Matthias Grünewald: The Drawings

On the occasion of its centennial anniversary, the German Verein für Kunstwissenschaft has compiled all of Renaissance master Matthias Grünewald's known drawings in this opulent volume, which is filled with exquisitely reproduced color plates, complete with critical commentary. Grünewald's 40 surviving studies are some of the most important discoveries of German Renaissance art. Uncovered by art historian Max J. Friedländer, who posits Grünewald's technique as an antipode to Albrecht Dürer's, this publication is the latest example of nearly a century of groundbreaking drawings editions produced by the Verein für Kunstwissenschaft--the first volume of which, a complete edition of Grünewald's known drawings at the time (1927), has long been out of print. Later editions featured the work of artists such as Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baldung Grien, Hans von Kulmbach, Hans Schäufelein and Lucas Cranach the Elder. The work of Matthias Grünewald (c. 1475-1528) was nearly forgotten until the twentieth century; only a dozen paintings and these drawings have been found. His masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece (c. 1513-1515), was long believed to have been painted by Dürer.