Rueland Frueauf the Elder, documented in Salzburg and Passau between 1470 and 1507, is one of the most significant Late Gothic painters in the German speaking area. His major work consists of eight large altar panels painted around 1490/91 for a Salzburg church. Having undergone comprehensive restoration during the past few years, they will be in the centre of a focus exhibition at the Upper Belvedere from 23 November 2017 to 18 March 2018.

Besides the œuvre of Frueauf the Elder, which is owned by the Belvedere almost in its entirety, the show will include selected works by artists from Frueauf’s circle, such as by the Master of Großgmain, and, thanks to a generous loan from Klosterneuburg Monastery, the work of Frueauf’s son, Rueland Frueauf the Younger. What will be the first juxtaposition of the father’s output with that of Frueauf the Younger will allow for an in-depth comparison of the two painters. The exhibition will provide impetus with a view to tackling numerous unsolved problems related to the Frueauf circle.

Additional insight will also be supplied by art technological analysis that has been carried out in the course of the restoration of the Salzburg altar panels. Further works of the Frueauf group still await examination. The findings of all of these analyses will be presented in the exhibition and will also be disclosed in a scientific catalogue accompanying the show, which will be the first monographic publication on Rueland Frueauf in more than seventy years.