I MIEI SOGNI D'ANARCHIA - Calabria Anarchica: Michael Pacher Pittore e Intagliatore (Falzes, intorno al 1435

Michael Pacher (Falzes, intorno al 1435 – Salisburgo, agosto 1498 o comunque nel territorio della sua diocesi) è stato un pittore e intagliatore austriaco.

È considerato uno dei maestri più importanti del Quattrocento austriaco, vero punto di contatto tra arte nordica e costruzione prospettica di tipo rinascimentale italiano.

Biografia

Sulla vita di Michael Pacher si possiedono poche notizie sicure, perlopiù ricavate da documentazione indiretta, come fatture, contratti e ricevute di vario tipo. La nascita si colloca intorno al 1430 o 1432. È probabile che sia nato a Mühlen, una frazione di Falzes, o a Brunico, dal momento che le prime notizie lo vedono attivo in questa città. Dopo avere iniziato, tra il 1443 e il 1445, il suo apprendistato nelle botteghe della città vecchia (Stadtgasse), e avere completato il primo ciclo di quattro anni di formazione, si recò, come era uso allora, a perfezionarsi per un paio d'anni altrove. Intorno al 1450 lo si trova a Padova, dove entra in contatto con l'arte di Jacopo Bellini, Donatello ed Andrea Mantegna. Il periodo italiano e i contatti avuti con questi importanti artisti, segneranno tutta la sua produzione artistica successiva.

Rientrato a Brunico, dove ottenne la cittadinanza e il titolo di maestro d'arte, si sposò con Ottilia (di cui si ignora il cognome), da cui ebbe almeno un figlio, Hans, che seguì le sue orme come artista, e una figlia, Margarete. Tra gli allievi della sua scuola vi fu anche un Friedrich Pacher che è conosciuto come artista di valore, ma non è chiaro se e in che modo sia imparentato con lui. Gli storici sono orientati a ritenere che fosse un nipote.

Intorno al 1471 deve aver avuto luogo un suo viaggio nelle Fiandre dal momento che si ha notizia di suoi contatti con artisti fiamminghi del tempo. Si hanno anche indizi di un suo soggiorno alla corte ducale di Mantova, forse su chiamata dei Gonzaga.

Negli ultimi tre anni di vita si stabilì a Salisburgo, dove operò e concluse la sua esistenza.

Opere

Partito dallo stile dei maestri sudtirolesi, intorno al 1450 Michael Pacher perviene, sotto l'influsso di Hans Multscher (che lascia un lavoro anche a Vipiteno) e della scuola del Norditalia, in particolare dello scultore Donatello e del pittore Andrea Mantegna, ad un linguaggio artistico nuovo per i territori di lingua tedesca. La prospettiva lineare caratterizza le sue rappresentazioni architettoniche e spaziali. Plasticità, espressione intensa e gesti eloquenti caratterizzano le sue figure. Il suo modo di trattare luci e ombre conferisce alle sue immagini un aspetto realistico. Egli unisce idealmente scultura lignea e pittura.

Le opere più conosciute di Michael Pacher sono le sue preziose pale d'altare, tra cui:

il Polittico di san Lorenzo, dipinto originariamente per la chiesa parrocchiale di San Lorenzo di Sebato, oggi conservato alla Alte Pinakothek di Monaco di Baviera
il Polittico dell'Incoronazione di Maria per la Vecchia Parrocchiale di Gries presso Bolzano
il Trittico di Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut (detto Pacher-Altar)
il Polittico dei Padri della Chiesa (1471-75) per l'abbazia di Novacella presso Bressanone, oggi conservato nell'Alte Pinakothek di Monaco
il Polittico della Madonna (1495-98) per la Chiesa dei Francescani di Salisburgo, rimane solo la statua della Madonna.

Tuttavia, solo il polittico di St. Wolfgang si è conservato per intero, mentre le restanti opere principali del Maestro si sono conservate solo parzialmente e si possono osservare, per esempio, nell'Alte Pinakothek di Monaco o nella galleria austriaca del Belvedere di Vienna.

Notevoli esempi di affreschi del Maestro si possono trovare nella importante Basilica romanica del Benediktinerstift Sankt Paul presso Sankt Paul im Lavanttal in Carinzia. In essi Pacher rappresenta un ciclo di raffigurazioni di santi all'interno di volte gotiche, che avevano sostituito i soffitti piatti romanici dopo un incendio.

Infine, molte opere minori del Maestro, spesso riconducibili alla sua scuola, sono disseminate in diversi paesi della Provincia autonoma di Bolzano, in Austria nelle regioni del Tirolo, del Salisburghese e della Carinzia e in Germania in alcune zone della Baviera.

Catherine of Alexandria Pacher

Michael Pacher -between 1465 and 1470

Michael Pacher (c. 1435 – August 1498) was a painter and sculptor from Tyrol active during the second half of the fifteenth century. He was one of the earliest artists to introduce the principles of Renaissance painting into Germany. Pacher was a comprehensive artist with a broad range of sculpting, painting, and architecture skills producing works of complex wood and stone. He painted structures for altarpieces on a scale unparalleled in North European art.

Pacher's masterpiece, the St. Wolfgang Altarpiece (1471–1481), is considered one of the most remarkable carved and painted altar shrines in all of European art. It contains scenes from the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Pacher's other great work, the Altarpiece of the Church Fathers, created in 1483 for Neustift Monastery, combined painting and sculpture to produce a unique art form.

Pacher's influence was primarily North Italian, and his work shares characteristics with that of painters such as Andrea Mantegna. German influences, however, are also evident in his work, especially in his wood sculpture. Pacher's fusion of Italian Renaissance and Northern Gothic realism helped him to produce a uniquely personal style of painting.

Early life

Though Pacher's exact date of birth is not certain, he was born c. 1435 near Brixen on the southern slopes of the Alps in the County of Tyrol. Little is known of his training. His earliest recorded work is an altarpiece that was dated 1465 and signed, but which is now lost. Pacher visited Padua in northern Italy, where he became heavily influenced by the modern fresco work of Andrea Mantegna. Mantegna was considered the renowned master of perspective, whose stunning, low-set standpoint spatial compositions were important to the development of Pacher's own style. Pacher's Italian influences set him apart from most German artists of the time.

By 1467 Pacher was a distinguished artist and sculptor in Bruneck, twenty-five miles east of Brixen in the Puster Valley, where he had a workshop for making altarpieces; the house still exists. His skill in wood carving and painting provided him with employment for German style altars. They usually consisted of carved figural centerpieces, carved Gothic summits on top, a platform where the altar stands below, and painted scenes on panel wings. Pacher spent much of his time during the 1470s in Neustift by Brixen, where his work mainly consisted of painting frescoes. In 1484 he was commissioned by the Franciscan Order in Salzburg, to create an altarpiece, portions of which are still extant. Many of Pacher's works have been destroyed or badly damaged, some of them during the hostilities in the late 17th century, others in 1709. His most important surviving works are the St. Wolfgang Altarpiece and the Altarpiece of the Church Fathers.

St. Wolfgang Altarpiece

Arguably his most well-known work, the St. Wolfgang Altarpiece, remains in its original location and setting in St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut on the Abersee (the western end of lake Wolfgangsee) in Austria. The altarpiece is a polyptych, or Wandelaltar, where a painting is divided into four or more segments or panels. There are two pairs of movable wings, and three different displays for use on different occasions: an everyday display, a Sunday display, and a display for special holy days.

Commissioned for Abbot Benedict Eck of Mondsee in 1471 and completed in 1481, the giant polyptych has two sets of wings that can be closed across the inner corpus with the sculptured Coronation presenting a majestic array of huge Gothic figures dominated by the beautifully kneeling Madonna. The carved and painted gold centerpiece is visible when the inner panels are open, and shows the Coronation of the Virgin. The outer two pairs of painted wings represent four scenes of Saint Wolfgang. Wolfgang was appointed as bishop Benedictine of Ratisbon, where he established himself radiantly for his revolutionary passions and also for his skills as statesman.

The entire altarpiece is overshadowed by an elaborate wooden structure that is placed on top, enclosing the Crucifixion. In the centerpiece, Christ is sitting on a throne sincerely blessing Mary, whom he has crowned as the Queen of Heaven. In keeping with the traditions of German Gothic art, angels are fluttering around while John the Evangelist looks on. The inner faces of the second panels, on both sides of the carved body, are painted with scenes from the life of the Virgin.

Some scholars believe that Pacher was not the only artist who has contributed to this very large altarpiece. His brother Friedrich Pacher may have painted the outer pieces of work depicting scenes from the life of Saint Wolfgang that are visible only when the altarpiece is closed shut. Nevertheless, the inner paintings all seem to have been completed by Michael Pacher himself.

Altarpiece of the Church Fathers

The Altarpiece of the Church Fathers, created in 1483 for Neustift Monastery, is probably Pacher's second most famous work. The significance in this work by Pacher lies in that the boundary between painting and sculpture was no longer clear.

The Altarpiece of the Church Fathers is divided into four sections, with each section depicting one of the four Great Doctors of the Western Church: Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Pope Gregory I. On the very left is the altarpiece of Saint Jerome, who is depicted in his cardinal's attire. Jerome, who is well known for a story in which he drew a thorn from a lion's paw, is indeed accompanied by the lion in Pacher's work. To his right is the panel of Augustine, portrayed with the child from a legend about Augustine. According to this legend, Augustine was walking along a beach one day when he saw a child scooping up the water with a spoon. When Augustine asked the child what he was doing, the child replied by saying that his own activity was as pointless as Augustine's attempts to understand the concept of the Holy Trinity with his rational mind.

To Augustine's right is Pope Gregory I, depicted with Emperor Trajan, for whom Gregory I is known to have prayed to restore dead Trajan's soul and baptized his soul in order to deliver him from purgatory. On the very right is the archbishop Ambrose, shown with a baby in a cradle, which probably symbolizes a legend regarding his life: when Ambrose was in his cradle as a baby, a swarm of bees covered his face and left a drop of honey. Ambrose’s father took it as a sign of Ambrose’s future ability as an eloquent speaker (sweet-tongue). Another interpretation of the child in a cradle is that it was a child who requested that Ambrose be bishop of Milan. Each the four Church Fathers are depicted with a dove, symbolizing the presence of the Holy Spirit in order to represent their holiness.

Death

Michael Pacher died in 1498, possibly in Salzburg, Austria.

Works

The following works are attributable to Michael Pacher.

St. Thomas Becket Altar, Johanneum, Graz, 1465
Statue of the Virgin, Parish Church, St. Lorenzen im Pustertal, c. 1465
Wing panels, Parish Church, St. Lorenzen im Pustertal, c. 1465
Frescoes on the Vaulting, Sacristy, Neustift Abbey, Italy, 1469–70
Tabernacle, Welsberg-Taisten, Italy, c. 1470
Flight into Egypt, Kunstmuseum Basel, c. 1470
St. Wolfgang Altarpiece, Parish Church, St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut, Austria, 1471–81
Altar of the Coronation of the Virgin, Old Parish Church of Gries, Bolzano, Italy, 1475
Statue of the Virgin and Child, Old Parish Church of Gries, Bolzano, Italy
Frescoes Above the South Door, Collegiate Church, Innichen, Italy, c. 1480
Altarpiece of the Church Fathers, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 1480–83
Statue of Saint Lawrence, Tyrolean State Museum, Innsbruck, c. 1480–90
Statue of Saint Michael, Bavarian National Museum, Munich, 1482–84
Crucifix, National Museum, Warsaw, c. 1490
Four Panels with Heads of Saints, Wilten Abbey, Innsbruck
High Altar, Franciscan Church, Salzburg, c. 1495
Statue of the Virgin, Franciscan Church, Salzburg
Betrothal of the Virgin and the Flagellation of Christ, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna
Joseph Lowered into the Well, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna
Head of Saint Anne, Private Collection, Vienna
The Devil Presenting St. Augustine with the Book of Vices "A Difference Over Augustine". 2016-03-10. Archived from the original on 2019-07-28. Retrieved 2019-07-28.