Polack’s exact date and place of birth are not known. He probably did not come from Poland, as has long been supposed, but from Bavaria, perhaps even Munich. There is evidence for him in artworks and documentary sources from 1477 onwards. Around 1479, he set up his own workshop, and before 1484 he married a woman who was no doubt the daughter of a glass-painter. In 1485, he is named as one of the leaders of the Guild of St Luke, and after the deaths of his father-in-law and brother-in-law collaborated with the glazier Winhart. In 1515, the two were still receiving payments together, for the glazing of an in – the painter Polack for the designs and the glazier Winhard for the execution.

Bibliography

Peter B. Steiner and Claus Grimm (eds), Jan Polack: Von der Zeichnung zum Bild, Malerei und Maltechnik in München um 1500, Munich, 2004.
This was published at the same time as the eponymous exhibition in the diocesan museum in Freising (29 October 2004 – 6 February 2005) and the production of the accompanying records at the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich.

Wikipedia - Jan Polack