The painter stresses the passion scenes as a bloody ordeal through the use of red paint throughout the whole image. With the exception of Jesus, Mary and John, everyone is depicted in contemporary clothing in a local landscape. The biblical scenes are presented to the viewer, providing the opportunity for introspection. Furthermore, in the division of the centrepiece into a "good side" on the left of the crucifixion and a "bad side" on the right and in the direction of glances and gestures towards the viewer, the panel demands that the viewer make a personal choice between salvation and damnation.
On the left wing, the soldier bringing Jesus to Pilate has a scimitar and suit of armour of Turkish style, reflecting the great fear of a Turkish attack on Christian Europe at the time of the work's composition. In addition, a child with signs of down syndrome being deloused by a monkey in the possession of Satan, alludes to the role of Satan (who appears in person on the upper right of the central panel) in Christ's death. The thin youth with a dark beret is often considered a self-portrait of the painter. In the background of the left panel a church with unfinished towers is visible, which was long thought to be Cologne Cathedral (probably incorrectly). The Schildergasse and the Dreikönigenpförtchen have been similarly identified in the alley in front of the cathedral, while the church facade poking out from behind a column has been identified as the Carmelite cloister of Cologne.
The exact date of the triptych's donation is not known. The supposed donor, Theodericus de Gouda was the Provincial superior of the Carmelite Cloister of Cologne and died in 1539.[2] The triptych was on the Volksaltar of the Cologne Carmelite Church until 1642. It came into the Cologne collection of the Jacob Lyversberg before 1834 after which it went to the Cologne collection of Haan, from whom Aachen Cathedral acquired it in 1872. At that point it was installed in the Choir.
Painter
The unknown master responsible for the work, tentatively identified with the engraver P.W., seems to have been active in Cologne between 1480 and 1580. This explains the close relationship of his work to the works of his contemporaries in Cologne, the Master of St Severin and the earlier Master of the legend of St. Ursula, as a demonstration of the popularity of altar images in Cologne around 1495/1500. Aspects of technique support its origin in the Middle Rhine, but Early Netherlandish influence is visible, as well as that of Antwerp Mannerism. The depiction of the sick child, the blind Roman legionnaires and the syphilitic judges betrays a degree of detail which seems almost medical.[3]
Bibliography
Herta Lepie, Georg Minkenberg. Die Schatzkammer des Aachener Domes. Brimberg, Aachen 1995, ISBN3-923773-16-1, pp. 46f.
Marita to Berens-Jurk. Der Meister des Aachener Altars. Mainz 2002.
^The theory that Theodericus de Gouda was the donor is generally followed in the scholarship, but there is actually no evidence. On this issue, see Marita to Berens-Jurk: Der Meister des Aachener Altars. Mainz 2002, Cat. A 1, n. 3–5.
^Egon Schmitz-Cliever, "Die Darstellung der Syphilis auf dem sogenannten Aachener Altarbild der Kölner Malerschule (um 1510)", in Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis. 192, 1950, pp. 164–174.
