The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (302 page)

Master of the Brunswick Monogram
(active
c.
1520–40).

Netherlandish painter, named after a picture in the Herzog-Anton-Ulrich Museum in Brunswick of
The Parable of the Great Supper
(Luke 14). There is no agreement how the monogram should be read. A dozen or so small pictures have been attributed to the same hand; about half depict religious subjects in the open air, and most of the others scenes in brothels. The quality of the pictures is uniformly high. The artist's observation of nature, his fine drawing, and ability to integrate figures into a landscape make him an important forerunner of Pieter
Bruegel
the Elder. Attempts have been made to identify him with various painters, including Jan Sanders van
Hemessen
.

 
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Master of the Housebook
(late 15th cent.).

German (or according to some authorities Netherlandish) engraver, so called from a number of drawings contained in a kind of commonplace book in Castle Wolfegg in Germany. He used to be called the Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet, since the largest collection of his engravings is in the Print Room of the Rijksmuseum. His
line engravings
often represent very worldly subjects and his use of
drypoint
gives them a curiously sketchy and lively character.
Dürer
must have studied them fairly closely, as their influence can be traced in several of his early drawings. A few paintings have also been attributed to this master.

 
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(active
c.
1460–90).
German painter, named after a series of eight panels illustrating the Life of the Virgin, of which the
Presentation in the Temple
is in the National Gallery, London, and the remainder in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. He was one of the outstanding Cologne painters of his time, and his affinities with Dirk
Bouts
and Rogier van der
Weyden
suggest that he trained in the Netherlands. None of the pictures attributed to him is dated, but a
Crucifixion
in the hospital church at Cues on the Moselle, generally accepted as his work, is probably from 1465.

 
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Master of the Playing-Cards
(mid 15th cent.).

German engraver, named after a set of playing-cards depicting human figures, animals, flowers, etc., now divided between the Kupferstichkabinett in Dresden and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. They have been dated as early as the 1430s and he was one of the first distinct artistic personalities in the history of engraving. More than a hundred prints have been attributed to him, his style being characterized by closely observed naturalistic detail and the use of short, densely packed parallel strokes to create shading.

 
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Master of the St Francis Cycle
.

A name for the unidentified painter of the famous cycle of frescos on the nave walls of the Upper Church of S. Francesco in Assisi, depicting the life of St Francis and probably dating from the 1290s, although some critics put them as late as the 1330s. This cycle was praised by
Vasari
as one of the principal works of
Giotto
and figures as such in many histories of art, but many scholars nowadays challenge this assertion, feeling that Giotto's undoubted works in Padua differ so thoroughly from those of Assisi in both sentiment and formal organization that it is hard to imagine that he should have painted both. The last three scenes differ in style from the rest and have been attributed to the
Master of St Cecilia
.

 
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Master of the T
ebo
Altarpiece
or of Wittingau
.