master

In Western art history, broadly any artist of outstanding ability (the old masters). Historically the term meant an artist with a studio workshop employing pupils, such as the European painters of the 13th–17th centuries.

‘Master of’ followed by the title of a painting (or a descriptive term, such as Master of the Female Half-Lengths) roughly establishes the personalities of a number of anonymous artists, known only, or mainly, by works thus cited.

‘Master’ also meant an artist admitted to a painters' guild, as in the Dutch and Flemish centres of art, a ‘masterpiece’ being any piece of work that proved competence.

The term ‘little masters’ applies, strictly, not to minor artists necessarily but to those working on a small scale.