At least two German engravers used this monogram. Nagler identified one monogrammist active in the 15th century (N 2079) and a second in the 16th (N 1850, fl c. 1589). The earlier artist was formerly mistakenly identified as Barthel Schongauer but was probably Berthold Gobel (b 1467), a goldsmith of Frankfurt am Main, who became a citizen in 1495 and was documented there in 1499. This identification, first proposed by Geisberg, was based on an engraving (1490s) with the coat of arms of the Rohrbach-Holzhausen family. Close to fifty engravings by the master are known (see Bartsch, Evans, Passavant, and Lehrs) including seven separate copies after compositions of Martin Schongauer’s engraved Passion cycle in a technique very close to his. The later master, now throught to have been active earlier ( fl c. 1561), has been tentatively identified as Georg Balk; the identification as Georg Brentel ( fl Lauingen, c. 1603) is not generally accepted. Only two engravings by him are recorded: the Martyrdom of St Catherine, a copy after Albrecht Dürer’s composition (B. 120), and Coat of Arms with the Symbols of the Passion (1561; Nuremberg, Ger. Nmus.), with the monogram B. G. in the lower left corner.

Part of the Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists family