The Herrenberg Altarpiece (german: Herrenberger Altar) is a

winged altarpiece A winged altarpiece (also ''folding altar'') or winged retable is a special form of altarpiece ( reredos, occasionally retable), common in Northern and Central Europe, in which the central image, either a painting or relief sculpture (or some c ...

, that was created between 1518 and 1521 for the

Brethren of the Common Life The Brethren of the Common Life (Latin: Fratres Vitae Communis, FVC) was a Roman Catholic pietist religious community founded in the Netherlands in the 14th century by Gerard Groote, formerly a successful and worldly educator who had had a religio ...

, a German Roman Catholic pietist community. It was built as a

high altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paganis ...

for the

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by ...

Herrenberg Herrenberg ( Swabian: ''Härrabärg'' or ''Haerebärg'') is a town in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, about 30 km south of Stuttgart and 20 km from Tübingen. After Sindelfingen, Böblingen, and Leonberg, it is the fourth largest t ...

in the state of

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...

, now part of southwest Germany. Today the altarpiece, which has only survived in part, is in the possession of the Stuttgart State Gallery.

History

The altarpiece bears a date of 1519. The eight panel images were painted by artist,

Jerg Ratgeb Jerg Ratgeb, also Jörg Ratgeb ( 1480–1526), was a German painter during the Renaissance, and a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer. Life and works Ratgeb was born in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Around the turn of the 15th to 16th century, he appears ...

(c. 1480–1526) who was executed during the German Peasants' War. The carved shrine, the front of the

predella In art a predella (plural predelle) is the lowest part of an altarpiece, sometimes forming a platform or step, and the painting or sculpture along it, at the bottom of an altarpiece, sometimes with a single much larger main scene above, but oft ...

and the decorated carvings above the altarpiece have been lost. Ratgeb's idiosyncratic and expressive style of painting was, for a long time, little appreciated and it has only recently been appropriately recognized. The altarpiece in Herrenberg was only in place for a relatively short time. After

the Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

was introduced to the town in 1534, the first Lutheran pastor in Herrenberg had it dismantled in 1537. In 1548, at the time of the

Augsburg Interim The Augsburg Interim (full formal title: ''Declaration of His Roman Imperial Majesty on the Observance of Religion Within the Holy Empire Until the Decision of the General Council'') was an imperial decree ordered on 15 May 1548 at the 1548 Diet ...

, Spanish troops had the altar rebuilt. After 1552, it was simply suspended from the ceiling for a few centuries. In 1891, the town council sold the altarpiece to the "State Collection of National Antiquities" in Stuttgart "in view of its, in places, unattractive images". The surviving elements have been in the Stuttgart State Gallery since 1924. A copy may be seen in the collegiate church in Herrenberg. The Herrenbilder Altar is a

, the front of which has two outer wings (A) that can be opened out to the left and right and two inner wings (I) that can also be opened. The four surviving are panels in the same format, painted on both sides (a, b) and thus there are eight panels ''in toto''. Jerg Ratgeb - Last Supper - WGA19006.jpg, ''The Last Supper'', first opening, left, outside (panel A li b) Jerg Ratgeb - Flagellation of Christ - WGA19003.jpg, ''The Flagellation of Christ'', first opening, left, inside (panel I li a) Jerg Ratgeb 001.jpg, ''The Resurrection of Christ'', first opening, right, outside (panel A re b)

Description

Of the double

winged altar A winged altarpiece (also ''folding altar'') or winged retable is a special form of altarpiece ( reredos, occasionally retable), common in Northern and Central Europe, in which the central image, either a painting or relief sculpture (or some c ...

, four panels, painted on both sides, the corner elevations and the three-part back of the predella have survived. The panels are decorated with ornaments and quotations from the Old and New Testaments. The eight large panel pictures simultaneously show 24 scenes from the Passion story, from the life of Mary and from the Acts of the Apostles. The depictions in detail: Closed position (on normal Sundays) * Panel outer left (a) and Panel outer right (a) show a composite image: ''The Apostles' Farewell'' First open position (during

Passiontide Passiontide (in the Christian liturgical year) is a name for the last two weeks of Lent, beginning on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, long celebrated as Passion Sunday, and continuing through Lazarus Saturday. The second week of Passiontide is Holy We ...

) bei * Panel outer left (b): The

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

Gethsemane Gethsemane () is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. It is a place of great resona ...

/ The

Arrest of Jesus The arrest of Jesus was a pivotal event in Christianity recorded in the canonical gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set ...

* Panel inner left (a): The

crown of thorns According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns ( or grc, ἀκάνθινος στέφανος, akanthinos stephanos, label=none) was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to his crucifixion. It was one of the in ...

/ The

Flagellation of Christ The Flagellation of Christ, sometimes known as Christ at the Column or the Scourging at the Pillar, is a scene from the Passion of Christ very frequently shown in Christian art, in cycles of the Passion or the larger subject of the '' Life of C ...

/ Jesus before the People / Jesus before Pilate * Panel inner right (a):

Christ Carrying the Cross Christ Carrying the Cross on his way to his crucifixion is an episode included in the Gospel of John, and a very common subject in art, especially in the fourteen Stations of the Cross, sets of which are now found in almost all Roman Catholi ...

/ The Women at the Cross / The Burial of Christ * Panel outer right (b): The

Resurrection of Christ The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lord ...

/ The three women go to the tomb / Jesus and Mary Magdalene Second open position (on high festivals) * Panel inner left (b): The

Marriage of the Virgin The Marriage of the Virgin is the subject in Christian art depicting the marriage of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The marriage is not mentioned in the canonical Gospels but is covered in several apocryphal sources and in later redactions, no ...

/ The Golden Portal / Mary and Elizabeth * Lost: shrine with carved figures (probably Mary in the

Mandorla A mandorla is an almond-shaped aureola, i.e. a frame that surrounds the totality of an iconographic figure. It is usually synonymous with '' vesica'', a lens shape. Mandorlas often surround the figures of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary in tr ...

) * Panel inner right (b): The

Circumcision of Christ The circumcision of Jesus is an event from the life of Jesus, according to the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, which states: And when eight days were fulfilled to circumcise the child, his name was called Jesus, the name called by the angel befo ...

/ Jesus to the Temple / Flight into Egypt

Predella In art a predella (plural predelle) is the lowest part of an altarpiece, sometimes forming a platform or step, and the painting or sculpture along it, at the bottom of an altarpiece, sometimes with a single much larger main scene above, but oft ...

images *

Veil of Veronica The Veil of Veronica, or (Latin for sweat-cloth), also known as the Vernicle and often called simply the Veronica, is a Christian relic consisting of a piece of cloth said to bear an image of the Holy Face of Jesus produced by other than huma ...

and two angels

External links

Entry on the catalog
of the

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (, "State Gallery") is an art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, it opened in 1843. In 1984, the opening of the Neue Staatsgalerie (''New State Gallery'') designed by James Stirling transformed the once provincial gallery ...

. *

References

{{Authority control 16th-century paintings Böblingen (district) Altarpieces Renaissance paintings