Mair von Landshut

Mair von Landshut (active c. 1485–1504 or later) was a German engraver, painter, and designer of woodcuts, who worked in Bavaria.

What his prints lack in terms of drawing and technique, compared to Martin Schongauer or Israhel van Meckenem further north and some years earlier, they often make up for in being "imaginative and charming".

He may have come there to help Jan Polack, the leading Munich painter of the day, with his large "Saint Peter Altarpiece", two panels of which are attributed to Mair.

[9] George the Rich, the last Duke of Bavaria-Landshut, maintained a famously lavish court at Landshut, until his death without a male heir in 1503 brought disaster to the area, with the Imperial armies of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor devastating it in the War of the Succession of Landshut (1503–05).

"[14] Apart from conventional religious scenes, which often also have the fanciful architectural settings, there are engravings of couples and some unusual and original images, combining glamorous figures with a moralizing theme.

His Annunciation, surviving in a unique impression in Washington, "is remarkable for its ambitious but confused perspective, apparently the result of a desire to reference a number of rather complex theological issues".

[15] Some engravings survive in conventional black on white examples, and ones printed on paper "prepared", or tinted with watercolour (as in the Sampson and Delilah illustrated), and sometimes painted highlights as well (as in the St Catherine at top).

[16] Another impression of the Sampson and Delilah, in Vienna, is printed on brown prepared paper with brushed-in highlights in white and yellow.