Master of Mondsee

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Master of Mondsee: Altar from Mondsee Abbey, inner wing, scene: Flight into Egypt, end of the 15th century

With Master of Mondsee an unnamed known is the late Gothic painter from the region around Vienna and Salzburg respectively. He worked in Salzburg from 1480 to 1510 and received his emergency name from the winged altar that he created in 1497 for the collegiate church of Mondsee Monastery in Upper Austria . The founder was Abbot Benedikt Eck von Piburg (also: Benedikt Eck von Vilsbiburg), who in 1471 also commissioned the Pacher altar for the pilgrimage church of St. Wolfgang . The name of the artist has not been passed down. In 1490, however, a Mondsee painter is mentioned several times in the construction book of the Nonnberg monastery in Salzburg . In fact, there were two painters living in Mondsee at that time, who both died around the turn of the year 1498/1499, namely Ruprecht Pichler and Hans Engelhart. Pichler was the brother of the abbot of St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg, Engelhart possibly came from Nuremberg , as he also called himself Nürnberger. There are no certain work attributions for both. Identification with a citizen and member of the Salzburg painters' guild Heinrich Freudenfuß, mentioned in 1498, is rather unlikely.

Like the master of the Viennese Schottenaltar , who probably influenced him, the master of Mondsee was also influenced by Dutch and Upper Rhine models. The altar is also influenced by the Pacher altar by Michael Pacher from the 1470s in the pilgrimage church of St. Wolfgang belonging to the monastery, which was also commissioned by Abbot Benedikt of Mondsee Monastery.

Works (selection)

The altar was dismantled and sold before 1828. The pictures came into the possession of Prince Liechtenstein, who resold them except for the representation of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple. From the altar of Mondsee four large pictures with scenes from the youth of Christ are known, divided into different collections. They began with the worship of the kings, followed by the offering and circumcision in the temple, and finally the sermon of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple. From the predella the wings come with the escape from Egypt (outside: Saint Ambrose) and knee-Denden with the front of a ear dress Madonna, 1499 deceased donor is Abbot Benedict Eck of Piburg with the St. Augustine on the outside (of the depicted space in the flight from Egypt the old destroyed Romanesque Lady Chapel of the Mondsee Monastery, which was re-consecrated in 1477). The reliefs that once existed on the back of the wings have been removed, the whereabouts of the shrine figures are unknown.

Adoration of the Magi
  • Saint Jerome (private collection Krefeld), Saint Ambrosius (private collection Tutzing), side wing from an altar around 1480
  • Adoration of the Magi , before 1499, Linz, Upper Austrian State Museum , Castle Museum, 113 × 87.5 cm, inv. G 2576, from a wing of the Mondsee Altar, acquired from a private collection in 2000. The king kneeling in the foreground with a red cloak is probably a representation of Emperor Friedrich III. († 1493). His companion, who holds the cloak, is possibly Duke Georg der Reiche von Bayern-Landshut , to whose domain Mondsee belonged and who supported the emperor in a war against the Hungarians in 1490.
  • Offering , before 1499, Linz, Upper Austrian State Museum , Castle Museum, 114.7 × 88 cm, from a wing of the Mondsee Altar, acquired from a private collection in 2014.
  • The twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple , before 1499, Vaduz, Prince Liechtensteinsche Gemäldegalerie, 113 × 88 cm, from a wing of the Mondsee Altar
  • Circumcision of Christ , before 1499, Vienna, Belvedere , 113 × 87.5 cm, from a wing of the Mondsee Altar
  • Flight into Egypt , before 1499, Vienna, Belvedere, from the predella of the Mondsee Altar
  • Maria as a temple maiden in ear dress , before 1499, Vienna, Belvedere, from the predella of the Mondsee Altar
  • St. Augustine , before 1499, Vienna, Belvedere, from the predella of the Mondsee Altar
  • St. Ambrosius , before 1499, Vienna, Belvedere, from the predella of the Mondsee Altar

literature

  • S. Florian: The master of Mondsee. Dissertation. University of Vienna. Vienna 1950.
  • S. Florian in: Thieme-Becker . 1950.
  • S. Krasa-Florian: The master of Mondsee. In: The Mondseeland as a historical landscape and its centers. Monastery and market. In: The Mondseeland. History and culture. Catalog for the exhibition in Mondsee Abbey. Linz 1981, pp. 139-148.
  • L. Schultes: The master of Mondsee. New observations on an important artist of the late Middle Ages. In: Belvedere. Visual arts magazine. Issue 1/2001, pp. 4–12.
  • L. Schultes, B. Prokisch (Ed.): Gotik Schätze Oberösterreich. Catalog for an exhibition project of Upper Austria. State Museum. Linz 2002, 275–277, No. 1/11 / 18-1 / 11/22.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1497 the altar consecration took place
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Lothar Schultes: Adoration of the Kings , Masters from Mondsee, Upper Austrian State Museum
  3. ↑ Ownership according to Kindler's Malereilexikon, status 1982
  4. ↑ Belvedere , Vienna, inv. No. 4961
  5. ↑ Stefan Trinks, detailed picture review in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on April 9, 2020, "One stayed clean. Anti-Semitic stereotypes predominate in painting in the Middle Ages. The master of Mondsee is the exception to the rule" , page 11
personal data
SURNAME Master of Mondsee
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
DATE OF DEATH 15th century or 16th century