MASTER of the Votive Panel of Sankt Lambrecht

Austrian painter. He is named after an International Gothic style panel formerly in the abbey of St Lambrecht, Styria (c. 1425-30; Graz, Alte Galerie), in which Abbot Heinrich Moyker (1419-55), the donor, kneels before the Virgin of Mercy, with St Hemma of Gurk (or St Hedwig), in a landscape setting showing the Hungarians’ victory over the Turks. Other works have been ascribed to this artist, some in contention with attributions to the Master of the Linz Crucifixion (Linz, Oberösterreich. Landesmuseum), to Hans von Judenburg and to Hans von Tübingen (active Wiener Neustadt, c. 1433-62). Tübingen’s activity seems too late to be identified with the Master of St Lambrecht’s group of paintings, normally dated c. 1410-40. Among the panels that have been attributed to the Master and his workshop are the Trinity with Christ Crucified (‘Throne of Mercy’) or Gnadenstuhl Trinity, c. 1410-20; London, National Gallery) and the Trinity Pietà (c. 1430; Vienna, Museum mittelalterlicher österreichischer Kunst). A stained-glass window (c. 1430-40; St Lambrecht, St Peter), with Old Testament parallels to the life of Christ, has also been attributed to him.

This group of works, some perhaps by closely related members of a workshop, show some features of the soft style of the Bohemian International Gothic, but other aspects are reminiscent of the Cologne and Westphalian schools. They are closely connected to Viennese paintings of the International Gothic. In addition, the elegance and courtly costume of the figures, their refined poses and gestures and the turreted, castellated architectural forms have parallels with contemporary French and Burgundian painting and the work of Simone Martini.