Biography

The painter was given his name after a work representing the Adoration of Jesus, which is preserved in Vienna. His paintings are examples of mature International Gothic style (Soft Style or Beautiful Style).

Soft modelling is very evident in the whole composition. When he had carefully arranged the edges of the draperies on the ground and meticulously conveyed the difference between the parts of the folds in the light and those in shade, the painter paid greater attention to them than to the rather schematic and blank faces. To such an extent is softness a part of his art that he had difficulties in depicting hard, metallic surfaces (see, for example, the modelling of the crowns and the presents). The Master of the Vienna Adoration learned a lot from the Master of Trebon, who was a generation older than him. The Virgin's figure, gently bent slightly forwards, her round head with a lofty forehead, and the softly drawn and carefully arranged deep folds of her mantle are reminiscent of the picture of Hluboká. The uncertain representation of the pose of kneeling is also similar in the two pictures.