Triptych of the Dormition of the Virgin
c. 1440
Wood, tempera
Central painting with frame: 129 x 91 cm; wing with frame: 127 x 45.5 cm
St. Catherine of Alexandria. Stationary wing of a winged altarpiece
Inv. 55.109
The panel painting depicting St. Barbara (55.108) originally served as the left stationary wing of the altarpiece, while its companion portraying St. Catherine of Alexandria (55.109) served as the right wing. The 1839 auction catalogue for the collection of Blasius Höfel mentions the paintings as belonging to item 17: the winged altarpiece showing the Dormition of Mary (56.492). The numerous similarities between these paintings and the images on the exterior of the movable wings (details from the Annunciation) make it very likely that the panels of the female saints were indeed originally part of the altarpiece made in Vienna or its environs and comprised its stationary wings. The differences in size can be explained by the usual discrepancies between the stationary and movable wings.
Black, charcoal (?) drawings can be discerned on the backs of the stationary wings and the altarpiece’s centre image.
The altarpiece was reassembled in the same arrangement as in Blasius Höfel’s collection, with the same predella (assigned inventory number 55.110 in the Christian Museum), which also came from the environs of Vienna. This predella, however, certainly did not belong to the Dormition of Mary altarpiece; thus the presentation of these works as one unit is incorrect.
Provenance:
Acquired by Karl Lemann from Blasius Höfel in 1839 and then purchased by Arnold Ipolyi. The number 17 written with white chalk on the reverse of the two panels may be their item number in the 1839 auction catalogue. ‘85 and 86. Two altarpiece wings, on showing St. Catherine and the other St. Barbara, on a dark red ground sprinkled with gold stars. End of the 15th c.’ (Lakatos-Balla 2012, 281)
Restoration: X-rays were taken of the panels in 1979.
Black, charcoal (?) drawings can be discerned on the backs of the stationary wings and the altarpiece’s centre image.
The altarpiece was reassembled in the same arrangement as in Blasius Höfel’s collection, with the same predella (assigned inventory number 55.110 in the Christian Museum), which also came from the environs of Vienna. This predella, however, certainly did not belong to the Dormition of Mary altarpiece; thus the presentation of these works as one unit is incorrect.
Provenance:
Acquired by Karl Lemann from Blasius Höfel in 1839 and then purchased by Arnold Ipolyi. The number 17 written with white chalk on the reverse of the two panels may be their item number in the 1839 auction catalogue. ‘85 and 86. Two altarpiece wings, on showing St. Catherine and the other St. Barbara, on a dark red ground sprinkled with gold stars. End of the 15th c.’ (Lakatos-Balla 2012, 281)
Restoration: X-rays were taken of the panels in 1979.
