(fl late 15th century). North Netherlandish painter. His name is derived from a painting of the Deposition, formerly in the collection of Dr Albert Figdor, Vienna, and sold in 1930 to the Staatlichen Museen, Berlin, where it was destroyed in 1945. The Master was a follower of Geertgen tot Sint Jans and played an important role in the development of painting in Haarlem. The Master mirrors Geertgen's style, as is evident in a comparison of Geertgen's Burning of the Bones of St John the Baptist (Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.) with the Master's Martyrdom of St Lucy (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.): composition, figures, colour and landscape are very alike, yet the Master's drawing is not as good, and in the Deposition he shows a new tendency towards sometimes extreme mobility of the figures.
From The Grove Encyclopedia of Northern Renaissance Art in Oxford Reference.
Subjects: Renaissance Art.