MAELESSKIRCHER, Gabriel Saint Matthew at his Desk with his Symbol the Angel,
1478
Oil on panel 77,4 x 32,2 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
These four panels that represent the four evangelists formed part of an altarpiece, the property of the Benedictine monastery Tegernsee, where it hung until the year 1803. Of the same altarpiece the Thyssen Collection has another four panels referring to the evangelists's miracles.
With a narrative aim and a great capacity for description, these panels show us the evangelists, with their tools and working implements, deep in the process of elaborating the texts of the New Testament. The works are also very interesting from the testimonial point of view for their representation of the everyday world and the interiors of the houses of the period in which they were painted. The energy of the representation, the study of the features and the folds of the garments indicate to us the expressionist tradition of the Germanic Primitives.
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