The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (300 page)

(sometimes called the Master of 1466 from the date on one of his engravings). German engraver working in the mid-15th cent., named after the monogram on eighteen of his surviving prints. He was the most prolific and influential of the early German engravers, working on profane and fantastic subjects as well as religious images and producing more than 300 known prints. Earlier engravers had been content with pure outline, but E. S. managed to produce rich tonal effects by the ingenious use of
hatching
, and cross-hatching.

 
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(early 15th cent.).
German painter, active in Hamburg. His major surviving work is an altarpiece for the guild of merchants trading with England (Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 1424), showing Passion scenes and incidents from the life of St Thomas à Becket. Francke was a leader of the northern German version of
International Gothic
. He had close links with the west and Burgundy in particular. His influence was widely spread over north Germany and along the shores of the Baltic.

 
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Term used in art history to label the author of anonymous works for convenience in discussing them. This use of invented names is more common in the study of painting and the
graphic arts
than of sculpture, and historians of architecture hardly ever resort to it. It began in Germany in the early 19th cent. with the description of Early Netherlandish painting. The choice of names was then often more lyrical than descriptive: for instance the ‘Master of the Pearl of Brabant’ (who later was identified with
Bouts
) got his name from an altarpiece (Alte Pinakothek, Munich) which had become known by that poetical title simply because it caught the imagination. Nowadays invented names are more prosaic and more directly appropriate. Often the anonymous master is named after a particular picture and/or the collection to which it belongs, e.g. ‘Master of the Louvre Annunciation’. Alternatively, the name can refer to some aspect of the artist's style, as in the ‘Master of the Anaemic Figures’ (a 15th-cent. Spanish painter), which shows that the designation ‘master’ is used neutrally and is not a sign of approbation. The practice of creating artistic personalities in this way has been overdone, but is often useful.

 
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Master of Alkmaar
(active early 16th cent.).

Netherlandish painter named after the altarpiece of the
Seven Works of Mercy
painted for the church of St Lawrence in Alkmaar in 1504 and now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Attempts have been made to identify the painter with Cornelis Buys, who was the brother of Jacob
Cornelisz. van Oostsanen
. The figure style is reminiscent of
Geertgen tot
Sint Jans and the altarpiece is important as an early instance of the characteristically Dutch delight in the representation of everyday life.

 
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Master of Flémalle
.

Netherlandish painter named after three paintings in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt that were wrongly supposed to have come from Flémalle, near Liège. There is a strong consensus of scholarly opinion that he is to be identified with Robert Campin (active 1406–44), who was the leading painter of his day in Tournai but none of whose documented pictures survive. The identification depends on the similarity between the Master of Flémalle's paintings and those of Jacques
Daret
and Rogier van der
Weyden
, for Daret was Campin's pupil and Rogier almost certainly was. The hypothesis that the Master of Flémalle's paintings are early works by Rogier now has few adherents. While there is still doubt about the Master of Flémalle's identity, there is no argument about his achievement, for he made a radical break with the elegant
International Gothic
style and ranks with van
Eyck
as one of the founders of the Netherlandish school of painting. None of the paintings given to him is dated—with the exception of the wings of the Werl altarpiece of 1438 in the Prado, a doubtful attribution—but it seems likely that his earliest works antedate any surviving picture by van Eyck . The earliest of all is generally thought to be
The Entombment
(Courtauld Inst., London) of about 1410/20. This still has the decorative gold background of medieval tradition, but the influence of Claus
Sluter
is clear in the sculptural solidity and dramatic force of the figures. The most famous work associated with the Master of Flémalle is the Mérode Altarpiece (Met. Mus., New York), and he is indeed sometimes referred to as the Master of Mérode. However, the attribution of this painting has also been questioned. Among the other works associated with him are
The Marriage of the Virgin
(Prado, Madrid),
The Nativity
(Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon), and
The Virgin and Child before a Firescreen
(NG, London), which shows the homely detail and down-to-earth naturalism characteristic of the artist (the firescreen behind the Virgin's head forms a substitute for a halo). The National Gallery also has three portraits attributed to the Master of Flémalle. In spite of the many problems that still surround him, he emerges as a very powerful and important artistic personality.

 
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