Biography

Bavarian or Austrian wood-carver. He was one of a group of carvers active in Salzburg, Passau and Prague who made small, elegant, highly refined reliefs in boxwood, limewood and pearwood. These items were in many ways a northern counterpart to the small bronze statuettes produced in Italy for wealthy private collectors. The Master of Irrsdorf, the earliest of the group, has sometimes been identified with Master I.P.; it was also suggested that he be identified as J. Pocksberg.

The only dated work by Master I.P. is a pearwood relief of the Fall of Man (160*125 mm; Vienna, Belvedere, Österreichische Galerie), a version of Albrecht Dürer's engraving of 1504 in which Eve's back is turned to the viewer. Both nudes are more animated and sensuous than Dürer's, and the Garden of Eden is fully developed in a convincing perspective based on depth of undercutting. A related work, inscribed Adam D. (which may or may not be a signature), is in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, while still others are in Gotha (Schloss Friedenstein), Prague (National Gallery, Convent of St George) and Frankfurt am Main (Liebieghaus); a statuette of Adam alone is in Moscow (Pushkin Museum).