A silver relief with the martyrdom of St. Stephen
Portrait-format relief with a rounded upper border and an embossed and finely chased depiction of the martyr surrounded by his tormentors. In the background observers stand before the silhouette of a city. Above the city a band of clouds in which Christ, God, and the Dove of the Holy Spirit appear, in accordance with the vision of Saint Stephen: “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God”. Unmarked. H13; W 9 cm, weight 63 g.
Presumably Antwerp, Joannes Moermans, circa 1650 - 60.
This small relief most likely originally decorated a tabernacle door. The quality of the embossed work and various details within the depiction, such as the swirling movement of the cloud formation, the postures and expressions of the figures, and the silhouettes of the plants on the ground, strongly suggest an attribution to the Antwerp based silversmith Joannes Moermans (active circa 1650 - 1703, cf. cat. Antwerps Huiszilver uit de 17e en 183 Eeuw, Antwerp 1988, no. 201 f.). The Museum Vleeshuis in Antwerp houses two comparable reliefs, perhaps from the same tabernacle.
We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Johan ter Molen, Apeldoorn, for his kind support in cataloguing this lot.
Literature
On Moermans cf. Kat. Antwerps Huiszilver uit de 17e en 183 Eeuw, Antwerp 1988, No. 201 f.