MASTER FRANCKE
(early 15th century, active in Hamburg)

Vir Dolorum (Man of Sorrows)

c. 1430
Panel, 92,5 x 67 cm
Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Master Francke (or Frater Francke), the great solitary Hamburg pioneer of German painting in the fifteenth century, returned to the theme of the Man of Sorrows at the end of his career in the famous work in Hamburg. The realism and knowledge of anatomy which he exhibits here cannot yet be seen in the early version of Leipzig (c. 1420).