Saints Dorothea, Apollonia and Agatha - wing of an altarpiece

The present lot was the reverse of the right wing of a now dismantled altarpiece. The reverse of the left wing, showing Saints George, Michael and John the Baptist, is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. n007.485, as German (Franconian) School, first half 16th century (A.R. Murphy, European Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - An Illustrated Summary Catalogue, 1985, p. 115, ill.). The attribution to the Master of the Lautenbach High Altar is proposed by Ludwig Meyer. The anonymous Master was, according to K. Willig, Die Lautenbacher Hochaltarflügel, 1931, p.31, probably active in Strassburg. He takes his name from the High Altar in the Pfarr- und Wallfahrts Church in Lautenbach near Strassburg. This altar consists of a central sculpted compartment with painted wings (H. Heid, Wallfahrtskirche Lautenbach i.B., 1968, pp.8-15). The present dismantled altarpiece is likely to have had a sculpted central compartment too. Two further works by the artist are known: the reverse of the wings, representing the Annunciation, of one of the two side-altars that have been preserved in the same Church in Lautenbach (H. Heid, op. cit., p.8), and a panel of the Madonna and Child in the Kunstmuseum, Basel, inv. n0471 (P.H. Boerlin, Das Amerbach-Kabinett - Die Gemälde, exhibition catalogue, 21 April - 21 July 1991, p. 15, no11, ill.). Stylistically the Lautenbach Master has often been associated with Hans Baldung Grien.
Sold with a certificate by L. Meyer, dated 25 January 1999, who dates the present lot to circa 1510/15.

See colour illustration