( fl first half of 16th century). German draughtsman and etcher. His work was dependent on the Danube school in both style and choice of theme, as in the etching of a Pair of Lovers under a Tree (1538; sold Berne, Gutekunst & Klipstein, 1903). His distinctive stylistic peculiarities bring together a number of previously unassigned compositions, such as the etching in the manner of Jakob Binck of a Seated Naked Woman and Child in Landscape with Town and River (1539; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), or the etching of Samson Supporting the Gates of Gaza (1539; Berlin, Kupferstichkab.). These vary in technique. The hatching on Samson is much softer and less dense, giving greater depth, than the broad, summary treatment of the landscape. The etching technique remains reminiscent of rigid woodcut. The unsigned etching of a Fortified Town on the Water (1536; Kaliningrad, Reg. Local Hist. Mus.) has close stylistic links with the Amsterdam etching. Two unsigned drawings dated 1535 are connected with it—Jonas beneath the Fig Tree on the Hills outside Nineveh (Dresden, Kupferstichkab.) and Daniel in the Lions’ Den (Leiden, Rijksuniv., Pretenkab.): these must have belonged to a series of the Prophets. Two landscape drawings (1527; Haarlem, ex-Koenigs priv. col.; Weimar, Schlossmus.) are also attributed to the Master. His oeuvre suggests an artist mainly attracted by the beauty of the way water and land cut into each other. In this he adopted from the Danube school the elements in which their romantic feeling for nature was expressed: typically, S-shaped curving bridges, winding roads and paths, and the placement of settlements on a riverbank.

Part of the Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists family