Temperance thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Sculpture, Room 111, The Gilbert Bayes Gallery

Temperance

Relief
1548 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

For some sculptural commissions, a leading artist such as Giambologna made only the model and the work was executed by others. Ideas were also transmitted by terracotta models, plaquettes and engravings, as well as by decorative objects for which sculptors had provided designs. Peisser probably made this relief as a model for a silver roundel. He based the composition on Peter Flötner's lead roundel of Temperance (see inv.no. A.29-1954). It was possibly one of a set of Virtues decorating a cabinet. However, in the seventeenth century, a smaller roundel by Peisser, also depicting Temperance, was in the celebrated collection of Paul Praun in Nuremberg. This suggests that the relief was regarded purely as a Kunstkammer object.

Hans Peisser (ca. 1503-ca. 1571) was active as a woodcarver and architect in Nuremberg and Prague. He carved monumental wood figures for altarpieces, along with small-scale wood models for plaquettes and bronze figures.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleTemperance (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Carved Solnhofen limestone
Brief description
Stone relief depicting Temperance, made by Hans Peisser, Germany (Nuremberg), signed and dated 1548.
Physical description
The relief is signed and dated on the bottom. And there are some inscriptions on the reverse.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 13.9cm
Content description
The roundel shows the female figure of Temperance, pouring water into a dish of wine, situated in a pastoral landscape.
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'IOH. PEIS 1548' (obverse)
  • '15 [?] 48 J. PEIS' (reverse, in pencil)
  • '1004 it[em]' (reverse, in black ink)
  • 'Jean Peisser / Speckstein=Kehlheimer Stein/ ..vin fitter..illegible..., espece de/medallion en ornem...Marmor/calcaire paste a grain fins, employee par/ Veit Stoβ ornamentaliste de Nuremberg/ en activite du 1500 epoque laquelle/leurs ouvrages presentant un caractere/ d'originalite tout particulier' (reverse, on label in black ink)
  • 'Voir le catalogue de De Bruge' (reverse, at the bottom of the label in red ink)
  • 'Medallion rond sur pierre de / Kehlheim, Hebe...Jean / Peis-1548' (reverse, on a cutting obviously from a French 19th century sale catalogue)
Object history
Bought from Rainer Zietz Limited, London, for £6500, in 1992.
Subjects depicted
Summary
For some sculptural commissions, a leading artist such as Giambologna made only the model and the work was executed by others. Ideas were also transmitted by terracotta models, plaquettes and engravings, as well as by decorative objects for which sculptors had provided designs. Peisser probably made this relief as a model for a silver roundel. He based the composition on Peter Flötner's lead roundel of Temperance (see inv.no. A.29-1954). It was possibly one of a set of Virtues decorating a cabinet. However, in the seventeenth century, a smaller roundel by Peisser, also depicting Temperance, was in the celebrated collection of Paul Praun in Nuremberg. This suggests that the relief was regarded purely as a Kunstkammer object.

Hans Peisser (ca. 1503-ca. 1571) was active as a woodcarver and architect in Nuremberg and Prague. He carved monumental wood figures for altarpieces, along with small-scale wood models for plaquettes and bronze figures.
Bibliographic reference
Williamson, Paul, “Acquisition of Sculpture at the Victoria & Albert Museum, 1992-1999”, in: Burlington Magazine, Dec. 1999, CXLI, p. 784, fig. V.
Collection
Accession number
A.4-1992

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Record createdMarch 4, 2004
Record URL
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