Die Flügelmalereien des Sterzinger Altarretabels im stilkritischen und lokalhistorischen Kontext

Im Zentrum dieser Arbeit steht die autonome Betrachtung der acht Tafelgemälde des Sterzinger Altars, welcher als eines der am besten dokumentierten Retabel des 15. Jahrhunderts gilt. Die aktuelle Forschungslage zu den Malereien stellt im wesentlichen die Auseinandersetzung mit der Künstlerpersönlichkeit Hans Multscher und seiner Ulmer Werkstätte dar. Dieser wurde von der von Sterzinger Büurgerschaft mit der Herstellung des Altars beauftragt. Der erste Abschnitt der Disseration setzt sich mit der Motivgeschichte und Ikonographie in den vier Passionsszenen auseinander. In diesen konnten verstärkte Übernahmen aus der deutschen Malerei dokumentiert werden, während bei den vier Marienszenen auch niederländische Vorbilder erkannt wurden. Darüberhinaus stellt die Arbeit einen Bezug zwischen den Tafelgemälden und den Sterzinger Passionsspielen her,die seit der Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts dokumentiert sind. Der stilkritische Abschnitt zeigt, daß die Malereien des Sterzinger Altars von der Formgelegenheit Flügelaltar und ihrer Funktion als Kultbild auf einem Hochaltar bestimmt werden. Ferner wurde die Bedeutung der Flügelaltarproduktion und des Verkaufs für die Beschaffenheit der Malerei beleuchtet. Eine anschließende Analyse des Künstlers ”Sterzinger Meister“ zeigt Einflüsse nationaler Konstanten, künstlerischer Herkunft und bestätigt abschließend andere, ihm zugeschriebene Werke.The work focuses on the eight table pictures of the Sterzing altar, which is among the best described altarpieces of the 15th century. State of the art research about the pictures mainly derives from the analysis of the artist Hans Multscher. It was Multscher‘s Ulmer Werkstätte, who was commissioned by the Sterzing citizenship to construct the altar. In a first chapter the four scenes of the passion of Christ were analysed and according to iconography and motif history a German influence was detected. In contrast, the four scenes of Mary rather follow Dutch models. The work also establishes a relationship between the table pictures and Sterzing passion plays dating back to the mid 15th century. A chapter dedicated to stylistic aspects demonstrates, that the character of the Sterzing altar table pictures is determined by the design of a winged altar itself and by their cultic picture function on a high altar. Moreover, aspects of altar production and selling were found to be important elements for the quality of the pictures. In a final analysis of the artist Sterzinger Meister it is shown, that his work was influenced by national artistic constraints and his artistic origin. The elaboration of other works of art attributed to him was confirmed

Hierarchical Classification of Paintings Using Face- and Brush Stroke Models

It is often difficult to attribute works of art to a certain artist. In the case of paintings, radiological methods like X-ray and infra-red diagnosis, digital radiography, computer-tomography, etc. and color analyzes are employed to authenticate works of art. But all these methods do not relate certain characteristics of an art work to a specific artist - the artist's personal style. In order to study this personal style, we examine the "structural signature " based on brush strokes in particular in portrait miniatures. A computer-aided classification and recognition system for portrait miniatures is developed, which enables a semi-automatic classification based on brush strokes. A hierarchically structured classification scheme is introduced which separates the classification into three different levels of information: color, shape of region, and structure of brush strokes

Computer Aided Analysis of Underdrawings in Infrared Reflectograms †

Recent developments in computer vision are providing powerful tools for the evaluation of data gathered by art historians and archaeologists. New camera hardware allows new insights into cultural heritage, especially if infrared cameras are concerned, since they allow the of study structures that are visually hidden. In this paper preliminary results of developing a system for automatic analysis of infrared reflectograms are presented. We concentrate on an algorithm for the automatic segmentation of strokes in underdrawings- the basic concept of the artist- in ancient panel paintings and the removal of cracks in infrared images. The purpose of the stroke analysis is the determination of the drawing tool used to draft the painting. This information allows significant support for a systematic stylistic approach in the analysis of paintings. Stroke segmentation in paintings is related to the extraction and recognition of handwriting, therefore similar techniques to segment the strokes from the background incorporating boundary information are used. Results of the algorithms developed are presented for both test panels and real reflectograms. 1