!!!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
M. Koller and N. Wibiral, Der Pacher-Altar in 
St. Wolfgang, 1981; M. Koller, Der Fluegelaltar von M. P. in 
St. Wolfgang, 1998; A. Rosenauer (ed.), M. P. und sein 
Kreis, exhibition catalogue, Neustift (South Tyrol) 1998.


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