Meister Mathis und Werkstatt/and workshop (attr.)

Description:

Mainfranken/Aschaffenburg, ca. 1520
H. 63,3 cm
Saint Valentine in bishop's habit with a cloth in his hand, the epileptic man at his feet. Limewood, carved with deeply hollowed back. Mostly original polychromy with overpaintings. Incarnate/flesh colours overpainted. Partially smaller missing parts, cloth partly replaced, rest.
Private Collection, Wurttemberg
With Dr. Fritz Nagel, Auction No. 343, 13./14. March 1992, Lot 1352. (sold as Klocker with expertise by Manteuffel)
Master Mathis was mainly active in the Main region around Aschaffenburg, and his confirmed works, including Kirchbrombach, Seligenstadt, Aschaffenburg and Babenhausen, are dated to the period between 1500 and 1525 (circa). In his monograph "Meister Mathis der Bildschnitzer" from 1961, Dr. Walter Hotz defines him as one and the same person as the well-known painter Matthias Grünewald, but according to new research, this thesis can no longer be upheld. (We thank Dr. Albrecht Miller, Ottobrunn for the hint and the art historical attribution). Saint Valentine is depicted here in his bishop's robe with mitre, shawl and the falling man; his face is narrow with a slightly receding chin and a narrow, downturned mouth. He shows strong similarities with the three figures of the Kirchbrombach altar St. Alban, Ursus and Theonestus as well as with the figures of St. Cornelius, St. Nicholas and St. Valentine in the altar shrine at Babenhausen.
Lit. Dr. Walter Hotz, Meister Mathis der Bildschnitzer, 1961, fig. 14, 20.