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Master of the Darmstadt Passion

Painter

Born
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Died
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One Work by Master of the Darmstadt Passion

Biography

In 1900 Henry Thode assembled two altar wings preserved in Darmstadt and another pair of wings in Berlin under this name of convenience to form the oeuvre of an artist who had been active along the Middle Rhine around the middle of the 15th century and thus represented the regional counterpart to artists such as Stefan Lochner or Konrad Witz. The work was initially expanded by a crucifixion panel located in Bad Orb and burnt in 1983. This probably belonged to the Berlin wings as a central panel, as well as five individual pictures of the "Baindt Altar" named after the presumed place of origin, and two panels with breast pictures of David and John the Baptist. More recently, in addition to the Frankfurt picture, the wings of the high altar of the pilgrimage church in Klausen on the Moselle, built around 1480, as well as the title miniature of an Augustine manuscript also made for Klausen in 1479, could be assigned to the group, too. Due to these attributions as well as a more precise determination of the processed Dutch models, it emerged that the entire group of works probably originated later than initially assumed, namely in the third quarter of the 15th century. In addition, several painters were certainly involved, although a division into masters and journeymen in detail is hardly possible. Especially the Passion scenes of Darmstadt, which gave the work its name, differ stylistically most from the rest of the group, so that a division into two workshops, one of which, however, emerged from the other, was recently considered.