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| WFU
165
Master MZ The Succession Dispute Among the King’s Sons Engraving, ca. 1500. 9 1/2" x 6 3/4" |
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| Master
MZ, an artist active in the years around 1500, is known only for 22 engravings.1
The initials "MZ" have prompted many scholars to hypothesize on the true
identity of the artist. At least four names have been suggested including
Martin Sink, Martin Zatzinger, Mathias Zingel, and Mattäus Zazinger,
but concrete evidence does not support any theory.2 The area in which he
worked is also unclear, stylistic evidence in his prints points to the
city of Munich as the place in which he did most of his work.
Master MZ worked in a very transitional period in German art. Around 1500, the influence of Dürer on artists working in Nuremberg and, indeed, in all of Germany, was a major factor in the styles that began to develop. Master MZ shows that he, too, was influenced by Dürer’s engravings of the 1490’s; this is evident in the attention to detail, the flowing lines, and the light landscapes in the backgrounds. He was also influenced by artists working in southern Bavaria and Austria.3 There is no known information about the training Master MZ may have had. His prints show that he had a firm understanding of the technique of engraving, but in formal matters, his prints are not very graceful. In many of his works, his handling of perspective is skewed, and he has a tendency to make figures in the foreground smaller than those in the background.4 The print in the Wake Forest collection is one of Master MZ’s secular prints; these constituted about half of his work. The subject of the engraving is a succession dispute among three sons for the right to sit on their father’s throne. On the event of the king’s death, the sons are told through his will that the sons should decide who inherits the throne by shooting their dead father’s body through with arrows. The son who gets closest to the heart would be the undisputed heir to the throne. The two eldest sons carry out the order, and shoot arrows into the body of their father. The youngest son, however, cannot do it because of the moral dilemma he feels. He forgoes his right to the kingdom rather than retaining the scar of having shot his father, even when dead. The conclusion of the story is that the youngest son, by not doing the deed, followed the true wishes of his father, and earned the title of king. In the print, the young son kneels on the right, receiving his "insignia of loyalty".5 The story, for a long time mistitled The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, comes from a thirteenth century book, Gesta Romanorum, a collection of moralizing stories. The first German edition was printed in 1489 and would have been popular around the time of MZ’s print.6 This version of the story follows the tradition of having King Solomon create the test that will determine the successor. Therefore, he is seen in the print as the turbaned man on horseback, witnessing the trial.7 K.H. 1.
Andersson and Talbot, 1983, 312.
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