MASTER of the Playing Cards
(active 1435-1450 in the Upper Rhine)

Biography

German engraver. The most accomplished and influential member of the first generation of engravers, he is named after a series of engravings with number cards and figure cards arranged in suits of flowers, birds, deer, wild men and beasts of prey, preserved largely in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and the Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden. From the numerous copies of the suit symbols in datable manuscripts, his cards can be dated shortly before 1440.