Conrad von Soest

Conrad von Soest, also Konrad in modern texts, or in Middle High German Conrad van Sost or "von Soyst", (born around 1370 in Dortmund; died soon after 1422) was the most significant Westphalian artist and painted in the so-called soft style of International Gothic. He played a leading role in the introduction of this International Courtly Style to Northern Germany around 1390 and influenced German and Northern European painting into the late 15th century. He was the master of a thriving workshop and was accepted into the social circle of the cosmopolitan patrician elite of Dortmund. Dortmund was then a leading and very prosperous member of the influential Hanseatic League.

Works

Conrad von Soest's main surviving works are influenced by French illuminated manuscripts and certain early Parisian examples of Early Netherlandish painting; his detailed knowledge of Parisian patterns and techniques points towards a sojourn in Paris as a journeyman in the 1380s: Niederwildungen Altarpiece, a Crucifixion Altarpiece in the protestant Stadtkirche of Bad Wildungen: large winged altarpiece, originally dated 1403. It shows scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Passion of Christ, including the oldest known depiction of glasses north of the Alps. A contemporary local chronicle (rubbed condition) is written on the reverse side of the central panel. The predella is missing. Panel from a small portable altarpiece for the Dortmund family of Berswordt with a depiction of "St. Paul" and with "Reinoldus" as a knight on the reverse side, dated to 1404, Alte Pinakothek Munich. Two small panels, showing "St. Odilia" and "St. Dorothea", painted around 1410, Westf. Landesmusem Münster. Marienaltar, a large triptych with scenes from the Life of the Virgin, in the Marienkirche at Dortmund, dated to around 1420. The three panels have been cut in 1720 to fit into a huge baroque framework but are now reassembled in a modern framework. The lunette and predella of the altarpiece are lost. Attributed: Nikolaustafel, a panel showing St. Nikolas, Nikolai Chapel at Soest.

Life