Journal of Art Historiography Number 22 June 2020
Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia: the
Master of the Years 1486–1487, the Master of the
Gießmannsdorf Polyptych and Wilhelm Kalteysen
von Oche
Agnieszka Patała
On 30 October 1810, the dissolution of almost all monasteriesand, by consequence,
the secularisation of church property in the Kingdom of Prussia,which at that time
included Silesia, was imposed by virtue of the edict ofFrederick William III (Edikt
zur Aufhebung der geistlichen Stifte und Klöster).1 As a resultof this edict, and under
the watchful supervision of Johann Gustav Gottlieb Büsching2 asrepresentative of
the Central Secularisation Commission (Königlicher PreussischerCommisarius zur
Übernahme der Bibliotheken, Archive und Kunstsachen in denaufgehobenen Klöstern
Schlesiens), valuable collections of books, documents and artbegan arriving in
Breslau (today Wrocław), including numerous examples of SilesianGothic sculpture
and painting.3 Initially, these artworks were stored in theformer monastery of the
Canons Regular on Sand Island, which in 1815 became the home ofthe Royal
Museum of Art and Antiquities (Königliches Museum für Kunst undAlterthümer).4
Thereafter, objects would be distributed among other newlyestablished museums
in Breslau. The edict by Frederick William III surely led to thedestruction and
devastation of countless valuable Silesian artworks andmonuments; but on the
other hand, it resulted in Breslau becoming the centre forresearch on the art of this
region.5 The year 1810 can thus be considered the starting pointfor methodical 1 The edict was proclaimed in Silesia in November1810, see: Marek Derwich, ‘The
dissolution edict of the Prussian king Frederick William III of30 October 1810: edition and
translation’, in: Marek Derwich, ed., Kasaty klasztorów naobszarze dawnej Rzeczypospolitej
Obojga Narodów i na Śląsku na tle procesów sekularyzacyjnych wEuropie = Dissolutiones
monasteriorum in Re Publica Utriusque Nationis et Silesiasitorum ad processus Europaeae
saecularisationis relata, Vol. 2: Kasaty na Śląsku Pruskim i naziemiach zaboru pruskiego =
Dissolutiones in Silesia Borussica ac terris a Borussisoccupatis actae, Wrocław: Wrocławskie
Towarzystwo Miłośników Historii, 2014, 22. 2 Marek Hałub, JohannGustav Büsching 1783-1829. Ein Beitrag zur Begründung derschlesischen
Kulturgeschichte, Wrocław: Wydawnictwo UniwersytetuWrocławskiego, 1997. 3 Hans Seger, ‘Geschichte des ehemaligenMuseums schlesischer Altertümer’, Schlesiens
Vorzeit in Bild undSchrift. Zeitschrift des Vereins für dasMuseum Schlesischer Altertümer, Neue
Folge, 1, 1900, 1-24. 4 Idis Brigit Hartmann, ‘Die BreslauerMuseen 1810-1945’, Berichte und Forschungen, 5, 1997,
103; Zofia Bandurska, ‘Królewskie Muzeum Sztuki iStarożytności’, in: Piotr Łukaszewicz
(ed.), Muzea sztuki w dawnym Wrocławiu, Wrocław: Muzeum Narodowewe Wrocławiu, 1998,
11-24. 5 Hans Tintelnot, ‘Kunstforschung in Breslau’,Zeitschrift für Ostforschung, 2, 1953 (Festschrift
für Dagobert Frey zum 70. Geburtstag), 491-506.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
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scholarly interest in Silesian artistic production, includinglocal Late Gothic
sculpture and painting, which will be the focus of thispaper.
Throughout the nineteenth century and into the beginning of thetwentieth
century, research on Silesian Gothic art was conducted along twolines. On one
hand, it dealt with cataloguing and expanding museum collectionsin Wrocław
(formerly Breslau), along with documenting numerous objectsstill located in
Silesian churches and private residences.6 Art historians thenfocused on artistic
values of the collected works, their iconography and state ofpreservation, with far
less attention given to the genesis of their formal andstylistic features and to the
original structure of preserved elements. On the other hand,very extensive and
thorough research was conducted in archives, which establishedthe names of more
than 150 artists active in Silesia between 1340 and 1520.7Although most were
referred to as Maler – a catch-all term that often precludedtheir actual fields of
expertise8 – in some cases the abundance of archival resourcesfacilitated creating
extended professional profiles for particular craftsmen coveringtheir origin, career
development, number and identity of wives and apprentices,precise workshop
location and other details concerning their public and sociallife. Paradoxically
however, until the publication in 2004 of newly discoveredcontracts from Neisse
(today Nysa),9 it had remained impossible to definitively linkany preserved painted
or sculpted artwork with any of these known artists’ names.
6 Hermann Luchs, Romanische und gotische Stilproben aus Breslauund Trebnitz: eine kurze
Anleitung zur Kenntnis der bildenden Künste des Mittelalters,zunächst Schlesiens, Breslau:
Eduard Trewendt, 1859; Hermann Luchs, Die Denkmäler der St.Elisabeth-Kirche zu Breslau,
Breslau: Ferdinand Hirt, 1860; Catalog der Sammlungen vonMeisterwerken der Industrie und
Kunst des Instituts Minutoli zu Liegnitz, vol. 2: Sammlungen vonWerken der Kunst, Skulptur und
Malerei und Nachträge, Berlin 1873; Eugen Kalesse, Führer durchdie Sammlungen des Museums
Schlesischer Altertümer, Breslau: Nischkowsky, 1883; Hanslu*tsch, Verzeichnis der
Kunstdenkmäler der Provinz Schlesien, 5 vols., Breslau: Korn,1886–1903. 7 Hermann Luchs, ‘Bildende Künstler in Schlesien nachNamen und Monogrammen’,
Zeitschrift des Verein für Geschichte und Alterthum Schlesiens,5: 1, 1863, 1–56; Alwin Schultz,
Urkundliche Geschichte der Breslauer Maler-Innung in den Jahren1345 bis 1523, Breslau: J. Kern,
1866; Alwin Schultz, ‘Die Breslauer Maler des 16. Jahrhunderts’,Zeitschrift des Vereins für
Geschichte und Altertums Schlesiens, 8, 1867, 352–402; EwaldWernicke, ‘Schweidnitzer Maler
von 1377 an’, Schlesiens Vorzeit in Bild und Schrift, 2: 12,1875, 263-268; Ewald Wernicke,
‘Urkundliche Beiträge zur Künstlergeschichte Schlesiens’,Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen
Vorzeit, Neue Folge, 22: 4, 1876, 108–112; 22: 5, 1876, 145–149;Ewald Wernicke, ‘Urkundliche
Beiträge zur Künstlergeschichte Schlesiens, II. Görlitz, 1.Maler und Bildschnitzer’, Anzeiger für
Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit, Neue Folge, 23: 5, 1876, 137–144;23: 6, 1876, 168–170; Ewald
Wernicke, ‘Urkundliche Beiträge zur KünstlergeschichteSchlesiens, III. Liegnitz’, Anzeiger
für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit, Neue Folge, 24, 1877, 293–300;Ewald Wernicke, ‘Bildende
Künstler des Mittelalters in Liegnitz’, Schlesiens Vorzeit inBild und Schrift, 3, 1878, 251–267. 8 Jan von Bonsdorff,Kunstproduktion und Kunstverbreitung im Ostseeraum desSpätmittelalters,
Helsinki: Suomen muinaismuistoyhdistys, 1993, 29. 9 Adam S.Labuda, ‘Das Zeugnis der Künstlerischen Form – das Zeugnis derSchriftquellen.
Auf den Spuren der Schöpfer des Breslauer St.-Barbara-Altars unddes ehemaligen
Hochaltars der Jakobskirche in Neisse’, in: Jiří Fajt, MarkusHörsch, eds., Vom Weichen über
den Schönen Stil zur Ars Nova. Neue Beiträge zur europäischenKunst zwischen 1350 und 1470,
Wien, Köln, Weimar: Böhlau, 2018 (Studia JagiellonicaLipsiensia, Bd. 19), 267–298.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
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Figure 1 Exhibition of the Medieval Silesian Art, Four DomesPavilion in Breslau, 1926. Instytut Sztuki Państwowej
Akademii Nauk w Warszawie.
This impasse, omnipresent in research on the art and the guildartists in
medieval European towns, was reflected in the exhibition ofmedieval Silesian art
(Schlesische Malerei und Plastik des Mittelalters) organised in1926 by Heinz Braune
and Erich Wiese in Breslau (fig. 1). This enormous and ratherbackbreaking
undertaking, which would be impossible to repeat in our day, wascomplemented
by an extensive catalogue, published in 1929, concluding morethan three years of
research, preservation work and fieldwork.10 The cataloguesummarised the current
state of knowledge of Silesian Gothic art, including thedescription of all exhibits,
arranged on a chronological basis, and included the new taxonomyof local artistic
production. In order to handle and classify the presentedobjects, Braune and Wiese,
along with accepting some soubriquets already in use,11 broughtseveral anonymous
masters into further focus by providing them names taken fromthe most significant
artwork attributed to them (in the curators’ opinion). Theiroeuvres were then
expanded with additional stylistically related works, whichestablished, in
consequence, the model of classification of Silesian late Gothicart that remains in
use today.
This paper aims to present consequences, based on two selectedexamples, of
the long-term application and development of the model createdin 1926 (and then
perpetuated in the catalogue from 1929), including itsconstruction of unrealistically
10 Heinz Braune, Erich Wiese, Schlesische Malerei und Plastikdes Mittelalter. Kritischer Katalog
der Ausstellung in Breslau 1926, Leipzig: Alfred Kröner Verlag,1929. 11 Such as Master of St. Barbara Altarpiece (Meister desBarbara-Altars) or Master of the
Altarpiece of canon Helentreuter (Meister desHelentreuter-Altars).
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
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large and diverse oeuvres for particular anonymous artists asthe result of
inconsistent formal, stylistic and geographical criteria ofattribution, along with
upholding a myth of talented, diversely-skilled individuals ableto execute highly
complex artworks, in place of comprehensive research on thedivision of labour in
Silesian workshops. The greater probability will be presentedhere that the artists
were in fact working collaboratively and collectively, and, incertain cases that will
be analysed, as identifiable individuals. Another aim here is toanalyse
consequences of the archival discovery that permitted scholarsto identify the so-
called Master of the St. Barbara Altarpiece with WilhelmKalteysen von Oche. As it
has turned out, uncovering the name of a previously anonymousartist may
generate many additional questions rather than providelong-anticipated answers.
Among several circ*mstances that determined the scope, shape andimpact
of the medieval Silesian art exhibition in Breslau in 1926, atleast two factors merit
consideration. Firstly, the undertaking in question wasorganised under the aegis of
the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Breslau (Schlesisches Museumfür bildende Künste)
– one of the most important cultural institutions in Silesia,which gradually gained
recognition outside the region and internationally under theadministration of
Heinz Braune (1919–1928) and Erich Wiese (1929–1933), theexhibition curators.12
Whether the prestige of the institution influenced the scale ofand positive publicity
about the exhibition or vice versa remains difficult todetermine. Nevertheless,
enthusiastic reviews were published, including those in theZeitschrift für bildende
Kunst, Der Cicerone and The Burlington Magazine,13 andcontributed to the
acquaintance of European scholars with numerous examples ofSilesian Gothic art
and to the acknowledgement of research results achieved in largepart by Erich
Wiese.
Secondly, in the 1920s and 1930s, the artistic output ofmedieval and early
modern workshops in the eastern provinces of German lands,including Silesia, was
perceived as provincial and was explored, therefore, mostly byresearchers at local
universities, in the vein of regionally-oriented‘Kunstwissenschaft‘.14 In order to
circumvent disparities in reception that prevailed at the timesome efforts were
made to provide connections linking ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ art.These tendencies
were reflected both in the exhibition, which portrayed thediversity and
sumptuousness of local artistic production (fig. 2), and in theexhibition catalogue,
which came out just before Ostforschung currents could no longerbe ignored in
broader academic and museum circles.15
12 Tintelnot, Kunstforschung in Breslau, 497. 13 Ernst Kloss,‘Schlesische Kunst des Mittelalters auf der AusstellungBreslau-Scheitnig‘, Der
Cicerone. Halbmonatsschrift für Künstler, Kunstfreunde undSammler, 18: 18, 1926, 589-605; Ernst
Buchner, ’Schlesische Malerei und Plastik des Mittelalters.Ausstellung in Breslau (August-
October 1926)’, Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, 60: 8,1926-1927, 184-193; William George
Constable, ‘Medieval Silesian Art’, The Burlington Magazine forConnoisseurs, 55, 1929, 147. 14 Beate Störtkuhl, ‘Paradigmen undMethoden der kunstgeschichtlichen „Ostforschung” –
der „Fall” Dagobert Frey’, in: Robert Born, Alena Janatková,Adam S. Labuda, eds., Die
Kunsthistoriographien in Ostmitteleuropa und der nationaleDiskurs, Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag
2004, (Humboldt-Schriften zur Kunst- und Bildgeschichte I), 159.15 Störtkuhl, ‘Paradigmen und Methoden’, 160.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
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Figure 2 Exhibition of the Medieval Silesian Art, Four DomesPavilion in Breslau, 1926. Instytut Sztuki Państwowej
Akademii Nauk w Warszawie.
Newly-labelled anonymous Silesian masters were fashioned outof
particularly ductile materials, allowing researchers who becametheir ‘fathers’ – in
most cases, Erich Wiese – to shape these new historical figures,or bring attention
back to overlooked ones, based solely on data gathered andassumptions derived
from the analysis of preserved objects. This procedure involvedfollowing a research
path – one which remains very popular in our day – based onselecting, ex cathedra,
what is deemed the best, most important artwork of an anonymousartist, which
taken to constitute that artist’s highest, most significantachievement. In then
determining his oeuvre, subsequent objects were chosen andanalysed in terms of
their formal and stylistic similarities with that core work. TheSilesian Gothic art
that has been preserved has thus been handled and classified bygrouping objects
into smaller constellations, at the hearts of which monumentalaltarpieces were
typically positioned. Names for the newly-established mastershave been invented
at the same time, taken from the core works selected, such asthe Master of the
Gießmannsdorf Polyptych (Meister des Gießmannsdorfer Altars),16the Master of the
Guhrau Passion (Meister der Guhrauer Passion),17 the BreslauMaster of the St. Mary
Altar in the St. Elisabeth Church (Breslauer Meister desMarienaltars in St. Elisabeth),18
16 Braune, Wiese, Schlesische Malerei und Plastik, 65-67. 17Braune, Wiese, Schlesische Malerei und Plastik, 59, 96. 18 Braune,Wiese, Schlesische Malerei und Plastik, 38.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
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Master of the St. Luke Altar (Meister des Lukasaltars),19 Masterof the Schweidnitz
Altar (Meister des Schweidnitzer Altars).20
Braune, while providing brief profiles of these restored-to-lifeartists,
including main characteristics of their oeuvres, theirbackgrounds, training,
workshop structures and origins of analysed stylistic and formalfeatures, also
strove to put the masters and their art in a wider context byindicating references to
‘Western’ as well as regional art. In some respects, he alsoimplemented the category
of Volkstümlichkeit, which was very popular in the 1930s.21 Whatis more, these
anonymous masters, just emerging from oblivion, were portrayedas the most
talented artists in their workshops, with their personalengagement in the execution
of specific artworks determining the artistic value of thoseworks. This approach
was consequential in the implementation of a widely acceptedmodel of arranging
artworks in a hierarchy based on the involvement of that masterin the process of
their production: master, master with workshop, workshop,circle, etc. This was
meant to assess the artistic quality of artworks, and the degreeof similarity they
held to the core work attributed to that master. This rathertailored model of
research, commonly accepted at that time and then applied byWiese in his later
publications devoted to the art of Spiš,22 has determined aquite durable framework
on which the foundations of the taxonomy of late Gothic Silesianart are still based
today.
The Breslau Master of 1486/87 (Breslauer Meister von 1486/87),currently
referred to in Polish literature as the Master of the Years1486–1487,23 has turned out
to be one of the preeminent figures among Silesian Gothicpainters brought into the
canon in 1926. According to the exhibition catalogue from 1929,oeuvre of his
workshop comprised three sets of painted altar wings from theChurch of BVM (the
convent church of the Canons Regular) in Breslau (1485–1487),Saints Peter and Paul
in Striegau (Strzegom, 1486–1487, fig. 3) and the parish churchin Neumarkt (1478),
the preserved fragment of an altar wing from Breslau featuringChrist at the
winepress (1480/1490), at least four epitaphs from Breslau andSchweidnitz
(Świdnica), and several additional artworks regarded as relatedto this artistic circle,
to varying degrees.24 Even though Wiese was not particularlyenthusiastic about the
master’s artistic achievements, calling his manner ‘dry andwooden’, he devoted
some attention to them nonetheless, discerning in his paintingslocal artistic features
as well as foreign ones, related to Michael Wolgemut’s workshopin Nuremberg.
This led the researcher to a simple deduction that Master of theYears 1486–1487
was a Silesian painter who had extended his training byjourneying to Nuremberg,
then after his return operating in Breslau and havingsignificant impact on local
19 Braune, Wiese, Schlesische Malerei und Plastik, 61-62. 20Braune, Wiese, Schlesische Malerei und Plastik, 41-43. 21 DušanBuran, ‘Oskar Schürer und Erich Wiese zu Meister Paul vonLeutschau. Inhalt –
Rhetorik – Kontext’, in: Robert Born, Alena Janatková, Adam S.Labuda, eds., Die
Kunsthistoriographien in Ostmitteleuropa und der nationaleDiskurs, Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag
2004, (Humboldt-Schriften zur Kunst- und Bildgeschichte I), 402.22 Buran, ‘Oskar Schürer’, 396-408. 23 Anna Ziomecka, ‘Malarstwotablicowe na Śląsku’, in: Adam S. Labuda, Krystyna
Secomska, eds., Malarstwo gotyckie w Polsce, vol. 1, Warszawa:DiG, 2004, 239. 24 Braune, Wiese, Schlesische Malerei und Plastik,89-90.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
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artists. Yet this vision of an anonymous master, trained abroad,with the talent and
experience to play a dominant role in his workshop and whoseapprentices were
only allowed to follow his path, has not proven very useful.
More recent studies have clearly revealed that the name ‘Masterof the Years
1486-1487’ implies a collection if not only a collective ofpainters: well-organised,
efficient and mobile, resorting to a consistent, limitedrepertoire of motifs that they
reconfigured and repeated with only minor modifications,operating not necessarily
within a single workshop, cooperating with different groups ofsculptors and
therefore able to execute large, prestigious commissions both inparallel and within
a short period of time.25 Scholars have attributed to theseanonymous artists at least
nine sets of painted polyptych wings from churches in Ottensoos(1470s),26
Neumarkt (1478), Halle (1488),27 Breslau (1485–148728 and latefifteenth century29),
25 Ziomecka, ‘Malarstwo tablicowe’, 238-241; Robert Suckale,‘Probleme um den “Meister
von 1486”’, in: Katja Bernhardt, Piotr Piotrwski, eds., Grenzenüberwindend. Festschrift für
Adam S. Labuda zum 60. Geburtstag, Berlin: Lukas Verlag, 2006,212-222; Robert Suckale, Die
Erneuerung der Malkunst vor Dürer, Petersberg: Michael ImhofVerlag, 2009, vol. 1, 247-256;
Agnieszka Patała, Pod znakiem świętego Sebalda. Rola Norymbergiw kształtowaniu
późnogotyckiego malarstwa tablicowego na Śląsku, Wrocław: ViaNova, 2018, 201-245. 26 Suckale, ‘Probleme um’, 215. Robert Suckaleused two alternative names of the master,
namely: ‘Meister der Jahreszahlen’ (Master of the Years) and‘Meister des Ulrichsretabels’
(Master of St. Ulrich Retable). 27 Suckale, ‘Probleme um’,219-221. 28 Bożena Guldan-Klamecka, Anna Ziomecka, Sztuka na ŚląskuXII – XVI w., Wrocław:
Muzeum Narodowe we Wrocławiu, 2003, 332; Patała, Pod znakiem,211-213, 231-245. 29 Adam S. Labuda, K. Secomska, eds., Malarstwogotyckie w Polsce, Warszawa: DiG, 2004, vol.
2, 296-297.
Figure 3 Master of the Years 1486-1487,
Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, painted
wing of the Poliptych from Strzegom ,
1486-1487. Tempera and oil on panel, 170
x 148 cm. Warszawa: Muzeum
Narodowe. Piotr Ligier.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
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Striegau (1486–1487), Lüssen (Lusina, 1490s),30 Schweidnitz(1492),31 Dittmannsdorf
(Dziećmorowice, 1511)32, as well as four epitaphs33 and astill-venerated devotional
panel from Schweidnitz.34
The body of works listed above, very consistent in terms ofstyle, was
commissioned by representatives of two separate, heterogeneoussocial groups: the
burghers of Breslau, Striegau and Schweidnitz, and the religiouscommunities of the
Canons Regular (Breslau), the Order of St. John (Breslau,Striegau) and the Servite
Order (Halle). This fact confirms the recognition theseanonymous artists received
in Silesia and outside the region, while at the same time makingany definitive
determination of the location and functioning of their workshopor workshops
almost impossible.
The name of the Breslau Master of 1486/87, coined in 1926,encapsulates two
implicit assumptions made by its creators that were thenreplicated and presented
as fact in publications that followed. The first assumptionreferred to the location of
the master’s workshop, which he was said to run in Breslau, thushe probably
belonged to the local painters’ guild. The second assumption isrelated to his
30 Guldan-Klamecka, Ziomecka, Sztuka na Śląsku, 368-371. 31Magdalena Poradzisz-Cincio, ‘Chór Mieszczan w katedrze świdnickiej- późnogotycka
kaplica Bractwa Maryjnego’, Rocznik świdnicki, 36, 2008, 26-51;Patała, Pod znakiem, 219-222,
231-245. 32 Patała, Pod znakiem, 223-224. 33 Agnieszka Patała,ed., Migracje. Sztuka późnogotycka na Śląsku, Wrocław: Muzeum
Narodowe we Wrocławiu, 168-169, 174-177, 180-181. 34 JacekWitkowski, ‘Domina in Sole. Świdnicki obraz Madonny zDzieciątkiem’, in: Ewa
Chojecka et al., eds., Marmur dziejowy. Studia z historii sztukidedykowane profesor Zofii
Ostrowskiej-Kębłowskiej, Poznań: Wydawnictwo PoznańskiegoTowarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk,
2002, 49-52.
Figure 4 Master of the Years 1486-1487,
The Entombment of Christ, painted wing of
the Poliptych from Strzegom, 1486-1487.
Tempera and oil on panel, 170 x 148 cm.
Warszawa: Muzeum Narodowe. Piotr
Ligier.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
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ultimate achievement: the polyptych from the parish church inStriegau, where the
dates 1486 and 1487 remain visible in its preserved paintedwings (fig. 4). Thus, for
many years, no consideration was given to the possibility thatwe are dealing with a
group of itinerant artists, operating outside the local guildstructures, probably
owing to the protection of the Silesian clergy. Only recentlyhave publications by
Robert Suckale presented some ideas and arguments in support ofthis alternative
scenario.35 Suckale has proven that painters active in theworkshop of the Master of
the Years 1486–1487 (he uses the term Master of the Years:‘Meister der Jahreszahlen’)
were trained in Nuremberg in the circle of Hans Pleydenwurff,and after that
painter’s death in 1472, they travelled east from Nuremberg insearch of new clients.
Before arriving in Silesia, they executed painterly works inOttensoos and
Neumarkt.
Their first commission in Silesia involved participation in workon the
retable for the church of the Canons Regular in Breslau from1485 to 1487. Almost
simultaneously, in 1486 and 1487, they worked on the paintedwings of the
altarpiece in Striegau, and in 1488 finished their works for thechurch of the Servite
Order in Halle. Suckale has attributed the latter panels to aseparate group of artists,
giving the name of the Master of the St. Ulrich Retable(‘Meister des Ulrichsretabels’)
to their leader, though they were trained in the same Nurembergcircle and used the
same patterns.36 This hypothesis would seem justifiable if notfor the striking
compositional and stylistic similarities between the wings atHalle and paintings
attributed to the Master of the Years 1486–1487 from the parishchurch in
Schweidnitz (fig. 5).
35 Suckale, ‘Probleme um’; Suckale, Die Erneuerung, vol. 1,247-256; Robert Suckale, ‚Die
Bekehrung des Paulus, ein verschollenes Bild aus dem UmkreisHans Siebenbürgers‘, in:
Livia Varga (et al.), eds., Bonum ut Pulchrum. Essays in Art.History in Honour of Erno Marosi on
His Seventieth Birthday, Budapest, 2010, 323-332. 36 Suckale,Die Erneuerung, vol. 1, 252-253.
Figure 5 Master of the Years 1486-1487, St.
Liberius, St. Erasmus, St. Sebastian, St. Roch,
St. Makary, St. Jodocus, St. Anthony, St.
Onuphrius, wings of the closed Polytych
from Świdnica, 1492. Tempera and oil on
panel, 370 x 101 cm (one wing). Świdnica:
katedra św. św. Wacława i Stanisława.
Agnieszka Patała.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
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Did the group of artists in question split in order to finishthe artworks
mentioned above? Or did they work in a one large workshop,either in Breslau or in
Schweidnitz, finishing several commissions almost at the sametime? There are no
answers to these questions. Certainly, however, the hypothesisformulated by
Suckale, who regarded the artists under discussion who wereactive in Silesia (the
Master of the Years) as doppelgangers of those responsible forpaintings at
Neumarkt and Halle (the Master of the St. Ulrich Retable), canseem an unnecessary
multiplication of conventional entities. A historical-artisticconstruct such as the
Master of the Years 1486–1487 requires depersonalisation andrecognition as a term
defining a group of artworks marked by common formal, stylistic,compositional
and technological features, closely related to the Franconianartistic tradition and
executed by entrepreneurial, well-organised, probably mobilegroups of artists.
By inventing the name and identity of another anonymous masteractive in
Silesia, the Master of the Gießmannsdorf Polyptych, Erich Wiesecreated another
artist, who then turned out to be the most important figure insubsequent research,
ongoing in our day, on late Gothic sculpted and painted wingedaltarpieces
executed for churches in northwest Silesia – an area that hadremained beyond
academic interest until 1929.37 Based on the analysis of thepentaptych from the
Church of St. Catherine in Gießmannsdorf (Gościeszowice, fig. 6)and other
artworks formally and stylistically related to it, includingworks from Kunzendorf
(Chichy, fig. 7) and Kunau (Konin Żagański), Wiese formulated anopinion that
within the former Duchy of Sagan (Żagań), between the 1490s andthe second
decade of the sixteenth century, a workshop operated, probablylocated in the town
of Sagan, led by a master trained in Wrocław in the workshop ofthe Master of the
Years 1486–1487, who was acquainted with the works of MichaelWolgemut and
indirectly with the oeuvre of Martin Schongauer. He was assumedto be both a
painter and a sculptor, and was held responsible for more than adozen altarpieces
from Silesia, Neumark and Lusatia.
Figure 6 Master of the Polyptych from Gieβmannsdorf, Legend ofSt. Catherine, first opening of the Polyptych from
Gościeszowice, 1505. Tempera and oil on panel, 200 x 81 cm (onewing). Gościeszowice: kościół św. Katarzyny
Aleksandryjskiej. Scan after: Agnieszka Patała, Rola Norymergi wkształtowaniu późnogotyckiego malarstwa tablicowego
na Śląsku, Wrocław: Via Nova, 2018, plate 217.
37 Braune, Wiese, Schlesische Malerei und Plastik, 65–67.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
11
Figure 7 Master of the Polyptych from Gieβmannsdorf, Polyptychfrom Chichy, second opening, 1512. Lime, pine,
tempera, oil, gold, 170 x 143 (the shrine). Chichy: kościół św.Jana Chrzciciela. Agnieszka Patała.
Based on those findings, Polish and German researchers thensystematically
enlarged the oeuvre attributed to the workshop, which todaycomprises at least
twenty altarpieces.38 The assumption that the Master of theGießmannsdorf
Polyptych was responsible for the most artistically-accomplishedpainted and
carved sections of the retables resulted in consistency in thecriteria of those
attributions. In some cases, the workshop’s oeuvre has beenconstructed based on
the analysis of the painted wings.39 In others, the basis wasformed from stylistic
38 See: Ziomecka, ‘Malarstwo tablicowe’, 237-249; AgnieszkaPatała, ‘Die Tätigkeit des
Meisters des Gießmannsdorfer Altars im nordwestlichen Schlesienum 1496–1520‘, in: Peter
Knüvener, Werner Ziems (ed.), Flügelaltäre um 1515 – Höhepunktemittelalterlicher Kunst in
Brandenburg und in den Nachbarregionen, Berlin 2016(Arbeitshefte des Brandenburgischen
Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege und Archäologisches Landesmuseum,42, 2016), 48-64. 39 Selected works: Michał Walicki, ‘Poliptykkaliski na tle problemu „Mistrza ołtarza z
Giessmanndorf”’, Przegląd Historii Sztuki, 2: 1-2, 1931 Kraków,81-98; Zygmunt Świechowski,
‘Malowidła ołtarzy kaliskiego, kościańskiego i sulechowskiego natle problemu mistrza z
Gościszowic’, Biuletyn Historii Sztuki i Kultury, 11: ¾, 1949,233-255; Jakub Kostowski, Pictura
docet. Uwagi o programach obrazowych kilku ołtarzy pochodzącychz warsztatu Mistrza Ołtarza z
Gościszowic, in Stanisław Rosik, Przemysław Wiszewski (ed.),Imago narrat. Obraz jako
komunikat w społeczeństwach europejskich, Wrocław: WydawnictwoUniwersytetu
Wrocławskiego, 2002 (Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis, 2478),137-162; Ziomecka,
‘Malarstwo tablicowe’, 237-249.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
12
similarities of sculpture and carved parts.40 Sometimes, whenanalysing the
sculpture, paintings served as reference material, and viceversa.41 As a result, the
body of artworks attributed to the Master of the GießmannsdorfPolyptych forms a
very heterogeneous group of artworks, sometimes conjoined by avague common
denominator, within which artistically inferior works or thosediffering in terms of
formal and stylistic features are automatically regarded as theresults of other
contributors’ participation – typically assistants andfollowers.
This fact can be considered as another consequence of the moderninvention
of the artist’s name, implying that we deal with a single masterleading a group of
workshop apprentices who were occasionally permitted tocooperate directly, as
that sole master was, according to modern criteria, the mosttalented artist. For
decades, that assumption has obscured the fact that the group ofaltarpieces
attributed to the Master of the Gießmannsdorf Polyptych was,again, the result of
the work of an artistic collective of painters and sculptors,not necessarily operating
within any single workshop, some of whom were immigrantsassociated with the
Nuremberg workshop of Michael Wolgemut and who had participated,under the
auspices of the Master of the Years 1486-1487, in the productionin Breslau of the
painted altarpiece wings from the Church of BVM.42 Afterfinishing that
commission, they probably moved to Sagan, where they found ahaven in the local
monastery of the Canons Regular.43 This appears to be the mostreasonable
explanation for such prolific masters remaining absent inarchival resources of the
local municipalities of Sagan, Sprottau (Szprotawa) and Glogau(Głogów). During
that same period, the chronicle of the Canons Regular in Żagańcontains several
references to the activity in the 1490s of at least threeartists within the monastery
walls.44
The anonymous artists in question, owing to their effectiveorganisation of
work, division of labour and intensive exploitation of limitedresources through
frequently-repeated compositional patterns and facials, wereable year after year to
create – almost to mass-produce – consecutively painted andcarved pentaptychs for
town and village churches located in the territory of northwestSilesia. This is the
only adequate explanation of how these artists managed toproduce in only three
years at least five large-scale altarpieces: at Gieβmannsdorf(1505), Ebersdorf
(Dzikowice, 1505–1506), Kunau (1506–1507), Kościan (1507) andWeichau (Wichów,
1506–1508). However, those years were not their only period ofintensified activity.
Furthermore, in the course of scholarly research, several workshave been
distinguished within this purported master’s oeuvre that frompresent-day
40 Anna Ziomecka, ‘Śląskie retabula szafowe w drugiej połowie XVi na początku XVI
wieku’, Roczniki Sztuki Śląskiej, 10, 1976, 60-63. 41 DanutaBiernacka, ’Warsztat rzeźbiarski Mistrza z Gościszowic’,Zielonogórskie Zeszyty
Muzealne, 1, 1969, 49-85; Ewa Marxen-Wolska, ‘Mistrz PoliptykuKaliskiego’, Teka Komisji
Historii Sztuki Towarzystwa Naukowego w Toruniu, 6, 1976(Towarzystwo Naukowe w
Toruniu, Prace Wydziału Filologicznego, 26: 2), 163-274. 42Guldan-Klamecka, Ziomecka, Sztuka śląska, 330-332. 43 Patała, ‘DieTätigkeit‘, 54-56. 44 ‘Catalogus abbatum Saganensium‘, in: GustavAdolf Harald Stenzel, ed., Scriptores rerum
silesiacarum oder Sammlung schlesischer Geschichtsschreiber, vol1, Breslau: Max, 1835, 398, 402,
403, 412.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
13
perspectives seem more artistically accomplished and moremonumental than the
Gieβmannsdorf polyptych, such as the painted wings from Kalisz(1510, fig. 8),45
which adds additional emphasis to the conventionality of relyingon a single
master’s name.
Figure 3 Master of the Polyptych from Gieβmannsdorf, Polyptychfrom Kalisz, first opening, ca. 1510. Tempera and
oil on panel, 257 x 97 (one wing). Kalisz: kolegiataWniebowzięcia Najświętszej Marii Panny. Agnieszka Patała
Besides, there have even been some voices postulating thecorrection or
change of that single name of attribution.46 As regards thecentury-long history and
tradition of research on the activity of the Master of theGieβmannsdorf Polyptych,
however, introducing alternative names would only disrupt thealready vague
image. A more justified approach is to deal with the term‘Master of the
Gieβmannsdorf Polyptych’ as a concept that can help inclassifying the preserved
artworks by providing the description of a set of formal,stylistic and technological
features that characterise a certain group of altarpieces, theproduction of which
cannot be confined exclusively to the activity of either asingle artistic individuality
or a single workshop. It is, rather, a micro-history of asubstantial group of
anonymous artists, who left behind a group of polyptychsrelatively coherent
stylistically, but which do not form any single creationalmonolith.
45 Jakub Kostowski, ‘Poliptyk kaliski’, in: Gerard Kucharski,Jacek Plota (ed.), Kolegiata kaliska
na przestrzeni wieków 1303 – 2003. Materiały z konferencjinaukowej, Kalisz: Sanktuarium
Świętego Józefa, 2004, 195-220. 46 Marxen-Wolska, ‘MistrzPoliptyku’.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
14
Figure 9 Wilhelm Kalteysen von Oche, St. Barbara Polyptych,second opening, 1447. Tempera and oil on panel, 203 x
260 cm (central panel), Warszawa: Muzeum Narodowe (centralpanel, wings missing). Scan after: Heinz Braune,
Konrad Hahm, Schlesien in Farbenphotographie, vol. I, Berlin:Carl Weller, 1923, plate 23.
The so-called Master of the St. Barbara Altarpiece, identifiedsince 2004 as
Wilhelm Kalteysen von Oche (‘from Aachen’),47 had been thelongest-lived
conception of an anonymous master in the history of Gothic panelpainting in
Silesia, a conception already designed by the end of thenineteenth century48 – while
at the same time being the only medieval Silesian painter whoseidentity, long held
to be anonymous, has now been established beyond reasonabledoubt. His case,
notwithstanding archival findings and this master’s indisputablyhigh position
among regional artists, reflected in prestigious commissions andin subsequent
scholarly interest,49 clearly demonstrates that establishing theidentity of a
workshop’s master – the seldom-accomplished dream of many arthistorians – may
in fact raise new doubts and additional questions rather thanproviding long-
anticipated answers. The eponymous work attributed to him, theSt. Barbara
polyptych originating from St. Barbara’s Church in Breslau(1447, fig. 9), is regarded 47 Ewa Wółkiewicz, ‘Twórcy retabulum wkościele św. Jakuba w Nysie. W kwestii
wyposażenia wnętrz kościelnych w połowie XV wieku’, KwartalnikHistorii i Kultury
Materialnej, 52: 4, 2004, 453-457. 48 Henry Thode, DieMalerschule von Nürnberg im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert in ihrerEntwicklung
bis auf Dürer, Frankfurt am Main, 1891, 83-91. Thode referred tohim ‘Der Breslauer Meister
von 1447’. 49 List of literature in: Adam S. Labuda, Wrocławskiołtarz Św. Barbary i jego twórcy. Studium o
malarstwie śląskim połowy XV wieku, Poznań: Uniwersytet AdamaMickiewicza, 1984, 5-18;
Malarstwo gotyckie, 289-191; Till-Holger Borcher, ed., Van Eyckto Dürer. Early Netherlandish
Painting & Central Europe 1430-1530, Tielt: LannooPublishers, 2010, 480-481; Patała, Pod
znakiem, 87-131; Labuda, ‘Das Zeugnis’.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
15
as among the earliest, most outstanding and path-breaking lateGothic artworks in
Silesia, the completion of which in 1447 has been likened to theimpact of a
meteorite’s strike.50 According to Adam S. Labuda, who hasprovided the most
extensive analysis of the artwork and addresses the identity andbackground of its
makers, the polyptych was executed in tandem by an artisttrained in one of the
Upper Rhine workshops, familiar with the art of EarlyNetherlandish workshops,
Lucas Moser and Upper German traditions, who in Silesiacollaborated with a
painter who had probably trained in Nuremberg.51 Among severalworks attributed
to the first of these masters, the former retable of the highaltarpiece of St. James’
Church in Neisse (fig. 10), of which only one painted panel hasbeen preserved,
became crucial in establishing his identity.52
50 Wilhelm Suida, ‘Beiträge zur österreichischen Kunst derSpätgotik, Belvedere, 11, 74. 51 Labuda, ‘Das Zeugnis’. 52Aleksandra Szewczyk, Jacek Witkowski, ‘Gotycki ołtarz głównykościoła św. Jakuba w
Nysie’, Quart, 3, 2007, 3-11; Labuda, ‘Das Zeugnis’.
Figure 10a Wilhelm Kalteysen von Oche,
Conversion of Hermogenes by St. James the
Great and Agony in the Garden, obverse of
a preserved panel of the Polyptych from
Nysa. Tempera on panel, 182 x 104 cm.
Wrocław: Muzeum Archidiecezjalne.
Agnieszka Patała.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
16
In 2004, during the query Ewa Wółkiewicz conducted inArchiwum
Państwowe (the National Archive) in Opole, she came across threecontracts
regarding the production of paintings for the high altarpiece ofSt. James’ Church in
Neisse.53 The first was signed in 1451 by the church wardens(Kirchenväter) and two
independent artists: Master Wilhelm (Kalteysen) von Oche andMaster Martin.
Wilhelm was obliged to supervise the entire undertaking andexecute the paintings
over the course of his temporary stays in Neisse. Martin, whoheaded a workshop
on site in Neisse, was responsible for preparatory work,polychrome decorations
and gilding. In 1453, after Martin’s death, his responsibilitieswere taken over by
Master Nicolaus (according to the second contract) and then,that same year, by
Master Vincent Kelner (according to the third contract). Thecontract contents,
revealing arrangements from Neisse, has confirmed one ofLabuda’s main
assumptions, as the master responsible for the execution of theSt. Barbara
polyptych turned out to be the Rhineland native (von Oche hasbeen interpreted as
a toponymic, referring to Aachen). Moreover, it has alsoprovided a foundation for
re-evaluating the workshop’s oeuvre, as well as to reviewopinions on the factual
existence and organisation of his workshop.
Even though the path-breaking impact and artistic significanceof the St.
Barbara polyptych from Breslau is now undisputed, the retablefrom Neisse has
turned out to be the only proven artwork in the establishedoeuvre of Wilhelm
53 Wółkiewicz, ‘Twórcy retabulum’.
Figure 10b Wilhelm Kalteysen von Oche,
Conversion of Hermogenes by St. James the
Great and Agony in the Garden, reverse of a
preserved panel of the Polyptych from
Nysa. Tempera on panel, 182 x 104 cm.
Wrocław: Muzeum Archidiecezjalne.
Agnieszka Patała.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
17
Kalteysen von Oche. It was also the most monumental andprestigious of his known
commissions, as Neisse at that time was the capital of thesecular domain of the
Prince Bishops of Breslau, and St. James’ Church functionedunder bishopric
patronage.54 Establishing the name of Wilhelm (Kalteysen) vonOche has allowed
scholars to identify him with ‘magistro Wilhelmo Kalteysen deAquisgrano’, who in
1464 and 1466 was engaged in painting the organ wings in thechurch of the Canons
Regular in Glatz (Kłodzko), and with ‘Wilhelm von Oche’ who in1496 became a
member of the Wrocław painters’ guild.55 According to Labuda,both of these
archival mentions, along with the fact that Wilhelm Kalteysenvon Oche did not
devote all of his time to the execution of the Neisse retable,reveal two crucial
characteristics of his modus operandi: his high mobility and hisoperating in large
part outside the guild system of any specific Silesian town.56In all probability, his
status of independent and mobile artist may have been theconsequence of his
reputation as a foreign artist. – Labuda asserts that ‘von Oche’was added by the
artist intentionally, to emphasise his foreign origins – and ofhigh demand for his
services and work he was commissioned to do by influentialpatrons.
What is more, all known archival references provide no evidenceconcerning
Kalteysen’s workshop and its location. Actually, the contractsfrom Neisse regulated
the collaborative effort of independently-operating paintersunder the supervision
of Kalteysen, which means that his workshop was at that timeeither engaged into
another project or did not exist at all, at least in acontinuous form. Moreover,
Kalteysen’s responsibilities were limited only to painterlyworks, whereas the
woodcarving, woodwork, metalwork and probably management overthe entire
enterprise were the responsibilities of others. Therefore,establishing the identity of
the anonymous Master of the St. Barbara Altarpiece has providedno answers to
questions concerning the circ*mstances of his arrival inSilesia, his workshop’s
location, its size and membership (if any), or the identity ofhis commissioners and
patrons in the region. We can only presume that he eitheroperated from a
workshop employing foreign-trained artists or, more plausiblegiven his
achievements, that he supervised larger collaborative projectsinvolving several
artists, as with the St. Barbara Altarpiece, while workingindependently on smaller
jobs.
These three cases presented above – of the Master of the Years1486–1487, the
Master of the Gieβmannsdorf Polyptych and Wilhelm Kalteysen vonOche – clearly
demonstrate the fact that the names for masters invented by arthistorians, in order
to handle and classify a huge body of artworks, turned out to bemisleading and
distorted the more plausible modus operandi of large groups ofanonymous,
probably itinerant artists, presumably at work outside theregional guild system or
remaining off the records of its membership. What is more, theterm ‘masters’, when
interpreted too literally, facilitated maintaining a convenientmyth of talented and
54 Jarosław Jarzewicz, ‘Biskupi i mieszczański – kościół św.Jakuba w Nysie’, in: Ryszard
Hołownia, Mateusz Kapustka, eds., Nysa. Sztuka w dawnej stolicyksięstwa biskupiego,
Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 2008, 75-85. 55Alwin Schultz, ‘Analekten zur schlesischen Kunstgeschichte‘,Zeitschrift des Vereins für
Geschichte und Alterthum Schlesiens, 1870-1871, 140. 56 Labuda,‘Das Zeugnis’, 280-281.
Agnieszka Patała Masters without Names in Medieval Silesia...
18
diversely-skilled individuals able to produce even very complexartworks within a
very short period of time. It has also influenced theconstruction of unrealistically
large and diverse oeuvres of particular anonymous artists.
Due to the extensive history of research on late Gothic art inSilesia, changing
the names of these anonymous artists or providing alternativeterms cannot be
regarded an effective solution. It seems more justified todepersonalise these
invented masters, especially the Masters of the Years 1486–1487and of the
Gieβmannsdorf Polyptych. This can be a step in redefining thosepreviously
established names in order to re-use them as a concept orcategory useful in the
classification of preserved materials, as well as in denotingparticular sets of formal,
stylistic and technological features that characterise thespecific group of artworks
they were not necessarily solely instrumental in creating.
Agnieszka Patała is an Assistant Professor in the Institute ofArt History, University
of Wrocław, Poland. Her research interests include history ofmedieval painting and
sculpture, with particular emphasis on Central European panelpaintings and
retables. In 2018 she published her dissertation on the role ofNuremberg in the
shaping of late Gothic panel painting in Silesia (Pod znakiemświętego Sebalda. Rola
Norymbergi w kształtowaniu późnogotyckiego malarstwa tablicowegona Śląsku).
[emailprotected]
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