Saints George and Wolfgang

Artist Master of the Monis Altar (German, late 15th century - early 16th century)

Formerly attributed to Master of the Housebook (German, active late 15th century)

Dateca. 1491

MediumTempera and oil on wood panel

DimensionsOverall: 69 3/4 × 26 1/2 inches (177.17 × 67.31 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number34-101

SignedNone

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionStanding figures of two saints against a gold background; overhead, three angels. St. George, left, holding banner in left hand, right hand resting on shield supported on its point by the ground; right foot resting on docile dragon; figure clothed in armor with red mantle; long, flowing, golden hair banded and with jeweled diadem. St. Wolfgang clothed in bishop's robes, long, flowing gray hair beneath miter, holding crosier and hatchet in right hand, model of a church in left; rich green robe, white under-robe. Floral foreground.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Masterpiece of the Week, The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, MO, March 1934, no cat.

An Exhibition of European Art, 1450-1500, Brooklyn Museum, May 8-June 8, 1936, no. 44.

Seventh Anniversary Exhibition of German, Flemish, and Dutch Painting, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, MO, December 1940-January 1941, no. 37.

German painting of the Fifteenth Century, Durlacher Brothers, New York, March 10-29, 1947, no. 21.

Altdeutsche Tafelmalerei, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt am Main, 1985, no. 13A.

Frankfurt im Spätmittelalter : Kirche, Stifter, Frömmigkeit : Begleitheft zur Ausstellung, Historisches Museum, Frankfurt am Main, 1996, no. 47.

Gallery Label

This panel painting formed a part of a now dispersed altarpiece, commissioned by a member of the Monis family for a chapel in the Dominican cloister in Frankfurt. Saint George is shown triumphant over the dragon he slew, while Saint Wolfgang, a 10th-century bishop of Regensberg, holds the model of a church constructed under his patronage. The lithe elegance of Saint George is typical of the late Gothic style. The Master of the Monis Altar is the name given to an as yet unidentified painter active in west central Germany during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Provenance

Monis Chapel, Dominican Church, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1491-17th century [1];

A. Schäffner, Tetschen an der Elbe, Bohemia (today Děčín, Czech Republic), possibly by 1923-at least April 1925 [2];

With Galerie Fischer, Luzern, Switzerland;

With A. S. Drey, New York, as by the Hausbuchmeister, by January 27, 1934;

Purchased from Drey by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1934.

NOTES:

[1] According to Otto Lauffer, "Ein neugefundenes Altarwerk des ausgehenden 15. Jahrhunderts aus der Dominikanerkirche zu Frankfurt a. M.," Hessen-Kunst: Kalender fur alte und neue Kunst (1907): 5, Lauffer found a document in the Stadtarchiv, Frankfurt am Main, originally from the Dominican Church of that city, which states: "The chapel of Wynrich Monis with its altar was consecrated in the year of the Lord 1491 by the venerable Lord Heinrich of Rubenach, bishop of Venecomponense, in honor of Saints Dominic, our original confrere; John the Baptist; Nicholas the Bishop; Wolfgang the bishop; Quirinus the martyr; [and] Catherine, Barbara, and Margaret the virgins." (Translated from the original Latin by Reverend Paul Turner, Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO.)

[2] According to Heinrich Weizsäcker, Die Kunstschze des ehemaligen Dominikaner-closters in Frankfurt a. M. (München: Verlag von F. Bruckmann A.-G., 1923), 7, the painting was in a private collection in Prague in 1923. According to Dr. Christiane Andersson, Curator, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, to Dr. Eliot Rowlands, Assistant Curator, January 15, 1990, NAMA curatorial files, an old photograph of the painting at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main, contains a handwritten note on the verso indicating the painting was offered for sale by Schäffner to the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in April 1925.

Published References

Eduard Plietzsch, “Ausstellung von Werken alter Kunst aus Berliner Privatbesitz,“ Der Cicerone: Halbmonatsschrift für die Interessen des Kunstforschers und Sammlers 7 (1915), 214.

Heinrich Weizsäcker, Die kunstschätze des ehemaligen Dominikanerklosters in Frankfurt a.M., vol. 1 (Munich: F. Bruckmann, 1923), 7, 98, (repro.), as “follower of the Housebook Master.”

Johannes Dürkop, “Der Meister des Hausbuches Nachtrag zum Werke des Hausbuchmeisters,“ Oberrheinische Kunst: Jahrbuch der Oberrheinischen Museen 6 (1925-6): 61.

“New Panel at Gallery,” Kansas City Star 54, no. 175 (March 11, 1934): 12A, (repro.).

James Schwartz, “Recent Accessions are here Reported By Kansas City,” The Art News 32, no. 28 (April 14, 1934): 16.

“Field Notes: German Primitive, Kansas City,” The American Magazine of Art 27, no. 7 (July 1934): 395, (repro.).

An Exhibition of European Art, 1450-1500, exh. cat. (Brooklyn Museum, 1936), unpaginated, (repro.).

Charles L. Kuhn, A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936), xiii, 49, 102, (repro.).

News Flashes (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 2, no. 8 (March 15-31, 1936), 3.

Max Friedlander, review of A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, by Charles L. Kuhn, The Burlington Magazine 69, no. 400-405 (July-December 1936): 44.

Seventh Anniversary Exhibition of German, Flemish, and Dutch Painting, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1940), 21.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 56, 58, 168, (repro.).

“Gallery Changes,” Gallery News (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art; Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 7, no. 6 (March 1941): 6.

German Painting of the Fifteenth Century, exh. cat. (New York: Durlacher Brothers, 1947), unpaginated.

Edward Alden Jewell, “Gallery Displays Early German Art,” New York Times (March 12, 1947): 23.

Henry McBride, “Durlacher Gallery,” New York Sun (March 14, 1947): unpaginated.

Emily Genauer, “Galleries Put on Unusual Exhibitions,” New York World-Telegram (March 15, 1947): unpaginated.

Edward Alden Jewell, “Early German Painting,” New York Times (March 16, 1947): unpaginated.

“Loans to Other Museums,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 13, no. 7 (April 1947): unpaginated.

“Special Exhibitions,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 15, no.7 (April 1949): unpaginated.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 72, (repro.).

“Twenty Years of Collecting: Central Loan Gallery,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 21, no. 3 (December 1953): unpaginated, (repro.).

Alfred Stange, Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, vol. 7, Oberrhein, Bodensee, Schweiz und Mittelrhein in der Zeit von 1450 bis 1500 (Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1955), 108.

Rolf Fritz, "Ein Gemälde des Hausbuchmeister-Kreises aus dem Besitz des Freiherrn vom Stein," Westfalen, Hefte für Geschichte, Kunst, und Volkskunde 35, no. 1-2, (1957), 66, 69, 70.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 81, 261, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 99, 259, (repro.).

Hans Joachim Ziemke, Altdeutsche Tafelmalerei, exh. cat. (Frankfurt am Main: Städeleschen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am Main, 1985), 64, 66, (repro.).

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), 144, (repro.).

Daniel Hess, Meister um das “mittelalterliche Hausbuch”: Studien zur Hausbuchmeisterfrage (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1994), 92, 94, 172-73, (repro.).

Kurt Wettengl, Frankfurt im Spätmittelalter : Kirche, Stifter, Frömmigkeit : Begleitheft zur Ausstellung, exh. cat. (Frankfurt am Main: Historisches Museum, 1996), unpaginated.

Burton L. Dunbar, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: German and Netherlandish Paintings, 1450-1600 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2005), 41-52, (repro.).

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