Michael Wolgemut

In his atelier large altar-pieces and other sacred paintings were executed, and also elaborate carved painted wood retables, consisting of crowded subjects in high relief, richly decorated with gold and colour. Wolgemut was a leader among the artists reviving the standards of German woodcut at this time. The production of woodcuts was a large part of the work of the workshop, the blocks being cut from Wolgemut's designs. They were mostly made to supply the many publishers in Nuremberg with book illustrations, with the most attractive also being sold separately. Many are remarkable for their vigour and clever adaptation to the special necessities of the technique of woodcut. Nonetheless, they were very often hand-coloured before or after sale. His pupil Dürer was to build on and to so surpass his achievement that it is often overlooked. Wolgemut's paintings show Flemish influence, and he may have traveled within Flanders (modern Belgium and surrounding areas).

• Name — Michael Wolgemut • Born — 1434 • Birthplace — Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire • Died — 30 November 1519 • Resting Place — Nuremberg • Occupation — Painter and printmaker. • Spouse — Hans Pleydenwurff's widow • Children — Wilhelm Pleydenwurff

• Illustration — Portrait of Ursula Tucher, 1478 Wolgemut trained with his father Valentin Wolgemut (who died in 1469 or 1470) and is thought to have been an assistant to Hans Pleydenwurff in Nuremberg. He worked with Gabriel Malesskircher in Munich early in 1471, leaving the city after unsuccessfully suing Malesskircher's daughter for breach of contract, claiming she had broken off their engagement. He then returned to his late father's workshop in Nuremberg, which his mother had maintained since Valentin's death. In 1472 he married Pleydenwurff's widow and took over his workshop; her son Wilhelm Pleydenwurff worked as an assistant, and from 1491 a partner, to Wolgemut. Some consider Wilhelm a finer artist than Wolgemut, however he died in January 1494, when he was probably still in his thirties. Wilhelm's oeuvre remains unclear, though works in various media have been attributed to him.

• Illustration — Michael Wolgemut, Danse Macabre, woodcut of the Nuremberg chronicles (f 264r), 1493 Two large and copiously illustrated books have woodcuts supplied by Wolgemut and his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurff; both were printed and published by Germany's largest publisher, the Nuremberger Anton Koberger, who was also Dürer's godfather. The first is the Schatzbehalter der wahren Reichthumer des Heils (1491); the other is the Historia mundi, by Schedel (1493), usually known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, which is highly valued, not for the text, but for its remarkable collection of 1,809 spirited illustrations. Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff were first commissioned to provide the illustrations in 1487 and 1488, and a further contract of 29 December 1491 commissioned manuscript layouts of the text and illustrations. A further contact of 1492 stipulated that Koberger should provide a locked room for the blocks to be kept safely. A drawing by Wolgemut for the elaborate frontispiece, dated 1490, is in the British Museum. As with other books of the period, many of the woodcuts, showing towns, battles or kings were used more than once in the book, with the text labels merely changed. The book is large, with a double-page woodcut measuring about 342x500mm.

The following is established of the heading itself. It is also recorded that michael Wolgemut is recorded as Germany.