old master

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A distinguished European artist of the period from about 1500 to the early 1700s, especially one of the great painters of this period.
• noun A work created by one of these artists.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a great European painter prior to 19th century