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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Ludwig Meyer for confirming that the earlier attribution to a Follower of Rueland Frueauf the Elder was accurate in placing this work in the geographic context of Lower Bavaria or Austria. However, Meyer notes that stylistically this work can be dated to circa 1480-1490, within the lifetime of Frueauf the Elder, and should thus be considered to belong to his wider circle of contemporaries, rather than to his posthumous following. It is probable that the work belonged to a multi-panel set or polyptych belonging the Passion. Although the other panels have not been identified and may have been destroyed, it remains possible that they will one day be discovered.
Rueland Frueauf the Elder and his son Rueland the Younger were Austrian painters active in Salzburg and Passau; the Elder (c. ?1440/50-1507) was the leading painter of church altarpieces in these cities from 1470, and in 1484 was appointed by the Salzburg city council as advisor to Michael Pacher in the latter's work for the parish church (now the Franciscan church Unsere Liebe Frau). His son Rueland the Younger (c. 1465/70-after 1545) is believed to be the author of the wings of an altar of Saint Leopold (1505, Klosterneuburg) and is considered a forerunner of the Danube School.
Rueland Frueauf the Elder and his son Rueland the Younger were Austrian painters active in Salzburg and Passau; the Elder (c. ?1440/50-1507) was the leading painter of church altarpieces in these cities from 1470, and in 1484 was appointed by the Salzburg city council as advisor to Michael Pacher in the latter's work for the parish church (now the Franciscan church Unsere Liebe Frau). His son Rueland the Younger (c. 1465/70-after 1545) is believed to be the author of the wings of an altar of Saint Leopold (1505, Klosterneuburg) and is considered a forerunner of the Danube School.