" Christ Carrying the Cross" (circa 1475-1480), by Martin Schongauer. GABRIEL DE CARVALHO/GRANDPALAISRMN/MUSÉE DU LOUVRE
What artist can claim to have influenced Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baldung Grien, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Michelangelo and even Rembrandt, among many others? Dürer even made a special journey to meet him in Vieux-Brisach, the German border town on the Rhine where he chose to settle after Colmar, his birthplace. Dürer was a little late: Martin Schongauer (circa 1445-1491) had died a few months earlier. After that, if not forgotten, he was at least set aside by art historians. So much so that, while the Louvre – currently dedicating a remarkable exhibition to him, featuring around 100 works, paintings, drawings and engravings, including 72 autograph pieces, a gathering never before assembled – has subtitled it "The Beautiful Immortal."
"The Beautiful Unknown" could just as legitimately have been chosen.
The nickname "the handsome Martin" was given to him by Dürer. It was not, in all likelihood, meant to describe the man, whom he never met, but rather the work itself. On at least two of his drawings inspired by Schongauer, Dürer wrote in German, "das Hübsch Martin." Moreover, at a time when wordplay was popular, the first part of his name, schön, carried the same meaning. The tribute remained, but little is known about the artist himself. A symposium at the Louvre on May 18 will bring together the latest research on the artist. Pantxika Béguerie-De Paepe, the curator of the exhibition alongside Hélène Grollemund, curator in the department of graphic arts at the Louvre, led the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, where much of Schongauer's work is held and which is a major lender to the event, for many years. She has spent much of her life studying him and presents the results of her research in the exhibition catalog.
