Burgkmair, Hans

(1473-1531)

   German painter, woodcutter, and engraver from Augsburg, the son of Thoman Burgkmair, also a painter. Hans is thought to have been trained in the workshop of Martin Schongauer in Colmar. By 1498, he was back in Augsburg where he married Hans Holbein the Elder's sister and established himself as an independent master. He may have visited Venice, Milan, and the Netherlands, travels that were to influence his art in great measure. His St. John Altarpiece (1518; Munich, Alte Pinakothek) features Venetian colorism and emphasis on landscape details. His Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (1520; Hannover, Niedersächsische Landesgalerie) includes Northern figure types in three-quarter length sitting in front of a landscape, recalling the compositions of Giovanni Bellini. As in the art of this Italian master, the Virgin and Child are separated from the rest of the scene by a cloth of honor. Among Burgkmair's patrons were Emperor Maximilian I for whom he created a number of woodcuts, and Duke William IV of Bavaria for whom he painted Esther and Ahasuerus in 1528 and the Battle of Cannae (both Munich, Alte Pinakothek) in the following year.