Birthplace: Colmar, Alsance, France Location of death: Breisach,
Baden, Germany Cause of death: unspecified Religion: Roman
Catholic Race or Ethnicity: White Occupation: Engraver, Painter
Executive summary: The Wise and Foolish Virgins Martin
Schongauer, or Schön, the most able engraver and painter of the
early German school. His father was a goldsmith named Casper, a
native of Augsburg, who had settled at Colmar, where the chief
part of Martin's life was spent. Schongauer established at
Colmar a very important school of engraving, out of which grew
the "little masters" of the succeeding generation, and a large
group of Nuremberg artists. As a painter, Schongauer was a pupil
of the Flemish Rogier van der Weyden the Elder, and his rare
existing pictures closely resemble, both in splendor of color
and exquisite minuteness of execution, the best works of
contemporary art in Flanders. Among the very few paintings which
can with certainty be attributed to him, the chief is a
magnificent altarpiece in the church of