St. Christopher

Konrad Witz (ca.1400/1410 – winter 1445/spring 1446) was a German and Swiss painter, active mainly in Basel.

He was born probably in Rottweil, Germany. In 1434 he entered the painters’ guild in Basel, where he worked most of his life. On 10 January 1435 he acquired Basel citizenship. Sometime afterward he married Ursula Treyger, a niece of the painter Nikolaus Ruesch. Witz is recorded as dead in a document of 1446.

His 1444 panel The Miraculous Draft of Fishes (a portion of a lost altarpiece) has been credited as the earliest extant faithful portrayal of a landscape in European art history, being based on observation of real topographical features.

Witz is most famous for painting three altarpieces, all of which survive only partially. The earliest is the Heilspiegel Altarpiece of about 1435, which today is mostly in the Kunstmuseum, Basel, and with isolated panels in other collections. The next is the Altarpiece of the Virgin (c. 1440), which has been associated with panels now in Basel, Nuremberg, and Strasbourg (Saint Madeleine and Saint Catherine, Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame). Witz's final altarpiece is the St. Peter Altarpiece of 1444, painted for St.