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Ostendorfer, Michael
( fl Regensburg, 1520; d Regensburg, ?14 Dec 1549). German painter, draughtsman and woodcut designer. He was first mentioned as a master and citizen of Regensburg in 1520. At about the same time he produced his earliest surviving work, including two large woodcuts, the Pilgrimage to the Church of the Beautiful Virgin of Regensburg (Geisberg, no. 967; see fig.) and the New Church of the Beautiful Virgin [G 968]. These establish an association with Albrecht Altdorfer, who clearly exercised a strong influence on him from the beginning and who may have trained him (see WOODCUT, §II, 3). The former woodcut outstandingly illustrates the sort of religious hysteria that Luther among others was to decry, prompted by reports of hundreds of miracles happening at a church built on the site of a synagogue after the expulsion of Jews from Regensburg in 1519. Another woodcut by Ostendorfer served as title-page to a book listing these miracles, Wunderberliche czaychen vergangenen Jars beschehen in Regenspurg tzur der Schönen Maria (Regensburg, 1522) but was also printed separately as a memento for sale to pilgrims. In the New Church of the Beautiful Virgin Ostendorfer represented the stone version of the church that was to replace the temporary structure shown in the other woodcut. However, the construction of the stone church, as designed by Hans Hieber, never progressed beyond the choir, and Ostendorfer based his depiction on the architect’s wooden model (Regensburg, Stadtmus.). He was also paid to portray figures of saints on the buttresses of the wooden model. These were to serve as designs for never-executed sculptures on the church; 32 of the original 40 figures painted in grisaille are still visible.
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