Biography

Painter and woodcut designer, part of a German 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.

Wilhelm Pleydenwurff was son of Hans Pleydenwurff. He was trained in the workshop of his stepfather, Michael Wolgemut, to which he remained attached throughout his short life. He was documented in 1482-83 as having been cautioned for drawing a weapon (he must already have been a journeyman by that date) and mentioned on an equal standing with Wolgemut in contracts of 1487-88, 1491 and 1492, for the pictures in the Weltchronik (Nuremberg, 1493) compiled by Hartmann Schedel.