Biography

German painter, part of a family of artists. Fritz Pleydenwurff is mentioned as a painter in Bamberg in 1432, as is Kunz Pleydenwurff in 1435, the latter receiving civic commissions in 1447. Hans Pleydenwurff went from Bamberg to become an important painter in 15th-century Nuremberg. Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, probably the youngest of Hans's three sons, worked with Michael Wolgemut, who married Hans's widow the year of his death.

Hans Pleydenwurff was active in Nuremberg and his work is typical of the kind of painting produced there by the generation before Wolgemut (who married Pleydenwurff's widow). The springs of International Gothic were drying up and a new naturalism was beginning to come in from the Netherlands. A large Crucifixion (Alte Pinakothek, Munich) is characteristic of his work. Pletdenwurff's son Wilhelm was a painter and engraver, also active in Nuremberg.