LLEI D'ART 11

de Europa, siendo reconocidos por celebres humanistas y eruditos como Erasmo de Rotterdam –mecenas de Hans Holbein el Joven–, quien desempeñó un papel esencial al recuperar el estudio de los textos clásicos para ponerlos al servicio del Cristianismo. Obras como Los Embajadores , de Holbein, Cristo alejandose de su madre , de Albrecht Altdorfer, Cupido cogiendo a Venus , de Lucas Cranach el Viejo, Retrato de hombre , de Hans Baldung Grien y San Jerónimo , de Albrecht Dürer fueran todas ellas muy valoradas en el siglo XVI por cualidades tales como la expresión o la frescura. Sin embargo, durante los siglos XIX y XX, el arte del Renacimiento alemán fue bastante cuestionado y aunque ciertamente hubo quienes admiraban la maestría técnica de los artistas y la encarnación de una cierta identidad nacional alemana, también hubo quienes consideraron tales obras un tanto excesivas o incluso feas, especialmente cuando eran comparadas con obras del Renacimiento italiano. Esto quedó poderosamente evidenciado en 1856, cuando el patronato de la National Gallery adquirió la colección Krüger, formada por 64 pinturas Westfalianas de entre los siglos XV y XVI. Tres años después, 37 de estas obras fueron vendidas por no considerarse adecuadas con la línea que por entonces regía el museo. Una de las piezas centrales de la exposición será sin duda alguna la reconstrucción del retablo de Liesborn. Esta obra, creada en 1465, formaba parte en su origen de la Abadía Benedictina de Liesborn, en Alemania. En 1803, tras la supresion del monasterio, la obra fue desmontada, vendida y diseminada por todo el planeta. La exposición es el resultado de la colaboración entre la National Gallery y la Universidad de York. Views such as these –alongside the shifting attitudes towards the German nation in the UK following the First and Second World Wars– were to have a direct effect on the formation and growth of the National Gallery, and indeed all the UK national collections. This was strongly evidenced in 1856 when the Trustees of the National Gallery sold the Krüger Collection –the only time in its entire history that the Gallery has had an Act of Parliament passed to de-accession and sell pictures. This group of 64 early Westphalian paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries was acquired for the Gallery by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Gladstone, in 1854. However just three years later, 37 works were sold as they did not fit in with the ‘present state of the Gallery’ (as National Gallery Trustees Minutes noted at the time). Rarely publically displayed contemporary documents from the National Gallery archive will be featured in the exhibition in order to illustrate this episode. A highlight of the exhibition will be, for the first time ever, a reconstruction of the Liesborn altarpiece. This work was created after 1465 and originally formed the high altarpiece in the Benedictine Abbey of Liesborn in Germany. In 1803, on the suppression of the monastery, it was dismembered, sold and scattered across the globe –eight pieces remain at the National Gallery as part of the Krüger Collection. Now for the first time, visitors will be able to visualize the completed altarpiece as it might have looked during the 15th century. The first room of Strange Beauty introduces the types of paintings that were admired in 1824, when the National Gallery was founded. Room 2 presents some of the German Renaissance painting acquisitions finally made by the National Gallery during the 19th and early 20th centuries – not all of which were immediately appreciated or admired. The third room focuses on the qualities of expressiveness and technical and stylistic invention which are so important within German Renaissance art. The masters of this genre, Holbein, Dürer and Cranach, will be exhibited in Room 4, highlighting their distinctive style. Past letters and documentation continue to reveal the historic reception to these paintings. Room 5 discusses themes of beauty and nature, examining the distinctive interpretation of these concepts by German Renaissance artists. The final room of Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance will be an interactive experience, inviting today’s visitors to comment, and vote, on their reactions to German painting. This exhibition is the result of collaboration between the National Gallery and the University of York. Hans Holbein el Joven/ the Younger. Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve Los Embajadores / The Ambassadors , 1533. © The National Gallery, London. Jan Gossaert. Hombre con guante/ A man holding a glove , c. 1530-32. © The National Gallery, London. 91