Portrait bust of donor

Austrian (Salzburg)
about 1500

Object Place: Europe, Salzburg, Austria

Dimensions

58.4 x 40 x 23 cm (23 x 15 3/4 x 9 1/16 in.)

Accession Number

64.1

Medium or Technique

Terracotta

Not On View

Collections

Europe

Classifications

Sculpture

Glazed and polychromed terracotta, Hafner ware. Half-length figure, arms folded (thumb of left hand and fingers of right missing), head slightly bent. Tall black cap, blue collar and lining on reddish cloak with incised scroll decoration. Blue white flesh.

Provenance

Until shortly before 1914, a roadside chapel in Gars am Inn, Wasserburg, Germany [see note 1]. By 1914, Count Hans Johann Nepomuk von Wilczek (b. 1837 - d. 1922), Kreuzenstein, Austria. 1954, Blumka Gallery, New York; 1954, sold by Blumka to R. Thornton Wilson (b. 1886 - d. 1977), New York; 1964, gift of R. Thornton Wilson to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 8, 1964)

NOTES:
[1] Alfred Walcher von Molthein, "Eine gotische Tonbüste aus Oberbayern," Kunst und Kunsthandwerk 17 (1914): 499-503. According to Molthein, the bust had been there for a long time, and was believed by locals to represent St. Ulrich. In 1914, it was in the possession of Count von Wilczek, who had acquired it "recently."

Credit Line

Gift of R. Thornton Wilson in memory of the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States