Relief thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Sculpture 1300-1600, Room 26

Relief

ca. 1500 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The facial features and drapery of this figure of a saint are clues to its origins. They compare closely with those of St Benedict and St Anthony from an altarpiece in Weissenburg, south of Nuremberg. The altarpiece, which would have stood behind the altar in the church, was probably made in a workshop in Nuremberg rather than one in Weissenburg. It may have been made in the workshop of Michael Wohlgemuth, who was active in Nuremberg from the 1430s to 1519.

This figure would have been attached to the inner surface of one of the altarpiece's hinged wings. It follows a conventional scheme common in Nuremberg in about 1500 where three figures were displayed in the middle of the altarpiece and one relief on each wing.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Carved limewood, painted and gilded
Brief description
Relief, a saint. Nuremberg ca. 1500.
Physical description
The standing saint, which formed part of the wing of an altarpiece, holds an open book in his left hand; the right hand is partially broken. The head is tonsured, and he wears a mantle with a hood over the habit and scapular. The attribute once held in the right hand has been lost, and for this reason the identity of the saint cannot be established.
The figure has been carved almost entirely from one block of wood; the back is flat. The right hand was carved separately. Four fingers of it are missing; the thumb is a later addition and the second joint of the first finger of the left hand is damaged. The bridge of the nose has been restored. The lower part of the figure is heavily worm-eaten and has been reinforced at the back with glass-fibre tape; the left side of the base and the tip of the shoe of the right foot are missing. The face and the hands show a natural flesh colour. The cheeks are highlighted witwith red. The eyes are painted with much detail: they and the sockets are of blue-white outlined with brown, and the red tear duct is depicted at the inner corner. White brush strokes on the brown iris and the black pupil represent reflections of light. The hood and the mantle are gilded; the inner surface of the latter was silvered while the habit is painted in dark red-brown with a black scapular decorated with a six-petalled metal rosette. Lozenges of yellow tin foil filled with wax have been applied to the habit; these have now deteriorated. The bookcover with gilded studs is painted with vermilion as is the protruding right foot. The black base was originally finished in silver leaf under a green glaze.
Dimensions
  • Height: 158.8cm
  • Width: 56.5cm
Gallery label
The low relief indicates that this figure was attached to the inner surface of the wing of a large altarpiece. In Nuremberg, altarpieces often had three figures in the round in the centre and a relief on each wing. The saint was possibly a member of the Dominican or Carmelite order.(2010)
Credit line
Given by Mrs Edwin Austin Abbey, London
Object history
Given by Mrs Edwin Austin Abbey, London, in 1911.

Historical significance: At the time of acquisition this relief figure was considered Swabian, and dated to the early sixteenth century. Michael Baxandall first associated it with the mid-Franconian region and suggested an origin in Eichstätt in the first decade of the sixteenth century. He proposed that the Virgin and Child in the Convent of St Walburg in Eichstätt, the Man of Sorrows flanked by the Virgin and St John in the Mariahilfkirche at Berching, and the figures of the Virgin and Child, St Martin and St Lambert in the church of Treuchtlingen were comparable pieces in style and design (ill. in Mader 1912/13, p. 232, 222, 220). However, these sculptures exhibit far more expressive and distinctive composition and drapery styles typical of sculpture produced in Eichstätt around 1500, while the present figure is more analogous to the figure of St Benedict in the corpus and the relief of St Anthony the Abbot on the left wing of the altarpiece of St Sebaldus in the church of St. Andrew in Weißenburg, about 30 miles south of Nuremberg, dated 1496, currently on loan from the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, inv. no. MA 1958. (I am grateful to Rainer Kahsnitz for the latter information. See also Graf 1896, p. 82, no. 1325, pl. XXI; Mader/Gröber 1932, p. 31-2, fig. 21-2). The facial features and the drapery of the present relief are closely comparable with those of St Benedict and St Anthony respectively. The altarpiece in Weißenburg is probably a product of a Nuremberg workshop rather than a local production (Dehio 1976, p. 873), and may have been made by the workshop of Michael Wohlgemuth, who was active in Nuremberg from 1434 to 1519 (Mader/Gröber 1932, p. 38). The present figure would have been attached to the inner surface of a wing following a conventional scheme common in Nuremberg in about 1500 which shows three figures in the corpus and one relief on each wing; see, for example, the altarpiece mentioned above in Weißenburg, and the side-altar in the south nave in the Lutheran church in Ottensoos, about 25km north-east of Nuremberg, of about 1500 (Meyer/Schwemmer 1966, p. 364, ill. 322-3).
Historical context
The low relief indicates that this figure was attached to the inner surface of the wing of a large altarpiece. In Nuremberg, altarpieces often had three figures in the round in the centre and a relief on each wing. The saint was possibly a member of the Dominican or Carmelite order
Subjects depicted
Summary
The facial features and drapery of this figure of a saint are clues to its origins. They compare closely with those of St Benedict and St Anthony from an altarpiece in Weissenburg, south of Nuremberg. The altarpiece, which would have stood behind the altar in the church, was probably made in a workshop in Nuremberg rather than one in Weissenburg. It may have been made in the workshop of Michael Wohlgemuth, who was active in Nuremberg from the 1430s to 1519.

This figure would have been attached to the inner surface of one of the altarpiece's hinged wings. It follows a conventional scheme common in Nuremberg in about 1500 where three figures were displayed in the middle of the altarpiece and one relief on each wing.
Bibliographic references
  • Baxandall, Michael. South German Sculpture 1480-1530. London, 1974, p. 52, no. 12.
  • Jopek, Nobert. German Sculpture 1430-1540: A Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publications, 2002. cat. no. 15. pp. 51-52.
Collection
Accession number
A.24-1921

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Record createdNovember 26, 2002
Record URL
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