Stephan Lochner, 'Three Saints', about 1450

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Three Saints

Stephan Lochner

Not on display

About the work

Overview

Saint Catherine of Alexandria stands among the fragments of the spiked wheel on which she was tortured, which miraculously shattered during her ordeal. She holds a sword, the weapon that eventually killed her. To her left is Saint John the Evangelist, whose symbol of the eagle perches on a rock at his feet; to her right is Saint Matthew, whose symbol of an angel – shown here with large curved wings – crouches by his feet.

This painting once formed the inner face of the left-hand shutter of an altarpiece (its central panel is now lost). The painting on the reverse of this panel is very damaged but it shows Saints Jerome and Gregory on either side of a female saint, possibly Saint Cordula; a figure wearing the robes of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem kneels in the corner. The altarpiece may have been made for a church in Cologne belonging to the religious order dedicated to Saints John and Cordula.

In-depth

Saint Catherine of Alexandria stands among the shattered pieces of the spiked wheel upon which she was tortured, which miraculously broke during her ordeal. The sword she holds was the weapon that eventually killed her. It is covered with silver leaf, while the hilt and pommel are gilded. She is flanked by two of the Four Evangelists: Saint Matthew, whose symbol, the angel with its large curved wings, crouches by his feet, and Saint John the Evangelist, whose symbol of an eagle perches on a rock at his feet. Matthew, his head slightly bowed and eyes focused, is poised, pen in hand, to write the next chapter of his Gospel. John holds a golden chalice containing a tiny serpent, a reference to his survival after drinking poison.

This painting once formed the inner face of the left-hand shutter of an altarpiece (its central panel is now lost). The other shutter (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne) shows Saints Mark and Luke with Saint Barbara. The Cologne panel is still in its original carved wooden setting, which has pointed arches and intricate tracery designs above and a more simple decorative frieze below. Our panel, which has been cut down at the top and bottom edges, would have been set in a similarly elaborate carved frame and then connected to the central panel. The central part may have been a carving, or another, larger painting with carved borders like Lochner’s painting of the Adoration of the Kings in Cologne Cathedral.

The painting on the reverse of our panel – its outer face – is very damaged, but it shows Saints Jerome and Gregory the Great on either side of a female saint, possibly Saint Cordula. Cordula was a saint local to Cologne, one of the 1000 virgins martyred in the city with Saint Ursula. The reverse of the Cologne panel (now separated from the front but also in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum) shows Saints Ambrose, Cecilia and Augustine.

Both reverses also depict the altarpiece’s patrons kneeling at the saints‘ feet. They are dressed in the robes of the religious group called the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, its distinctive emblem of the spiked cross emblazoned on their sleeves. There was a church in Cologne belonging to the Order and dedicated to Saints John and Cordula; given the patrons’ membership of the Order, it may have been made for one of the altars of this church. The six saints and two donors depicted on the outer faces would have been visible when the shutters were closed.

The vibrant colours of the saints’ robes are characteristic of fifteenth-century painting in Cologne. Lochner chose a selection of varied but complementary colours, and has united the figures through his use of them: John’s red-lined mantle echoes the shadows of Catherine’s robe, which is lined with a green that reflects the deepest shade of Matthew’s drapery. The three-dimensionality of the figures is defined by the openings and fold of their draperies and they stand out like sculptural reliefs against the gilded background, which is decorated with a Renaissance ‘pomegranate’ pattern often found on textiles at the time. The pattern was created by carving small grooves in the chalk ground before placing gold leaf over the top. The indentations add texture to the image, particularly when lit by candlelight.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Saints Matthew, Catherine of Alexandria and John the Evangelist
Artist: Stephan Lochner
Artist dates: active 1442; died 1451
Date made: about 1450
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 68.6 × 58.1 cm
Acquisition credit: Presented by Queen Victoria at the Prince Consort's wish, 1863
Inventory number: NG705
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of India
Frame: 20th-century Replica Frame

Provenance

The painting was acquired by the brothers Sulpiz (1783–1854) and Melchior (1786–1851) Boisserée from the Cologne dealer Dethier at an unknown date but by 1812. They exchanged it with Count Joseph von Rechberg (1769–1833) in 1814 for part of an altarpiece by Bernhard Strigel (about 1461–1528), which is now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. The painting was acquired by Prince Ludwig Kraft Ernst von Oettingen-Wallerstein (1791–1870) in 1815–16 with other paintings from the Rechberg collection as the work of ‘Meister Wilhelm’. It was exhibited for sale in London in 1848 as by William of Cologne, along with the rest of the collection, which then became the property of Prince Albert (1819–1861). The picture was at Kensington Palace in 1854. In 1863 it was presented to the National Gallery by Queen Victoria as part of a group of pictures given at the Prince Consort’s wish

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Susan Foister, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The German Paintings before 1800’, London 2024; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2013

The Secrets of the Painters - Cologne circa 1400

Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud

20 September 2013 - 9 February 2014
2014

Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance

The National Gallery (London)

19 February 2014 - 11 May 2014

Bibliography

1852

J.J. Merlo, Die Meister der altkölnischen Malerschule, Cologne 1852
1854

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
1857

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], translated from German by Elizabeth Eastlake, 3 vols, London 1857, vol. 3
1893

E. Firmenich-Richartz, 'Stephan Lochner, der Meister des Dombildes', Zeitschrift für Christliche Kunst, 1893
1895

E. Firmenich-Richartz (ed.), Kölnische Künstler im alter und neuer Zeit, Düsseldorf 1895
1907

F.W. Lippmann, 'Letters to the Editor: German and Flemish Pictures in the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XII/56, 1907
1925

H. Reiners, Die Kölner Malerschule, Munich 1925
1933

L. Baldass, 'Zur künstlerischen Entwicklung Stefan Lochners', Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, II-III, 1933, pp. 233-43
1934

A. Stange, Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, 11 vols, Munich 1934
1938

O. Förster, Stefan Lochner, Frankfurt am Main 1938
1946

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, London 1946
1959

Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The German Schools, London 1959
1960

S. Klesse, 'Darstellung von Seidenstoffen in der Altkölner Malerei', in Mouseion. Studien aus Kunst und Geschichte für Otto H. Förster, Cologne 1960, pp. 217-25
1967

A. Stange, Der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. Kritisches Verzeichnis, Munich 1967
1977

A. Smith, Late Gothic Art from Cologne (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 5 April - 1 June 1977), London 1977
1985

A. Smith, Early Netherlandish and German Paintings, London 1985
1990

F.G. Zehnder, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Köln: Katalog der Altkölner Malerei, Cologne 1990
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1993

F.G. Zehnder, Stefan Lochner: Meister zu Köln: Herkunft, Werke, Wirkung (exh. cat. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, 3 December 1993 - 27 February 1994), Cologne 1993
1993

A. Willberg, 'Die Punzierung -Ein technologisches Detail', in F.G. Zehnder (ed.), Stefan Lochner: Meister zu Köln. Herkunft-Werke-Wirkung, Cologne 1993, pp. 157-68
1993

W. Schmid, 'Stefan Lochners Auftraggeber', in F.G. Zehnder (ed.), Stefan Lochner: Meister zu Köln. Herkunft-Werke-Wirkung, Cologne 1993, pp. 19-30
1993

M.A. Faries, 'Stefan Lochners Unterzeichnungen: Erste Einsichten', in F.G. Zehnder (ed.), Stefan Lochner: Meister zu Köln. Herkunft-Werke-Wirkung, Cologne 1993, pp. 169-80
1994

C. Steinbüchel, 'Restaurierung eines Altarflügels von Stefan Lochner', Kölner Museums-Bulletin, I, 1994, pp. 18-27
1995

J. Chapuis, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, German and French Paintings, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Rotterdam 1995
1997

R. Billinge et al., 'Methods and Materials of Northern European Painting in the National Gallery, 1400–1550', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XVIII, 1997, pp. 6-52
1997

R. Billinge et al., 'A Double-Sided Panel by Stephan Lochner', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XVIII, 1997, pp. 56-67
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2024

S. Foister, National Gallery Catalogues: The German Paintings before 1800, 2 vols, London 2024

Frame

This is a reproduction pinewood frame made at the Gallery in 1977. It has a red frieze with a dark blue cavetto moulding at the sight edge.

The frame was made for the National Gallery’s exhibition Late Gothic Art from Cologne, and was inspired by the frame on Stefan Lochner’s The Saints Mark, Luke and Barbara (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne).

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.