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Lot Essay
Saint Stanislas Kostka (1550-1568) was a nobleman born at Rostkowo, Poland, who was beatified and canonized in the early seventeenth century for his piety and devotion to God. In order to gain entry to the Society of Jesus in Rome, Kostka travelled five hundred leagues on foot from Vienna, without equipment or guide.
Saint Stanislas is depicted in the black habit of the Jesuits, with a youthful Christ child perched on his right arm. At his side an angel with an outstretched arm offers the Saint an object, probably a lily or crucifix, both attributes of the saint, which is now lacking. On the front of the plinth an ivory relief depicts Kostka in the midst of his great journey, on foot as a pilgrim accompanied by an angel. Behind him lies an imaginary city, resplendent with ancient ruins, a reference to the Saint’s stopover at Dillingen, Bavaria, where he worked for Saint Peter Canisius in a local boarding school.
Johann Schnegg was born near Imst in 1724. He learnt his craft in the workshop of his father-in-law, J. G. Ziegler in Bayreuth, eventually taking control of the workshop in 1749. In 1761 he left Bayreuth for Potsdam, where King Frederick II invited the most gifted young sculptors in Prussia to work on the ornamentation of his Sanssouci Palace. Much of Schnegg’s known oeuvre is there, and on neighbouring estates, where he carved large-scale statues and fountain groups.
Schnegg’s striking and elegant juxtaposition of ebony and ivory creates a figurative group of great clarity, beauty and luxury. He was clearly inspired not just by Simon Troger and his popular combination of carved wood and ivory, but also possibly by the polychrome black and white marble statue of Saint Stanislas Kostka carved by Pierre Legros in Rome in 1703, which had been disseminated by an etching by Jean Charles Allet of 1704 (ex. cat.: J. Grabski, Opus Sacrum, From the Collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson, 1990, p. 366).
Stylistically the present group compares very closely to Schnegg’s The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan in the Princely Kunstkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. no. 4572). Apart from the obvious combination of ivory and wood, both groups share a meticulous attention to detail, with clinging drapery and a calm serenity to the figures, despite their dynamic movement (ibid).
Saint Stanislas is depicted in the black habit of the Jesuits, with a youthful Christ child perched on his right arm. At his side an angel with an outstretched arm offers the Saint an object, probably a lily or crucifix, both attributes of the saint, which is now lacking. On the front of the plinth an ivory relief depicts Kostka in the midst of his great journey, on foot as a pilgrim accompanied by an angel. Behind him lies an imaginary city, resplendent with ancient ruins, a reference to the Saint’s stopover at Dillingen, Bavaria, where he worked for Saint Peter Canisius in a local boarding school.
Johann Schnegg was born near Imst in 1724. He learnt his craft in the workshop of his father-in-law, J. G. Ziegler in Bayreuth, eventually taking control of the workshop in 1749. In 1761 he left Bayreuth for Potsdam, where King Frederick II invited the most gifted young sculptors in Prussia to work on the ornamentation of his Sanssouci Palace. Much of Schnegg’s known oeuvre is there, and on neighbouring estates, where he carved large-scale statues and fountain groups.
Schnegg’s striking and elegant juxtaposition of ebony and ivory creates a figurative group of great clarity, beauty and luxury. He was clearly inspired not just by Simon Troger and his popular combination of carved wood and ivory, but also possibly by the polychrome black and white marble statue of Saint Stanislas Kostka carved by Pierre Legros in Rome in 1703, which had been disseminated by an etching by Jean Charles Allet of 1704 (ex. cat.: J. Grabski, Opus Sacrum, From the Collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson, 1990, p. 366).
Stylistically the present group compares very closely to Schnegg’s The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan in the Princely Kunstkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. no. 4572). Apart from the obvious combination of ivory and wood, both groups share a meticulous attention to detail, with clinging drapery and a calm serenity to the figures, despite their dynamic movement (ibid).