WITZ, KONRAD. - Painter, b. around 1400 and d. around 1466 at Basel or Geneva.
The first known work of K. W. is an altarpiece (after 1434) of which eight panels remain in the Basel Museum, some with pairs of biblical figures, such as Esther and Ahasuerus, Abraham and Melchizedek, David and Abishai; two in Dijon (a figure symbolizing The Church and a St. Augustine), and one in the Deutsches Museum in Berlin (Solomon and the Queen of Sheba). Other panels, of later date, are preserved in Basel (St. Christopher, The Meeting of Joachim and Anne, The Archangel Gabriel), in Nuremberg (Annunciation), in Strasbourg (Sts. Mary Magdalene and Catherine), besides the Holy Family of the Naples Museum and the Crucifixion of the Berlin Museum. But even more important are the remains of the altarpiece with the signature and the date 1444, painted on commission from the bishop of Geneva, François 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 St. Peter, Cardinal François de Mies recommended to the Madonna and to St. Peter. K. W. is commonly regarded as the most remarkable exponent of pictorial realism in the German Quattrocento; but there is no lack in his output, somewhat uneven and at times crudely naive and of vigorous but not always harmonious coloring, of accents of fanciful transcendence. Certain of his achievements of a landscape and environmental character appear admirable, as can be seen in the Miraculous Draught of Fishes and in the St. Christopher, and certain compact depictions of gleaming armor on invented figures.