Concert des anges et la Vierge et l’Enfant du retable d'Issenheim

Grünewald, Matthias (ca.1480-1528)

Hagenauer, Nikolaus (died before 1538)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

1512-1516

Height:

265.0 cm  (104 5/16 in.)

Width:

304.0 cm  (119 11/16 in.)

The panel featuring the concert of angels and nativity with the Virgin and Child is revealed by opening the outer wings of the altarpiece. The Musée Unterlinden in Colmar refers to this as the "second view" of the larger altarpiece.

Technique / Medium:

oil on wood

Place of creation:

Colmar

Additional titles

Description

A trio of angels, two playing bass viola da gamba and the other playing viola da braccio, perform music for the Virgin and Child.

People as subjects

St. Mary (Blessed Virgin)
Jesus Christ

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Viola da gamba [3604] (Two gambas: The one played by the foreground angel has middle bouts placed unusually high and deeply indented, with a short neck and large bridge, and is bowed awkwardly from treble side. In the background, the feathered angel plays a viol with middle bouts again placed unusually high and deeply indented, with a bent pegbox.)
Viola [3561] (Middle bouts deeply indented, large bridge, four C-holes.)

Musical works

Hindemith, Paul -- Mathis der Maler
The painting is the impetus for the overture to the opera, entitled Engelkonzert.

Hindemith, Paul -- Symphonie Mathis der Maler
The painting is the impetus for the first movement of the symphony, entitled Engelkonzert.

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1
image link 2

Bibliographic references

Neumeyer, David. The music of Paul Hindemith. Composers of the twentieth century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986) 85. ISBN 0300032870. RILM 1986-5596.

Skelton, Geoffrey. Paul Hindemith: the man behind the music: a biography (London: Victor Gollancz, 1975) 46, 111, 118. ISBN 0575019883. RILM 1976-3480.

Kemp, Ian. Hindemith. Oxford studies of composers 6 (London: Oxford University Press, 1970) 30. ISBN 0193141183. RILM 1971-0931.

Taylor-Jay, Claire. The artist-operas of Pfitzner, Krenek and Hindemith: politics and the ideology of the artist (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004) 163, 173-175. ISBN 0754605787. RILM 2004-1074.

Rasmussen, Mary. "Viols, violists and Venus in Grünewald’s Isenheim Altar", Early music 29/1 (2001) 60-74. RILM 2001-0576.

Notes

Matthias Grünewald painted the altarpiece, which also contains figures sculpted by Nikolaus Hagenauer.

RIdIM record id

788