Gothic Era





 

Master of the Polling Panels

Master of the Tegernsee Passion

Master of the Trebon Altarpiece

Master of the Vienna Adoration

Master of the Virgo inter Virgines





 

Master of the Polling Panels

( fl c. 1439–52). German painter. He was one of the most distinctive artists in early Bavarian painting and worked in the area around Munich and Kremsmünster. His oeuvre, which can be assembled with certainty on stylistic grounds, includes the panels of two winged altarpieces from the Augustinian monastery at Polling in Upper Bavaria, after which he is named. Four of these come from an altarpiece of scenes from the Life of the Virgin and are dated 1444. The altarpiece was donated by Duke Albert II of Bavaria (reg 1438–60) and his wife, Anna (1420–74). The surviving panels are an Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi (Munich, Alte Pin.) and a Nativity and Presentation in the Temple (Munich, Bayer. Nmus.). Two further panels come from an altarpiece of the Holy Cross; they are a Crucifixion and three scenes of the Discovery of the True Cross (Munich, Bayer. Nmus.). Four further panels from an altarpiece of the Life of the Virgin, dated 1439, are in the Stiftsgalerie, Kremsmünster. Two well-preserved panels with St Peter and St Paul are also extant (Cassani priv. col.).

Adoration of the Child
1444
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg
 

Master of the Tegernsee Passion

( fl c. 1440–60). German painter. He is named after the main altarpiece (1444–5) at the former Benedictine monastery of St Quirinus at Tegernsee. Since the altarpiece was documented as the tabula magna, he is also called the Master of the Tegernsee Tabula Magna. He was thought to be the Munich painter Gabriel Mälesskircher until it was demonstrated (Buchner, 1938–9) that he belonged to a generation preceding that of Mälesskircher, whose 13 altarpieces for the Tegernsee Monastery were painted from 1474. Recently discovered archival evidence (Liedke, 1982) points to the Munich painter Gabriel Angler the elder (c. 1405–?1462) as the artist in question. The centre of the now dismembered tabula magna consisted of two oblong panels set one above the other, the Crucifixion (Nuremberg, Ger. Nmus.) above Christ Carrying the Cross (Munich, Bayer. Nmus.). Four other Passion scenes appeared on the interior of the flanking wings, and four scenes from the Life of St Quirinus were seen when the wings were closed. The unidealized, rude and bulky figures reveal the Master to have been an unrestrained and highly expressive exponent of a particular kind of realism, also associated with the Master of the Tucher Altar and with Hans Multscher. In the late 17th century the backgrounds of the principal panels were repainted with dark and stormy skies, which produces an effect not altogether out of keeping with the original emotional tenor. In another large Crucifixion from Tegernsee (1439–40; Munich, Alte Pin.) he painted the scene in grisaille with an elaborate architectural frame, as if the painting were a stone retable.

Crucifixion, detail from right side
1440-45
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
 

Master of the Trebon Altarpiece

( fl last quarter of the 14th century). Bohemian painter. His name is taken from the small town (Ger. Wittingau) in south Bohemia from which his best-known work originated. This is the altarpiece painted for the church of St Giles in the Augustinian monastery in Trebon, which must have been executed after 1380, when work on the church vaults was begun. The three surviving panels (Prague, N.G., Convent of St George) are from the wings and show scenes from the Passion: the Agony in the Garden, with SS Catherine, Mary Magdalene and Margaret on the outer side, the Entombment with SS Giles, Gregory and Jerome, and the Resurrection with SS James the Less, Bartholomew and Philip. The modelling of the figures is achieved through a skilful use of colour and light, so that they appear to float in front of the stylized rocky backgrounds, giving the paintings a shimmering, visionary quality. The sense of depth is also conveyed by light, with a strong diagonal emphasis that reinforces the feeling of insubstantiality.

Master of the Virgo inter Virgines

( fl Delft, c. 1483–98). North Netherlandish painter and woodcut designer. He is named after the altarpiece of the Virgin with SS Catherine, Cecilia, Ursula and Barbara (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), formerly in the convent at Konigsveld, near Delft. First distinguished as an individual artist in 1903 by Friedlander, who subsequently assembled a considerable oeuvre around the altarpiece in Amsterdam, the Master is the least concerned with elegance and the most uncompromisingly ‘realist’ of the early Netherlandish masters and has been characterized as a forerunner of the Dutch school.