German painter. active in Swabia. His few surviving paintings show him to have been closer in spirit to Grünewald than practically any of his contemporaries. The most important is the Herrenberg Altarpiece (Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, 1519), which has some harrowing Passion scenes. Ratgeb himself met a gruesome end - executed at Pforzheim for his part in the Peasants' War. //