Südtirol around 1500
A South Tirolean carved wooden figure of a standing saint (possibly Saint Leonard), around 1500
Carved three-quarters in the round, the reverse flattened and deeply hollowed out. With partially overpainted older polychromy.. A figure of a saint designed for a frontal and slightly lowered viewpoint. The work shows a standing figure turned slightly to one side. He has his head shaved into a tonsure and wears a monk's habit, the attribute which he originally held in his left hand is no longer extant. The piece originates from Vilnöss near Klausen in Tyrol. It is similar in composition and drapery to a figure of Saint Leonard by a Brixen master (possibly Hans Klocker) that was once housed in the collection of Albert Figdor in Vienna, but this image displays more slender proportions.
The right hand and a separately attached part of the lower edge of the work lost, the original hem of the robe cut. Wear with losses to the polychromy. Height 126 cm.
Provenance
Collection of Georg Hartmann, Frankfurt/Main, no. 157 (labelled to the reverse). - 477th Lempertz auction, Cologne, 15.04.1964, lot 319. - Subsequently in a South German private collection.
Literature
Hubert Wilm: Alte Kunst, lebendig. Bildwerke einer Privatsammlung, Frankfurt/Main 1942, p. 36, no. 157 illus. - For the comparison work, see: Auction catalogue of the Sammlung Figdor, part 1, vol. 4, Berlin (Paul Cassirer) 1930, no. 229, pl. CII.