Mathis
Neithart or Nithart (he later called himself Gothart, and erroneously his
name was changed into Grünewald) is a German painter, born in 1470/80
supposedly in Würzburg. Grünewald, besides Dürer,
is the most important representative of Northern painting at the turn of
the 16th century.
In 1509, he became court painter to archbishop Uriel von Gemmingen at Aschaffenburg,
and supervised the rebuilding of the palace there. In 1516, he started
on a fixed income at the court of the elector Albrecht von Brandenburg,
where he worked as a painter and architect and also as a designer of fountains.
He had to leave the post in 1520 because of his Lutheran convictions.
His major works include the Isenheim
Altar, long believed to be paint by Dürer; The
Mocking of Christ (c.1503) and The
Meeting of St. Erasmus and St. Maurice (c.1520-1524) and others.
Grünewald died in Halle in 1528.
Bibliography:
Grünewald. by A. Nemilov. Moscow. 1972.
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary.
Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
Matthias
Grunewald by Horst Ziermann. Prestel USA, 2001.
The
Isenheim Altar: Suffering and Salvation in the Art of Grunewald
by Gottfried Richter. Floris Books, 1999.
The
Devil at Isenheim : Reflections of Popular Belief in Grünewald's Altarpiece
by Ruth Mellinkoff. University of California Press, 1988.
Evil,
Sexuality, and Disease in Grunewald's Body of Christ by Eugene
Monick. Spring Publications, 1993.