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Lot Essay
Peter Murer, formerly known as the Master of the Werdenberg Annunciation, is one of the few painters active in south-west Germany during the fifteenth century who remains an identifiable artistic figure, and with whom a number of works can be associated. The Murer family was composed of a number of painters, all of whom appear to have been active and significant members of the artistic environment of the city of Constance, which bordered Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Though separated some time before 1937 to form a triptych, the panels of Saint Simon and Saint Jude would originally have formed the recto of the Coronation, doubtless functioning as the outer faces of the wing of a movable triptych. While cradles have now been applied to the reverses of the panels, obscuring obvious structural connections, other evidence can be brought forward to support such a reconstruction. The profusion of gold and relief gilding on the Marian panel, in contrast to the more restrained colouring of the Apostles, indicates the typical material arrangement employed with triptychs, reserving bright colour and a wealth of gold and metal leaf for the interior panels, only revealed during the celebration of Mass and on specific feast days. The hypothesis is further supported by the survival of three paintings associated with the Coronation, which appear to have come from the same altarpiece (op. cit.).
These panels, now in the Würth collection, represent The Annunciation, The Nativity, and The Adoration of the Magi, with both the latter two still retaining the painted reverses showing Saints John the Evangelist and Thomas (with the Nativity) and James the Minor and Matthew (with the Adoration). In light of the clear physical, technical and stylistic associations between these works and the Coronation, as well as a shared early provenance, it is clear not only that the pictures came from the same altarpiece but that the present three panels were originally one, with the Apostles, separated by a now lost fictive border, on the reverse of the Marian panel.
Taken together, all four of the surviving scenes appear to be representative of the Seven Joys of the Virgin, a popular iconography across Northern Europe during the late Middle Ages. The most likely arrangement for the scenes of this devotion in relation to the surviving panels can be suggested as showing those of the Infancy of Christ (the Annunciation, Nativity and Adoration) on the left wing; the Resurrection of Christ, likely as a sculpted group, in the centre; and the Joys of the Virgin after the death of Christ (the Ascension of Christ, Pentecost and the present Coronation) on the right altar wing.
We are grateful to Dr. Bernd Konrad and Ludwig Meyer for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.
Though separated some time before 1937 to form a triptych, the panels of Saint Simon and Saint Jude would originally have formed the recto of the Coronation, doubtless functioning as the outer faces of the wing of a movable triptych. While cradles have now been applied to the reverses of the panels, obscuring obvious structural connections, other evidence can be brought forward to support such a reconstruction. The profusion of gold and relief gilding on the Marian panel, in contrast to the more restrained colouring of the Apostles, indicates the typical material arrangement employed with triptychs, reserving bright colour and a wealth of gold and metal leaf for the interior panels, only revealed during the celebration of Mass and on specific feast days. The hypothesis is further supported by the survival of three paintings associated with the Coronation, which appear to have come from the same altarpiece (op. cit.).
These panels, now in the Würth collection, represent The Annunciation, The Nativity, and The Adoration of the Magi, with both the latter two still retaining the painted reverses showing Saints John the Evangelist and Thomas (with the Nativity) and James the Minor and Matthew (with the Adoration). In light of the clear physical, technical and stylistic associations between these works and the Coronation, as well as a shared early provenance, it is clear not only that the pictures came from the same altarpiece but that the present three panels were originally one, with the Apostles, separated by a now lost fictive border, on the reverse of the Marian panel.
Taken together, all four of the surviving scenes appear to be representative of the Seven Joys of the Virgin, a popular iconography across Northern Europe during the late Middle Ages. The most likely arrangement for the scenes of this devotion in relation to the surviving panels can be suggested as showing those of the Infancy of Christ (the Annunciation, Nativity and Adoration) on the left wing; the Resurrection of Christ, likely as a sculpted group, in the centre; and the Joys of the Virgin after the death of Christ (the Ascension of Christ, Pentecost and the present Coronation) on the right altar wing.
We are grateful to Dr. Bernd Konrad and Ludwig Meyer for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.