It has been 500 years since an anonymous German artist finished off an exquisite engraving of the Madonna enthroned with eight angels, then added the date 1467 and the inscrutable initials E.S. To this day, nobody knows his identity. Some scholars believe he was Egidius Steclin, a 15th century goldsmith who worked in the Duke of Burgundy's court. Others insist that he was Erwin von Stege, onetime mintmaster to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. Or, as one archivist suggests, was he really Endres Silbernagel, an obscure Freiburg painter who died of the plague in 1503?
Whoever he was, Master...
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