List of anonymous masters

In art history, an anonymous master is an Old Master whose work is known, but whose name is lost.

Renaissance

Only in the Renaissance did individual artists in Western Europe acquire personalities known by their peers (some listed by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists), such as those known by:

Their true name or their father's name:
- Filippino Lippi after his father Fra Filippo Lippi
A chosen pseudonym, possibly linked to his birthplace or his father's trade:
- Giuliano da Sangallo worked on the gate of Saint Gall
- Antonio del Pollaiuolo, after his father, a chicken farmer (pollo in Italian)
- Jacopo del Sellaio, after his father, a saddler (sellier)
- The Della Robbias (after the Tuscan word robbia, dyers' madder, and his father, the dyer Luca della Robbia)
- Masuccio Segondo, student of Masuccio Primo
- etc.
A surname attributed to him:
- Il Cronaca, who never stopped talking about the ruins he had seen in Rome
- Daniele da Volterra, nicknamed Il Braghettone (the breeches maker) for having censored nudes in paintings by adding cloths or branches, at the request of Pope Paul IV
- Luca della Robbia, for the madder colour he used as a ceramicist
- Masaccio, known as the idiot
- etc.
A corporation, whose generic name is given to works made by all its members:
- the Campionesi Masters, sculptors and builders of religious buildings (Ugo da Campione, Bonino da Campione, Giovanni da Campione, Zenone de Campione, Matteo da Campione)

20th-century problems of attribution

The idea of a named and recognised painter originated among art historians early in the 20th century, who were attributing works they recognised to known painters. They later went back on some of these attributions, renaming as anonymous the painters they had formerly named. One example is the case of Pier Francesco Fiorentino, to whom Bernard Berenson attributed a number of works which were later re-attributed to Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino, a Florence copyist. Some painters have even been described as anonymous (even many times like Barthélemy Eyck) before later being recognised. They thus held several names historically (those who are noted on the page devoted to them), although doubts continue surrounding some, such as Giovanni Gaddi (after 1333 – 1383) maybe the Master of the Misericordia dell’Accademia.

Artists

Dates

A

B

C

Campionesi Masters
Chief Associate of the Bedford Master
City of Ladies Master and his studio of illuminators of The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pisan
Master of Cabestany
Master of the Cappella di San Nicola
Master of the Cappella Medici Polyptych
Master of the Cassone degli Adimari, probably Lo Scheggia, brother of Masaccio
Master of the Cassoni Campana, builder of cassone
Master of Castelsardo
Master of Castelseprio, fresco painter at Santa Maria Foris Portas at Castelseprio, in the province of Varese.
Master of the Castello della Manta
Master of Crea
Master of the Cypresses

D

Dipylon Master
Master of the Darmstädter Passion
Master of the Darup Altarpiece
Master of Delft
Masters of Dirc van Delf
Master of the Death of the Virgin (engraver)
Master of the Death of the Virgin (painter)
Master of the Drapery Studies (also known as Master of the Coburg Roundels)

E

F

Master of the Female Half-Lengths
Master of the Franciscan Crucifixions (13th century)
Master of Frankfurt
Master of the Fresco of the Twelve Moons, north Italy, painter of a secular fresco of the late 14th century (1391–1407) at Trente, in a room of the Tower of Eagles of the Castello del Buonconsiglio.
Master of the Friedberg Altarpiece
Master of the Fröndenberger Altarpiece
Master of the Furies

G

H

Master of the Hallein Altar
Master of Heiligenkreuz
Master of the Heisterbach Altarpiece
Master of the High Altar of Szmrecsány
Master of Hohenfurth, an alternate name for the Master of Vyšší Brod
Master of the Housebook

I

J

K

L

M

N

Master of the Louvre Nativity, probably Fra Diamante (according to Bernard Berenson)
Naumburg Master, mid-13th-century sculptor
Master of Nördlingen
Northern Master

O

Master of the Osservanza, Sienna school, 15th century
Oltremontano Master
Master of the Ortenberg Altarpiece
Master of Otto van Moerdrecht (active c. 1420–30); Netherlandish illuminator
Master of Ozieri

P

R

Master of the Rajhrad Altarpiece
Master of the Re Alberto Altarpiece
Master of the Rebel Angels, Maestro degli Angeli Ribelli of Siena; two paintings are in the musée du Louvre^[1]
Master of the Regular Canons' Altarpiece
Master of the Rohan Hours

S

T

Master of the Tavole Barberini

U

Union Master
Upper Rhenish Master (also known as Master of the Frankfurt Paradiesgärtlein)

V

W

Z

Master of Zweder van Culemborg

Artists whose names have since been established

In recent years the names of a variety of artists who were formerly listed as "anonymous" have become known; accordingly scholarly writings and museum labels have been changed to reflect their new identities. Much the most famous of these is the Master of Flémalle (c 1378–1445), painter of the comté de Hainaut, who was established as Robert Campin. Other examples include:

Jehan Bellegambe, sometimes called the "master of colours".
Master of 1419 – recognised as Battista di Biagio Sanguigni, having painted and dated in 1419 the central panel for a triptych executed for Santa Maria a Latera, broken up and dispersed
Master of the Chiostro degli Aranci – recognised as being Giovanni Consalvo, fresco painter at the monastery at Badia Fiorentina
Barthélemy d'Eyck is the generally accepted as the painter known as the Master of the Aix Annunciation for paintings, and the Master of René of Anjou for illuminated manuscripts; he is also thought by many to be the Master of the Shadows
The Dombild Master, as Stefan Lochner

Notes

^ "Joconde – catalogue – dictionnaires". culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 30 April 2015.

Sources

Daniel Arasse in the introduction to his Le Sujet dans le tableau. Champs Flammarion ISBN 2-08-121748-1 (1997) (2006)

[1] "Joconde – catalogue – dictionnaires". culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 30 April 2015.

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