ANTON WOENSAM (?WORMS 1493/6-1541 COLOGNE)

Little is known about the German painter and woodcutter Anton Woensam. He was probably born in Worms, hence his moniker, Anton von Worms. He worked most of his life in Cologne, where he was the most important woodcutter in the first half of the sixteenth century. His first known work is a triptych of circa 1520, that probably once decorated an altar in the church of St. Gereon, parts of which can now be found in the Klerikalmuseum, Freising, and the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. He left behind the decorative style typical for the late Gothic period seen in his early works, as he developed a mature style influenced by the artists Joos van Cleve, Albrecht Dürer and, Woensam's Cologne contemporary, Barthel Bruyn. Fewer than fifty paintings can be attributed to him today.