Master of the Housebook
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Hausbuch_Wolfegg_35r_Bergwerk.jpg/220px-Hausbuch_Wolfegg_35r_Bergwerk.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Hausbuch_Wolfegg_14r_Sol.jpg/220px-Hausbuch_Wolfegg_14r_Sol.jpg)
Master of the Housebook and Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet are two names used for an
Work
His ninety-one prints are extremely rare, with sixty surviving in one impression (copy) only, and none in more than five – there are a total of 124 impressions, 80 in Amsterdam.[3] It is thought that because his prints were made using only the shallow, scratched line of drypoint, probably on tin or a pewter-type alloy, only ten to twenty impressions of each could be taken before the plate wore out.[4] Many engravings by other artists are believed to be copies of missing works by this master. In particular, Israhel van Meckenem seems to have copied more than thirty.
His work is very well drawn and lively, with the interest in detail typical of Early Netherlandish painting.[5] Arthur Mayger Hind notes of his style that "he is an artist with a freedom of draughtsmanship quite remarkable at this epoch. If his manner of engraving has something of the irregularity of an amateur, his power of expression is vigorous and masterly."[6]
A high proportion depicts secular subjects, more than is typical with artists of the period. Along with his contemporary Martin Schongauer, the Housebook Master was the leading artist making old master prints in Germany in his period. Both Schongauer and the Housebook Master had a considerable influence on the prints of Albrecht Dürer.[7] The Master suggests Netherlandish influence in the modelling of light and shade and in some of his figural types.
A small number of paintings are also thought to be his work, notably the Pair of Lovers in
Erhard Reuwich?
It was first suggested in 1936 that he should be identified as
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Hausbuch_Wolfegg_24v_25r_Liebesgarten.jpg/220px-Hausbuch_Wolfegg_24v_25r_Liebesgarten.jpg)
In 1485 Reuwich drew some plants for the woodcuts in a herbal also published in Mainz.
His identification with the Housebook Master has not been generally accepted, though A. Hyatt Mayor supported it; other suggestions have also been made.[10] The trend of scholarly opinion has moved against the identification in more recent works in the 1980s.[11] The design of the woodcuts for a 1473 edition of the Speculum Humanae Salvationis has been attributed to the Housebook Master.[12]
Notes
- ^ Wikinews story. Full story in German
- ^ Timothy Husband,"The Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet"Burlington Magazine, Vol. 127, No. 987 (Jun., 1985), pp. 348+401-405
- ^ Filedt Kok, 91
- ^ Parshall, 5 and 23
- ^ "NGA". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2006-11-08.
- ISBN 9780486209548. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
- ^ Parshall, 311
- ISBN 3-8053-2920-2
- ^ Ernstotto Graf zu Solms-Laubach, Der Hausbuchmeister, in: Städel-Jahrbuch IX (1935/36), pp. 13 – 96.
- ISBN 0-691-00326-2
- ISBN 90-6179-060-3/ 0-691-04035-4
- ^ Wilson, Adrian, and Joyce Lancaster Wilson. A Medieval Mirror. p 208, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. online text
References
- J. P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Jane Campbell Hutchison et al., Livelier than Life, The Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet, or the Housebook Master 1470-1500, Rijksmuseum/Garry Schwartz/Princeton University Press, 1985, ISBN 90-6179-060-3/ 0-691-04035-4
- "Parshall": David Landau & Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print, Yale, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06883-2
Further reading
- Venus and Mars: The World of the Medieval Housebook, Prestel, 1998, ISBN 3-7913-1991-4
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Online feature on exhibition from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Prints and the Housebook - best online images
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - 2 prints
- Web gallery of arts - 5 prints, four paintings (some with disputed attributions)
- Images from the 1912 facsimile of the Housebook (complete) with iconographic explanations, in the Warburg Institute Iconographic Database