Michel Haider (formerly known as the Master of the Karlsruhe Hohenlandenberg Altarpiece) and Workshop

(Constance active 1479–1516)
Four panels of an altarpiece depicting:
Saint John the Baptist;
Saint George;
Saint Benedict;
Saint John with Donor,
oil on panel, gold ground, 94 x 24.5 cm, 94 x 24.5 cm, 94 x 25.5 cm, 94 x 24.5 cm, framed, a set of four (4)
Provenance:
probably executed for the Monastery of Reichenau, commissioned by its abbot Johannes Pfuser von Nordstetten (officiate 1464–1492);
art market, Belgium, 1949;
Private collection, Belgium

Literature:
A. Stange, Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, vol. VIII, Munich & Berlin 1957, p. 132 (as Workshop of Ivo Strigel);
A. Stange, Die deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. Kritisches Verzeichnis, vol. II, Munich 1970, p. 197, no. 871 (as Workshop of Ivo Strigel);
B. Konrad, Alfred Stange: Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. Band II. Mit Abbildungen und Ergänzungen, DVD, Radolfzell, 2009, no. NW 256_7 (as Michel Haider, formerly known as the Master of the Karlsruher Hohenlandenberg Altarpiece, and workshop)

We are grateful to Bernd Konrad for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs and for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

The present set of four panels is a particularly fine example of late Gothic painting in Southern Germany, where the transition to the early Renaissance is subtly visible. The four works are almost entirely filled with the elongated figures of saints in richly coloured robes, rising against the gold ground. As there are no signs of panel cuts, it is possible that the four were individually framed within the altar construction. The exact appearance of the rest of the altar remains uncertain; however, it is suggested that an image of the Virgin may have been included between the four saints. The works are assumed to have been painted for the Abbey of Reichenau, a monastery founded in 724 on the island of Reichenau in Lake Constance. This is confirmed by the presence of the abbey’s donor and abbot at the bottom of the panel depicting Saint John, Johannes Pfuser von Nordstetten (1429–1491), who is identified by his distinctive emblem, a red bull.

The present paintings relate stylistically to several works believed to have been created by the Master of the Karlsruhe Hohenlandenberg Altarpiece. The art historian Alfred Stange illustrates two panels in which the figures appear to relate to the present four panels (op. cit. Stange, 1957, vol. VII, p. 47, figs, 101 and 102). In addition, further relevant comparisons can be made to the two wings of an altarpiece which are now conserved in the Augustiner Museum in Freiburg im Breisgau, namely The Circumcision (inv. no. M 67/028) and Christ before Pilate (inv. no. M 65/008). Particularly comparable is the depiction of the robes, as well as the slightly bulging eyes and the skin tones used for the faces. Moreover, the gold ground in the Freiburg works bears similar floral motifs to those found in the present works. It is also noteworthy that the position of Saint John the Baptist’s index finger in the present panel and that of the figure of Pontius Pilate in the Freiburg panel appear to correspond.

The moniker ‘Master of the Karlsruhe Hohenlandenberg Altarpiece’ refers to a triptych currently in the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe (inv. no. 48 a) made for the Bishop of Constance, Hugo von Hohenlandenberg (1460–1532). The identification of this anonymous master has occupied art historians for some time, and several names have been proposed. For a long time, the name Matthäus Gutrecht the Elder, who died in Constance in 1505, seemed to be the most plausible. Recently Bernd Konrad suggested identifying the anonymous master as Michel Haider who was active in Constance between 1479–1516.