What is a masterpiece, we all think we know, thinking of Dürer, Rembrandt and Velázquez. But what actually is a masterpiece? It has been forgotten that painters were also once organized in guilds and, like other craftsmen, had to prove their skills with a masterpiece at the end of their long apprenticeship. Only then were they allowed to sign their paintings, run their own workshops and train themselves. The Historical Museum's exhibition is the first to explore this forgotten topic in the social history of artists.
The show gives an idea of the painter's long apprenticeship as a proper craftsman up to the 19th century. As an apprentice and journeyman, he learned to rub paints, stretch and prime canvases, and perform simple painting tasks through imitation and constant repetition. The journeymen also gained experience on their travels, which took them through Germany or abroad. To become a master painter himself, the guild rules prescribed many conditions, including marriage, acquisition of citizenship, monetary payments, and often the production of a masterpiece.
The Historisches Museum Frankfurt owns a collection of more than 45 masterpieces or specimens dating from 1631 to 1858, which is unique in Germany for the study of the social history of artists. The city of Frankfurt required painters to submit the prescribed master or sample piece for the decoration of the city hall, the Römer. These Frankfurt paintings are juxtaposed with other master painters' pieces from Nuremberg, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Burghausen, as well as master pieces from other crafts up to the present.
Text Source and Further Information: https://historisches-museum-frankfurt.de/meisterstuecke
