WOLGEMUT, MICHAEL. - Painter and sculptor of Nuremberg, b. in 1434, d. in 1519, also known for having been the teacher of Albrecht Dürer, who entered his workshop at the age of fifteen.
He was a collaborator of Hans Pleydenwurff, whose widow, Barbara, he married in 1472 and whose workshop he inherited; together with Hans's son, Wilhelm, in 1491 he undertook the commission to illustrate the Weltchronik (Latin ed. of 1493) of Hartmann Schedel, whose Schatzbehalter, which appeared in 1491, presents illustrations likewise attributable to W.; drawings and sketches for woodcuts were also supplied for the illustration of the Archetypus triumphantis Romae, which was not subsequently printed. In his engravings, which brought him wide fame throughout Germany, W. displays the same qualities as in his painting; in the altarpieces of St. Mary at Zwickau (1476-79) and of Straubing (formerly on the high altar of the Augustinian church of Nuremberg) his use of Netherlandish motifs (Rogier van der Weyden, Memling) is typical of him, motifs already introduced into Nuremberg painting by Pleydenwurff and rendered with a violent characterization of the figures. Not all the parts of the Zwickau altarpiece and of the Straubing altar (datable to the eighth decade of the 15th century) are by his hand, just as the presence of two assistants can be recognized in the altarpiece of the Kreuzkirche of Nuremberg (1486), to be identified with the so-called Peringsdörfer Altar: a work of particular importance for the Nuremberg school and for the beginnings of Dürer, who in that year entered W.'s workshop. Of 1506-1508 is the altarpiece of the parish church of Schwabach; among the attributed works there should still be mentioned the Memminger Altar in St. Lawrence of Nuremberg and the two shutters of the Martin Altar in St. James of the same city.
W. was also a strong portraitist and, in this field, the portrait of Hans Perchemeister may be considered his masterpiece.
Bibliography3 works
Maria Vittoria Brugnoli