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Lot Essay
The identity of the Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas of Munster has not yet been revealed, but it was Stange (op. cit., 1954, pp. 51-4) who first established an oeuvre for the artist. The appellation given the anonymous painter results from a wing of an altarpiece in the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Mnster, depicting the Death of Saint Nicholas of Mnster on the outside and Saint George slaying the Dragon on the inside, which was previously in the Church of Buldern in Westphalia. Stange suggests that this is the earliest painting by the master and he dates it to circa 1460. Other paintings that he adds to the artist's oeuvre are the left wing of an altarpiece with Christ carrying the Cross on the inside and the Holy Family on the outside, in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne (op. cit., 1967, p. 118, no. 374), The Perpetual Virginity of Mary, in Pfarrhaus, Munchengalbach-Nuwkerk (ibid., no. 375), the Virgin and Child in a private collection, Regensberg-Nuwkerk (ibid., no. 376) and a Virgin and Child, dated 1478, in a private collection, Kreuzlingen.
Unquestionably, the Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas of Mnster had very close connections to the Master of the Kalkerer Death of Mary, whose name also derives from a painting in the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Mnster (see P. Pieper, Die deutschen, niederländischen und italienischen Tafelbilder bis um 1530, 1990, p. 366, no. 173, illustrated). The rendering of the costumes, the clarity of forms and even some of the faces are closely related in both paintings. However the relation of his figures to the space they occupy is more sophisticated than those in the paintings of the Master of the Kalkarer Death of Mary, where the walls of the room appear to have been painted as an afterthought to the figures.
Stange (op. cit., 1954) argues that the attribution of the present painting to the Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas of Mnster is unquestionable and that it shows all the distinctive details of the master, namely the lively realism and the recognizable figural types. The knight on the white horse is comparable to the Saint George and the relationship of the figures to the landscape is also similar to his other paintings. Stange dates the present picture to the 1460s, on the basis that stylistically it is closest to the Death of Saint Nicholas of Mnster than his other paintings, especially the Kreuzlingen Virgin and Child which is dated 1478. The compartmental landscape, the lively genre figures at the base of the two crosses which in themselves act as borders and the pyramidal grouping of the mourners point to a source close to Dieric Bouts. It is tempting to suggest that it derives from a lost Calvary by Bouts which was completed by 1460 at the latest and was referred to in 1464 by the Master of the Lyversbergishen Passion. The seated Magdalen also seems to derive from Dieric Bouts' Pietà in the Louvre, Paris.
Ludwig Mayer (private correspondence, 15 November 1999) agrees with both Stange and Schone (loc. cit.) that this highly important panel originates from the Rhine and that the painter very likely spent his formative years in the Netherlands, where a strong influence can clearly be seen. He suggests an area in the north, between Cologne and Kleve. This would include Wesel, where Derick Baegert (1450-1575) worked and died. It would seem very likely that Baegert, who was clearly influenced by his Westphalian contemporaries, also reacted to the Netherlandish painting tradition through the Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas of Mnster and that he may have been his pupil. About twenty years later Baegert painted several very similar subjects, which are extremely close to the present painting, such as the Calvary in the Propsteikirche, Dortmund, circa 1470-5 (fig. 1) and the central panel of an altarpiece of the same subject in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, executed circa 1500 (fig. 2; see I. Lbbeke, The Thyssen-Bormemisza Collection -- Early German Painting, 1350-1550, pp. 127, 131, figs. 2, 6). Interestingly, Stange speculates that the initials to be found on the leg of the right-hand foreground figure in the painting ('NVS'), questionably a form of signature, could be those of a painter belonging to the Snackert family, who had links to Wesel. As early as 1427 Dieric Snackert had painted an altarpiece for the Matenakirche in Wesel.
The strong Rhenish feel of the present panel, with its wide landscape under a golden sky, can be seen in two sides of an altarpiece depicting the Virgin and Child with Saints Anne, Christopher, George and Peter and Saints Clare, Bernard, Bonaventura and Francis, attributed to the Master of the Weeping Mary, in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne (see the catalogue of the exhibition, Stefan Lochner, Meisterm zu Köln, 3 December 1993-February 1994, p. 378, no. 69, figs. 69a-b). Indeed, Meyer stresses the closeness of this painting to the present one, not only in the shape of the women's faces, but also in the measured movement of the figures and the fluttering flag of the standard bearer.
While the identity of the painter of the present work remains anonymous, the painting itself is undoubtedly a pivotal work in the history of the Northern Renaissance, uniting aspects of Netherlandish painting with Rhenish art and, in particular, with the art of Derick Baegert, the most important painter of the late fifteenth century in the Rhineland.
Unquestionably, the Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas of Mnster had very close connections to the Master of the Kalkerer Death of Mary, whose name also derives from a painting in the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Mnster (see P. Pieper, Die deutschen, niederländischen und italienischen Tafelbilder bis um 1530, 1990, p. 366, no. 173, illustrated). The rendering of the costumes, the clarity of forms and even some of the faces are closely related in both paintings. However the relation of his figures to the space they occupy is more sophisticated than those in the paintings of the Master of the Kalkarer Death of Mary, where the walls of the room appear to have been painted as an afterthought to the figures.
Stange (op. cit., 1954) argues that the attribution of the present painting to the Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas of Mnster is unquestionable and that it shows all the distinctive details of the master, namely the lively realism and the recognizable figural types. The knight on the white horse is comparable to the Saint George and the relationship of the figures to the landscape is also similar to his other paintings. Stange dates the present picture to the 1460s, on the basis that stylistically it is closest to the Death of Saint Nicholas of Mnster than his other paintings, especially the Kreuzlingen Virgin and Child which is dated 1478. The compartmental landscape, the lively genre figures at the base of the two crosses which in themselves act as borders and the pyramidal grouping of the mourners point to a source close to Dieric Bouts. It is tempting to suggest that it derives from a lost Calvary by Bouts which was completed by 1460 at the latest and was referred to in 1464 by the Master of the Lyversbergishen Passion. The seated Magdalen also seems to derive from Dieric Bouts' Pietà in the Louvre, Paris.
Ludwig Mayer (private correspondence, 15 November 1999) agrees with both Stange and Schone (loc. cit.) that this highly important panel originates from the Rhine and that the painter very likely spent his formative years in the Netherlands, where a strong influence can clearly be seen. He suggests an area in the north, between Cologne and Kleve. This would include Wesel, where Derick Baegert (1450-1575) worked and died. It would seem very likely that Baegert, who was clearly influenced by his Westphalian contemporaries, also reacted to the Netherlandish painting tradition through the Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas of Mnster and that he may have been his pupil. About twenty years later Baegert painted several very similar subjects, which are extremely close to the present painting, such as the Calvary in the Propsteikirche, Dortmund, circa 1470-5 (fig. 1) and the central panel of an altarpiece of the same subject in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, executed circa 1500 (fig. 2; see I. Lbbeke, The Thyssen-Bormemisza Collection -- Early German Painting, 1350-1550, pp. 127, 131, figs. 2, 6). Interestingly, Stange speculates that the initials to be found on the leg of the right-hand foreground figure in the painting ('NVS'), questionably a form of signature, could be those of a painter belonging to the Snackert family, who had links to Wesel. As early as 1427 Dieric Snackert had painted an altarpiece for the Matenakirche in Wesel.
The strong Rhenish feel of the present panel, with its wide landscape under a golden sky, can be seen in two sides of an altarpiece depicting the Virgin and Child with Saints Anne, Christopher, George and Peter and Saints Clare, Bernard, Bonaventura and Francis, attributed to the Master of the Weeping Mary, in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne (see the catalogue of the exhibition, Stefan Lochner, Meisterm zu Köln, 3 December 1993-February 1994, p. 378, no. 69, figs. 69a-b). Indeed, Meyer stresses the closeness of this painting to the present one, not only in the shape of the women's faces, but also in the measured movement of the figures and the fluttering flag of the standard bearer.
While the identity of the painter of the present work remains anonymous, the painting itself is undoubtedly a pivotal work in the history of the Northern Renaissance, uniting aspects of Netherlandish painting with Rhenish art and, in particular, with the art of Derick Baegert, the most important painter of the late fifteenth century in the Rhineland.