Meister des Maikammerer Altars Lot n° 2002

Master of the Maikammer Altar Saint Agnes rejecting Idolatry Oil on panel. 61.5 x 38 cm. Certificate Dr. Bernd Konrad, Radolfzell, 26.1.2016. Provenance Swiss private collection. - Auctioned by Koller, Zurich, 22.3.2016, Lot 3001. - DELI-collection, Monaco. The proceeds from this lot and Lempertz´s commission will be donated to humanitarian aid in the Ukraine. This panel shows a scene from the life of St. Agnes in which she refuses to commit idolatry. The female saint - recognisable as Agnes by the wreath of flowers adorning her head - is being led by two men to a ruler who is enthroned in the centre of the picture and pointing to a column with a golden calf or bull. With her gesture, the saint makes it clear that she refuses the demanded idolatry. The action takes place in a hall bedecked with red and white flowering vines. Bernd Konrad (cf. expertise) places the panel in Strasbourg, namely in the production of the Master of the Maikammer Altar, whose notname derives from a triptych in the Alsterweiler Chapel in Neuwied, and dates it around 1490/1500. He compares the painting with two other panels ascribed to this master, namely the panel "The Angel clothing Saint Agnes with a White Robe" in the De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, as well as the panel "The Martyrdom of St. Agnes", which was sold by Lempertz in 2010 (956th Lempertz Auction, Cologne, Steinmetz Coll. / Härle Coll., lot 1525). These panels also depict flowering vines and a flower crown as well as tiles comparable to those in the present painting (although all paintings show the same saint, they are not parts of the same altarpiece). The motifs mentioned can in turn be associated with illustrations from books printed in Strasbourg in the late 15th century, which were also created by the Master of the Maikammer Altar.