Stefan Lochner

Stefan Lochner (Meersburg, 1400 – Cologne, 1452)[1] was a German late Gothic painter. He worked in Cologne, Germany, and his principal work is a triptych known as the Altar of the City Patrons, painted for the Town Hall chapel in the 1440s and now in Cologne Cathedral.[2]. It represents the city in homage to the infant Jesus.

His style, famous for its clean appearance, combining Gothic attention towards long flowing lines with brilliant colours with a Flemish influenced realism and attention to detail. His compositions are often sprinkled with fanciful angels, singing and playing musical instruments.

Life

Lochner is thought to have come from Meersburg, as his parents are known to have died there. He is recorded as being in Cologne by 1442, where he was paid for decorations in connection with the celebration of the visit of Emperor Frederick III. He was elected town councillor by the painters' guild in 1447 and 1450. There are no records of him after the end of 1451.[3]

There are no paintings signed by Lochner, but Albrecht Dürer recorded seeing an altarpiece by "Maister Steffan" on a visit to Cologne in 1520.[3] Since the publication of an article by J.F. Böhmer in 1823,[4] this has been assumed to be a reference the triptych of the Altar of the City Patrons, and "Maister Steffan" has been identified with the documented Stefan Lochner.[5]

On the basis of the style of the triptych, a number of other paintings have been attributed to him, including two dated versions of the Presentation in the Temple, one in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (1445) and another in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (1447); two wings from an altarpiece, with images of saints (now in the National Gallery, London and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne), and an altarpiece from the church of St Lorenz, now divided between three museums.[3]

The epitome of his style is Madonna of the Rose Bower (c. 1450, in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum), showing the Virgin and Child reposing in a blooming rose arbor and attended by Lochner's characteristic child Angels.

The asteroid 12616 Lochner was named in his honour in late 2008.†

References

  1. ^  "Stephen Lochner". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
  2. ^ "Altar-piece of the city’s patron saints, c.1440/45, open view". Cologne Cathedral. http://www.koelner-dom.de/16705.html?&L=1. Retrieved 16 December 2011. 
  3. ^ a b c Rowlands, John (1988). The Age of Dürer and Holbein: German Drawings 1400-1550. London: British Museum Publications. ISBN 0-7141-1639-4. 
  4. ^ "Galerie des Frères Boisserée / St Antony, Pope Cornelius and Mary Magdalene". British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=1452394&partid=1&output2F!%2FAfter+Stefan+Lochner%2F!%2F%2F!!%2F%2F!!!%2F&orig=%2Fresearch%2Fsearch_the_collection_database%2Fadvanced_search.aspx&currentPage=1&numpages=10. , quoting Griffiths, Antony; Carey, Frances (1994). German Printmaking in the Age of Goethe. British Museum Publications. 
  5. ^ Rachel Billinge, Lorne Campbell, Jill Dunkerton, Susan Foister, Jo Kirby, Jennie Pilc, Ashok Roy, Marika Spring and Raymond White. "A double-sided panel by Stephan Lochner". National Gallery Technical Bulletin No 18. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/technical-bulletin/stephan_lochner1997.