Master Bertram (c.1345–c.1415), also known asMeister Bertram andMaster of Minden, was a GermanInternational Gothic painter primarily of religious art.[1]
Bertram was born inMinden. He is first recorded in Hamburg in 1367, and lived there for the rest of his life, becoming a citizen and Master in 1376, and achieving considerable prosperity. In 1390 he made a will in advance of an intended pilgrimage toRome, but if he made the journey it had no detectable influence on his art. He was married, but his wife had died by his second will in 1410, when he had a surviving daughter. He died inHamburg.
His most famous surviving work is the largeGrabow Altarpiece (orPetri-Altar) in theKunsthalle Hamburg, the largest and most important North German painting of the period. There is a 45-scene altarpiece of theApocalypse, probably by his workshop, in theVictoria and Albert Museum in London.[2] He, or his workshop, also produced sculpture, presumably in wood; in fact in his first years in Hamburg most surviving documentation relates to sculpture, includingchandeliers. A sculpture group depictingSaint Christopher by his hand is located inFalsterbo Church,Sweden.[3]
His style is less emotional than that of his Hamburg near-contemporaryMaster Francke, but has great charm.
Bertram was largely forgotten after the Renaissance until the end of the 19th century when, like Master Francke, he was rediscovered and published byAlfred Lichtwark, director of theHamburg Kunsthalle.
Asteroid85320 Bertram, discovered by German astronomerFreimut Börngen in 1995, was named after Master Bertram.[1] The officialnaming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 18 September 2005 (M.P.C. 54829).[4]
