Of the predecessors of Martin Schongauer, none exerted a greater influence than the MASTER E. S. OF 1466. On the technical side he was the actual creator of engraving as practised in modern times, and was a determining factor in the progress of the art. Even the Italian engravers were unable to withstand it; their Prophets and Sibyls are partly derived from his Evangelists and Apostles, the easy disposition of his draperies furnishing them with models. Over three hundred engravings by the Master E. S. have come down to us, and over a hundred more can be traced through copies by other hands, or as having formed component parts of his two sets of playing cards--the smaller set made up of _Wild Animals_, _Helmets_, _Escutcheons_, and _Flowers_, while the larger set comprises _Men_, _Dogs_, _Birds_, and _Escutcheons_. [Illustration: MASTER E. S. OF 1466. MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS MARGUERITE AND CATHERINE Size of the original engraving, 8⅝ × 6⅜ inches In the Royal Print Room, Dresden] [Illustration: MASTER E. S. OF 1466. ECSTASY OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN Size of the original engraving, 6½ × 5 inches In the Royal Print Room, Dresden] His work shows unmistakably the influence of the Master of the Playing Cards, and we may safely place him in the region of the upper Rhine, probably in the vicinity of Freiburg or Breisach. In the _Madonna and Child with Saints Marguerite and Catherine_ his peculiar qualities and limitations may clearly be seen. The plants and flowers, with which the ground is thickly carpeted, are engraved in firm, clear-cut lines, betokening the trained hand of the goldsmith. The figures and drapery are rendered with delicate single strokes; but in the shaded portions of the wall, back of the Madonna, cross-hatching is skilfully employed. As is the case in nearly all the works of the early German engravers, the laws of perspective are imperfectly understood, but none the less the composition has a charm all its own. The _Ecstasy of St. Mary Magdalen_ is of interest, not only technically and artistically, but because of its influence upon the Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet, who has twice treated the subject, and upon Albrecht Dürer, by whom we have a woodcut seemingly copied from this engraving. Martin Schongauer, likewise, may have profited by the feathered forms of the angels which reappear, somewhat modified, in his engraving of the _Nativity_. The birds and the isolated plants in the foreground still show the influence of the Master of the Playing Cards.