The Master of Meßkirch (German: Meister von Meßkirch; active c. 1515 - 1540) was an anonymous

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

painter.

Biography

The so-called Master of Meßkirch is named after the eleven

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

s (one main altarpiece and ten auxiliary ones) he painted for the St. Martin church in

Meßkirch Meßkirch (; Swabian: ''Mässkirch'') is a town in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. The town was the residence of the counts of Zimmern, widely known through Count Froben Christoph's ''Zimmern Chronicle'' (1559–1 ...

between 1536 and 1540. His birthplace and apprenticeship are unknown, but he may have studied under an artist from the circle of

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...

, such as

Hans von Kulmbach Hans Suess, known as Hans von Kulmbach, was a German artist. He was born around 1480 in Kulmbach, Franconia and died prior to 3 December 1522 in Nuremberg.John Denison Champlin, Charles CallahanCyclopedia of Painters and PaintingsNew York, Publ ...

Hans Leonhard Schäufelein Hans Leonhard Schäufelein (c. 1480–1540) was a German artist, as a painter and designer of woodcuts. Biography He was born in Nuremberg, probably studied under Wohlgemut, and then became the assistant of Dürer, whom he imitated. In 15 ...

.Gert von der Osten, Horst Vey (1969). ''Painting and Sculpture in Germany and the Netherlands, 1500 to 1600''. Penguin Group, . Pages 217-18 From the 1530s onwards his works seem to display familiarity with contemporary northern Italian painting.

Hans Baldung Grien Hans Baldung (1484 or 1485 – September 1545), called Hans Baldung Grien, (being an early nickname, because of his predilection for the colour green), was a painter, printer, engraver, draftsman, and stained glass artist, who was considered t ...

was also influential to his work. Wildensteiner Altar Drehflügel links innen

Early on he worked for Count Eitel Friedrich III of

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...

Veringenstadt Veringenstadt ( Swabian: ''Verenga'') is a town in the district of Sigmaringen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 10 km north of Sigmaringen. Geographical location Veringenstadt is situated in the valley of the Lauchert, a tr ...

. Later he was called to Meßkirch to work for Count

Gottfried Werner von Zimmern The von Zimmern family ('' Herren von Zimmern''), after 1538 counts (''Grafen'') of Zimmern, was a Swabian noble family. The family is first mentioned in 1080, and its male line was extinct in 1594. Their name is now mostly known from the Zimmern C ...

. Throughout the master's career his figures had Manneristic proportions. While early on his colors were bright and iridescent, his coloration became calmer and more muted in his last years. His most important works include: *The Falkenstein Altarpiece (1525) *Frescoes from the choir of the Cistercian abbey at the (1532–35) *The altarpieces for Stiftskirche von St. Martin, from which more than 40 panels have been separated and are held in the collections of European and American museums.

Citations

References

* Feuerstein, Heinrich (1933). ''Der Meister von Meßkirch im Lichte der neuesten Funde und Forschungen''. Freiburg: Urban Verlag * Moraht-Fromm, Anna; Hans Westhoff (1997). ''Der Meister von Meßkirch. Forschungen zur südwestdeutschen Malerei des 16. Jahrhunderts''. Ulm: Süddeutsche Verlags-Gesellschaft. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Messkirch, Master of German Renaissance painters Anonymous artists 1500s deaths Year of birth uncertain 16th-century German painters