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There is definite charm in the naïveté of Master Bertram's compositions of the Grabow altarpiece panels. In the Annunciation, the figure of God the Father dissolves in the golden background, his features lightly sketched in red, suggesting his pure being. Gabriel has a modeled head seen in harsh profile, but his mantle merges with the gold and modeled with the same soft red tints. The tiny figure of a nude infant carrying a cross follows the dove of the Holy Ghost dispatched by the Father in heaven.
Master Bertam's childlike style had an immediate impact on the artists of Hamburg and its environs that lasted for two generations, after which the style of another artists who settled in Hamburg from the Lower Rhine, master Francke, became the model for North German painters.
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