21 facts about Stefan Lochner

Stefan Lochner (the Dombild Master or Master Stefan; c. 1410 – late 1451) was a German painter working in the late International Gothic period. His paintings tally that era’s tendency toward long flowing lines and brilliant colours subsequent to the realism, virtuoso surface textures and advanced iconography of the to the fore Northern Renaissance. Based in Cologne, a personal ad and artistic hub of northern Europe, Lochner was one of the most important German painters in the past Albrecht Dürer. Extant works combine single-panel oil paintings, devotional polyptychs and illuminated manuscripts, which often feature fanciful and blue-winged angels. Today some thirty-seven individual panels are credited to him as soon as confidence.

Less is known of his life. Art historians associating the Dombild Master later than the historical Stefan Lochner put in the works with he was born in Meersburg in south-west Germany as regards 1410, and that he spent some of his apprenticeship in the Low Countries. Records new indicate that his career developed speedily but was cut short by an further on death. We know that he was commissioned roughly speaking 1442 by the Cologne council to come taking place with the child maintenance for decorations for the visit of Emperor Frederick III, a major occasion for the city. Records from the gone years indicate growing great quantity and the buy of a number of properties in this area the city. Thereafter he seems to have over-extended his finances and fallen into debt. Plague hit Cologne in 1451 and there, apart from the chronicles of creditors, mention of Stephan Lochner ends; it is presumed he died that year, aged a propos 40.

Lochner’s identity and reputation were free until a revival of 15th-century art during the yet to be 19th-century affectionate period. Despite extensive historical research, attribution remains difficult; for centuries a number of associated works were grouped and loosely attributed to the Dombild Master, a notname taken from the Dombild Altarpiece (in English cathedral picture, also known as the Altarpiece of the City’s Patron Saints) still in Cologne Cathedral. One of Dürer’s diary entries became key, 400 years later, in the 20th-century start of Lochner’s identity. Only two endorsed works are dated, and none are signed. His influence upon successive generations of northern artists was substantial. Apart from the many focus on copies made in the difficult 15th century, echoes of his panels can be seen in works by Rogier van der Weyden and Hans Memling. Lochner’s feint was praised by Friedrich Schlegel and Goethe for its qualities, especially the “sweetness and grace” of his Madonnas.