The Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece (sometimes called the Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altar,NGA
/ref>) was an Early Netherlandish painter active in Germany, mostly Cologne, between 1475/1480 and 1510.Getty
/ref> Despite his anonymity, he is one of the most recognizable artists of the early Renaissance period in German art. It has been said that the Master is the last "Gothic" painter to be active in Cologne. Approximately twenty-five paintings have been attributed to him on the basis of his highly individual style, which does not seem to bear any affinity to that of any other school then active locally. Despite the fact that he seems to have been the leading painter of his time in Cologne, no evidence of any followers, or of a school in the usual sense, may be found. The Baptism of Christ E10530

A number of influences, mainly Netherlandish, have been traced in the Master's paintings. These include

Dirck Bouts Dieric Bouts (born c. 1415 – 6 May 1475) was an Early Netherlandish painter. Bouts may have studied under Rogier van der Weyden, and his work was influenced by van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck. He worked in Leuven from 1457 (or possibly earlier) ...

and Rogier van der Weyden,WGA
/ref>
whose influence may be seen in the Munich ''Madonna and Child with Saint Anne''. Stylistically, the Master's paintings are characterized by their use of bright, enamel-like colors and an affinity to the International Gothic style of painting.

Career

Almost nothing is known of his life, including his name; nevertheless, his hand is distinctive enough that scholars have found it fairly easy to trace his career. His name is derived from an altarpiece dated to between 1505 and 1510, depicting Saint Bartholomew flanked by Saint Agnes and

Saint Cecilia Saint Cecilia ( la, Sancta Caecilia), also spelled Cecelia, was a Roman virgin martyr and is venerated in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox, Anglican Communion, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden. She b ...

. The painting is known to have hung in the church of

St. Kolumba, Cologne St. Kolumba was one of the largest parish churches in medieval Cologne, dating back to 980, and dedicated to Columba of Sens. The original Romanesque church was replaced by a Gothic church. Artworks in it included the Saint Columba Altarpiece by ...

; the inclusion of a Carthusian monk in the picture indicates a possible connection to the Carthusian monastery in that city. The identity of the Master remains unknown; it has been suggested, given the number of commissions he executed for the Carthusian order, that he may have been a member himself. It is now believed that, despite his associations with Cologne, and with German artistic circles, elements of his style suggest that the Master was initially trained in the Netherlands - a point of origin in Utrecht, or in the Gelderland region, has been posited. A

Book of Hours The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscrip ...

, open to an identifiably middle Netherlandish text, in the hand of Saint Columba in a panel attributed to the Master conserved at Mainz, offers a clue to his cultural origins. It is further suggested that he emigrated to Cologne in about 1480. His early style may be seen in the miniatures he painted for the Book of Hours of

Sophia van Bylant Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek. It may refer to: * Sophia (wisdom) * Sophia (Gnosticism) *Sophia (given name) Sophia, also spelled Sofia, is a feminine given name, from Greek Σοφία, '' Sophía'', "Wisdom". Other forms include Sophie ...

; the '' Flagellation'' in this collection is dated to 1475, the earliest date associated with the Master. The calendar in the book is that of the diocese of Utrecht; nevertheless, certain oddities of language indicate an affinity with Arnhem, which was also the home of the donor. Other early works, dated to the 1480s, include an ''

Adoration of the Kings The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the Biblical Magi, three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by fol ...

'' and a ''Madonna and Child with

Saint Anne According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...

'', both of which exhibit affinities with northern Netherlandish painting and may have been created in the Netherlands. Among the very few works attributed to the Master for which the original location is documented are a pair of altarpieces commissioned for the Carthusian monastery in Cologne by a lawyer, Dr. Peter Rinck, and the ''Deposition'', now at the Musée du Louvre, that was executed for the hospital of the Antonite brothers in Paris.Marjorie O'Rourke Boyle, "Coquette at the Cross? Magdalen in the Master of the Bartholomew Altar's Deposition 59.4 (1996:573-577).

Collections

The Master's work may be found in a number of international museum collections. Three panels from the altarpiece which gave him his name are in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, and the ''Deposition'' for the Order of St Anthony is at the Musée du Louvre. There are four works in the

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

National Gallery
/ref> and a double-sided panel of the ''Journey of the Magi'' (or ''Three Kings'') and the ''Assumption of Mary'' at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. A ''Baptism of Christ'' is in the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

, Washington, D.C. Other paintings are in the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

;Boston
/ref> the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

;Philadelphia Museum of Art
/ref> and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne.Wallraf-Richartz Museum
/ref> A '' Death of the Virgin'' formerly in Berlin is now lost. :it:Maestro dell'Altare di san Bartolomeo

Gallery

File:Adoration de l'Enfant.JPG, ''Nativity'' File:Master Of The St. Bartholomew Altar - St Thomas Altarpiece - WGA14629.jpg, Saint Thomas Altarpiece File:Sainte Famille Musée Städel Francfort SG0449.jpg, '' Holy Family'' File:Vierge et anges musiciens-Londres.jpg, ''Virgin with Angels''

Notes and references

in English * Neil MacGregor: ''Victim of Anonymity. Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece''. Walter Neurath Memorial Lecture Series. Thames & Hudson, London 1993. . in German *Rainer Budde, Roland Krischel (Hrsg.): ''Genie ohne Namen. Der Meister des Bartholomäus-Altars''. Verlag DuMont und Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Köln 2001. . (Katalog zur Sonderausstellung im Wallraf-Richartz-Museum – Fondation Corboud, Köln, 20. Mai bis 19. August 2001, ergänzt um zahlreiche weitere Abbildungen) *Rainer Budde, Roland Krischel (Hrsg.): ''Das Stundenbuch der Sophia van Bylant'', Köln 2001 *Henri L. Defoer: ''Der Meister des Bartholomäus-Altars und die Kunst der Nördlichen Niederlande, Betrachtungen anlässlich einer Ausstellung'', Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch: Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 64 (2003), S. 215-241. *Dagmar Eichberger: Rezension der Veröffentlichung von Budde/Krischel: ''Genie ohne Namen. Der Meister des Bartholomäus-Altars'' in: sehepunkte 2 (2002), Nr. 3, 15.03.2002, URL

*Regina Urban: ''Der Meister des Bartholomäus-Altars. Eine Bedeutungsstudie zu Thomas-, Kreuz- und Bartholomäus-Altar vor dem Hintergrund der kartäusischen Auftraggeber''. Unveröff. Magisterarbeit an der TU Berlin, Fachgebiet Kunstgeschichte, Berlin 1988 *Regina Urban: ''Der Meister des heiligen Bartholomäus. Untersuchungen zur Kleidung, Gestik und Vorbilderverarbeitung im Oeuvre des Malers''. Berlin, Techn. Univ., Diss., 1997 *Paul Pieper: ''Das Stundenbuch des Bartholomäus-Meisters''. In: Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte Westfalens; 2. Im Auftrag des Freundeskreises des Westfälischen Landesmuseums für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte e.V. hrsg. und eingel. von Eva Pieper-Rapp-Frick. Münster, 2000, S. 501-533. *''

Neue Deutsche Biographie ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' (''NDB''; literally ''New German Biography'') is a biographical reference work. It is the successor to the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, Universal German Biography). The 26 volumes published thus far cover ...

'' (NDB), Bd. 16, S. 708f.

External links

Analysis of the Master's work

:''This article is based in part on a translation of the corresponding article in the Italian Wikipedia.
Biography at the National Gallery of ArtBiography at the Getty Museum
{{ACArt 15th-century births 16th-century deaths 15th-century German painters 16th-century German painters Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece, Master of the Early Netherlandish painters

Career

Collections

Gallery

Notes and references

Further reading

External links