The Master of the Rimini Altarpiece (active c. 1410-1440) and workshop
In the late 1920s the German art historian and founding director of Frankfurt’s Liebieghaus museum, Georg Swarzenski, first coined the name ‘The Master of Rimini’ to identify an anonymous artist now thought to have worked in the Southern Netherlands during the second quarter of the 15th century. Our focus this week is on a sculpted figure of Saint John carved by the Master and his workshop as part of a larger altarpiece depicting the Crucifixion. Swarzenski purchased this very figure for his own private collection in 1913, the same year he acquired the famous Rimini Altar for his beloved Liebieghaus. We are delighted to be taking a closer look into the history of this magnificent sculpture, and exploring the story of an artist who has rightly become the most celebrated alabaster carver of the Middle Ages.
