Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece, 'Saints Peter and Dorothy', probably 1505-10
About the work
Overview
Saint Peter clutches a Bible with a soft leather cover to his chest. In the same hand he holds two unwieldy keys – those to the kingdom of heaven, promised to him by Christ. Saint Dorothy holds only a tiny delicate flower to her breast, presumably plucked from the basket of blooms in her left hand. The flowers are a reference to a miracle told in her legend: at Dorothy’s martyrdom, Christ delivered a basket of flowers from heaven to an unbelieving onlooker.
The artist has taken great care to imitate a range of textures faithfully, giving the impression that the saints really are standing before us. The highly polished marble column behind contrasts with the texture of the decorative textile hanging.
The panel may have formed part of the left-hand shutter of an altarpiece. At a later date the reverse was painted with one half of a scene of the Adoration of the Kings (which continues on the back of the right-hand shutter).
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Saints Peter and Dorothy
- Artist dates
- active about 1470 to about 1510
- Date made
- probably 1505-10
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 125.7 × 71.1 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by Queen Victoria at the Prince Consort's wish, 1863
- Inventory number
- NG707
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 20th-century Replica Frame
Provenance
According to the 1913 National Gallery catalogue an inscription on the reverse, no longer present, recorded a valuation for ‘dis bild’ (this picture) of 105 florins in 1688; there was no reference to the location of the work. The picture formed part of the collection of Count Josef von Rechberg (1769–1833) at Mindelheim which Prince Ludwig Kraft Ernst of Oettingen-Wallerstein (1791–1870) purchased in 1815 or 1816, and had been acquired from the Stadtgalerie at Mainz. It was recorded at Schloss Wallerstein in 1817–18 and in 1826–7 as a painting of saints Peter and Rosalia by Lucas van Leyden. In 1848 NG 707 was exhibited for sale at Kensington Palace with the Oettingen-Wallerstein collection, which became in 1851 the property of Prince Albert, the prince consort (1819–1861). In 1863 it was presented to the National Gallery by Queen Victoria in accordance with Prince Albert’s wish.
On its acquisition the Gallery’s manuscript and printed catalogues stated NG 707 had been in the Boisserée collection. However, there is no record of it in that collection, nor is this provenance mentioned in the inventory of the Oettingen-Wallerstein collection made in 1817–18, only two years after it had been acquired from Count von Rechberg, who admired the Boisserée brothers’ collection and with whom he exchanged pictures. It is possible that this assertion arose mistakenly through the noting of similarities to the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece, which was indeed owned by the Boisserée brothers and sold by them in 1827, long before NG 707 was acquired by the Gallery. In 1824 the style of NG 707 was compared to paintings then in the Stadtbibliothek, Mainz and in the Boisserée collection in Stuttgart, the latter presumably the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece. Waagen in 1854, noting the association between NG 707 and the latter, by now in Munich, went further: ‘the three companion-pictures to this work of Art are now in the Academy at Munich’. Thus the association may have given rise to a presumption that the panels were originally part of the same ensemble, and perhaps also that they had a common provenance.
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
-
2014Strange Beauty: Masters of the German RenaissanceThe National Gallery (London)19 February 2014 - 11 May 2014
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2014Making ColourThe National Gallery (London)18 June 2014 - 7 September 2014
Bibliography
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1824J.C. Kohler, 'Die Sammlung altdeutscher Gemälde in dem fürstlichen Schlosse zu Wallerstine', Kunstblatt, V, 1824
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1854G.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
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1857G.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
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1857W. Bürger, Trésors d'art exposés à Manchester en 1857 et provenant des collections royales, des collections publiques et des collections particulières de la Grande Bretagne par W. Burger, Paris 1857
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1884L. Scheibler, 'Die hervorragenden Anonymen Meister und Werke der Kölner Malerschule von 1460 bis 1500', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, VII, 1884
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1895E. Firmenich-Richartz (ed.), Kölnische Künstler im alter und neuer Zeit, Düsseldorf 1895
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1900E. Firmenich-Richartz, 'Der Meister des Heiligen Bartholomäus, II', Zeitschrift für Christliche Kunst, XIII, 1900
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1902C. Aldenhoven, Geschichte der Kölner Malerschule, Lübeck 1902
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1925H. Reiners, Die Kölner Malerschule, Munich 1925
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1934A. Stange, Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, 11 vols, Munich 1934
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1941K. vom Rath, Der Meister des Bartholomäualtars, Bonn 1941
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1959Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The German Schools, London 1959
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1961P. Pieper, Kölner Maler der Spätgotik: Der Meister des Bartolomäus-Altares: Der Meister des Aachener Altares (exh. cat. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, 25 March - 28 May 1961), Cologne 1961
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1967A. Stange, Der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. Kritisches Verzeichnis, Munich 1967
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1972G. Goldberg and G. Scheffler, Alte Pinakothek, Munich: Altdeutsche Gemälde Köln und Nordwestdeutschland, Munich 1972
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1977J. Mills and R. White, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, I, 1977, pp. 57-9
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1977A. Smith, Late Gothic Art from Cologne (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 5 April - 1 June 1977), London 1977
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1985A. Smith, Early Netherlandish and German Paintings, London 1985
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1991J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
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1993N. MacGregor, A Victim of Anonymity: The Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece, London 1993
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1995R. White and J. Pilc, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XVI, 1995, pp. 85-95
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1997R. 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
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2024S. Foister, National Gallery Catalogues: The German Paintings before 1800, 2 vols, London 2024
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.
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