Krautheimer and the Marketplace: Vernacular Copies of Antwerp Compound Altarpieces in the Rhineland

Abstract

The carved altarpiece with painted moveable wings was among the most important forms of devotional art in the late Gothic Netherlands. The Brabantine cities of Antwerp and Brussels were its biggest producers, and the Rhineland its best customer. Aside from importing Antwerp altarpieces, the Rhineland was also actively engaged in replicating them. The prevailing economic model of explanation asserts trade dictated the demand for Antwerp retables in the Rhineland, yet the existence of these vernacular copies challenges such assumptions. Using the Rhynern Group as a case study, this article considers the ways in which these instances of copying might be useful in assessing the taste for Netherlandish art in late medieval Germany. Invoking Richard Krautheimer's theory of selective transference, I consider those characteristics of the imported prototype that were distilled and re-interpreted for local consumption in an effort to define the concrete components of their appeal.