Master of Frankfurt
Illustration — Master of Frankfurt, Self portrait of the artist with his wife, 1496. Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp. This painting, in its original, dated, frame of 1496 shows a double portrait of the artist and his wife.
Also recorded as Master of Frankfort · Master Of Frankfurt · meister von frankfurt · Meister v. Frankfurt
Master of Frankfurt

painting: Master of Frankfurt · Public domain
- Born
- 1460 · Antwerp.
- Died
- 1533 · Antwerp.
- Nationality
- Burgundian Netherlands · Spanish Netherlands
- Occupation
- painter
- Known for
- Saint Catherine · Saint Barbara · Saint Christopher · Festival of the Archers
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Documentary summary
Illustration — Master of Frankfurt, Self portrait of the artist with his wife, 1496. Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp. This painting, in its original, dated, frame of 1496 shows a double portrait of the artist and his wife.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q204874 · wikipedia · Master of Frankfurt
In this article
Selected works
Selected works
• Illustration — Attributed to the Master of Frankfurt, Virgin and Child Enthroned, ca. 1515–1520, oil on panel, 30 13/16 x 22 3/16 in. (78.3 x 56.3 cm), The Walters Art Museum • Illustration — Master of Frankfurt, Saint Odile and Saint Cecilia, ca. 1503–1506, oil on panel, 113 x 67.9 cm (44 1/2 x 26 3/4 in.), Historical museum, Frankfurt. This painting, rendered in grisaille, forms part of the outer wings of the Altarpiece of St. Anne commissioned for the Dominican Church of Frankfurt circa 1504. • Illustration — Master of Frankfurt, Triptych of the Baptism of Christ, Oil and gold leaf on wood, 169.2 x 213.5 x 5.5 cm, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, MNAC. • Illustration — Attributed to the Master of Frankfurt, Holy Family with Music Making Angels, circa 1515, oil on panel, 156.2 x, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. This is the central panel of a triptych altarpiece. The two side panels depict two virgin martyrs, St Catherine and St Barbara (now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague). • Illustration — Master of Frankfurt, St Catherine, St Barbara, 1510–1520, oil on panel 158.7 x 70.8 cm (each), The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague. These are the left and right panels of a triptych altarpiece. The central panel depicts the Holy Family with Music Making Angels (now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool). • Illustration — Master of Frankfurt, Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine with Saints and Angles, ca. 1500–1510, oil on panel, 27+1/2 x, San Diego Museum of Art. • Illustration — Master of Frankfurt (Maitre de Francfort), Vierge à l'Enfant dans un paysage, ca. 1514, 77 x 46 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris • Illustration — Master of Frankfurt, Festival of the Archers, 1493. Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp. This was painted for Antwerp's Guild of the Ancient Crossbow. • Illustration — Master of Frankfurt, St. Anne Altarpiece, circa 1505, 126 x, Historical museum, Frankfurt. Created ca. 1505 for the Monastery of the Dominican Order in Frankfurt. • Illustration — Master of Frankfurt, The Virgin Enthroned, oil on oak panel, 28 1/2 x 23 1/8 in. (72.4 x 58.7 cm), Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
Origins
Origins
Master of Frankfurt was born on 1 January 1460 in Antwerp. Frankfurt held the nationality of Burgundian Netherlands and Spanish Netherlands.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1460–1533
The full dated record · 3 entries
1460
Master of Frankfurt was born on 1 January 1460.
1515
Master of Frankfurt died on 1 January 1515.
1533
Dies at Antwerp.
Catalogued output
Works documented in more than one form
7 titles are catalogued under more than one form, which is to say the registers hold them both as a work and as a distinct object, score, recording or edition. Where a title is documented in several forms the evidence behind it is correspondingly wider, and the article treats those forms as separate records of the same work rather than as separate works.
Triptych of the Lamentation of Christ
1515 — catalogued as triptych and painting
Adoration of the Magi
1515 — catalogued as triptych and painting
The flight into Egypt
1504 — catalogued as triptych and painting
Epiphany Triptych
1500 — catalogued as triptych and painting
Portrait of Dirck van Heemskerck van Beest & sons with John the Baptist, Madonna and Child with St Anne, and Gertruid van Diemen & daughter with Mary Magdalene
1514 — catalogued as triptych and painting
King Caspar (left); King Balthazar (right)
1515 — catalogued as triptych and painting
Adoration of the Three Kings
1512 — catalogued as triptych and painting
Paintings, drawings and prints, 1424–1524
Catalogued output
Paintings, drawings and prints, 1424–1524
These are objects catalogued as visual works, each held or recorded by the institution named against it. 60 works carry dates between 1424 and 1524. The run opens with Saint Catherine and closes with Saints Encratia of Saragosso (left) and James the Great (right). The 1500s are the densest part of the run, with 29 titles, and that concentration is a fact about what the registers have catalogued rather than a judgement on the work itself. They belong to a run of 66 titles in all, from 1424 to 1600. A selection is set out below and the complete run may be opened beneath it.
Portrait of the artist and his wife
1496
Saint Catherine
1424
Saint Barbara
1424
Allegory of Love
1450
The Virgin Enthroned
1490
Festival of the Archers
1493
Saint Christopher
1495
The Virgin and Child Between Two Angels
1495
The Lamentation
1495
Eve offers the fruit to Adam (Genesis 3:6)
1495
Virgin and child
1495
The Painter and his Wife
1496
Roch with a donatrix
1497
The complete catalogue · 55
Saint Catherine
1424
Saint Barbara
1424
Allegory of Love
1450
The Virgin Enthroned
1490
Festival of the Archers
1493
Saint Christopher
1495
The Virgin and Child Between Two Angels
1495
The Lamentation
1495
Eve offers the fruit to Adam (Genesis 3:6)
1495
Virgin and child
1495
The Painter and his Wife
1496
Portrait of the artist and his wife
1496
Roch with a donatrix
1497
The Nativity
1500
The Circumcision
1500
Madonna and Child crowned by two angels
1500
Saint Andrew and a donor
1500
Saint Hedwig of Silesia
1500
Anna Selbdritt with saint Catharine and Barbara
1500
Saint Catherine and Saint Barbara with Donors (triptych, left & right panels)
1500
Portrait of a man with a beret
1500
Portrait of a man
1500
Doors of a polyptych with Saint Andrew and donor left, Saint Hedwig right
1500
Portrait of a man, traditionally identified as the Emperor Ferdinand I, half-lenght, in a fur-lined coat, a letter in his right hand
1500
Nativity
1500
St Margret with Donors (Greda Brun and her daughters Margarethe, Katherine and Anna)
1502
A Body in a Grave Niche
1502
The Crucifixion of Christ
1502
St Nicholas with Donors (Claus Humbracht and his sons Claus, Jakob and Johann)
1502
The Holy Kinship
1504
The birth of Mary (interior left wing); Mary on her deathbed (interior right wing)
1504
The massacre of the innocents
1504
The birth of Mary (interior left wing), the Holy Kinship (centre panel), Mary on her deathbed (interior right wing); Saints Agnes and Lucia, Martin of Tours and Valentine (exterior left wing), Saints
1504
Madonna and Child with Saints and a Donor
1505
Holy Family with Music-Making Angels
1505
Saint Nicholas with Claus Humbracht and his sons Claus, Jakob and Johann (interior left wing), the Crucifixion (centre panel), Saint Margaret of Antioch with Greda Brun and her daughters Margarethe
1506
Odilia and St
Cecilia
1506
Roch
1508
The Holy Family
1508
Altarpiece with St
Christopher and an Annunciation
1508
Triptych of the Baptism of Christ
1510
Portrait of emperor Maximillian I
1510
Maria met kind
1510
The Adoration of the Magi
1512
Francis of Assisi
1512
Portrait of keizer Maximiliaan I (1459-1519)
1512
Saint Anne with the Virgin and the Christ Child
1513
Portrait of Franz von Taxis
1514
Saint Catherine (interior left wing), The Holy Family with angels playing music (center panel), Saint Barbara (interior right wing)
1515
The Holy Family with angels playing music
1515
Saint Catherine of Alexandria
1515
Virgin and Child Enthroned
1517
Saints Encratia of Saragosso (left) and James the Great (right)
1524
Paintings, drawings and prints, 1549–1600
Catalogued output
Paintings, drawings and prints, 1549–1600
2 works carry dates between 1549 and 1600.
The run opens with The Bearing of the Cross and closes with Madonna on the bench
The Bearing of the Cross
1549
Madonna on the bench
1600
Paintings, drawings and prints without a settled date
Catalogued output
Paintings, drawings and prints without a settled date
4 further works are catalogued under Frankfurt's name without a date the collections agree on, which is why they are set apart from the dated run rather than placed in it.
Madonna and Child and Three Female Saints
St Margret with Donors
Madonna and Child, with Two Saints. Angel and the black holy king
Museum collections
Museum collections
The painter has included life-sized trompe-l'œil flies—seemingly on the painting's surface—an allusion to the classical artistic deceptions of Zeuxis and Parrhasius. The Master of Frankfurt (c. 1533) was a Flemish Renaissance painter active in Antwerp between about 1480 and 1520. Although he probably never visited Frankfurt am Main, his name derives from two paintings commissioned from patrons in that city, the Holy Kinship (c. 1503) in the Frankfurt Historical Museum and a Crucifixion in the Städel museum. He is one of many anonymous artists identifiable by their painting style but not by name. The Master of Frankfurt is, however, often thought to be a Hendrik van Wueluwe, an artist famous in Antwerp around the same time as the anonymous painter but otherwise unconnected to any paintings. • Illustration — Master of Frankfurt (Maestro de Francfort), Sagrada Familia con ángel músico, Santa Catalina de Alejandría, Santa Bárbara, 1510–1520, Museo del Prado, Madrid. His dated Self portrait of the artist with his wife in its original frame (1496; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp) reveals that the artist was 36 years old at the time it was made, as well as a member of Antwerp's Guild of St. If he is the same artist as Van Wueluwe, then he was also dean of the guild six times. Attributed paintings include his self-portrait, the Festival of the Archers (1493; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp), and the two paintings in Frankfurt. The Master of Frankfurt is also known for painting numerous copies after earlier Netherlandish painters such as Rogier van der Weyden and Hugo van der Goes for the open market and for developing, around 1500 in Antwerp, a new artistic style alongside his more famous contemporary Quentin Metsys.
Works named in the authority record are Saint Catherine, Saint Barbara, Saint Christopher and Festival of the Archers. Work by Master of Frankfurt is recorded in the collections of Museo del Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (MSK) and Mauritshuis.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Master of Frankfurt, The Adoration of the Christ Child, ca. 1496–1502 • Musée du Louvre, Paris; Master of Frankfurt, Vierge à l'Enfant dans un paysage, ca. 1514 • Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid; Maestro of Frankfurt, La Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family), ca. 1508 • Museo National de Prado, Madrid; Maestro de Francfort, Sagrada Familia con ángel músico, Santa Catalina de Alejandría, Santa Bárbara, ca. 1510–1520 (Video: Restoration of the Master of Frankfurt triptych, by María Antonia López Asiaín) • Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; Master of Frankfurt, The Virgin Enthroned •, Vienna, Austria; Master of Frankfurt, Triptych, Adoration of the Magi, the Nativity (left) and the Circumcision (right), c. 1512 • Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague; Meester van Frankfurt, Saint Christopher, ca. 1500, 1510–1520, and, 1510–1520 • National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Master of Frankfurt, Saint Anne with the Virgin and the Christ Child, ca. 1511–15 • Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), Barcelona; Mestre de Frankfurt, Triptych of the Baptism of Christ, 1500–1520 • National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool, UK; Master of Frankfurt, The Holy Family with Music Making Angels, 1510–1520 • Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida; Master of Frankfurt, The Lamentation • San Diego Museum of Art, California; Master of Frankfurt, Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine with Saints and Angles, ca. 1500–1510 • The Walters Art Museum, Maryland; Master of Frankfurt, Virgin and Child Enthroned, ca. 1515–1520 •; Master of Frankfurt, Madonna and Child crowned by two angels, ca. 1490s • Historical Museum (Historisches Museum), Frankfurt, Meister von Frankfurt, St. Anne Altarpiece, ca 1505, Two Saints: St. Odilia and St. Cecilia, ca. 1505 • The McNay Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Master of Frankfurt, St. Barbara and St. Catherine •, Brisbane, Australia; Master of Frankfurt, Virgin and Child with Saint James the Pilgrim, Saint Catherine and the Donor with Saint Peter, ca. 1496
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Master of Frankfurt”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
institutional register
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q204874: Master of Frankfurt
General reference · Wikimedia Foundation
Authority records
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Stephen H. Goddard, "Master of Frankfurt," Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press [accessed 9 April 2008]
- 2.Kate Challis, "Master of Frankfurt," The Oxford Companion to Western Art, ed. Hugh Brigstocke, Oxford University Press, 2001 (Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, 2005). [accessed 9 April 2008]
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessinstitutional register
Wikidata, structured authority record Q204874: Master of FrankfurtWikimedia Foundation
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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