The Getty Museum is now showing its latest acquisition – a rare medieval alabaster sculpture of Saint Philip by the Master of the Rimini Altarpiece.
Saint Philip by the Master of the Rimini Altarpiece – photo courtesy The Getty Museum
In medieval times, fine carvings in alabaster were amongst the most prized and sought after works of art. A soft stone that can be carved in the finest detail, alabaster was often used for small figures such as the statuette of Saint Philip that the Getty Museum has just acquired from a private collector.
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The statuette, dating from about 1420–1430, represents the apostle Saint Philip holding a cross, a reference to his death by crucifixion. Although some areas of the figure were once painted in multiple colors—traces of pigment are still visible on his lips and eyes—it is likely that the sculpture was left mostly unpainted to highlight the lively surface of the polished alabaster, with its attractive veining.
Saint Philip was carved by the Master of the Rimini Altarpiece, the most influential alabaster sculptor of the South Netherlands in the early 1400s. This artist takes his name from his most famous work, an alabaster altarpiece that once adorned the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Covignano, just outside the Italian city of Rimini, and that is now conserved in the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt, Germany.
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This statuette of Saint Philip was probably once part of a group of all twelve apostles made to decorate a now-lost altarpiece in a church or private palace. Such altarpieces had small niches to house statuettes of saints and apostles, surrounding a bigger niche reserved for a group depicting the Crucifixion or the Virgin with the dead Christ. Many such altars were dismantled and their pieces scattered across Europe during the Reformation of the sixteenth century.
Saint Philip by the Master of the Rimini Altarpiece – photo courtesy The Getty Museum
Among the alabasters attributed to the Master or Rimini, Saint Philip is stands out for its exceptional quality and preservation. The drapery folds, beard, teeth, and wrinkles around the eyes are carved with great finesse. Working on a very small scale, the artist succeeds at conveying the saint’s religious devotion through a remarkably vivid facial expression.
The Getty Museums’s collection of medieval sculpture and applied has been steadily growing in recent years. In 2003 a major collection of Medieval and Renaissance stained glass was acquired, and in 2010 much of this collection was permanently installed in the newly interpreted North Pavilion galleries, where Saint Philip is now on view.
This collection is complemented by the 2007 acquisition of the Christ in Majesty, a major 12th-century Limoges enamel, created for an altar frontal in Ourense Cathedral in Northern Spain. And in 2011, acquired the partially polychromed statue of Saint John the Baptist by the Master of the Harburger Altar, about 1515, adding to the collection a superb example of virtuoso carving, here in limewood, dating from the moment of transition between High Gothic and Renaissance sculpture in Germany.
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Saint Philip is now on display at The Getty Museum
In alabaster, the Getty has the five reliefs of Marine Scenes, about 1640, by Gerard van Opstal, Bust of a Man attributed to Conrat Meit about 1515-1520, and the bust of The Vexed Man, 1771-83, by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt.
This masterpiece of late-Gothic sculpture is on view now in the Getty Museum’s North Pavilion, Gallery N103, at the Getty Center.
By Amy Hood
The Getty Museum is now showing its latest acquisition – a rare medieval alabaster sculpture of Saint Philip by the Master of the Rimini Altarpiece.
In medieval times, fine carvings in alabaster were amongst the most prized and sought after works of art. A soft stone that can be carved in the finest detail, alabaster was often used for small figures such as the statuette of Saint Philip that the Getty Museum has just acquired from a private collector.
The statuette, dating from about 1420–1430, represents the apostle Saint Philip holding a cross, a reference to his death by crucifixion. Although some areas of the figure were once painted in multiple colors—traces of pigment are still visible on his lips and eyes—it is likely that the sculpture was left mostly unpainted to highlight the lively surface of the polished alabaster, with its attractive veining.
Saint Philip was carved by the Master of the Rimini Altarpiece, the most influential alabaster sculptor of the South Netherlands in the early 1400s. This artist takes his name from his most famous work, an alabaster altarpiece that once adorned the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Covignano, just outside the Italian city of Rimini, and that is now conserved in the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt, Germany.
This statuette of Saint Philip was probably once part of a group of all twelve apostles made to decorate a now-lost altarpiece in a church or private palace. Such altarpieces had small niches to house statuettes of saints and apostles, surrounding a bigger niche reserved for a group depicting the Crucifixion or the Virgin with the dead Christ. Many such altars were dismantled and their pieces scattered across Europe during the Reformation of the sixteenth century.
Among the alabasters attributed to the Master or Rimini, Saint Philip is stands out for its exceptional quality and preservation. The drapery folds, beard, teeth, and wrinkles around the eyes are carved with great finesse. Working on a very small scale, the artist succeeds at conveying the saint’s religious devotion through a remarkably vivid facial expression.
The Getty Museums’s collection of medieval sculpture and applied has been steadily growing in recent years. In 2003 a major collection of Medieval and Renaissance stained glass was acquired, and in 2010 much of this collection was permanently installed in the newly interpreted North Pavilion galleries, where Saint Philip is now on view.
This collection is complemented by the 2007 acquisition of the Christ in Majesty, a major 12th-century Limoges enamel, created for an altar frontal in Ourense Cathedral in Northern Spain. And in 2011, acquired the partially polychromed statue of Saint John the Baptist by the Master of the Harburger Altar, about 1515, adding to the collection a superb example of virtuoso carving, here in limewood, dating from the moment of transition between High Gothic and Renaissance sculpture in Germany.
In alabaster, the Getty has the five reliefs of Marine Scenes, about 1640, by Gerard van Opstal, Bust of a Man attributed to Conrat Meit about 1515-1520, and the bust of The Vexed Man, 1771-83, by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt.
This masterpiece of late-Gothic sculpture is on view now in the Getty Museum’s North Pavilion, Gallery N103, at the Getty Center.
To learn more, please visit The Getty website
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