Workshop of Master MS
Kingdom of Hungary · Late Gothic
The story
Master MS is known by the initials he painted on a high altarpiece made in 1506 for the Church of Saint Catherine in Selmecbánya, today Banská Štiavnica in Slovakia. Its panels are now divided between the Christian Museum in Esztergom and the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest. He is sometimes identified with a painter called Marten Swarcz, though that remains a proposal. The label Workshop of Master MS is used for pictures painted by assistants working with him or from his models.
The Belvedere in Vienna uses this name for the Miraculous Healing of a Leg by Saints Cosmas and Damian. It was long given to an anonymous Viennese painter nicknamed the Master of the Legend Scenes. Recent research, discussed at a 2025 conference at the Belvedere, connects it with Master MS and argues that he worked in Vienna. The panel was painted on wood, later transferred to canvas, and came to the Belvedere from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in 1953.
