WORKSHOP OF THE MASTER OF THE STERZING ALTAR WINGS

(ca. 1460 – 1470)

Saint Blaise and Saint George

Tempera on panel
35 x 28 inches (88.9 x 71.1 cm)

Provenance:

Baron Hugo von Grundherr zu Althenthann und Weyerhaus, England and Munich, Germany; by whom sold in 1920 as by Hans Multscher to:

Ludwig and Charlotte Flörsheim, later Florsheim, Munich and New York; given in 1973 to their son:

Robert Florsheim, Dover, Massachusetts, until 2016

Literature:

Alfred Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer, vol. 2, Oberrhein, Bodensee, Schweiz, Mittelrhein, Ulm, Augsburg, Allgäu, Nördlingen, von der Donau zum Neckar, Munich, 1970, p. 122, no. 557, as Hans Multscher Workshop.

Alfred Stange, Die deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer, vol. 2, Kritisches Verzeichnis mit Abbildungen und Ergänzungen, revised and expanded by Bernd Konrad, with illustrations, DVD, Radolfzell, 2009, no. 557, illustrated.

This impressive German gold-ground panel depicts Saint George in shining steel armor and the rarely portrayed Saint Blaise lavishly dressed in a gold-brocaded bishop’s cope. Saint George grasps his sword and shield while standing resolutely over the slain dragon lying at his feet. In a nod to his most popular miracle, Saint Blaise bends down to save a choking child, removing a bone from the boy’s throat. The painting was produced by an anonymous artist active in the workshop of the Master of the Sterzing Altar Wings. This Master possibly trained in the Netherlands and later joined the workshop of Hans Multscher, the leading artist in Ulm. He collaborated with Multscher on the painted wings of Sterzing Altarpiece, one of the major achievements of the Multscher workshop from which the anonymous artist derives his name.

Our panel was likely originally part of a series of iconic saint depictions appearing in the wings of a large altarpiece complex. When Alfred Stange first published the painting in 1970, he left open the possibility that the bishop saint could be Saint Valentine rather than Saint Blaise. This identification is implausible, as Valentine is best known for miraculously healing an epileptic and is usually depicted with an afflicted figure lying on the ground before him. Representations of Saint Blaise, by contrast, frequently show the saint performing the miracle depicted here.[i] According to his legend, a mother brought her young son to Blaise asking for his intercession as the boy was choking on a fish bone. Blaise offered his prayers, and the boy was immediately cured. This episode appears both in a cycle of twenty paintings depicting the saint’s miracles in the Chapel of Saint Blaise in Kaufbeuren (Fig. 1)[ii] and in a panel from a dismantled altarpiece dedicated to the saint that is thought to be from the Middle Rhine region (Fig. 2).[iii] By focusing on Saint Blaise removing the sizeable bone from the boy’s throat, the image refers both to the saint’s status as protector against throat illnesses and the ritual of the “Blessing of the Throats” celebrated on the saint’s feast day.

Because the painting presents both saints with their essential attributes, the child’s mother likely does not appear for reasons of economy of space, which required the artist to reduce the painted elements to the absolute essentials for identifying the saints. In comparison with Saint Blaise, Saint George is easily identified by the references to his legendary slaying of the dragon. While George is typically depicted with a lance, here he appears grasping an impressive hand-and-a-half sword in a striking red sheath. The artist instead refers to the fact that he wielded a lance against the dragon from atop his horse by depicting the saint in contemporary German jousting armor, including a lance rest on the right side of his breast plate, pauldrons (shoulder defenses), couters (elbow defenses), and poleyns (knee defenses).[iv] Additionally, George’s fluted shield, known as a targe, is an example of the kind used in tournaments in the period.[v] The painting has been trimmed at the bottom edge, resulting in losses to the feet of the figures and the head of the dragon.

The style and handling of the painting are closely linked with the artistic context of the Swabian city of Ulm in the fifteenth century. The work was traditionally considered to be by Hans Multscher and it was later included in the small group of paintings that Alfred Stange classified as from the “Hans Multscher Workshop”—a designation that was not a judgement of quality but rather brought works associated with Multscher under one umbrella. Attributions to Multscher are a complicated matter, as only 3 surviving works are either signed or documented commissions from him and there are no clear connections among them. Additionally, it is unclear what Multscher’s role was in the production of works associated with his name. He was almost certainly active as a sculptor and is documented as such on the carved Karg Epitaph in Ulm Minster, signed and dated 1433.[vi] Two painted altarpieces were also commissioned from Multscher: the Wurzach Altarpiece (signed and dated 1437),[vii] and the Sterzing Altarpiece, which Multscher is documented as delivering in 1457 to Sterzing (Vipiteno) in South Tyrol.[viii] In both cases, the wings are the only surviving portions of what must have originally been large triptychs. The wings of the Wurzach Altarpiece bear inscriptions in the Death of the Virgin and the Pentecost panels that connect the work to Multscher (Figs. 3-4).[ix]

What remains unclear is the level of Hans Multscher’s involvement in the execution of the Wurzach and Sterzing Altarpieces, particularly the painted portions. It is possible that rather than contributing to the painting of these works, Multscher acted as the head of the workshop and as a general contractor, delegating the painting (and possibly even the sculpting) to associates. A slightly later example of such an arrangement is known in Ulm. Jörg Syrlin was once thought to be a sculptor that sub-contracted paintings on several of his altarpieces but is now considered more a project manager who did not contribute to the painting or sculpting of the signed altarpieces from his workshop. In the case of Hans Multscher, art historical scholarship has not yet settled the question of his role and responsibilities.[x] Additionally, despite the fact that the Sterzing Altarpiece originated in the Hans Multscher workshop, Stange did not include the painted wings with those from the Wurzach Altarpiece in his “Hans Multscher Workshop” group. He recognized the subtle differences in the formal qualities of the Sterzing Altarpiece wings (Fig. 5), which were more characteristic of Ulm, and he considered them to have been painted by an independent artist in the Multscher workshop. Stange convincingly assigned the Master of the Sterzing Altar Wings a distinct oeuvre, which has been accepted in the subsequent scholarly literature.[xi] He suggested that the Master possibly hailed from the Upper Rhine and trained in the circle of Rogier van der Weyden before joining the Multscher workshop. It remains a possibility that the artist might have been from Swabia or Ulm but had gained knowledge of early Netherlandish paintings, and there have been attempts to identify the artist with the documented but unknown painter Ludwig Fries.

Fig. 5. Master of the Sterzing Altar Wings (painter in the workshop of Hans Multscher), The Annunciation, The Adoration of the Child, The Adoration of the Magi, and The Death of the Virgin from the Sterzing Altarpiece, Multscher Museum, Sterzing (Vipiteno).

Compared with the weighty corporality of the figures in the paintings of the Multscher workshop group, the figures in the Sterzing Altarpiece and the works associated with this Master are leaner and more elegant. This is especially true in the Portrait of a Bridal Couple in the Cleveland Museum of Art (Fig. 6), in which the figures exhibit a gracefulness in their expressions and the motion of their elongated limbs. Our painting also exhibits similarities in physiognomy, hairstyle, and attire to other works painted around 1470 in Ulm and Swabia, particularly the likeness of Ulrich V, Count of Württemberg, in the left wing of a dismembered triptych dating from ca. 1453-1480 (Fig. 7).[xii] Ulrich is shown kneeling and looking reverently towards the now-lost central panel of the triptych, which likely displayed a religious scene. Both his suit of armor and his hairstyle are stylistically close to that of our Saint George. Another similar head is found in a depiction of Saint George of ca. 1470, attributed to the Master of the Sterzing Altar Wings, recently on the London art market (Fig. 8).[xiii] The extremely pointed shoes found in the paintings of Ulrich V and Saint George, as well as in our painting, are significant in terms of dating these works, as this footwear came into fashion during the second half of the fifteenth century.

Working in the wake of the Hans Multscher workshop and the Master of the Sterzing Altar Wings, the author of the present painting is a direct heir and practitioner of the stylistic innovations that made Ulm the leading artistic center of Germany in the fifteenth century. The artist’s skill is apparent in the sensitive rendering of Saint Blaise’s richly decorated garments—particularly the articulation of individual strands of gold thread—as well as the way in which the perspective of his head and the folds in the drapery correspond to his stooped position. Notable also are the turbulent curls of Saint George’s hair and the bands of light reflecting off his steel armor, which so closely mirrors contemporary styles that it was likely studied from life.

This work is a significant rediscovery for the corpus of fifteenth-century German painting. It has recently been studied by Dr. Bernd Konrad, who has confirmed the attribution to the Workshop of the Master of the Sterzing Altar Wings and to whom we are grateful for his ob­servations.[xiv] Konrad dates the painting to ca. 1460–1470 and has suggested that it was produced in Ulm.

The earliest known provenance for the painting is its sale by Baron Hugo von Grundherr zu Althenthann und Weyerhaus to Ludwig and Charlotte Flörsheim in 1920.[xv] While the painting’s lawful ownership remained with Florsheim family from ca. 1920 until 2016, its possession between the years 1938 and 1950 reflected the horrors of the Nazi regime. On 10 November 1938 (Kristallnacht), Ludwig Flörsheim was arrested and taken to the Dachau Concentration Camp. Soon after, according to Charlotte Flörsheim the painting was seized by the Gestapo from the Flörsheim apartment at Nicolaiplatz 6 on 24 November 1938.[xvi] On 20 May 1946, the painting was returned to Munich and inventoried under number Mü30701 at the Central Collecting Point, Munich, which then occupied the Verwaltungsbau, the twin building to the Führerbau. The painting was transferred to the Central Collecting Point in Wiesbaden on 8 June 1949, and formally restituted to Ludwig Flörsheim on 19 December 1950. The official “Out Shipment” document of that date (no. 246) refers to the painting on p. 3, as “Portrait e.Bischofs v. Multscher,” (no. h), and later as “St. Blasius and George / Schwaebisch um 1460” (schedule A, list A). Documentation from the Nazi era records that the painting was conserved in 1938 by a Herr Roder, and a black-and-white photograph of the painting in the Fotothek of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich likely dates from the same period (Fig. 9).

[i] Saint Blaise was also sometimes depicted holding crossed or intertwined candles as his identifying attribute, as in Jakob Acker’s Saint Blaise and Saint Martin of 1483 in the Leonhardskapelle, Rißtissen. See: Alfred Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer, vol. 2, Oberrhein, Bodensee, Schweiz, Mittelrhein, Ulm, Augsburg, Allgäu, Nördlingen, von der Donau zum Neckar, Munich, 1970, no. 596.

[ii] Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis, no. 839.

[iii] Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis, no. 527a. Stange attributed the painting to the workshop of Nikolaus Schit. It has recently been proposed that this altarpiece may be of Swiss origin, rather than from the Middle Rhine region. See: Michaela Schedl, Tafelmalerei der Spätgotik am südlichen Mittelrhein, Mainz, 2016, pp. 272, 361.

[iv] A similar example of German armor from the following century is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc.nos. 29.151.3a–s; 29.150.152; 50.237.2.

[v] A related German targe from ca. 1450 is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc. no. 25.26.1.

[vi] Part of the Latin inscription reads, in translation: “Erected by me, Johannes Multscher from Reichenhofen, citizen of Ulm, with my own hand.”

[vii] Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis, no. 554.

[viii] Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis, no. 569. Multscher is documented in Sterzing from July 1458 to January 1459 with several assistants to install the altarpiece, which had been made in sections in Ulm, on the high altar of the church of Unserer Lieben Frau im Moos.

[ix] Two inscriptions connect the wings to Hans Multscher. The Death of the Virgin displays Multscher’s maker’s mark and is inscribed: “Pray to God for Hans Multscher from Reichenhofen, citizen of Ulm, who made this work in 1437” (bitte got für hanssen muoltscheren vō richēhofē burg9 ze ulm haut dz werk gemacht do mā zalt m cccc xxxvii). Additionally, in the Pentecost scene, the following inscription is painted as if carved into the architecture in the background: “Hans Multscher from Reichenhofen has [made? painted?]” (HANS NUOLTSCER [sic] VŌ RICHE / HOVEN HAUT GE).

[x] For the most important contributions to the literature on Multscher since Alfred Stange, see: Ulrich Söding, “Hans Multschers Sterzinger Altar,” Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, no. 40 (1989), pp. 35-101; Ulrich Söding, “Hans Multschers ‘Wurzacher Altar,’” Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, no. 42 (1991), pp. 69-116; Ulrich Söding, Hans Multscher: Der Sterzinger Altar, Bozen, 1991; Heribert Meurer, review of Ulrich Söding, Hans Multscher in Zeitschrift für Württembergische Landesgeschichte, no. 52 (1993), pp. 638-640; Walter Münch, Wege zu Hans Multscher von Reichenhofen, Maler und Bildhauer in Ulm 1400–1467, Kunst am See 22, Friedrichshafen, 1991; Ulrich Söding, “Hans Multschers ‘Wurzacher Altar’ (Zusammenfassung),” in Flügelaltäre des späten Mittelalters, ed. Hartmut Krohm and Eike Oellermann, Berlin, 1992, pp. 123-126; Manfred Tripps, Hans Multscher: Meister der Spätgotik. Sein Werk, seine Schule, seine Zeit, exh. cat., Museum im Bock, Leutkirch im Allgäu, Leutkirch, 1993; Ulrich Söding, “Die Bildwerke Hans Multschers: Ein Beitrag zur europäischen Kunst im 15. Jahrhundert,” in Hans Multscher: Bildhauer der Spätgotik in Ulm, exh. cat., ed. Brigitte Reinhardt and Michael Roth, Ulmer Museum, Ulm, 1997, pp. 31-51.

[xi] Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis, p. 124 and nos. 568-579.

[xii] Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis, no. 1045.

[xiii] Sotheby’s, London, 7 July 2011, lot 213, sold for £133,250. This painting was first attributed to a follower of the Master of the Sterzing Altar Wings and dated to ca. 1470 by Erwin Treu, former curator at the Ulmer Museum and one of the leading connoisseurs of paintings from Ulm of his day. The panel was previously exhibited at the Ulmer Museum. See: Gerald Jasbar and Erwin Treu, Ulmer Museum: Bildhauerei und Malerei vom 13. Jahrhundert bis 1600, Kataloge des Ulmer Museums 1, Ulm, 1981, p. 154, no. 103, ill.; and Alfred Stange, Die deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer, vol. 2, Kritisches Verzeichnis mit Abbildungen und Ergänzungen, revised and expanded by Bernd Konrad, with illustrations, DVD, Radolfzell, 2009, no. NW 569-2. The painting was sold at Sotheby’s as School of Ulm, ca. 1470.

[xiv] A catalogue entry on the painting authored by Dr. Konrad, translated by Dr. Joshua Waterman, is available upon request.

[xv] The painting was acquired in 1920 from Hugo von Grundherr zu Altenthann und Weyerhaus as recorded by Charlotte Florsheim (see the following footnotes). Grundherr was at various times an academic painter, art dealer, racehorse trainer, forger, and banker. He lived in England in the first two decades of the twentieth century and married his English wife, Ida Hughes, in 1908. He was variously resident of Elston House, Orcheston St. George, Wilts., and Field House, Bognor. Grundherr is listed as a seller at Christie’s in 1909 (December 18) and 1912 (April 19) and a buyer at several London auctions from the 1900s to the 1920s, during which time he seems to have worked between London and Munich. He declared bankruptcy in London in August 1912 following the filing of fraud charges against him in Paris, and sold several paintings at Christie’s that month, not including the present work. In 1923 he purchased and refurbished the Schloss Mittersill in Austria. An auction of property from his apartment in Rome was held in 1929 (Galleria Massarek et Di Nepi). In 1939 he and his wife were living in Hove, England, and were declared exempt from internment. After the Second World War Grundherr continued his career as an art dealer.

[xvi] See the typescripts relating to Charlotte Flörsheim’s claim, Ardelia Hall Collection, National Archives. The seizure of the Flörsheim’s collection is discussed by Christiane Kuller, “Der Münchner Kunstraub 1938/39,” Münchner Beiträge zur Jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur II (2014), pp.40f., and pp. 55-56. Kuller notes that nineteen paintings and eleven valuable carpets are cited in the Gestapo document recording the seizure: “Protokoll der Gestapo über die ‘Sicherstellung von Kulturgütern’ bei Ludwig Flörsheim am 24. November 1938,” Stadtarchiv München (StadtAM), Stadtmuseum 104. Charlotte Flörsheim had previously paid 27,750 Reichmarks to the Deutsche Golddiskontbank in Berlin to permit the exportation of their artworks.