Old Masters with Virgin of Mercy

					
Old Masters
in the Würth Collection

Johanniterkirche, Schwäbisch Hall

The core of this superb collection, devoted to the art of southwest Germany, the Lake Constance region and northern Switzerland from the late Middle Ages to the early modern era, is formed by the former Fürstlich Fürstenberg Collection of Paintings, Donaueschingen, acquired by the Würth family in 2003. The artistic and cultural significance of this collection alone is so great because the majority of its panels stem from a period from which, due to the especially radical iconoclasm that raged in Swabia, very few visual documents have survived.

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Highlights: Holbein and Meßkirch

Some that have survived include numerous panels by the Master of Messkirch, one of the most remarkable southern German artists from the 16th century, among them the valuable Falkenstein Altarpiece, which is regarded as a national treasure. Not to forget the highly significant St. Anthony retable by the Zurich Veilchenmeister ("Master of the Pansies") and the magnificent "Portrait of a Gentleman" by Andreas Haider. These stocks were meaningfully supplemented in both the fields of painting and sculpture, for instance by high-quality pieces by Daniel Mauch, Tilman Riemenschneider, and the immediate circle of Hans Multscher. Further high points were new acquisitions from the hand of Lucas Cranach the Elder, among them a very vivid version of "Christ Blessing the Children", dating to 1546.

The most important recent addition was without a doubt "The Madonna of the Mayor Jacob Meyer zum Hasen" by Hans Holbein the Younger. Holbein's painting ranks among the most famous and most beautiful paintings of the 16th century.