Konrad Witz

Konrad Witz (ca 1400-ca1446) counts among the most radical innovators of painting in the first half of the fifteenth century. While his achievements testify to his knowledge of the Flemish ars nova of his time, they at the same time reveal the extraordinary originality of Witz's hand. The uncontested highlight of his work is the Geneva Saint Peter Altarpiece (1444), which features the New Testament scene of the Miraculous Draft of Fishes embedded in a lifelike view of Lake Geneva - the first topographically accurate, identifiable landscape in the history of German painting.
There is hardly any doubt among researchers that the approximately twenty panels for four commissioned altarpieces were made by Witz himself. All the more diverse, then, are the opinions about his education, career, sphere of influence, and successors. This publication discusses new theses with respect to Witz's artistic background and his influence on late-medieval painting.