The German Paintings before 1800 Volume 1 and 2

This fully illustrated catalogue presents the most up-to-date research on the 80 paintings in the National Gallery that were created in the German-speaking lands before 1800. Among them are important groups of works by artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger – including his famous double portrait ‘The Ambassadors’ of 1533 – Lucas Cranach the Elder, Albrecht Dürer, Adam Elsheimer, the fifteenth-century Cologne painter known as the Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece and his Westphalian contemporary, the Master of Liesborn.

This is the first catalogue of the National Gallery’s German paintings since 1959 and includes authoritative entries on a number of important new acquisitions, among them significant works by Albrecht Altdorfer, Wolf Huber, Franz Anton Maulbertsch, Hans Rottenhammer and Hans Wertinger. Each entry discusses in detail the subject matter, authorship, provenance and art historical significance of the work. New information based on the re-examination of each picture is combined with technical photographs. The catalogue also contains two essays, the first discussing the history of the paintings’ acquisition by the National Gallery and the taste for German painting in Britain, and the second addressing the ways in which these German artists produced their work.

Author

Susan Foister was formerly Deputy Director and Curator of Early Netherlandish and German Paintings at the National Gallery, London.

With contributions by Marika Spring, Rachel Billinge and Lea Viehweger.