Two main altarpieces attributed to Master Francke,…

Two main altarpieces attributed to Master Francke, a painter in the Gothic international style, survive, dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury and Saint Barbara, in an unusually intense style, showing awareness of French and Early Netherlandish court art. (The rather earlier St. Barbara Altarpiece may have been commissioned for Finland, where it surfaced a century ago.)

He probably arrived in Hamburg after the death in 1415 of the previous leading artist there, Master Bertram, and shows little or no influence from him, but he may have been influenced by the more courtly style of Conrad von Soest, about ten years older than Francke, who worked to the south in Westphalia.

Master Francke displays the influence of the Limbourg Brothers’ Burgundian naturalism in his Saint Barbara Altarpiece, executed before 1424 in a style that combines elegant, stylized forms with realistic detail, particularly in the clothing and the physiognomy of the figures.

The "Barbara Altar" has also eight scenes, on both sides of the wings to a carved wood central panel by another artist.

At least two other panels are in museum collections.