Biography

German painter. He takes his name from the Crucifixion Triptych in the Marienkirche, Dortmund, which bears the coat of arms of the Berswordt family. The only dated work by him is a dispersed retable of 1400 from the high altar of the Neustädter Marienkirche, Bielefeld. The artist's relationship to Konrad van Soest - whether as a predecessor or as a follower - is controversial, but most scholars now consider the Master of the Berswordt Altarpiece to be the earlier of the two and place his activity mainly in the final decade of the fourteenth century. A location of his workshop in Westphalia has long been postulated on the basis of the concentration of his commissions in that region.