(1484–1530) attributed to, Two lovers, inscribed and dated „N. Manuel 1522“ at lower left margin, pen and black ink, heightened with white, on greyish green paper, 16 x 13.8 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Niklaus Manuel called Deutsch was a Swiss painter, draftsman and poet who created numerous drawings for sculpture, architecture, woodcut, goldwork, altar paintings and other paintings. Significant dates about his life are known to us only from 1509 onwards; about his youth and his education is not known anything. As a painter and woodcut artist he was influenced by the Italian Renaissance and by Dürer. Apart from Hans Holbein he was the most important representative of Renaissance painting on Swiss soil. His colourful paintings with their linear movements mostly show mythological or biblical scenes; as a stained glass painter he was influenced by Hans Baldung. His most famous work was a danse macabre on the southern 100 meters long wall of the churchyard of the Dominican monastery in Berne, which he executed from 1516/17 to 1519/20. It was destroyed on the occasion of the destruction of the wall in 1660. Niklaus Manuel was also active as a master builder and responsible for the construction of the net vault in the choir of the minster of Berne. The Schweizerische Institut für Kunstwissenschaft in Zürich is preparing a catalogue raisonné of the artist.