Saint Florian
sculptor
Unknown
Dateabout 1520-1525
Place MadeBavaria, Germany, Europe
MediumPolychromed wood (the staff is modern)
Dimensions157.5 cm (62 in.)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberS4n3
eMuseum ID728288
EmbARK ObjectID13082
TMS Source ID2093
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryThis painted wood sculpture depicts Saint Florian, the patron saint of chimney sweeps and firefighters. Clad in full armor, he hold a banner and a bucket which he uses to pour water onto the burning building at his feet--his customary attributes after the middle of the 15th century.
BibliographyNotesCatalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 3. (as "German gothic")
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 154. (as German, late 17th or early 18th century)
Charles L. Kuhn. "German Late Gothic Sculpture in the Gardner Museum, Boston" in Wilhelm Reinhold Walter Koehler (ed.). Medieval Studies in Memory of A. Kingsley Porter (Cambridge, 1939), pp. 572-73, fig. 10. (as South German, about 1525)
Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 57, ill.
Anneliese Harding. German Sculpture in New England Museums (Boston, 1972), p. 83. (as a "19th century imitation of a late Gothic figure")
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), pp. 102-03, no. 134. (as South Bavarian or Austrian, about 1520-1525)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 154. (as German, late 17th or early 18th century)
Charles L. Kuhn. "German Late Gothic Sculpture in the Gardner Museum, Boston" in Wilhelm Reinhold Walter Koehler (ed.). Medieval Studies in Memory of A. Kingsley Porter (Cambridge, 1939), pp. 572-73, fig. 10. (as South German, about 1525)
Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 57, ill.
Anneliese Harding. German Sculpture in New England Museums (Boston, 1972), p. 83. (as a "19th century imitation of a late Gothic figure")
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), pp. 102-03, no. 134. (as South Bavarian or Austrian, about 1520-1525)
ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the art dealer Theodor Einstein & Co., Munich with a second statue of Saint George (museum no. S4n1) for a total of 2,460 marks on 16 August 1897 through her husband, John L. Gardner, Jr. (1837–1898).
Object/Provenance
