Relief in Solnhofen stone depicting an allegory of the Death of Jakob Philipp Adler of Augsburg, German, 1553

Allegorical relief, a sleeping warrior crowned by a Virtue. To the left beneath the trunk of a tree is a seated figure os a woman in a 16th century costume holding a wreath over the head of a sleeping warrior who lies before her, his head resting on her lap; before him on the ground is his armour, behind him his dog. The landscape shows buildings and a distant town on the banks of a river. Above is a rising eagle and the sun.

It was originally in the Spitzer Collection where it formed the reverse of a medallion bearing a portrait of Jacob Philip Adler, and the date 1553. By the time of the Spitzer sale in 1893 this medallion had been sawn into two and the halves became separated, the obverse with the portrait passing into the Wernher Collection and the reverse going into the Rosenheim and ultimately the Oppenheimer Collection. The obverse was for a time lent to the Museum by Lady Ludlow and the two halves were thus temporarily brought together once again.

This relief was originally part of a two-sided medallion commemorating the death of Jakob Philip Adler of Augsberg, who died in 1553. It is to his death in that year that this allegory alludes. The medallion was formerly in the Spitzer collection in Paris and by 1891 it had been sawn into two, and the halves became separated at the sale in 1893.

A.20-1936