MÄLESSKIRCHER, Gabriel - b. ~1425 ?, d. 1495 München

German painter, active in Bavaria. His work, still distinctive despite considerable losses, forms an important branch of the little-researched Munich school of painting of the later 15th century. He probably trained in the Netherlands.

His most important commission came from his brother-in-law Abbot Konrad Ayrinschmalz (reg 1461-92). This consisted of 13 apparently similar large retables and 2 smaller ones for the newly built nave (1471-76) of the church of the Benedictine monastery of St Quirin at Tegernsee. Archives give names of the patrons of the altars for whom Mälesskircher created the panels, and their years of execution. It can be inferred from the surviving fragments that the original works were winged altarpieces. The altarpieces were painted for the altars of the Virgin (1473); St Quirinus (1474); St Benedict (1475); St Vitus and the Martyr Saints (1476); Virgin Saints (1476); Sts John and Paul (1476); All Souls (1477); Four Doctors of the Church (1477); St Sebastian (1478); St Martin (1478); Four Evangelists (1478); the Three Kings (1478); and the Holy Spirit (1478). The two small panels, which may not have been winged altarpieces, were for the Poor Souls altar and the St Henry altar.

Mälesskircher’s heavy emotional style and his crowded compositions mark him as a pupil of Hans Multscher.

St Luke

This panel forms part of a group of eight which once belonged to an altarpiece in the monastery at Tegernsee. All eight are now in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and depict the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each is depicted on two panels, one, as here, showing the Evangelist in his study, and the other depicting a notable episode from his life: in the case of St Luke, the artist has represented him painting the Virgin. Here St Luke is writing at his desk with his symbol, the bull, at his side, depicted in a realistic way as if it were a domestic pet.