Pacher, Michael#

b. around 1435 in Bruneck/Brunico (South Tyrol; ?), d. 1498 in Salzburg (?), painter and sculptor, main master of the Austrian late Gothic with Renaissance influences, documentary evidence from 1462/63. 1467-1496 citizen and master of an important altar workshop in Bruneck, 1496-1498 documented as having been at Salzburg. contact with the art from the Upper Rhine, northern Italy (F. Lippi, J. Bellini, A. Mantegna, Donatello) and Swabia (H. Multscher). Around 1470 created frescoes in the collegiate church of St. Paul in the Lavant valley (Carinthia) with Friedrich Pacher, in Neustift near Brixen and Innichen (both South Tyrol). His main claims to fame were his altars 1460-1480: the Laurentius altar for St. Lorenzen near Bruneck (parts of it are in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and in the Oesterreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna), the Marienaltar for Gries near Bozen/Bolzano (1471-1475, partly maintained) and the Early Fathers' altar for Neustift near Brixen/Bressanone (before 1483, Alte Pinakothek). Only parts of his last high altar, made for the Franciscan Church in Salzburg, have been preserved (1495-1498), including the statue of the Madonna ("Pacher Madonna"). The art of the Gothic wing-altar reached its zenith with the high altar of Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut (Upper Austria, 1471-1481), a total work of art comprising architecture, sculpture and painting, which testifies to a new concept of space and monumentality, to be seen in the plasticity of his shrine figures, that seem to be an organic part of the architectural surroundings. While his sculptures are partly influenced by forms traditional for the Alpine region, his painting is clearly influenced by Upper Italian art. His panel-paintings are characterised by sculpted figures and their relationship with light-filled architecture seen from a low eye-level. He strongly influenced the art of Austrian and South-German late Gothic during its transition to Renaissance.

Literature#