbecke was the leading painter of Münster in the mid-fifteenth century, producing altarpieces that combined the rich decorative traditions of the International Gothic with emerging naturalistic tendencies. This panel formed part of his Marienfeld altarpiece, one of the masterworks of German panel painting.
Technical Analysis
Koerbecke's tempera on panel demonstrates the Westphalian late Gothic style with its bright, jewel-like colors and elaborate gold tooling. The ascending Christ is rendered with the combination of hieratic dignity and decorative splendor that characterizes the finest German Gothic panel painting.
Provenance
Part of the high altar in the abbey church of the Cistercian Cloister at Marienfeld, near Münster, completed in 1456/1457, installed 6 February 1457, until 1803.[1] Charles Léon Cardon, Brussels, by 1912.[2] Rudolph Chillingworth, Lucerne, Brussels, and Nuremberg; (sale, Galeries Fischer and Frederik Muller & Cie., Lucerne, 5 September 1922, no. 47); acquired by Jacob Walter Zwicky [d. 1956], Freiburg and Arlesheim-Basel;[3] acquired 1955 by (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); jointly owned with (Pinakos, Inc. [Rudolph Heinemann], New York);[4] purchased 1957 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1959 by exchange to NGA. [1] Alb. Wormstall, "Zur Geschichte der Liesborner und Marienfelder Altargemälde," _Zeitschrift für vaterländische Geschichte und Alterthumskunde_ 55 (1897), 90-92, Rincklake's "Gutachten" is cited, 99-102. See also Johannes Sommer, _Johann Koerbecke. Der Meister des Marienfelder Altares von 1457_ (Münster 1937), 11-12, 17-18. Jochen Luckhardt, _Der Hochaltar der Zisterzienserklosterkirche Marienfled_. (Bildhefte des Westfälischen Landesmuseums für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Nr. 25) (Münster 1987), 24, 34, notes the tradition of reliquary altars in the Cistercian order and reproduces two examples from the fourteenth century. [2] Exhibited with the Cardon collection in Brussels, 1912: _Exposition de la Miniature_, exh. cat., Palais Goffinet, Brussels, 1912: no. 2051, as "Anonyme (Ecole de Souabe, XV siècle)." [3] Per letter from Zicky's son, dated 20 May 1989 (NGA curatorial files). The painting was exhibited at Julius Böhler, Munich, in 1934. It was Böhler no. 37-34, per the index to the card file, Böhler Gallery Records, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; however, no card appears to exist. Böhler likely had the picture on consignment and returned it to Zwicky. [4] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Stock book no. 10, p. 146, no. A5951, and Sales book no. 17, p. 314 (copies in NGA curatorial files). [5] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2074.
