Michael Pacher - Early Life

Early Life

Pacher’s exact date of birth is not certain. What is known is that he was born in 1435 near Brixen on the southern slopes of the Alps in the County of Tyrol. The exact date of his birth is of comparative significance; there are credentials which confirm his attendance and actions at several periods of time and in specified regions.

Little is known of his training. The earliest recorded work that of Pacher was an altarpiece that was dated of 1465 and authorized with his signature, but which is now lost. Pacher visited Padua in northern Italy, where he became heavily influenced by the modern fresco work of Andrea Mantegna. Mantegna was considered the renowned master of perspective, whose stunning, low-set standpoint spatial compositions were important to the development of Pacher’s own style. Unlike most German artists of the late 15th century, Pacher’s inclination towards Italian influence set him apart from the rest of his counterparts.

Pacher is documented in 1467 as a distinguished artist/sculptor in Bruneck, some twenty-five miles east of Brixen in the Puster Valley, where he had a workshop for making altarpieces. His incredible skill of wood carving and painting provided him with employment for German style altars. They usually consisted of carved figural centerpieces, carved Gothic summits on top, a platform where the altar stands below, and painted scenes on panel wings. Pacher spent much of his time during the 1470s in Neustift, where his work mainly consisted of painting frescoes. In 1484 he was commissioned to Salzburg by the Franciscan Order, to create an altarpiece, only portions of which are still conserved. Much of Pacher's works have been destroyed or badly damaged, some of them during the hostilities in the late 17th century, others in 1709. His most important surviving works are the St. Wolfgang Altarpiece and the Altarpiece of the Church Fathers.