Christmas - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1994 - 80 Pfennig

When the French art writer and painter Jean-Baptiste Descamps traveled to Bruges in the middle of the 18th century to investigate the city's paintings, he came upon altarpieces by an artist in the halls of the medieval Johanneshaus Hospital, whose name was familiar only from older writings was, whose life circumstances, however, nothing was known. The paintings were signed and dated 1479, and Descamp's curiosity was aroused to find out more about this painter, Hans Memling. He was told that Memling had been a simple soldier, who had come to the gates of the hospital after a battle, wounded and taken by the brothers and sisters of the institution and cared for until his recovery. Out of gratitude, he then made the paintings and gave them to the hospital. To be sure, this legend does not correspond to the historical facts known to us. In fact, Memling had already acquired Bruges citizenship in 1465 and settled in the Wulhuusstraat, which was inhabited by painters and book illustrators. Seligenstadt near Frankfurt is handed down as the place of his origin, but his year of birth remains hidden from us. After a first apprenticeship in Germany, which he probably completed in Cologne, Hans Memling moved to the Netherlands. The art of the brothers Van Eyck and Rogier van der Weydens, who had refined the technique of oil painting and whose paintings showed a never-before-seen sense of reality, exerted a special attraction on most painters in Germany; Not a few, therefore, sought to perfect their art in the Netherlands. Hans Memling probably first entered the workshop of the Brussels painter Rogier van der Weydens (1399 - 1464), whose deeply felt religious depictions dominated the art of old Netherland. Although Memling's stay in Brussels is not documented, his paintings often require a very precise knowledge of the representations of van der Weyden, which can only be explained from his workshop visit. Soon after Rogier's death, Memling founded his own workshop in Bruges. The Flemish trading metropolis offered a variety of possibilities to artists, as well as rich merchants from Italy, Spain, Portugal, England and Germany lived there in addition to wealthy flemings. An early altarpiece by Memling, the great Danzig World Court (c. 1467), had been ordered by the representative of the Florentine Medici bank, Angelo Tani. In a short time Memling has become the most sought-after painter in Bruges; numerous altar paintings and portraits of his hand have been preserved and testify to the success he was granted as a painter. When Memling died on August 11, 1494 in Bruges five hundred years ago, the notary of the Bruges cathedral chapter recorded in his diary that "the best painter of the whole Christian world" had died. The triptych of Jan Florein, from which the motifs of this year's Christmas stamps are taken, comes from the Bruges Johanneshospital and is signed and dated on the frame. It was founded in 1479, at a time when Memling was already at the height of his fame, and was donated by Jan Floreins, a lay brother and Provot of the Hospital. Its portrait can be found on the middle panel with the adoration of the kings. The left wing depicts the birth of Christ, the right wing depicts offering in the temple, a popular subject of the late Middle Ages, symbolizing the homage of Old Testament prophets to the New Covenant embodied by Christ. Memling's composition is undoubtedly inspired by the three-king altar of his teacher Rogier van der Weyden (Alte Pinakothek, Munich), and yet Memling independently processed his invention. The worship, symmetrical to the center of the picture, emphasizes the solemn and quiet character of the scene, which is underlined by the carefully balanced coloring. Of particular note is the individualistic portrayal of the kings' features, in which one already wanted to see hidden portraits of the Burgundian dukes, but which actually meant the medieval interpretation of the kings as a symbol of the three ages. In contrast to the representative portrayal of worship, Memling shapes the birth of Christ in a more narrative manner. The bodily and emotional attitudes of angels and Mary express both joy and reverence for the wonder of God's incarnation. Memling designed this scene with a lightness that is characteristic of his art, which still amazes the visitor to the Bruges Johanneshospital today, like almost 250 years ago of Descamps, and reminds one of a spring rather than of the autumn of the Middle Ages. (Text: Till Borchert, Bonn)