WITZ, KONRAD. — Painter, born around 1400 and died around 1466 in Basilea or Ginevra.
The first known work by K. W. is an altarpiece (after 1434), of which eight panels remain in the Museum of Basilea, some with pairs of biblical figures, such as Ester and Assuero, Abramo and Melchisedec, Davide and Abisai; two are in Digione (one a figure symbolizing The Church and one S. Agostino), and one in the Deutsches Museum in Berlino (Solomone and the Queen of Saba). Other panels, from a later period, are preserved in Basilea (S. Cristoforo, The Meeting of Gioacchino and Anna, The Archangel Gabriele), in Norimberga (Annunciation), in Strasburgo (SS. Maddalena and Caterina), in addition to the Holy Family in the Museum of Napoli and the Crucifixion in the Museum of Berlino. Even more important, however, are the surviving sections of the altarpiece bearing the signature and the date 1444, painted on commission from the bishop of Ginevra, Francesco de Mies; they are now in the Museum of that city and depict: The Adoration of the Magi, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, The Liberation of s. Pietro, Cardinal Francesco de Mies Recommended to the Madonna and to s. Pietro. K. W. is generally considered the most notable exponent of pictorial realism in the German Quattrocento; yet his oeuvre, rather uneven and at times crudely naïve, with vigorous but not always harmonious coloring, also contains accents of imaginative transcendence. Some of his achievements in landscape and setting are remarkable, as can be seen in The Miraculous Draught of Fishes and in S. Cristoforo, as are certain compact depictions of gleaming armor on imaginary figures.