UNKNOWN MASTER, German
(active 1460-1480 in Cologne)

Sts Anne, Christopher, Gereon and Peter

c. 1480
Oak, 133,3 x 146,7 cm
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne

The panel is clearly divided into two zones: in the foreground are St Christopher as patron saint of shippers and merchants, St Gereon as patron saint of Cologne, St Peter as patron saint of Cologne cathedral and St Anne. In the upper section of the painting is a panorama of the city of Cologne, from the Bayenturm in the south to St Kunibert in the north. The view of the city is extraordinarily accurate. The panel may well have been commissioned after Cologne had become a free town of the Empire (1475) and may document the city's self-consciousness. The artist appears to have been a follower of the school of Stefan Lochner and his style shows a Netherlandish training in its realistic detail.

The artist of the panel is referred to as the Master of the Assumption.