Master MZ
[3] Technically, his style is characterized by rather weak drawing of figures and shaky perspective, but "delicate and spontaneous burin work", and a great interest in effects of light.
[7] Such effects are often exploited for an artistic purpose; in the Idolatry of Solomon the "huge" pagan wife towers over the kneeling king, and seems too tall for the room they are in.
In that print a couple on the balcony at top centre may also represent the duke and duchess, and the coat of arms of Bavaria appear below the date on a shop front at right.
[9] A preliminary drawing in chalk exists for two of the horsemen at lower right in the Tournament, which has a "spontaneous quality" lacking in the "awkward draftsmanship" in the engraving.
This may be an illicit embrace, whether between lovers or a courtesan and her client, the last perhaps suggested by "the woman's off-the-shoulder dress and long, loose hair".
[13] Some scholars consider that details such as the "open cupboard and unlocked door", the "door-fastening which is suggestive of a phallic symbol" and the mirror are references to an irregular sexual encounter,[14] though others downplay the significance of these.
Joachim von Sandrart included MZ in his Teutsche Academie of 1675, suggesting the initials stood for Martin Zink, Zatzinger or Zasinger.
Little is known about Master MS, who is thought to have been German, but was apparently mainly active in Banská Štiavnica in modern Slovakia, a few years after the dates on MZ's engravings.
[24] Jane Campbell Hutchison concludes her discussion "For this and other reasons, it seems prudent to retain the monogram MZ as the artist's designation",[25] and the British Museum's online biographical note says "None of these or other proposed identities is yet persuasive.
"[26] Albrecht Dürer established his workshop in Nuremberg on his return from Italy in 1495, and was quickly producing woodcuts and engravings of exceptional quality.
Their biographical details are about equally unknown, but both were probably mainly painters; unlike MZ (unless he is also Master MS), several surviving paintings are attributed to Mair.
Mair likes to give his figures a setting in complicated and "fantastic architectural spaces, with walls joining at the most unlikely angles.
[30] They probably kept an eye on each other; it is unlikely to be coincidence that they both made engravings of the obscure subject of the story of The Dead King and his Three Sons, the only early prints of it that Wolfgang Stechow could find in his study.
[32] With MZ it is his free burin technique, and "his spontaneity in the rendering of light emanating from a multitude of sources and producing reflexes and rich shimmering shadows".
This brought disaster to the area, with the Imperial armies of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and brother-in-law of Duke Albert of Munich, devastating parts of it in the War of the Succession of Landshut (1503–05).
