MASTER of the Life of the Virgin
(active 1463-1480 in Cologne)

Biography

Master of the Life of the Virgin (Master of the Life of Mary, Meister des Marienlebens), German painter, named after a series of eight panels illustrating the Life of the Virgin, of which the Presentation in the Temple is in the National Gallery, London, and the remainder in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. He was one of the outstanding Cologne painters of his time, and his affinities with Dieric Bouts and Rogier van der Weyden suggest that he trained in the Netherlands. None of the pictures attributed to him is dated, but a Crucifixion in the hospital church at Cues on the Moselle, generally accepted as his work, is probably from 1465. The Master of the Lyversberg Passion may be identical with him, while the Master of Werden is probably only an aspect of his studio.