Friedrich Pacher

Only one surviving picture carries Friedrich Pacher's signature. It is a Baptism of Christ dated 1483, painted for the hospital church of the Holy Spirit in Brixen, in South Tyrol, and now in Bavaria. Everything else under his name, including the two works in the Belvedere, is attributed by comparison with it, and his own hand cannot always be told apart from that of his circle.

He most likely came from Neustift, the Augustinian monastery near Brixen, and started as an assistant to Michael Pacher, the leading Tyrolean painter and carver of altarpieces. Whether the two were related is not known. By about 1478 Friedrich had his own workshop in Bruneck, the town where Michael also worked. He owned a house there, served as church provost from 1489 to 1492, and was town judge from 1503 until his death in 1508.

The Belvedere's pieces show the range of a late Gothic workshop. One is an altarpiece wing painted with Saint Sebastian on both faces. The other, from the 1480s, is a Throne of Mercy, God the Father holding the crucified Son, flanked by Saint Mark and Saint Anthony the Hermit and still in its original frame.