Bernt Notke
He probably also learned how to divide the labour in a workshop in a contemporary way there, as several of his own works were large, communal undertakings (see below).
He was in Stockholm for a prolonged period 1491 – 1497, during which time he for three years held the office of mint master of the realm in Sweden, but he left the city after the end of the regency of Sten Sture the Elder.
The main type of artwork produced by the workshop of Bernt Notke was altarpieces, incorporating both sculptures and painting.
[4] It has been pointed out that already the first work known to have been made by Notke (between 1463 – 1466) is of unusual character: it was a 2 metres (6.6 ft) high and at least 26 metres (85 ft) long tapestry depicting the popular late medieval motif of the Danse Macabre (the dance of Death), made for a chapel of St. Mary's Church in Lübeck.
[2][6] A second Danse Macabre, made at approximately the same time as the one in Lübeck, survives in part (c. 7 metres (23 ft)) Tallinn (Estonia), in St. Nicholas' Church.
[2][6] In 1470 – 1478, Notke executed a very large sculpture group, a so-called triumphal cross (in English sometimes referred to as a rood) for display in Lübeck Cathedral.
As with the Lübeck triumphal cross, it was commissioned by an important member of the clergy, bishop Jens Iversen (Lange) [da].
Influences from the early Northern Renaissance that began to spread from the Low Countries at this time can be traced in the realistic portraiture of some of the sculptures.
[2][3] Another lavish altarpiece made by Notke is that of the Church of the Holy Ghost in Tallinn (Estonia), finished in 1483.
It can be safely attributed to Notke also due to the fact that several letters by his hand have been preserved, in which he asks for the delayed payment for the altarpiece.
The altarpiece is considerably more modest at a height of 3.5 metres (11 ft), but it is significant in that it is the earliest altarpiece in the Baltic region where the central panel is not a formal line-up of saints but rather depicts a biblical scene, in this case the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Mary.
The statue inspired numerous other (albeit less elaborate) wooden depictions of the same subject in Sweden, Finland and Germany.
The altarpiece in Rytterne Church in Västmanland in Sweden has also been attributed to Bernt Notke; it displays the Mass of Saint Gregory in an unusually realistic way.
Made in c. 1471, this colossal altarpiece dedicated to St. Eric probably helped establish Notke's reputation in Scandinavia.
[6] Jan Svanberg calls him one of the greatest late Gothic artists in Europe and considers especially the Saint George and the Dragon in Stockholm and the triumphal cross in Lübeck to be among the masterpieces of European sculpture.
