Master M S

Hungarian painter from a mining town. Only six of his pictures are known which used to decorate the high altar of the Roman Catholic church in Selmecbánya. The initials and the date (1506) became visible after they were restored at the beginning of the 20th century. Little is known about the painter's person, a major representative of medieval Hungarian art. German art historians generally identify him with J. Brieu, a painter from Augsburg, disregarding the results of research done by Hungarian experts. The anonymous master is very likely to have been a painter called Sebestyén, whose name is mentioned in the charter of Selmecbánya in 1507. Research carried out so far appears to prove that he must have been identical with M.S. Master. His art combining dramatic depth and colourful decorative formation is akin to that of Dürer and mostly Grünewald.

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