_After Schongauer_. (German-Swabian: 1450-about 1488).
_See also_ (p. xix)
A picture, painted perhaps by Hugo van der Goes, on the
lines of a print by Martin Schongauer, who was known to his
contemporaries as "the glory of painters" and "Martin the
Beautiful." He was born at Colmar, but probably studied under
Roger van der Weyden. By some the picture is ascribed to the
anonymous "Master of Flémalle," a contemporary of Roger van der
Weyden: for whom see a little picture in Room XVI., now (1908)
lent to the Gallery by Mr. Salting.
The "absolute joy in ugliness," which Ruskin finds most strongly
exemplified in some of Schongauer's prints (_Modern Painters_, vol.
iv. pt. v. ch. xix. § 18), is not altogether absent from this picture.
A more unpleasant bedchamber, with its unseemly crowd of fat bustling
apostles (notice the old fellow puffing away at a censer on the left),
it would be hard to conceive. One is glad to escape through the open
window to the pretty little view of the square.