Conrad von Soest

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Conrad von Soest, also Konrad, or in Middle High German Conrad van Sost, (born around 1370 in Dortmund^[1]; died after 1422 was a Gothic painter and the main master of the Westphalian school, the so-called soft style of International Gothic. He played an important role in the introduction of the International Courtly Style to Northern Germany around 1440, and influenced German painting into the 15th century. He was a successful artist, no doubt running a workshop, and married into the patrician elite of Dortmund.

Contents 1 Works 2 Life 2.1 Sources 2.2 Citizen of Dortmund 2.3 Marriage contract 2.4 Painter of Dortmund 3 Sources and notes 4 External links 5 Literature

[edit] Works

His main surviving works are influenced by French illuminated manuscripts and Early Netherlandish painting from Burgundy:

• Triptych Altarpiece in the protestant city church in Bad Wildungen, around 1403. Scenes from the Life of Christ, with the oldest depiction of glasses north of the Alps.^[2]
• Portable altarpiece for the Dortmund family of Berswordt with a depiction of "Reinoldus" as a knight, 1404, Alte Pinakothek Munich
• Three panels from an Altarpiece of Mary in the Marienkirche in Dortmund, around 1420
• Panel of Nikolaus for the Nikolai Chapel in Soest (attributed), Federal Museum of Art and Cultural History Münster.

[edit] Life

[edit] Sources

Conrad von Soest is the first Westphalian painter for whom some sources concerning on his life have survived. We have:

• An inscription of his name on the wooden frame of the Wildungen Altar;^[3]
• a hidden signature on the Dortmund altarpiece;^[4]
• Dortmund's documented mention of a "Wernerus pictor" who became a citizen in 1331, and of a "Wernerus pictor de Sosato" (naturalised in 1348); furthermore of a "hinricus de Sosato", profession deaurator (gilder), naturalised in 1306;
• a marriage contract with Gertrude van Munster from 1394 (see below);
• member lists of the Dortmund Marienbruderschaften (Brotherships of Mary) of St. Marien: in 1396 "Conrad meler et uxor" ("Conrad painter and wife"), resident in the Osterhellweg, and of St. Nikolai (in 1396 "Mester Conrad, meler").^[5]

[edit] Citizen of Dortmund

In 1925, the director of the Dortmund city archive, Luise von Winterfeld, collected mentions of Conrad von Soest in the Dortmund archive.^[6] In doing so, she initially considered his citizenship proved by the absence of his name from Dortmund's Neubürgerlisten (lists of new citizens)^[7] and she further concluded, that he had to be the son of the Dortmund citizen "Wernerus pictor de Sosato". This is now considered to be incorrect, because those lists were not complete.^[8] As a stronger argument von Winterfeld could have pointed to is the fact that Conrad von Soest did not have to swear to his identity to the Dortmund City Council during the marriage contract.

[edit] Marriage contract

The marriage contract ("Morgensprache"), made before witnesses, between "Conrad von Soest" and Gertrude, daughter of "Lambertes van Munster", is dated February 11, 1349.^[9] On the day after the feast of Saint Scholastica, the married couple detailed the inheritances and possible trusts at their disposal.

Not only the size of the sums at the disposal of the married couple is striking, the prominence of the witnesses points towards the high social position of the contracting couple. Both for Conrad and for Gertrude, these especially respectable patricians acted as guarantors. Monika Fehse interprets the marriage as a meaningful connection between the Dortmund patrician Conrad with Gertrude van Munster, representative of Münster's monastery nobility:

“

the marriage between Conrad and Gertrude could have had a political meaning too, which would explain the appearance of the – casually speaking – political prominence of the witnesses: Among the six patrician witnesses we find the second mayor of the current council year 1394, Herrmann Klepping, the tertiary council member, Detmar Klepping, and both mayors of the following council year, which started shortly after the marriage, Arnd Sudermann and Lambert Berswordt.[10]

”

[edit] Painter of Dortmund

According to the lists of the Brothership of Mary from 1396, Conrad von Soest's house was in the Ostenhellweg in Dortmund's centre. The list refers to two other painters in the Ostenhellweg, Lambert and Hermann, probably a hint to a collective studio.^[11] The list of the Nikolai brothership contains a "Mester Conrad, meler" and then notes the Wißstraße as the place of residence without naming further relatives. Even if most of the analysis assume the identity of one person, this cannot be documented with certainty. Regarding Dortmund's brotherhoods Monika Fehse points out the broad social range of the membership in contrast to Cologne for example, where the brotherhoods were organised corporatively.^[12] Conrad's high social position cannot be deduced from the membership in the brotherships.

Since 1954, the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (Landscape Society Westphalia-Lippe) has awarded the Konrad-von-Soest Price for Visual Arts, endowed with 12,800 euros.

[edit] Sources and notes

[edit] External links

• Conrad von Soest in the German National Library catalogue
• KONRAD von Soest, Entry in the Biographisch-Bibliographischen Kirchenlexikon (BBKL; Biographic-Bibliographic Church Encyclopedia)
• Altar of the city church in Bad Wildungen

[edit] Literature

• Horst Appuhn: "St. Marien in Dortmund", in: Konrad Lorenz, Die Ev. St. Marienkirche zu Dortmund, self published by the Mariengemeinde, several figures, Dortmund 1981, pp. 18-47 (German)
• Brigitte Buberl (ed.): Conrad von Soest : neue Forschungen über den Maler und die Kulturgeschichte der Zeit um 1400 (Essay collection on the occasion of the symposium of the same title in 2001); Gütersloh : Verl. für Regionalgeschichte, 2004, ISBN 3-89534-521-0 (German)
• Brigitte Corley: Conrad von Soest, Berlin (Mann (Gebr.)), 2000, ISBN 3786122938 (German)
• Brigitte Corley: Conrad Von Soest: Painter Among Merchant Princes (Studies in Medieval and Early Renaissance Art History, 16) (Harvey Miller Publishers), 1996, ISBN 1872501583
• Arthur Engelbert: Conrad von Soest. Ein Maler um 1400, ISBN 3883752223 (German)
• Wolfgang Fischer: Der Wildunger Altar. Die Bilderwelt des Conrad von Soest (Bing & Schwarz Druck und Medien), 2., corrected and revised ed. 2005, ISBN 3981000102 (German)
• Thomas Schilp and Barbara Welzel (ed.), Dortmund und Conrad von Soest im spätmittelalterlichen Europa, Bielefeld (Verlag für Regionalgeschichte) 2004, ISSN 1612-8648, ISBN 3-89534-533-4 (German)
• Alfred Stange: Conrad von Soest, Königstein i. Ts: Langewiesche, (1966)
• Luise von Winterfeld, "Meister Konrad von Soest, ein geborner Dortmunder Bürger und andere Dortmunder Maler", in: Beiträge zur Geschichte Dortmunds und der Grafschaft Mark 32, 1925, pp. 141-145 (German)
• Luise von Winterfeld, "Kleine Beiträge zu Konrad von Soest", in: Beiträge zur Geschichte Dortmunds und der Grafschaft Mark 47, 1948, pp. 5-23 (German)
• Andreas Zupancic, Thomas Schilp (ed.): Der Berswordt-Meister und die Dortmunder Malerei um 1400, Stadtkultur im Spätmittelalter, Bielefeld (Verlag für Regionalgeschichte) 2002 (German)

• This article was initially translated from the Wikipedia article Conrad von Soest, specifically from this version.

Persondata
NAME	Soest, Konrad von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Sost, Conrad van
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Painter and main master of Westphalian painting, the so-called soft style
DATE OF BIRTH	um 1370
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dortmund
DATE OF DEATH	1425
PLACE OF DEATH	Dortmund