Saint James the Greater, ca. 1490 – 1500

About the Work

All we know about the Master FVB is that he worked in the Netherlands in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. His monogram has misled scholars to such purely speculative interpretations as “Franz van Bocholt” (the city where Israhel van Meckenem lived) or “F. van Brügge” (an important art centre). At any rate, he endowed the figures we see here with robust sturdiness and sculptural monumentality. They belong to an apostle series of which the Städel Museum owns these three sheets.