Colmar St. Martin's Church: Schongauer's Madonna in the Rose Garden

Googling "Madonna in the Rose Garden" I figured you'd probably get something from the Obama or Biden eras about a singer being honored at the White House. Like getting Homer Simpson when your Google Homer. But no, what you get, or what my algorithm got, was Botticelli's 1470 Madonna in the Rose Garden, a nice early Botticelli, tempera on panel. It does not compare well, however, with Schongauer's version, of almost exactly the same date. Botticelli painted in tempera, doing more with it than any preceding painter, IMHO, while Schongauer painted in oil, which Jan van Eyck had begun exploiting in the 1420s...so much more vivid color, allowing so much greater detail, so much more easily revised or corrected....

Schongauer was not primarily a painter, however. Very few of his paintings have survived. His primary output was engraving--he was the first to realize the possibilities afforded the artist by the recently invented printing press. Durer--who generally gets credit for being the first in this regard--collected Schongauer prints and drawings and took time off to visit Colmar to learn from the master...but who had already died. Michaelangelo's first painting, I have read, was from a Schongauer print. FWIW.

Colmar's only Gothic

Inside, nave view, appreciating the pencil-thin columns;
approaching the painting

Back side of the right wing

Click to enlarge

Abaft the beam

Nice windows

Unusually large spare parts department for a relatively small church