Master of the Playing Cards

It has long been recognised that the Master's style was closely related to that of paintings from south-western Germany and Switzerland in the period 1430–1450, by artists of whom the best known is Konrad Witz. In addition, the Alpine cyclamen – a flowering plant native to the region – very frequently appears in the engravings. Although the theory proposed by Leo Baer to identify the Master as Witz has not been widely accepted, the Master does appear to have been trained as an artist rather than a goldsmith like many other early engravers. His prints show an engraving technique closely related to drawing, with forms conceived in three dimensions and delicately modeled; other engravers were usually trained either as armourers or as goldsmiths, such as Master E. S. or Israhel van Meckenem, and their works display a different set of stylistic conventions. The Master's shading is mostly done using parallel vertical lines, and cross-hatching is rare. • Illustration — Master of the Playing Cards, A Poet Reading, 1430s, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Apart from comparisons with paintings, the start of his period of activity can only be dated to before 1446 by a dated print by his presumed pupil, referred to as the "Master of 1446". The fact that by then he already had a mature pupil suggests that the Master himself had been active for many years by that date. Prints done by the Master very rarely appear on the market, but on 20 September 2006 Christie's London auctioned a print titled Queen of Flowers for £243,200 (about $450,000). The print is now part of the print collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Illustration — The 9 of Beasts from the playing cards. The central climbing bear also appears in an illuminated copy of the Gutenberg Bible. This is a "multiple-plate card", where each animal is on a separate small copper plate, several of which are reused on other cards. Many of Master's engravings, especially the cards, contain compositional elements that also occur in the miniatures of the Giant Bible of Mainz of 1452–3 and other illuminations made in Mainz between then and 1482, including at least one illuminated copy of the Gutenberg Bible, which is now in the Princeton University library. It has been suggested that he painted elements of these miniatures. It is generally thought that both sets derive from a common manuscript model-book of the sort painters are known to have maintained, though this does not rule out his involvement, or that of his workshop, in the painting. There are similar repetitions in many other manuscripts and other works of art, mostly but not all German. The cards have typical suits for Northern European cards of the period: flowers, birds, deer, beasts of prey, and wild men – so five suits in total. Each symbol (or "pip") on a card is different, so the quantity and difficulty of the engraving is far greater than found in a modern set of cards (and, equally, rapid play must have been very difficult as there are no numbers depicted on the cards). Engraved sets of cards are few; they must have been much more expensive than those made in woodcut, which can be printed in much greater numbers before the matrix wears out. Interestingly and unusually, some of the cards are composed of different little plates, one per pip, which were presumably held together in a frame for printing. Possibly the Master was in Mainz and was influenced by Johannes Gutenberg's movable type. Despite this, the majority of the pips are unique, and although they appear rather jumbled as groups, when looked at individually it is apparent that many are very fine studies of their subjects. Despite the very few impressions surviving, some cards exist in two states, and some in different versions, all catalogued by Max Lehrs.