AUSTRIAN, TYROL, CIRCA 1480 | SAINTLY KING

With Wilhelm Henrich, Frankfurt am Main, 1957;

private collection, Germany, acquired from the above;

thence by descent to the present owners

The identity of this charismatic figure as a King is suggested by his attributes of a crown and the orb, formerly surmounted by a cross. While the loss of his second attribute – perhaps a sceptre – does not allow for a more precise identification, it is likely that a saintly King, such as St Oswald or St Henry II, is represented here. Traditionally thought to have been made in the Tyrol, the figure finds a striking comparison in a Saint Nicholas dating to circa 1470 from St Georgen am Pinzgau, which neighbours this Austrian region (Legner, op. cit., fig. 160a). Compare the shortness of the body, the drapery scheme with a large, 'auricular' fold across the lower body, and the broad face with small eyes, a slightly pouting mouth, and finely carved texturing suggesting age. A similar mode of representation in the face is seen in the figure of Saint Wolfgang from the great altarpiece at St Wolfgang im Salzkammergut by Michael Pacher, perhaps the most influential Tyrolean sculptor in the second half of the 15th century (see Müller, op. cit., fig. 21). 

RELATED LITERATURE

T. Müller, Gotische Skulptur in Tirol, Bozen, 1976; A. Legner, Spätgotik in Salzburg: Skulptur und Kunstgewerbe 1400-1530, exh. cat. Neues Haus, Salzburg, 1976, p. 129