Matthias Grünewald

Matthias Grünewald. Little is known about the artist now known as Matthias Grünewald. His real name may have been Matthias Gothardt; or Neithardt. ‘Grünewald’ was only attributed to him in the 17th century. He was probably born c. 1470-75, and was active as a painter with his own studio from about 1500. It is fairly certain that he was court painter to Albrecht of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, who became also Elector of Mainz and from 1518 a Cardinal. Grünewald therefore mostly worked at the Castle of Aschaffenburg, near Frankfurt am Main. Grünewald left the archbishop’s employment in 1526, possibly because of the artist’s sympathies for the Reformation and/or the Peasants’ War. He moved to Frankfurt and then Halle, where he died in August 1528.