Master of the Lübeck Bible

Master of the Lübeck Bible is the Notname one active from about 1485 to about 1520 Flemish painter and book form cutter.

He was given this name after the woodcuts, which he created for the printed Steffen Arndes Lübeck Bible ( 1494). After a while isolated Bernt Notke was regarded as the author of the illustrations, a distinction since the research of Axel L. Romdahl two different, nameless artist, called by him short A- and B - Masters champion.

Both masters are on the use of light and shadow for the production of space and perspective; the A- Master is found but overall a somewhat freer design. The A- Master was certainly involved, also to Des Dodes Dantz from the Mohnkopfoffizin of Hans van Ghetelen. He will be 47 drawings of the Lübeck Bible attributed ( 4-39,41,42,44-55 ); he probably worked in the years 1489-1492 on this project. The B- Masters had previously been commissioned by Steffen Arndes with 200 woodcuts of the printed by him Passional ( 1492). For unknown reasons, he then broke, from the much lower level, the A- Master.

This A- Master is known only as Master of the Lübeck Bible. Max Hasse turned to the now generally accepted idea that these masters came from the Flemish - Burgundian culture, received his education at the court of King Rene of Anjou as a miniature painter and briefly worked in Lübeck. Its proximity to the Master of James IV of Scotland, which is thought that he worked in Ghent, may be an indication that center of his life was here.

Also for the woodcuts to Terence edition of John Trechsel that printed this already in 1493 in Lyon, the Master of the Lübeck Bible is considered the author for a long time. In the recent research Master not only illustrations in printed books but also some book paintings are attributed in manuscripts. These are characterized by special, tense, elastic choppiness in the representation of. His characters have strange elongated faces and the landscapes in which they are placed, have a peculiarly shortened perspective.