Johann Koerbecke

Johann Koerbecke (c. 1415–1491) was a Gothic painter of the Westphalian school and the first painter from Westphalia who can be named. He was born in Coesfeld or Münster and probably trained with his father, Heinrich, whose house in Münster he took over with his wife in 1443. Documents from 1453 to 1484 show him as a well-placed citizen there, and he died in Münster in 1491. He was the first painter in the region to use the Netherlandish manner introduced by Robert Campin, with bright colour, close attention to detail and individually characterised heads. His principal work is the sixteen wing panels of the Marienfeld Altarpiece of 1457, painted for Marienfeld Abbey and scattered after the abbey was dissolved in 1803. Six are in the Westphalian State Museum and the rest in collections from Moscow to Chicago. Here: The Ascension.