Lot 2009 D α

With her groundbreaking work on Hans Ostendorfer, Isolde Lübbeke lifted the Munich court painter out of the realms of anonymity in 2019. Until then, this and many other works by Ostendorfer went under the name "Master of the Legend of Philip".
Hans Ostendorfer also completed other major commissions in addition to the altarpiece for Altötting. It is not known to which reredos this panel belonged, but it was probably the left wing of an altarpiece depicting the glorification or Assumption of the Virgin in the centre. The sitters are looking upwards to the right towards an event in heaven. They are the representatives of the spiritual powers and the people. The lost right wing may have shown the secular powers.
Eleven people are shown huddled together in a very small space. In the foreground, the Pope, wearing a three-tiered tiara, can be seen kneeling and blessing the proceedings. To the left of the expansive figure of the pope is a cardinal who bears a strong resemblance to Albrecht of Brandenburg. If Albrecht - who received his office in 1518 - is indeed the subject, it would mean that the painting was created in around 1520. One young man is the only person not looking at the action in the centre, but out towards the viewer. According to I. Lübbeke, he is probably the painter's son, the younger Hans Ostendorfer (ca. 1505-1570/71).
Stylistically, the "Procession of the Blessed " fits seamlessly into Ostendorfer's oeuvre. We encounter the same style, for example, in the "Martyrdom of St. Ursula" in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (fig. 1). There we find a similar arrangement of the figures in tiers, the truncated white bonnets, the pomegranate pattern and the pope with the triple crown. The overall atmosphere evoked by the panel's colour palette is particularly impressive, with bright colours such as sulphur yellow, red and white contrasting with the darker shades.
The back of the spruce panel was never painted, but in all probability covered with a carved relief. This is indicated by holes and remnants of wooden dowels in the back, which presumably served to fasten the relief. The two window-like squares and a door may have been added later (Lübbeke, op. cit., p.44).
The present work originates from the collection of the artist and art historian Dr Hubert Wilm (1887-1953), whose collection of Medieval sculptures was sold at Lempertz in 1952 (catalogue 435). Many of the works are housed today in important museums. Four sculptures from the Wilm Collection are also featured in this auction (Lot 2094, 2098, 2110, 2120).