Wolgemut, Michael

(1434-1519)

   German painter and engraver, who became the leading artist in Nuremberg and established a large workshop there. He is best known because Albrecht Dürer was his ap-prentice for three years. As a painter, he produced altarpieces in Zwickau and Schwabach, and he probably completed the Hofer Altar-piece (ca. 1485), for which his master Hans Playdenwurff held the commission but had probably left unfinished at his death in 1472. Aside from being Dürer's teacher, Wolgemut is best known for the many engravings he produced for the Nuremberg printing industry. His woodcuts illustrated the Schatzkammer der wahren Reichthümer des Heils / Treasury of the True Riches of Salvation and Der Schrein Od'Schatzbehalter /The Cupboard or Treasure Chest (both 1491) and, most important, the famous Weltchronik / Chronicle of the World by Hartmann Schedel, also known as the Nuremberg Chronicle.