Skip to main content
Saint Thomas and Saint James the Less
Saint Thomas and Saint James the Less

Saint Thomas and Saint James the Less

Series TitleThe Twelve Apostles
Artist Israhel van Meckenem (German, 1445 - 1503)
Dateca. 1480-1485
MediumEngraving
DimensionsPlate: 8 5/16 × 5 9/16 inches (21.11 × 14.13 cm)
Mat: 19 × 14 inches (48.26 × 35.56 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: Nelson Gallery Foundation
Object numberF89-34
Signed(pl., b.): ".I.M."
Edition/State/ProofI/II
On View
Not on view
Collections
Exhibition History

Old and Modern Master Prints and Drawings, William H. Schab Gallery, New York, c. 1987, no. 9.

Thirty Years of Print Purchases for the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, November 19 - December 31, 1989, no. 1.

Graphic Masterworks from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 23-July 25, 1993, no cat., as Saint Thomas and Saint James the Less.

Inked in Time: Six Centuries of Printed Masterpieces, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 22-May 31, 1998, no cat., as Saint Thomas and Saint James the Less.

Devotion in Print: Masterworks of the German Renaissance, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 8-August 21, 2006, no cat., as Saint Thomas and Saint James the Less.

Devotion in Print: Masterworks of the German Renaissance, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 1-September 11, 2011, no cat., as Saint Thomas and Saint James the Less.

Devotion in Print: Masterworks of the German Renaissance, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 16-October 16, 2016, no cat., as Saint Thomas and Saint James the Less.


Gallery Label
This engraving is one of a group of six by Meckenem, each of which depicts a pair of the Apostles. Here, Saint Thomas (left) and Saint James (right) stand behind a balustrade bearing a portion of the Apostle's Creed in gothic lettering. Vertical and horizontal parallel marks, or crosshatching, were used here by Meckenem to indicate texture and the effects of light and shadow. Saint James holds the club that was the instrument of his martyrdom. Saint Thomas bears a builder's rule alluding to the legend of a palace he planned for an East Indian noble. The palace, which could not be built due to Thomas' distribution of the construction money to the poor, was ultimately erected in Paradise in his honor.

Provenance

Adalbert Freiherr von Lanna (1836-1909), Prague, by 1895-1909 [1];

Gustav von Rath (b. 1888), Krefeld, Germany, after 1910-February 9, 1913 [2];

Dr. Albert W. Blum (1882-1952), Switzerland and Short Hills, NJ, by 1952 [3];

With William H. Schab Gallery, New York, by c. 1987;

With Carolyn Bullard Fine Prints and Drawings, Dallas, TX, by October 16, 1989;

Purchased from Carolyn Bullard Fine Prints and Drawings by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1989.

NOTES:

[1] Lugt 2773

[2] Lugt 3772

[3] Lugt 79b
Published References

Adam Bartsch, Le Peintre-graveur, vol. 6 (Leipzig: J.A. Barth, 1866), no. 81, p. 228, as Les douze Apôtres: S. Jaques le mineur, et S. Judas Thadée. Descendit ad inferna. Ascendit ad celos.

Hans Wolfgang Singer, Die Kupferstichsammlung Lanna zu Prag, vol. 1 (Prague: Selbstverlag, 1895), no. 73, p. 16, as St. Jacobus Minor und Thomas.

Max Geisberg, Der deutsche Einblatt-Holzschnitt in der ersten Hälfte des XVI. Jahrhunderts, 43 vols. (Munich: Schmidt, 1923-1930), no. 252.

Max Lehrs, Geschichte und kritischer Katalog des deutschen, niederländischen und französischen Kupferstichs im XV. Jahrhundert, vol. 9, Israhel von Meckenem (Vienna: Gesellschaft für vervielfältigende Kunst, 1934), no. 247.296 I/II.

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Hollstein, German Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts Ca. 1400-1700, vol. 24, Israhel van Meckenem (Amsterdam: Van Gendt, 1980), no. 296: I/II.

Catalogue 75: Old and Modern Master Prints and Drawings, exh. cat. (New York: William H. Schab Gallery, c. 1987).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 141, (repro.), as Saint Thomas and Saint James the Less.

George L. McKenna, Prints, 1460-1995 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 14-15, 301, (repro.), as St. Thomas and St. James the Less.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 47, (repro.), as Saint Thomas and Saint James the Less.

Thirty Years of Print Purchases for the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, November 19 - December 31, 1989, p. 4.
Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


The Ill-Matched Couple
Israhel van Meckenem
15th century
34-194
The Organ Player and His Wife
Israhel van Meckenem
n.d.
35-44/7
Saint James the Less
Andrea Bregno
1475-1477
F61-67
Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaerts
Th. Van Kessel
n.d.
62-55/49
Martyrdom of Saint Thomas
Melchior Küsell I
n.d.
F91-9/8
Martyre de Saint Thomas
Jacques Callot
1630s
F91-8/7
case closed recto overall
George Engleheart
ca. 1781
F58-60/46
Saint James the Apostle
Antonio Maria Zanetti
1749
71-11
Saint Jerome Reading in an Italian Landscape
Rembrandt van Rijn
ca. 1653-1654
60-66
James Thomas, Jr., tobacco farmer
Jesse Whitehurst
ca. 1855
2013.26.5
Saint Thomas Aquinas
15th century
30-44
Francis Thomas of Savoy-Carignan
Paul Pontius
n.d.
62-55/35