Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Unterlinden Museum is an art museum located in Colmar, Haut-Rhin department. It is located in the former Dominican convent of Unterlinden, founded in the 13th century, and has been run for more than 150 years by the Schongauer Society, a local autonomous association. The museum is particularly renowned for the retable of Issenheim, a masterpiece by Matthias Grünewald (1512-1516), exhibited in the former Conventual Church. The collections extend from medieval art to modern and contemporary works, with an extension designed by the architects Herzog & de Meuron in 2015.

The origins of the museum date back to the French Revolution, when the convent buildings, abandoned after the departure of the nuns in 1789, were used as military barracks. In 1847 Louis Hugot, founder of the Schongauer Society, installed a Gallo-Roman mosaic discovered in Bergheim in the church of Unterlinden. In 1852, the works confiscated during the Revolution, including the altarpiece of Issenheim, were transferred there. The museum officially opened its doors to the public on 3 April 1853, saving the buildings from demolition.

The museum's collections reflect the Rhenish art of the 15th and 16th centuries, a period that was a delight for the region. They include paintings, sculptures, engravings by Martin Schongauer, as well as works by Hans Holbein the Old, Lucas Cranach the Old and Caspar Isenmann. The museum also houses archaeological objects, Alsatian decorative arts (furniture, earthenware, goldsmithy) and an extreme-eastern art collection offered by Florine Langweil, including Japanese tsubas and Han vases.

The modern extension, inaugurated in 2015, has reorganized the spaces into three poles: the chapel and cloister for medieval art, the old municipal baths for 19th century collections, and the new building for modern and contemporary art. This project, costing €43.9 million, expanded the museum to 7,900 m2, incorporating an underground gallery linking historical and modern spaces. President François Hollande officially opened the site on January 23, 2016.

Among the masterpieces are the retable of Issenheim, but also works such as La Mélancholie by Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Miracle of the Resurrection of Roasted Chickens (circa 1470), and sculptures such as The Virgin of Niedermorschwihr (circa 1500). The engravings by Martin Schongauer, a 15th-century colmarian artist, occupy a central place there, testifying to the influence of the primitive Flemish on Rhine art.

The Unterlinden Museum also plays a role in the preservation of Alsatian traditions, with collections of popular art and traditions (furniture, toys, culinary objects of the 17th–12th centuries). Its international reach is reinforced by temporary exhibitions and collaborations, such as the 150 years of relations between Alsace and Japan in 2014.

Collection

Le retable d'Issenheim

External links