Tile stove
Salzburg, ca. 1570
The lavishly decorated late Renaissance tile stove stands on lion-shaped legs. Its decoration also includes figurative scenes. In the upper scene on the front side Tobias appears with the Archangel Raphael who has lead him to the fish whose bile will heal the blindness of his father (Tobias 6, 2-9). Below is the scene of the creation of Eve shown as usual in the Middle Ages: the Creator pulls forth the first woman from the side of the sleeping Adam, that is, from the place of his rib (Genesis 2, 20-22). On the sides of the stove there are two coats of arms and Old Testament scenes from the life of Samson. He is shown fighting the lion, carrying the city gates of Gaza, and making the Philistine lords’ house fall (Judges 14, 16). Tile stoves were first used for heating in the 13th century in the territory of present-day Switzerland. Because of their advantages, they soon became popular also in the cold Central and Eastern European territories: their degree of heating efficiency is high, they can be loaded from outside the room without disturbing those inside, and they emit no smoke into the air of the room. Their tower-shaped structures offered an excellent opportunity for representative decoration. This piece comes from the aristocratic collection of Count San Marco, which was rich in works of the decorative arts.
D.S.
