Benedikt Dreyer
German artist (1495-1555)

Benedikt Dreyer (born before 1495 - died after 1555) was a German sculptor, carver and painter working in Lübeck.
Dreyer was an apprentice in Lüneburg (1506–1507), and was a house owner in Lübeck until 1555, according to the land register.
He made a Gothic altar (1522), the "Antonius altar" from Burg Church in Lübeck, which is part of the remarkable collection of medieval art in the St. Annen Museum in Lübeck. Another altar also in the same museum is attributed to him: the "Last Judgment" altar from Tramm Church in the district of Lauenburg.
Another altar attributed to Dreyer, that from Birket Church in Lolland, is in the collection of The National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen.
Attributed to him also is "God the Father with the Dead Christ" (1513–20) at Heiligengeist Hospital in Lübeck.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Benedikt Dreyer” is german artist (1495-1555). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Benedikt, Dreyer and German, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q567325. VIAF identifies the subject as 67561751. The Library of Congress control number is no2008020729. 3 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1495, 1555, 1506 and 1507.
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This entry incorporates text from “Benedikt Dreyer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.