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Master WB
( fl 1586–1612). Swiss stained-glass artist. He signed several stained-glass works with the interlacing monogram WB. There is some debate about his identity. He was probably Wolfgang Breny (Bräni) from a glass-painting family in Rapperswil. For a long time research followed Lehmann’s assumption that Master WB was Wolfgang Bühler (Büler), a glass-painter who settled in Wil in 1585 as a nüwer Schiltbrenner (‘new sign smith’), then moved to Rapperswil and is reported to have died there. Wyss, however, has proved that the Wolfgang Bühler, an associate of Hans Fallenter ( fl c. 1570; d 1612) in Lucerne, who is mentioned in these sources, has no link with the monogrammist WB. His theory, based on an entry in the tax book of Wil (1591, p. 63; see Boesch, 1949, p. 22), is that WB is rather Wolfgang Breny (Bräni) of Rapperswil (d 1613), who signed many panes of glass between 1586 and 1612. In 1586 Master WB made a monogrammed stained-glass panel (Nostell Priory, W. Yorks; Boesch, 1937, no. 38) for Pastor Stössel in Mosnang, and he is attributed with a glass panel (1599; Wragby, St Michael; Boesch, 1937, no. 436) for Pastor Diethelm Uli from Wil in Mosnang. There are records of a commission for a stained-glass panel of the Adoration (1586; priv. col.; Boesch, 1935, no. 25, fig.) from Caspar Spitzly. A heraldic panel of Abbot Joachim Opser with SS Gallus and Othmar (1588; St Gall, Hist. Mus.) and a votive panel (1594; ex-Kstgewmus., Berlin; Schmitz, i, p. 206; ii, pl. 58) belonging to the town clerk Hans Falck, the mayor of Wil and a town councillor, are monogrammed, as is a superb heraldic panel (1605; sold Munich, Gal. Hugo Helbing, 1913) depicting the bishop of Chur with two angels in long robes. Other heraldic panels (Basle, Hist. Mus.; St Gall, Hist. Mus.) are attributed to Master WB.
Part of the Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists family
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