
Triptych with the Lamentation of Christ, St. Barbara, St. Catherine of Alexandria, the Annunciation (c.1500)
Master of the Krainburg Altar (Austrian, active c. 1485-1510)
Acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art

Master of the Krainburg Altar (active c.1485-1510)
Triptych with The Lamentation of Christ, St. Barbara, St. Catherine of Alexandria, The Annunciation
c. 1500
Center: oil on poplar; Wings: oil and gold leaf on poplar panel
Center: 45.7 cm (18 x 13 in); Wings: 51 x 15.9 cm (20 1/16 x 6 1/4)
Cleveland Museum of Art: Purchased with funds from the John L. Severance Fund. 2022.86
Triptych with the Lamentation of Christ (centre), St. Barbara (left wing), St. Catherine of Alexandria (right wing), the Annunciation (reverse wings) shows and exact representation of Jerusalem. The model for this triptych is a woodcut by Erhard Reuwich for the publication Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, by Bernhard von Breydenbach (published in Mainz in 1486).
Despite its high level of quality, this small altarpiece has, until recently, eluded all attempts to securely identify its author. In 1944, Grete Ring ascribed the triptych to an artist she believed to be an itinerant southeast Austrian called the Master of the Krainburg Altar, whose eponymous work is now in the Belvedere, Vienna. Whilst noting that the Lamentation scene is based on a Rogier van der Weyden (1400-1464) composition, Ring pointed to the similarities of female types, the relation of the principal foreground scenes to the landscape, the ornamentation of the painted architectural framework, and the claw-like hands as evidence that the triptych and Vienna pictures are by the same artist.
Although his origins remain obscure, documents indicate that the Master of the Krainburg Altar was active in Slovenia for at least 15 years. He was a prominent citizen of the town of Kramnik, and had a flourishing workshop there.
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