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拍品專文
We are grateful to Ludwig Meyer for suggesting an attribution to the School of the Allgäu, perhaps to a workshop on the Bodensee, and a dating in the last third of the fifteenth century. Meyer notes that this work once belonged to set of at least eight panels depicting the Life of Saint Mary Magdalene (six of approximately 84 x 84 cm., two of approximately 82 x 39 cm.), which were dispersed in a Viennese auction in 1922. The six panels of square format, including the present work, came into the possession of Heinrich Neuerburg, and were subsequently further dispersed: two, God the Father appearing to a sleeping priest and The Communion of the Magdalen, were published as new acquisitions of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (perhaps erroneously under the year 1921; see Münchner Jahrbuch, 1926, pp. 376 and 378, fig. 8); the Assumption of Saint Mary Magdalene entered the Mittelrhein-Museum, Koblenz, by 1958 (when it was published by Alfred Stange, Deutsche Malerei der Gothik, VII, p. 95); the Raising of Lazarus appeared at Fischer, Lucerne, 25-26 June 1976, lot 355, and was subsequently in the Walter Steinmetz collection, Darmstadt. The two vertical panels were last recorded in the collection of John Hunt, Kilmallock, Ireland.
The Müncher Jahrbuch praised the style of the works as remarkable for the delicacy of their colouring and the intensity of expression they exhibit ('durch die delikate Koloristik, die Intensität des Ausdrucks ... besonders bemerkenswert', p. 376, op. Cit.), placing their origin in the Austrian Alps, circa 1460. Although he seems to have been unaware of the other panels, Stange believed the Assumption of the Magdalen in Koblenz to be by a workshop in the Middle Rhine, circa 1450 (loc. Cit. and Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer, II, 1978, no. 455, p. 103). A further clue as to the possible authorship of the set appeared at the time of the sale of the Raising of Lazarus in 1976, when Bernd Konrad discovered the monogram VEA in the underdrawing of that picture. In addition to his attribution to the School of the Allgäu, Ludwig Meyer notes the stylistic affinity to the Seeschwäbisch Workshop of the Crucifixions (for which see Stange, 1978, op. Cit., II, pp. 68-9).
The supper of Christ at the house of Simon the Pharisse (Luke 7:36-50) is one of the most touching episodes in the Life of the Magdalen, and is seen as a paragon of humility and penance. While Christ was dining at the house of the Pharisee Simon, a penitent woman, traditionally identified as the Magdalen, entered with a flask of myrrh oil, used to clean the feet of honoured guests. Before the presence of Christ the woman wept, and, her tears falling upon Christ's feet, she wiped them clean with her own hair, before perfuming them from the flask. When the Pharisee questioned why Christ allowed a sinful woman to make physical contact with him, Christ told him that the woman's actions proved her love and repentance, which made her worthy to be forgiven and absolved of sin.
The Müncher Jahrbuch praised the style of the works as remarkable for the delicacy of their colouring and the intensity of expression they exhibit ('durch die delikate Koloristik, die Intensität des Ausdrucks ... besonders bemerkenswert', p. 376, op. Cit.), placing their origin in the Austrian Alps, circa 1460. Although he seems to have been unaware of the other panels, Stange believed the Assumption of the Magdalen in Koblenz to be by a workshop in the Middle Rhine, circa 1450 (loc. Cit. and Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer, II, 1978, no. 455, p. 103). A further clue as to the possible authorship of the set appeared at the time of the sale of the Raising of Lazarus in 1976, when Bernd Konrad discovered the monogram VEA in the underdrawing of that picture. In addition to his attribution to the School of the Allgäu, Ludwig Meyer notes the stylistic affinity to the Seeschwäbisch Workshop of the Crucifixions (for which see Stange, 1978, op. Cit., II, pp. 68-9).
The supper of Christ at the house of Simon the Pharisse (Luke 7:36-50) is one of the most touching episodes in the Life of the Magdalen, and is seen as a paragon of humility and penance. While Christ was dining at the house of the Pharisee Simon, a penitent woman, traditionally identified as the Magdalen, entered with a flask of myrrh oil, used to clean the feet of honoured guests. Before the presence of Christ the woman wept, and, her tears falling upon Christ's feet, she wiped them clean with her own hair, before perfuming them from the flask. When the Pharisee questioned why Christ allowed a sinful woman to make physical contact with him, Christ told him that the woman's actions proved her love and repentance, which made her worthy to be forgiven and absolved of sin.