Martin Schongauer (1450-1491)

Hans Burgkmair the Elder, who would become one of Augsburg's leading Renaissance painters, created this portrait of the engraver Martin Schongauer around 1483, early in his career. Schongauer, based in Colmar, was the most celebrated printmaker in Europe before Dürer. This posthumous or commemorative portrait honors Schongauer's enormous influence on German art. This work belongs to the Early Renaissance, the transformative period in European art when painters first applied mathematical perspective, naturalistic figure modeling, and archaeological interest in antiquity to the inherited traditions of medieval devotional painting.

Oil on panel with careful attention to the engraver's features. Burgkmair's early work shows the influence of his training under his father Thoman Burgkmair, before his Italian travels transformed his style.