Monogrammist BB [Master of the Augsburg Portraits of Painters]
( fl 150215). German draughtsman and painter. Twenty portrait drawings (150215) and an oil portrait (1505) are connected by the monogram BB, perhaps denoting Barthel Beham, added at a considerably later date. The majority of the subjects (twelve, Berlin, Kupferstichkab.; two, Hamburg, Ksthalle; one, Weimar, Schlossmus.; four, Gdansk, N. Mus.; one, Copenhagen, Stat. Mus. Kst) are artists and their apprentices, fourteen named and their place of origin noted. Since some of the subjects have been identified as Augsburg figures, it has been supposed that the series was commissioned or preserved by the Augsburg guild of painters. In comparison with portrait studies by Hans Holbein (i), these portraits, all reflecting the impact of the Renaissance, display a stylistic approach and diversity indicating one or more artists of the younger generation. Definite ascription has not proved possible; the greater number are stylistically congruous and resemble the work of Leonhard Beck, to whom the whole series has been ascribed (Winkler). The oil painting, however, is clearly by a lesser hand.
Part of the Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists family
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