07 A Pair of Candlesticks with Lion Feet

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TWO WINGS OF A SMALL ALTARPIECE WITH SCENES OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST

Germany, Westphalia Late 15th century

Exterior panels: Saint Christopher and the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child Saint Anne and Saint Anthony

Interior panels: Ecce Homo and The Entombment

Oil on wood Height: 79 cm, width: 57 cm, each

Provenance: The Berkeley Collection, Spetchley, Worcestershire, before 1916; From 1916 until 2019 in family ownership.

Literature: ‘Spetchley Park I. Worcestershire. The Seat of Mr. R. V. Berkeley’ in: Country Life, 8 July 1916, p. 45, photographed in the salon; Spetchley inventory 1949.

Related Literature: Hilger, Hans Peter. Die Stadtpfarrkirche Sankt Nicolai in Kalkar, Cleves 1990, p. 54, on the Master of the Kalkar Death of the Virgin Mary.

Derick Baegert und sein Werk, exh. cat., Städtisches Museum Wesel, 27 Nov. 2011–15 Jan. 2012, Wesel 2011. The two panels, painted on the front and back, are from a small winged altarpiece. When open, the scenes from the life of Christ would possibly have framed a painted or carved representation of the Crucifixion in the centre. When closed, the panels bear a depiction of an architecturally structured sacred space lit by three arched windows. There is a stone bench at seat height below. Four arcades in the foreground frame holy figures that, at the same time, create a distance to the viewer. The tiled floor painted in perspective consciously lends the scene depth.

Depicted from left to right are Saint Christopher carrying Jesus across a river, the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, her mother Anne and, on the far right, Saint Anthony with his attributes, a small bell and the piglet, whose pointed, smooth snout protrudes from under the habit. The fine, blazing fire behind Anthony refers to the proverbial ‘Saint Anthony’s fire’, a disease caused by ergot poisoning that was thought to be a skin disease in the Middle Ages. It was believed that relics of Saint Anthony could cure the painful and often fatal disease.

The golden nimbuses framing the heads of the saints still correspond to the tradition of medieval panel painting. However, there are also numerous details that have their origins in postmedieval realism and are aimed at stimulating the viewer’s sensory perception. Bodies and columns cast shadows on the floor, delicately executed waves play on the water of the river over which Saint Christopher carries the baby Jesus. The Christ Child, his hand raised in the gesture of a blessing, holds a globe in his left hand that is not made of metal but of glass in which the outside world is reflected. The unknown artist also skilfully depicts the saints’ clothing: Anne is dressed in fashionable courtly style. She is wearing a velvet undergarment, a red robe trimmed with white ermine and a green-lined cloak. The Virgin Mary, on the other hand, is majestic in her blue dress and white cloak, held together by a golden clasp.

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1 Stauffer, in exh. cat., Wesel 2011, op.cit., p. 50 Exterior panels with Saint Christopher and the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child (left) and Saint Anne and Saint Anthony (right) Interior panels with Ecce Homo (left) and The Entombment of Christ (right)

The saints depicted on the outside are everyday patron saints: Saint Christopher watches over the traveller, Saint Anthony or the Order of Saint Anthony named after him symbolises the care of the sick, success in the cultivation of the land and cattle breeding.

When open, scenes from the Passion of Christ can be seen. It is not known if this was a multi-part winged altar or if only these two surviving episodes from the life of Christ were depicted. Certainly one must imagine that Christ being Presented to the People and the Entombment, to the left and right, framed a central scene of the Crucifixion, the whereabouts of which is unknown.

‘Ecce Homo’ In the presence of the high priests, Pontius Pilate presents Christ, who has been scourged and crowned with thorns, to the Jewish people. According to tradition, he is prepared to release one prisoner at Passover. Pontius Pilate tells the crowd that Christ is free of guilt and calls for their pity: “Ecce homo – Behold the man”. However, the people, incited by the priests, want the insurrectionary Barabbas to be released and demand the crucifixion of the Son of God.

The composition is in keeping with a form of pictorial composition that evolved in the 15th century. Christ is led to an open area at the bottom of a staircase, beneath which is a prison. Pontius Pilate, splendidly dressed, stands mediating between Christ and the people. The high priest Caiaphas, the spokesman of the Jews against Christ, stands with his feet wide apart on the far right of the picture. Through printmaking, as here in an engraving by Israhel van Meckenem the Younger (c. 1440–1503, fig. 1), this composition became very popular in the second half of the 15th century. Israhel van Meckenem was active in Cleves in 1465 and in the Westphalian town of Bocholt in 1482.

The other panel depicts the Entombment of Christ. The body with the stigmata, wrapped in a white cloth, is being placed in a stone sarcophagus by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. The Virgin Mary, supported by Christ’s favourite disciple John, is kissing her son’s hand. Behind her stands Mary Magdalene. Two other female mourners complete the group. The scene is framed in the background by a hilly landscape with the suggestion of an urban architecture. In the foreground a meadow is shown; the grasses and flowers are rendered with great naturalistic precision.

As on the front panels, the masterly depiction of surfaces and materiality is astonishing. With the background architecture and the splendid courtly robes, the artist confidently establishes a reference to the present day. The strong, contrasting colours, the style of the figures with clear facial features, the graphic, pronounced emphasis in the arrangement of the folds and the spatial concept are also characteristic of Westphalian painting of the last third of the 15th century.

Fig. 1. Israhel van Meckenem, Ecce Homo, copperplate engraving, 20.9 x 14.5 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. RP-P-OB-1107 Stylistically there are similarities between this work and that of the Westphalian painter Derick Baegert. Baegert also worked with great attention to detail and is reputed to have had Italian silk brocade as a reference in his workshop.1 Parallels can also be drawn to the so-called Master of the Kalkar Death of the Virgin Mary (panel painting in Sankt Nicolai in Kalkar, fig. 3).2 If one compares the face of James the Apostle, seated at the foot of the bed (fig. 2), with that of Saint Anthony, stylistic similarities can be found in the facial features. The anonymous Master of the Kalkar Death of the Virgin Mary was probably active in Wesel. Today, he is thought to have taught Derick Baegert, the most important artist of the late 15th century in Westphalia and the Lower Rhine.

Due to the stylistic proximity to Derick Baegert, it is assumed that the artist of our two panels and Baegert were students of the Master of the Kalkar Death of the Virgin Mary. It is equally conceivable that he worked together with the workshop of Derick Baegert.

Fig. 2. Master of the Kalkar Death of the Virgin Mary, detail, Apostle at the foot of the deathbed Fig. 3. Master of the Kalkar Death of the Virgin Mary, circa 1460–70, oil on panel, 88 x 70 cm, Pfarrkirche Sankt Nicolai in Kalkar

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1 Stauffer, in exh. cat., Wesel 2011, op.cit., p. 50 2 We would like to thank Dr. Till-Holger Borchert for the information on the Master of the Kalkar Death of the Virgin Mary

Trotting Horse

TROTTING HORSE

North Italian (Padua or Milan)

Bronze, direct unique cast Height: 27.8, length: 31.5 cm

Provenance: Marczell von Nemes Collection; his sale, at Mensing, Amsterdam, 13–14 November 1928, lot no. 113 (as being by a ‘Milanese Master’); There acquired for 7140 Reichsmarks by Heinrich Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon; Thereafter through the family until 2006.

Literature: Collection Marczell de Nemes, vente à Amsterdam, 13–14 Novembre 1928, Direction Ant. W. M. Mensing, lot+plate no. 113.

Related Literature: Warren, Jeremy. The Wallace Collection. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, London 2016.

Leithe-Jasper, Manfred/Wengraf, Patrizia. European Bronzes from the Quentin Collection, exh. cat., Frick Collection New York, 28 Sept. 2004–2 Jan.2005, Milan 2004.

Krahn, Volker. Die venezianischen Kleinbronzen der Renaissance aus dem Bodemusuem Berlin, Cologne 2003.

Reti, Ladislao (ed.). Leonardo. Künstler, Forscher, Magier. Frankfurt/Main 1974.

Beck, Herbert/Blume, Dieter (eds), Natur und Antike in der Renaissance, exh. cat., Liebieghaus Frankfurt/Main, 5 Dec. 1985–2 March 1986, Frankfurt/Main 1985. Our horse was produced using the direct casting method with which a figure is modelled in wax directly on a so-called casting core. An outer casting mould, a so-called investment, is then placed over the wax and held in place by core pins. This is followed by the firing process during which the wax runs out. Afterwards, bronze is poured into the hollow form created. The direct casting method has certain characteristics such as somewhat more solid walls of slightly varying thicknesses. In the case of our horse sculpture, an original, corrected and barely visible casting error has been identified behind the right ear. This was probably where a large part of the casting core was removed. No other corrections are discernible.

In the Renaissance there were only a few statues of mounted riders or horses considered as prototypes. These include the Quadriga, comprising four gilded bronze horses, taken from Constantinople in 1204 for St. Mark’s in Venice, the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome dating from Antiquity and the ‘Regisole’ (Sun King) monument in Pavia, that also dated from Antiquity but was destroyed in 1796. In 1453 Donatello completed his bronze equestrian statue of the mercenary leader Gattamelata and, up until his death in 1488, Andrea del Verrocchio had been working for ten years on a memorial to the condottiero Bartolomeo Colleoni. This was first completed and cast in 1496 by another sculptor, Alessandro Leopardi. All of these equestrian figures, however, stand on three legs, not least of all to provide stability.

What makes our horse so special is its elegant stride, with a diametrically opposed rear and front leg raised at the same time. The movement of this step is reminiscent of the so-called piaffe in dressage that was already being taught in the Renaissance. The lively execution of its step, the precisely modelled head with its open mouth and snorting nostrils and the mane, as well as the detailing of the unusually realistic depiction of the hooves suggest an extremely talented artist.

1 Cf. Warren, op. cit., cat. no. 63, p. 306ff, on the many small scale bronze horses in the Renaissance

In looking for an artist who could have manufactured our bronze, one soon arrives at the circle of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). Throughout his life Leonardo was preoccupied with creating the most anatomically precise depiction of a horse possible and made numerous sketches and designs of horses in various positions and gaits. The bronze cast for an equestrian statue to honour Francesco Sforza in Milan, in particular, for which Sforza’s sons sought an appropriate master of his craft after 1473, was a challenge to the universal genius. Numerous studies and sketches for this exist that interestingly also show the piaffe step sequence (fig. 1).

Leonardo, however, was never able to turn one of his ingenious concepts into reality. The bronze for the cast of the Sforza monument that had already been delivered was used instead to make cannons to fight the French King Charles VIII. The equestrian monument of the condottiero Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, also planned in 1508–1512, was never executed either.

Since the end of the 15th century a large number of small-format bronzes of horses were manufactured, modelled on those made for San Marco, to decorate princely art collections. Most of these small bronzes are precise copies of the San Marco horses and are to be seen as replicas of works from Antiquity. From around 1500 the depictions become more naturalistic and more lively in their overall pose. Even if, in the past, many considered Leonardo to have been the creator of these bronze horses, today it is assumed that these small bronzes were made in north Italian workshops in Milan or in Padua.