WERTINGER, Hans

German painter and woodcutter. An artist as ambitious as Lucas Cranach the Elder, he became one of Germany’s first accredited court painters, working for the Dukes of Landshut in the triangular area defined by Ingolstadt, Straubing and Munich. The son of a functionary working for the Dukes, he was probably first taught by a certain Sigmund Gleismüller (c. 1449-1511). Hans Mair (Mair von Landshut), who had come from Augsburg and had settled in Landshut, seems to have prompted him to work as a journeyman in Augsburg. His acquisition of citizen’s rights in Landshut in 1491 suggests he was a master by that date.

Mair seemingly procured him a series of commissions between 1497 and 1499 from Prince Bishop Philipp of Freising (1480-1541). The only work to survive from this period, however, is the large panel of the Life of St Sigismund (1498) in Freising Cathedral. It retains the deep tones associated with Augsburg painting, and its shape, with a pointed arch at the top, must also have been developed in Augsburg. As in Mair’s work, several scenes are assembled in the arch and the side sections, creating a cramped Late Gothic framing architecture, but Wertinger divests this of fantastical elements. The large heads and bulky angular bodies are also typically Late Gothic, yet the scenes of Sigismund’s martyrdom are set out in a peaceful way.

Other early works are glass paintings for windows in St Jakob church, Staubing, and the Heiliggeistkirche, Landshut. A considerable number of paintings and woodcut designs carried out by Wertinger after 1515 have survived. Woodcuts include illustrations for a translation of Sallust, presented to Emperor Maximilian. Wertinger’s court portraits represent an individual contribution to the genre, for example Portrait of ‘Knight Christoph’ (Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza) is an early example of a full-length portrait, whilst that of Duke Ludwig X (1516 ; Munich, Bayerische Nationalmuseum) presents the Duke against a landscape background.