Aachener Altar

We do not know the painter's name. He worked in Cologne around 1500 to 1520, one of the last masters of the city's late-Gothic school, and art historians simply call him after this altarpiece, the Master of the Aachen Altar. Opened out, its three panels run the Passion of Christ across them like a continuous story from left to right, the crowning with thorns and Pilate, then the crush of the crucifixion at the centre, and on the right the mourning over the body and the ascension. What sets him apart is the sheer commotion, crowds packed tight, faces sharp and restless, colours kept bright. Aachen Cathedral bought it in 1872 from a Cologne collection.