# Altarpiece \(detail\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MASTER H.L.]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Wood ## Commentary Master H.L. carried the tension and instability of lines to their peak. His monogram appears on several prints dated from 1511 to 1522 as well as on the Breisach altarpiece, completed in 1526, without our being able to ascertain whether this engraver was also the sculptor or merely the designer of the carvings. And his training remains equally obscure, since the manner of this sculptor, who has affinities with Danubian art, is strikingly original. The swirling eddies of the clothing, hair, vegetation and clouds tend to submerge the figures in the Breisach Coronation of the Virgin and completely fill the area of the shrine. But extravagance here is restrained with supreme mastery. The intricacy of the forms does not weaken the expressive force, and the overall view of the work is never blurred by excessive ornament. The picture shows God the Father, a detail of the Coronation of the Virgin on the centre panel of the altarpiece. ## Related artworks - [Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Altarpiece]() - [Coronation of the Virgin \(detail\)]() - [Coronation of the Virgin]() - [St Christopher]() - [St Michael Weighing Souls; Baptism of Christ]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()