Lot 1003 Dα

Everything about this figure expresses power and physical prescence, but also the gravity of carrying the infant saviour across the rushing river. Saint Christopher strides vigorously towards the left; only the toes of his left foot touch the ground and he grips a tree trunk on the river bank with both hands. His face is turned upwards, which causes his entire body to twist in an agile curve. The Christ Child sits upon his shoulder facing the viewer with his right hand raised in a blessing gesture and holding a globe in his left. Despite Saint Christopher's animated pose, Christ sits calmly upon his shoulder, and only the fluttering cape testifies to the dynamic movement of the figures. Once they reach the river bank, Christ will baptise the giant and give him the name Christopher - Bearer of Christ.

This fascinating and expressive depiction once formed one of the outer panels of a polyptych made in the workshop of Bernhard Strigel in Memmingen which is dated to 1522. Like many altarpieces, this polyptych was later taken apart and its pieces were dispersed. However, it is still possible to reconstruct the appearance of the outer panel. Alongside this Saint Christopher, the upper register bore an image of the "Anna Selbdritt", with Saint Anne in a landscape holding Christ and the Virgin Mary in her hands (cf. fig. 1). The panel with the Anna Selbdritt, of identical dimensions to the present one, has previously appeared on the international art market. Aside from these two depictions of saints, the left outer panel also included an image of the Adoration of the Magi spread across two panels, only documented in old photographs.

With figures of Saint Anne and Saint Christopher, the left outer panel of the altarpiece both depicted the carrying of Christ, with the dynamic figure of Saint Christopher contrasting against the calm figure of Saint Anne. Moraht-Fromm compares this unusually expressive composition to Strigel's image of Christ crowned with Thorns in the high altar of the Benedictine Abbey of Blaubeuren.
Bernhard Strigel was the last great representative of a family of artists with a substantial workshop active as altar painters in southern Germany for three generations. Moraht-Fromm praises the fine underdrawing of the present panel, which could have been made by Bernhard Strigel himself.