Jeffrey Chipps Smith

The Destruction of Magdeburg in 1631: The Art of a Disastrous Victory

Around 8 a.m. on 20 May 1631, imperial troops breached the walls of Magdeburg. Taking this strategic city on the Elbe River was considered imperative for controlling northern Germany and blocking the advance of Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus and his Protestant allies. Whether intentional or accidental, fire spread uncontrolled across the city destroying 1,700 of 1,900 buildings. Some 20,000 defenders and civilians died. Eye-witnesses describe horrific incidents of plunder, murder and rape. This essay explores the role that broadsheets played in shaping public opinion. Texts and images publized the conquest as a great victory for General Jean Tserclaes, Count de Tilly, or, alternatively, as proof of Catholic and imperial barbarity. Tilly and his troops were demonized for violating the symbolic Maiden of Magdeburg in what became known as the darkest episode of the Thirty Years’ War.

German Sculpture of the Later Renaissance, c. 1520-1580: Art in an Age of Uncertainty

During the Reformation, statues and carvings of saints, once commonly revered as aids to salvation, were condemned by increasing numbers of Protestants as fearsome idols. Moral doubts coupled with widespread acts of iconoclasm meant potential ruin for hundreds of German sculptors whose economic livelihood depended traditionally on church commissions. Focusing on how sculptors adjusted to this cultural tumult, Jeffrey Chipps Smith offers a comprehensive examination of the artistic response to the challenge of the Reformation in German lands. In so doing, he exposes the years leading up to the Counter-Reformation as a period of surprising artistic vibrance. Using paradigmatic case studies, Smith explores the reshaping of German sculpture. From the ashes of iconoclasm emerges a nascent Protestant art with dynamic new production centres, such as Dresden. Smith reveals the diversity and ingenuity of a generation of sculptors whose productions range from magnificent tombs, intricate fountains and other architectural carvings, to intimate carved portraits, bronze statuettes, and stone reliefs. The volume also comprises a biographical catalogue of 44 of the most important sculptors from th

Portable Propaganda—Tapestries as Princely Metaphors at the Courts of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold

Between 1419 and 1477, the Burgundian dukes Philip the Good (r. 1419–67) and Charles the Bold (r. 1467–77) presided over the most dynamic and rapidly expanding realm in Europe. As their political ambitions grew with each new territorial acquisition so did the complexity of their lavish court ceremonies (Fig. 1). Elaborate pageants were staged to enhance ducal magnificence or to publicize a ducal project. Certainly the most famous of these was the Feast of the Pheasant held in Lille in 1454 to promote Philips proposed crusade to liberate Constantinople.

The Tomb of Anne of Burgundy, Duchess of Bedford, in the Musée du Louvre

In 1435 or 1436 Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, commissioned Parisian sculptor Guillaume Vluten to carve an elaborate wall tomb for his sister Anne, Duchess of Bedford, in the Celestine Church in Paris. The effigy, now in the Musée du Louvre, is of superb quality and one of the few funerary statues to survive from this period. By examining the tomb, later representations of the tomb, related art works, and Burgundian court documents, it is possible to redate the tomb, identify its artistic sources, and reconstruct its original appearance. The tomb is an important interim step in the evolution of Burgundian court funerary monuments. The design and the timing of the tomb link it with current political events.