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Lot Essay
This triptych, which was almost certainly intended for private devotion, was created around 1475 in southern Germany, likely in the region of South Tyrol by an artist in the circle of Friedrich and Michael Pacher. As Achim Simon has observed (loc. cit.), the rounded facial types of the holy figures and musical angels recall those found in several figures in Michael Pacher’s altarpiece in the Old Parish Church of Gries. Both stylistically and in terms of its function, the present work may also be compared with the small Hausaltärchen (House Altar), with a sculpted central figural group of Anna Selbdritt (Saint Anne holding the Virgin and Child), in the Cloisters Collection, New York (inv. no. 1991.10). The Cloisters altar was created in the Allgäu-Bodensee region in south-west Germany, an area adjacent to the Upper Rhine, extending roughly from Augsburg to Lake Constance, and is similarly painted using strongly drawn outlines for the details, such as the saints’ crowns. The iconography of the Cloisters shrine, which represents only female saints, has led scholars to suggest that it was commissioned by a woman (M. Ainsworth and J. Waterman, German Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1350-1600, New York, 2013, pp. 254-57, no. 59). This may also be the case with the present triptych, although both Saints Catherine and Barbara were universally popular throughout Northern Europe during the fifteenth century.
The present triptych was identified as the work of a Rheinish painter working around 1460 by Dr. Alfred Stange in 1960 (private communication with previous owner) and later given to a Tyrolean painter working a couple of decades later by Ernst Buchner (private communication with the previous owner; and reiterated in the 1963 exhibition catalogue). The modelling of the Virgin’s head, in particular the broad nose and strongly defined shadows on the right side of the face, certainly recall figures like Christ in the Crowning with Thorns from the Colmar Altarpiece by Caspar Isenmann (1410–1472), an important representative of the Upper Rhine School during the later fifteenth century. The more robust figures of the saints in the wing panels, however, especially Saint Barbara, can also be related to the style of painting typically seen in more southern regions, like the area around Lake Constance, typified by the work of artists like Peter Murer (active 1446-1469).
Throughout the Middle Ages, Saint Barbara was invoked for her protection against sudden death. It was believed that through her intercession the devout would be saved from dying before they had received extreme unction. As this idea became increasingly prevalent, it brought about an interesting development in the saint’s iconography. From the later decades of the fifteenth-century onward, in Germany especially, Saint Barbara began to be depicted holding the Eucharistic chalice and Host, a feature which in some cases superseded her more traditional attribute of a tower. Saint Catherine is depicted with her ubiquitous wheel and the sword of her martyrdom. Both saints wear crowns to reinforce their royal status.
The composition of the central Virgin and Child is closely modelled on an invention by Rogier van der Weyden and is a fascinating example of the far-reaching nature of artistic designs, pattern drawings and popular compositional motifs during the fifteenth century. This practice was common in the Southern Netherlands but can here be seen to have extended east into Germany and beyond. Shown in a long white shirt, Christ is seated on the Virgin’s knee, with his proper right knee bent, leafing through the pages of his mother’s prayer-book. This is a direct quotation from Rogier’s Duran Madonna of circa 1435-38 (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, inv. no. P002722), which, though the artist would most probably not have seen the original, must have known through circulated pattern drawings or later copies. The control and precision of the underdrawing in this section of the work (visible through infrared-reflectography), especially the carefully described folds of the virgin’s drapery, may indeed indicate that the painter was working from a pre-existing source.
The present triptych was identified as the work of a Rheinish painter working around 1460 by Dr. Alfred Stange in 1960 (private communication with previous owner) and later given to a Tyrolean painter working a couple of decades later by Ernst Buchner (private communication with the previous owner; and reiterated in the 1963 exhibition catalogue). The modelling of the Virgin’s head, in particular the broad nose and strongly defined shadows on the right side of the face, certainly recall figures like Christ in the Crowning with Thorns from the Colmar Altarpiece by Caspar Isenmann (1410–1472), an important representative of the Upper Rhine School during the later fifteenth century. The more robust figures of the saints in the wing panels, however, especially Saint Barbara, can also be related to the style of painting typically seen in more southern regions, like the area around Lake Constance, typified by the work of artists like Peter Murer (active 1446-1469).
Throughout the Middle Ages, Saint Barbara was invoked for her protection against sudden death. It was believed that through her intercession the devout would be saved from dying before they had received extreme unction. As this idea became increasingly prevalent, it brought about an interesting development in the saint’s iconography. From the later decades of the fifteenth-century onward, in Germany especially, Saint Barbara began to be depicted holding the Eucharistic chalice and Host, a feature which in some cases superseded her more traditional attribute of a tower. Saint Catherine is depicted with her ubiquitous wheel and the sword of her martyrdom. Both saints wear crowns to reinforce their royal status.
The composition of the central Virgin and Child is closely modelled on an invention by Rogier van der Weyden and is a fascinating example of the far-reaching nature of artistic designs, pattern drawings and popular compositional motifs during the fifteenth century. This practice was common in the Southern Netherlands but can here be seen to have extended east into Germany and beyond. Shown in a long white shirt, Christ is seated on the Virgin’s knee, with his proper right knee bent, leafing through the pages of his mother’s prayer-book. This is a direct quotation from Rogier’s Duran Madonna of circa 1435-38 (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, inv. no. P002722), which, though the artist would most probably not have seen the original, must have known through circulated pattern drawings or later copies. The control and precision of the underdrawing in this section of the work (visible through infrared-reflectography), especially the carefully described folds of the virgin’s drapery, may indeed indicate that the painter was working from a pre-existing source.