An altar-piece of the Apocalypse from Master Bertram's workshop in Hamburg, (Victoria and Albert Museum. Monograph, no. 25)

84 Pages·1968·30.57 MB·English

by  C. M. Kauffmann

AN ALTAR-PIECE OF THE APOCALYPSE
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VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
An Altar -piece
of the Apocalypse
from
Master Bertram' s Workshop
in Hamburg
By c. M. KAUFFMANN
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LONDON : HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE
1968
Contents
The Apocalypse altar-piece I
Moster Bertram and the style of the altar-piece 3
The altar-piece and Friar Alexander's Commentary upon the
Apocalypse '4
The iconography of the Apocalypse scenes 17
The scenes on the back of the wings 27
The provenance 30
Description of the Apocalypse scenes 33
Notes 44
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©
CrOll'lI (op)'rigbt 1963
Monograph TO. 2)
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Acknowledgements
:i\'fany, though by no means aU the scholars from whose help I benefited
are mentioned in the footnotes in connection with their special field of
study. For further help, for photOgraphs and, in certain cases, for permis
sion to reproduce them, I should like to thank the authorities of the
following Institutions: Cambridge, Uniycrsitr Librar~'; Dresden, State
Library; Hamburg: Kunsthalle; Staatsarchiv; Denkmalschutzamt; London:
British l\{useumj COli rtauld Institute; \Varbutg Institute; l\Hinster, Landes
museum; Oxford, Bodleian Library; Prague, National Galler),; Vatican
Library; \X'Ioclaw, University Library. For many valuable suggestions
1 am indebted to my wife .
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The Apocalypse altar-piece'
The Book of Revelation was a very popular subject for illustration from
the early Middle Ages until the time of Durer. llIuslrated Apocalypse
manuscripts abound and there are numerous examples of Apocalypse wall
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paintings, sculptures, stained glass windows, tapestries and, latterly,
woodcuts, but altar-pieces with series of scenes from the Apocalypse are
exceedingly rare and may be counted on the fingers of one hand. Herein
lies the main interest of the altar-piece in the Victoria and Albert :Muscum
and in this essay an attempt will he made to place it in its historical setting
and to discover how and why this almost unique object came into being.
The altar-piece was bought by the lVfuseum as a Flemish work in 18,9
for £50. It was regarded as Flemish until190j when Alfred Lichtwark, the
Director of the Hamburg An Gallery, published it in his pioneer work
on .f..rfaster Bertram, the principal painter in Hamburg in the last quarter
of the 14th century.!! Lichtwark ascribed the altar-piece in part to .f..1aster
Bertram's own hand. This attribution is no longer upheld, though it is
clearly the work of one of his followers and was probably painted, as we
shall see, in Hamburg in c. 1400.
Unfortunately the painting is no longer in its original state. It is now,
and has been since before 1859, in the form of a triptych, the front of
which consists of a centre piece and two wings. On the back of the wings
there are scenes from the lives of the Virgin, St. John the Evangelist, St.
Giles and St. Mary Magdalen. The front of the painting is divided by
horizontal and vertical bands containing inscriptions into 45 fields illus
trating the Apocalypse. The story comes to an abrupt end at chapter 16,
leaving chapters 17 to 22 untold, which suggests that the painting in its
present state is no longer complete. This supposition is strengthened by
the condition of the inscription, which has been cut at some time.
Originally each scene had an inscription at the top and on the right. \Xlhere
this is extant and legible it rcads from the upper line at the top to that on
the right, followed by the second line at the top and on the right. Along
the top of the whole painting and down the right side of each wing the
inscriptions are now missing (pIs. 1-5). This means that the inscriptions
to the scenes at the top and on the right of each wing are incomplete and
make no sense in their present condition.
The picture was, like all altar paintings of its time, in tempera on panel.
The panel must have become worm-eaten or damaged in another way, for
at some time, probably in the 19th century, the painted surface was trans
ferred on to several layers of canvas. The scenes now placed on the back of
the two wings were also transferred from panel on to canvas. As they are
now not organically connected with the front of the wings, it is possible
that these scenes were originally in a different position on the altar-piece.
On the other hand it could well be that both the back and the front of the
panel were transferred on to canvas and replaced in their original position.
It was quite within the competence of 1 8th-and I9th-century restorers to
Figure I Master Bertram. Grabow
altar-piece, 1379-83, carved side.
split a panel and to save both the back and the front. Duccio's Alaes/a was
Hamburg, KWlSthaile.
treated in this way in 1795, and, among the works of Master Bertram's
followers, the Buxtehude altar-piece in the Hamburg Art Gallery pro
vides another example, though in both cases the paintings remained on
panel and were not transferred on to canvas. The existing evidence is
insufficient for a definite conclusion to be drawn, but it is at least possible
that the scenes on the back of the wings of the Apocalypse altar-piece are
still in their original positions.
The question whether chapters 17-22 of the Apocalypse were originally
illustrated on the altar-piece, either in a fifth register or in a predella
(compare fig. I), must also remain unsolved. What is certain is that when
the painting was transferred on to canvas from its original panel, it was
cut down and the inscription trimmed off at the top and sides. The frame
is probably original, though it too was cut down. The saw-tooth edge
cornice has a 19th-century appearance, but as the circular medallions are
finely painted originals (pp. 32, 50), it may well have been made to replace
a similar cornice on the original altar-piece.
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Master Bertram and the style
of the altar-piece
Until 1900 1>.fastcr Bertram was totally unknown except as a name in the
Hamburg archives. In that year Friedrich Schlie discovered a document
showing that the altar-piece in the church at Grabow in l\'fecklenburg had,
until 1731, stood in St. Peter's Church, Hamburg.:! Subsequently, because
of its great size, its artistic importance and the fact that it was dated
13 79, the Grabow altar-piece was shown by Lichtwark to have been the
principal altar-piece in that church (figs. 1-5). This altar-piece, it was
known from the documents, had been erected in 1383 and was the work
of a certain .Master Bertram of :Minden. The great archivist Lappenbcrg
had previously published a series of documents concerning l\'faster Ber
tram,;I but this was the first time that his name could be attached to an
existing work.
The date of his birth may be estimated as c. 1340, but nothing is known
of his early years except that he came from .i\finden in \'Vestphalia. The
documents record his activity in Hamburg from 1367, by which date he
appears to have been the leading painter in that city. In 1375 he visited
Lubeck on an official commission. He was engaged on the altar-piece for
St. Peter's Church, Hamburg, from 1379, the date it bears, until 1383
when the documents record its erection. This great work consists of a
carved screen as well as the painting (fig. I). As carvings are mentioned
in the documents relating to Bertram's activities, several authorities have
taken him to be a sculptOr as well as a painter, but this interpretation
remains controversial. He was the only painter to receive official com
missions between 1367 and 1387, and he remains the sole outstanding
artist in Hamburg until the appearance of .i\faster Francke in the early
I} th century. Bertram was the head of a workshop, but the size of this
workshop and the likely number of his followers is also controversial,
depending upon t,he interpretation of guild regulations and practice in
14th-century Hamburg. \',,'e know from the will he made in 1390 that he
decided to go on a pilgrimage to H..ome in that year, but there is no evi
dence as to whether he actually went. He is further recorded in the Ham
burg archives in 1410 and 1.P4, and he mllst have died there not long
before 13 .i\iay 1415, by whkh date his cousins from .i\1inden were laring
claim to his estate. These few recorded facts may seem sparse compared to
what we know of the principalltalian painters of the time, but in northern
Europe it is rare to have so much information concerning a 14th-century
artist. For Germany, .i\1aster Bertram is one of the earliest painters con
cerning whom we have both documentar~t evidence and extanr works.5
Alfred Lichtwark ascribed four altar-pieces to .i\faster Bertram, three of
which he had acquired for the Hamburg Art Gallery; the fourth was in the
Victoria and Albert .i\fuseum. Subsequently two further paintings and an
illuminated manuscript were added to the group, but later scholars have
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