The J. Paul Getty Museum

St. John the Baptist

Object Details

Title:

St. John the Baptist

Artist/Maker:

Master of the Harburger Altar (German, active about 1500 - 1515)

Culture:

German

Place:

Germany (Place Created)

Date:

about 1515

Medium:

Partially polychromed limewood

Object Number:

2012.1

Dimensions:

152.1 × 49 × 30 cm (59 7/8 × 19 5/16 × 11 13/16 in.)

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Object Description

Saint John the Baptist cradles the Holy Lamb, a symbol of the sacrificial Christ. The sculpture illustrates the saint's exclamation, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

Glimpsed beneath his billowing mantle is a tattered shift of camel's skin, as described in the Bible. The camel's bearded head rests between the saint's feet. Originally the sculpture was one of two figures flanking a central figure of Christ or the Virgin and Child within a winged altarpiece. It has lost most of its original paint.

Provenance
Provenance
- 1933

Jakob Oppenheimer, German, died 1941 and Rosa Oppenheimer, German, died 1943 (Altkunst, Antiquitäten, Berlin, Germany), confiscated by the Nazis, 1933.

1933 - 1937

In the possession of the Nazis [sold, Auktionshaus Dr. Walther Achenbach, Berlin, September 30, 1937, lot 823, plate 20]

1937 -

Gebrüder Heinemann (Wiesbaden, Germany)

-

Dr. B. Griebert (Constance, Germany)

by 1955 -

Unknown
Source: the sculpture was lent to the Kunsthaus in Zurich in 1955.

- 1985

Private Collection (Switzerland) [sold, Skulpturen, Auktionshaus Galerie Koller, Zurich, November 22, 1985, lot 1405, to Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart]

1986 - 2011

Landesmuseum Württemberg (Stuttgart, Germany), restituted to the heirs of Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer, 2011.

2011

Heirs of Jakob Oppenheimer, German, died 1941 and Rosa Oppenheimer, German, died 1943 [sold, European Sculpture and Works of Art, Medieval to Modern, Sotheby's, London, December 6, 2011, lot 23, to The J. Paul Getty Museum]

Bibliography
Bibliography

Auktionshaus Dr. Walther Achenbach, Berlin. Aus den Restbeständen der Altkunst G.m.b.H., i. Liqu. September 20-22, 1937, p. 57, lot 823, pl. 20.

Galerie Koller, Zurich. Möbel, Bronzen, Skulpturen, Porzellane, Fayencen, Silber, Dosen, frühes Kunstgewerbe, Uhren, Jugendstil, Glas, Teppiche, Ikonen, Varia, Schmuck. November 21-28, 1985, p. 14, lot 1405, fig. 4.

Beye, Peter, et al. "Württembergisches Landesmuseum." Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg 24 (1987), pp. 198-99, fig. 10.

Miller, Albrecht. "Der Bildhauer des Harburger Altars: Zu einer Erwerbung für due Cadolzburg." In Bayerische Schlösser: Bewahren und Erforschen (Munich: Bayerische Verwaltung der Staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen, 1996), pp. 10-11, fig. 4.

Lichte, Claudia, and Heribert Meurer. Die mittelalterlichen Skulpturen. 2 Stein- und Holzskulpturen 1400 - 1530. Ulm und südliches Schwaben. 2 vols. (Stuttgart: Landesmuseum Württemberg, 2007), vol. 1, pp. 269-270.

Lichte, Claudia, and Heribert Meurer. Die mittelalterlichen Skulpturen. 2 Stein- und Holzskulpturen 1400 - 1530. Ulm und südliches Schwaben. 2 vols. (Stuttgart: Landesmuseum Württemberg, 2007), vol. 2, pp. 188-189, ill.