Saint Barbara

Unidentified artist

about 1440

Object PlaceSwabia, Germany

Medium/TechniqueWood; Polychromed fruitwood

DimensionsHeight 40 cm (15 3/4 in.)

Credit LineBequest of Dr. Siegfried J. Thannhauser in memory of his wife Franziska Peiner Thannhauser

Accession number63.591

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsSculpture

Collections

Europe

ProvenanceAlbert Figdor (b. 1843 - d. 1927), Vienna; September 29 - 30, 1930, posthumous Figdor sale, Cassirer, Berlin, lot 200, sold for M 850 [see note 1]. Possibly Oscar Bondy (b. 1870 - d. 1944), Vienna and New York [see note 2]. Siegfried Kramarsky (b. 1893 - d. 1961), Amsterdam and New York [see note 3]; given by Siegfried Kramarsky to Dr. Siegfried Josef Thannhauser (b. 1885 - d. 1962), Freiburg, Düsseldorf, and Brookline, MA; 1963, bequest of Siegfried J. Thannhauser to the MFA. (Accession Date: May 8, 1963)

NOTES:
[1] There is a Figdor collection label on the back of the sculpture (F 2641). This sculpture can be identified with the German half-length sculpture of Saint Barbara, about 1460-1470, described in "Sammlung Dr. Albert Figdor, Wien" (Berlin, 1930), vol. 4, lot 200. The description of this sculpture matches the MFA object, except that the saint is said to wear a diadem on her forehead -- an examination of the sculpture suggests that this may once have been true for the MFA object -- and damage is described on the right side of her hairstyle, not her left; this may be a simple error. A torn label, at one time affixed to the sculpture by Dr. Thannhauser, likewise states that it was lot 200 in the Figdor sale.

[2] That the sculpture belonged to Bondy is taken from Edward R. Lubin's appraisal of Dr. Thannhauser's collection (February 14, 1962; in MFA curatorial file). Attempts to identify this sculpture in inventories of Oscar Bondy's collection have not been successful.

[3] The label that was once on the sculpture (as above, n. 1) states that it was a gift ("[Ge]schenk von Herrn Siegfried [Kr]amarsky, New York"). Kramarsky fled the Netherlands in 1939 and settled in New York in 1940.