Master of the Playing Cards

The Master of the Playing Cards was the first major master in the history of printmaking. He was a German (or conceivably Swiss) engraver, and probably also a painter, active in southwestern Germany from the 1430s to the 1450s, who has been called "the first personality in the history of engraving." Various attempts to identify him have not been generally accepted, so he remains known only through his 106 engravings, which include the set of playing cards in five suits from which he takes his name. The majority of the set survives in unique impressions, most of which are in the Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. A further eighty-eight engravings are regarded as sufficiently close to his style to be by his pupils.

It has long been recognised that his style was closely related to that of paintings from south-western Germany and Switzerland in the period 1430-50, by artists of whom the best known is Konrad Witz. In addition the Alpine cyclamen very frequently appears in the engravings. Although an identification proposed by Leo Baer of him with Witz has not been accepted, he does appear to have been trained as an artist rather than a goldsmith like many early engravers. His prints show an engraving technique closely related to drawing, with forms conceived in three dimensions and delicately modeled; engravers trained as goldsmiths, such as Master E. S. or Israhel van Meckenem, have a different set of stylistic conventions. His shading is mostly parallel vertical lines, and cross-hatching is rare.

Apart from comparisons with paintings, the start of his period of activity can only be dated to before 1446 by a dated print by his presumed pupil the Master of 1446. The fact that he had a mature pupil suggests that he himself had been active for many years by that date.

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