Just because of this altarpiece I would like to visit Colmar right here and right now. If I would own a car I would jump in it right after I finish my exam in art history tomorrow and drive to France. I think this work of art will make so much of a greater impression in real life.
This course has given me a lesson in appreciation for religious art, really. For the first time I’m very glad about religion, because at least it has given art a huge source of inspiration. And because the church had so much money and cared for their churches/art, it has been preserved quite well in comparison with the art that hung/stood in castles and peoples private homes. This altarpiece from Grünewald fascinates me. I cannot stop looking at the way he presents the crucifixion. Those fingers….my god…I already feel shivers just by looking at this picture!!
It’s not only this work that I want to see. This whole course is making me yearn to visit all the places and museums that display the works of art from the book. A picture in a book is just quite plain to look at. I’m very very very happy that I went to Rome while I was studying for this art course. Alas, I forgot a lot of it already. Misha made a little test for me and I didn’t even recognize one of Raphaël’s frescoes from the Stanze in the Vatican!!
However, I will never forget the feeling I got while standing in the Sistine Chapel. I might forget the details of what I saw, but I won’t forget the feeling of being awestruck at what Michelangelo accomplished there. Imagine him working on the ceiling for 4 years. Almost all the work was done by him alone! It’s so impressive I cannot quite phantom it.
I feel so bad for rushing through the whole museum and giving Raphaël only a quick glance (in comparison) because there was just no time to look at it all…I wanted to go to the Sistine Chapel. I hate the Vatican Museum for the long route you HAVE to walk before getting to the chapel. You pass an insane amount of art, beautiful art, but if you want to see it all you have to spend days there. I would love to pay homage to all the great masters, but sometimes you have to make choices. It pained me to do so, all the more because when I look at the pictures from the Vatican Museum in Gombrich’s book I yearn to see it all in real again.
But hey, I’m young! Nothing will stop me to visit Rome again after awhile hah!!
Speaking of Rome, my sister and her boyfriend wanted to go there as well for a little vacation. I wanted to help my sister find cheap flights and a place to stay and guess what: that’s not possible anymore! Going to Rome in March was apparently a very wise choice money-wise, because already the prices are skyrocketing. I payed 80 euro for a flight (return ticket), now the prices start at threefold that number. Same story for accommodation. I stared in horror at my computer screen after searching the net. I mean, Rome is great, no discussion there. However, just for five days you’d need a budget of about 800+ euro’s per person. Insane. I would never pay that amount of money to go there, in spite of all the Bernini’s, Raphaëls, Michelangelo’s….
I experienced the feeling you describe at the Vatican many times. Great memories… Being almost reduced to tears in front of van der Weyden’s Deposition at the Prado; Drowning in the eyes of Hendrickje Stoffels at the Gemäldegalerie (Berlin); Standing awestruck in front of Raphael’s School of Athens and the adjecent Disputation; Being blown away by Géricault’s awesome Raft of the Medusa (one of my alltime favorites); Losing myself in Friedrich’s contemplative forests and seascapes; Being mesmerized by Vermeer’s View of Delft; Bosch’ shocking Last Judgement in Vienna; The list is endless!
I also love the Grünewald piece. I never examined it up close before. So Colmar should probably go on my to-do list. 🙂
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I think your ‘But hey, I’m young’ is a very very good point! I think our generation has been a lucky one: you know, to be able to travel everywhere and experience art the way we do…