Stefan Lochner (c. 1410 – c. 1451) was a German painter working in the late International Gothic period. Based in Cologne, he became one of the most important German artists before Albrecht Dürer. His paintings combine the long flowing lines of his period with the brilliant colours, realism, surface textures and innovative iconography of the early Northern Renaissance. His surviving works often feature fanciful blue-winged angels, and consist of single-panel oil paintings, polyptychs and illuminated manuscripts. Records of his life, apart from later records of creditors, end after an outbreak of plague in the city in 1451; it is presumed he died from the epidemic, probably after Christmas. Lochner's identity and reputation were lost until a revival of 15th-century art during the early 19th-century Romantic Period. Echoes of his panels can be seen in works by major 15th-century painters such as Rogier van der Weyden and Hans Memling. (Full article...)