The Master of the Drapery Studies (german: Meister der Gewandstudien), also known as Master of the Coburg Roundels (german: Meister der Coburger Rundblätter) is the

notname In art history, a ''Notname'' (, "necessity-name" or "contingency-name") is an invented name given to an artist whose identity has been lost. The practice arose from the need to give such artists and their typically untitled, or generically title ...

given to the "very productive" and "multifaceted" late 15th-century author of some 30 surviving

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

s and over 150 surviving

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

s. Indeed, according to the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood, Los Angeles, Brentwood neighborhood ...

, up to 180 surviving drawings "have been attributed to this master, comprising one of the most extensive bodies of drawn work of any northern European artist before

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 ...

." Conversely, it has been suggested at least once that both the Master of the Drapery Studies and the Master of the Coburg Roundels may be two separate persons and that their body of work is attributable to a whole circle of artists.

Presumed identity and body of work

Before they were given to the Master, many of his drawings had been attributed by

art historians The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic visu ...

to the likes of Dürer,

Martin Schongauer Martin Schongauer (c. 1450–53, Colmar – 2 February 1491, Breisach), also known as Martin Schön ("Martin beautiful") or Hübsch Martin ("pretty Martin") by his contemporaries, was an Alsatian engraver and painter. He was the most important ...

or even the artist known as

Matthias Grünewald Matthias Grünewald ( – 31 August 1528) was a German Renaissance painter of religious works who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century. His first name is also given ...

, with whom he was at one point, wrongly, identified. The Master of the

Drapery Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles (Old French , from Late Latin ). It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothin ...

Studies was first called the Master of the Coburg Roundels, after two circular drawings from about 1485 kept in the

print room A print room is a room in an art gallery or museum where a collection of old master and modern prints, usually together with drawings, watercolours, and photographs, are held and viewed. A further meaning is a room decorated by pasting prints ...

of the Coburg Castle in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. Those works are stylistically related to many drawings and sketches representing "folds of clothing such as sleeves, loincloths, or even whole garments", from which the Master quickly drew his second notname. The name "Master of the Coburg Roundels" was first given by Ernst Buchner (1892–1962) in 1927, the name "Master of the Drapery Studies" was first given by Friedrich Winkler (1888–1965) in 1930. By general consensus (including the proponents of the theory of the "circle of artists"), the Master of the Drapery Studies/of the Coburg Roundels was active in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

, in the years 1475–1500, or 1470–1497, or 1470–1500. According to scholars such as the German Wilfried Franzen, the Master may be identical with Heinrich Lützelmann, the author of the ten panels of ''

The Passion of Christ ''The Passion of the Christ'' is a 2004 American epic biblical drama film produced, directed and co-written by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus of Nazareth, Maia Morgenstern as Mary, mother of Jesus, and Monica Bellucci as Mar ...

'', a commission of the St. Magdalene Church in Strasbourg. Lützelmann may have been a student/disciple of

Hans Hirtz Hans Hirtz or Hirtze was a German painter of the late Gothic period, recognized as a major painter by art historians as early as the 16th century. He was active between 1421 and 1463 in Strasbourg and other areas of the Upper Rhine. His years o ...

, an influential painter recorded in Strasbourg from 1421 to 1463 and generally thought to be identical with the "

Master of the Karlsruhe Passion The Master of the Karlsruhe Passion is the notname of a German painter of the late Gothic period active in the Upper Rhine. Very influential on other painters in the region, he may be identified with the Strasbourg painter Hans Hirtz. He is name ...

". According to Franzen, the Master of the Drapery Studies is also the author of a second Passion cycle (eight panels) now kept in the Landesmuseum in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

. The Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame keeps at least two further paintings attributed to the Master (known in French as ''Maître des études de draperies'' or ''Maître des ronds de Cobourg''). The Musée des Beaux-Arts of

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

owns four panels, the J. Paul Getty Museum owns one, the

National Museum A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

owns another one, as do the Musée des Beaux-Arts of

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, and the Staatliche Kunsthalle in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek language, Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) t ...

). A large part of the drawings of the Master of the Drapery Studies are related to

stained glass windows Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

from the workshop of the Strasbourg-based master Peter Hemmel of Andlau, although it is disputed if they were made as copies ''after'' or as preparatory sketches ''before'' the fabrication of the windows. Hemmel, incidentally, also designed windows for the same St Magdalene Church (in 1480–1481) for which the Master painted ''The Passion of Christ'' (between 1485 and 1490), his largest surviving single work. Several of the drawings of the Master are kept in famous museums such as the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the

Albertina The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...

, and the

Unterlinden Museum The Unterlinden Museum (French: ''Musée Unterlinden'') is located in Colmar, in the Alsace region of France. The museum, housed in a 13th-century Dominican religious sisters' convent and a 1906 former public baths building, is home to the Isenh ...

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, art 15th-century German painters Drapery Studies, Master of the German draughtsmen Gothic painters Artists from Strasbourg Painters from Alsace