About the Artist

Martin Schongauer (c. 1450 Colmar-1491 Colmar?) was the son of the goldsmith Caspar Schongauer. After a brief stint as a student of theology at the University of Leipzig in 1465/66, he was probably trained in the atelier of the Colmar city painter Caspar Isenmann. In the journeyman years that followed, Schongauer seems to have traveled to Cologne, to the the Netherlands, to Beaune in Burgundy, and to the northwest of Spain. He again settled in Colmar in 1471. In 1486 he obtained citizen status in Breisach near Colmar in order to paint the frescoes for the Last judgement in its cathedral. Schongauer had a decisive influence on late Gothic painting in Germany through his numerous excellent copper engravings and drawings, as well as through his altarpices, of which unfortunately only very few have been preserved. Other works by the artist include The Virgin of the Rose Bower, 1473, Munister Sankt Martin, Colmar; Side Panels from an Altar to the Virgin, c. 1475, Musee d'Unterlinden, Colmar; and Holy Family, Kunsthistorishes Museum, Vienna.