Master of St. Bartholomew (active c. 1480-c. 1510)
Nothing is known about the identity of the artist, who was the main exponent of late Gothic art in Cologne: a large number of his works have been grouped together as being of his hand. His name derives from his most important painting, the St. Bartholomew Altar, in the Alte Pinakothek, in Munich. This highly independent painter maintained his attachment to Gothic forms and was inspired on several occasions by Van der Weyden’s pathos. His pictures are characterised by: their taste for the unusual; their formal complexity; and for their exaggerated attitudes and use of vivid, luminous colours.
