The Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and his Wife, Cunigunde, with a model of Bamberg cathedral,
inscribed in the headdress of the donor on the left: M. E. R. A. N. I. S. M.,
oil on panel, 119.5 x 72.5 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Private collection, Vienna;
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 7 April 2006, lot 214 (as Tyrolean Master, circa 1515, together with Christ Crowned with Thorns, which probably used to appear on the reverse side of the panel);
private collection, Vienna

The present painting is accompanied by a certificate by Dr. Bernd Konrad, Radolfzell, to whom we are grateful for his valuable assistance.

The present painting once formed part of an altar ensemble to which Dr. Konrad also links two panels depicting a Martyrdom of Saint Catherine and a Flagellation of Christ. They were sold at Dorotheum, Vienna, on 16 October 2007 (lots 128 and 339) as works by a ‘Saxon master of Annaberg, circa 1515’. Dr. Konrad writes: ‘Whereas the association with Saxony is entirely unfounded and does not need to be discussed here any further, the inscription of ‘MERAN’ and thus the identification of the panel’s destination as a town in South Tyrol should be seriously considered and would deserve further investigation. Yet a major obstacle is in the way of such an undertaking: in the late 15th century and even more so in the early 16th century, innumerable paintings for (South) Tyrolean churches were imported from Southern German workshops. The most well-known among them are the Polyptych of Sterzing by Hans Multscher of Ulm and the so-called Schnatterpeck Altar in Lana, painted by Hans Schäufelin, a pupil of Dürer. Erich Egg has listed numerous German painters for Merano and Bolzano, to which the author of this certificate would be able to add further names. On the other hand, one must bear in mind that apart from Friedrich and Michael Pacher, Marx Reichlich, Simon von Taisten, and such anonymous masters as the Master of Uttenheim, etc., many other painters known by name were active in the region of Merano, Bolzano, and Bressanone. However, attributions of specific groups of works to them can at best be made hypothetically. The painter or, rather, the painters of the four panels in question could either have been natives of South Tyrol or they could have been active in distant workshops, rooted in entirely alien artistic traditions….’ Konrad continues: ‘Judging from the panels attributed to the painter Philipp Diemer of Bressanone, it can be assumed that a local workshop was involved here. What comes to mind are the four panels depicting pairs of saints that date from around 1515 and are now preserved in the Diocesan Museum of Freising, where many works from South Tyrol have ended up. The scrolling clouds in the panel of Saint Catherine recur in numerous polyptychs installed in churches in the Bolzano region, all of which originate from the same workshop. It would thus seem plausible that this workshop was located in Tyrol more than anywhere else. Should someone manage to identify the initials of the donor as those of a local personality, the panel would eventually turn out to be an important document of the religious and cultural life in Merano at the dawn of the modern era, regardless of the panel’s attribution to a specific artist….’