Holbein. Cranach. Grünewald

For just on a year the Museum der Kulturen Basel is hosting key works from the Collection of Old Masters of the Kunstmuseum Basel.

The choice selection of old masters opens with works by Konrad Witz dating back to the first half of the fifteenth century. Coming to Holbein’s father, Hans the Elder, famous for his portraits and altarpieces, we already stand at the threshold of the modern age, a boundary that his son crosses masterfully: his “Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb” as well as his “Artist’s Family” are milestones in the history of art. The line-up continues with Mathias Grünewald’s “Crucifixion”, sacred and profane paintings by Hans Baldung Grien’s as well as Lucas Cranach the Elder’s “Judgement of Paris”. The prominent role Swiss artists played in the emergence of the Renaissance is borne out by the Bernese painter Niklaus Manuel Deutsch and the widely-travelled Tobias Stimmer from Schaffhausen. His unique, full-size portraits of a Zurich banneret and his wife bear witness to the efflorescence of city culture at the end of the epoch under review.