North West German, circa 1510-1520

possibly St. Peter's Cathedral, Bremen, until 1823;
Charles Scarisbrick, Scarisbrick Hall, Lancashire, circa 1836-1848;
his sale, Henry Spencer & Sons, Scarisbrick Hall, Lancashire. Superb XV-mid-XVII century panelling. Fine garden statuary, 29 November 1963;
private collection, the Netherlands;
and thence by descent to the present owners

Overall the condition of the wood is good with some wear and dirt to the surface consistent with age including some dust to the crevices. There is stable splitting throughout consistent with material, which is particularly visible at the lower and top ends. Some of the narrower sections such as the vines and attributes were carved in parts. Some were lost and replaced later, including at the figure at the top left in the Tree of Jesse panel, left of the Crucifixion, the attributes of the Apostles on the top left and right. There are some losses including to the top and lower edges of the panels at the reverse, the tracery on the top left of the Jesse Tree, the fingers of the top right figure in the Apostle screen and a section of the arm of the Entombed Christ, the vines above Charlemagne’s knees, and the fingers of the figures above him in the centre and on the right. The frame in which the screens are displayed in Sotheby’s galleries at present can be acquired with the lot after the sale.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

These tall, intricately carved screens once formed the sides of a magnificent set of choir stalls dating to the early 16th century in one of North-West Germany’s foremost churches. Three represent well-known subjects: the Tree of Jesse, Scenes from the Life of Christ, and Christ and the Apostles. The iconography of the fourth, with its assembly of rulers, noblemen and bishops, is more unusual, but it probably commemorates the ordination of Christoph von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel as Archbishop of Bremen. This suggests that the set was made for Bremen Cathedral or another important church in the bishopric of this German prince. Few choir stalls in the area stood the test of time and those that did were often removed after the economic troubles that followed secularisation and the strife between the Lutheran church authorities and Calvinist politicians in the early 19th century. The English in particular took the opportunity to indulge in their fascination with Gothic art at this time and saved the best carvings from destruction (see Woods, op.cit.). As such these four magnificent screens were acquired by Charles Scarisbrick between 1836 and 1848 for his grand Gothic Revival country house in Lancashire which was being remodelled by Pugin.

Choir stalls were regular features of church interiors from the 12th century onwards. They mark the location in front of the high altar from which the clerics celebrate Mass. Over the centuries these stalls became more and more elaborate to distinguish the clerics from the congregation, taking intricate architectural shapes embellished with imaginative carvings. Few Late Gothic stalls survive intact, famous examples still in situ include Jorg Syrlin's stalls for Ulm Cathedral and those in the St.-Catherine Church in Hoogstraten. The side screens are seldom as tall and elaborate as the present set.

Each of the present screens is carved with a tree or vine that grows from a reclining figure at the lower edge. From their branches fruits and flowers sprout that contain deftly individualised figures. In the Middle Ages such images served as a schematic illustration of lineages and narratives. They reveal not only how people and events relate to each other, but also allude to hierarchies in the Church. Sometimes they even empowered worldly figures such as bishops and noblemen by associating them with historical figures. Examples include the Trees of Affinity and Consanguinity, often found in medieval manuscripts such as Fitzwilliam Museum MS 262, which record the marriage and blood relationships of worldly figures (f. 71r-v).

Perhaps the most recognisable of these four ‘trees’ is the Tree of Jesse. Jesse of Bethlehem was the father of David, the foremost king of the Israelites, and therefore also the ancestor of the other kings, and ultimately Christ. The customary representation of this lineage is based on a passage in the Book of Isaiah: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots" (Isaiah, 11:1, King James Version). The next screen starts with a female personification of Ecclesia. From her chalice sprouts a flowering vine along which the Holy Trinity and scenes from the Life of Christ are represented, starting with the Annunciation and finishing with Christ in Majesty and Christ ascending through the clouds into Heaven on the top right. The third panel represents Christ and the Apostles. Christ is laid on his tomb and from the wound in his side grows the grapevine with the twelve missionaries that were to spread His legacy. Each Apostle is easily identified by his attribute. For example, St. Peter holds the key to Rome on the bottom left and St. James wears his pilgrim's hat and staff in the centre.

The fourth screen is more difficult to understand as it includes worldly figures without particularly distinguishing features. The tree sprouts from a ruler, shown with a crown, sword and orb, and the flowers on its branches accommodate five bishops with mitre and staff and six men with arms and banners. Each of these eleven figures carries an empty cartouche, presumably for a coat of arms. At the top is one further bishop, making a blessing gesture.

The ruler portrayed at the bottom of the screen is probably identifiable as Emperor Charlemagne (742-814).  In the early 16^th century, Charlemagne was revered as the founder of churches and monasteries in many areas and he therefore often featured in Gothic wood sculpture (see Braunfels, op. cit., vol. IV and Kahsnitz, op.cit., pp. 317-345). In Bremen, Charlemagne was worshipped together with Bishop Willehad (circa 735-789), who also played a key role in the founding of the city and its cathedral. They appear in paintings and reliefs together in this capacity, including on the 12^th century seal of the city, the stalls dating to circa 1410 formerly in the town hall and now in the Focke Museum, and in Bartholomeus Bruyn’s wall painting from 1532 in the town hall.

More significantly, they appear together in a stone relief on the west rood loft in Bremen cathedral by Evert van Roden in 1512 (Karrenbrock, op.cit., pp. 48-55). The relief stretches horizontally across the loft and has Charlemagne and Willehad enthroned with an image of the cathedral at its centre. They are flanked by niches with four archbishops of Bremen -Ansgar, Adalbert, Adalgar, and Rembertus- and patron saints of the town. Eight pilaster figures help identify each character, whilst two others represent the donors Archbishop Johann III Rode van Wale of Bremen and his coadjutor and successor Christoph von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. As such the relief illustrates the genesis of the city and its church and neatly associates the reigning bishop and his right hand with it.

It is likely that the fourth screen of the present set follows a similar scheme. The tree grows from Charlemagne and ends with Bishop Willehad. The other figures are organised around the central character, a bishop. The worldly men bearing cartouches, arms and banners would be noblemen related to this figure. And the four bishops on the left hand side, possibly the very same archbishops as represented in Van Roden’s relief, present a coin, a flask, a pallium and a staff; all objects associated with the ordination of a bishop. If this is correct, and since the reliefs are likely to date to the start of the 16^th century, it is likely that the screen represents the ordinance of Christoph von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel as Archbishop of Bremen in 1511. He already appears alongside Johann Rode van Wale in the relief in Bremen cathedral and made his personal political statement in the no doubt superlative choir stalls to which the present side screens belonged.

A likely location for the lost choir stalls was the Cathedral of Bremen, Christoph von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel’s seat. The relief made for the west rood loft proves that sculptors were active there at the time of the archbishop’s ordination. Remnants of 14^th-century choir stalls illustrated by Lohr (op.cit., p. 126) remain in the church and there are references to a further, comparable set of stalls in publications from 1753 and 1822 (Uffenbach, op.cit., p. 209 and Storck, op.cit., 248-249). In 1823 the stalls in the cathedral were dismantled. The 14^th-century Levitenstuhl from Verden Cathedral, where Christoph von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel was bishop from 1502-1558, may have inspired the commission, as its sides are decorated with comparable ajour carving.

RELATED LITERATURE
Z.C. von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland und Engelland  II, Ulm, 1753, p. 209; A. Storck, Ansichten der freien Hansestadt Bremen und ihrer Umgebung, Frankfurt, 1822, pp. 248-249; W. Braunfels (ed.), Karl der Grosse. Lebenswerk und Nachleben, Düsseldorf , 1965-1968; A. Lohr, ‘Das Chorgestuhl im Dom zu Bremen. Studien zur niederdeutschen Skulptur um die Mitte des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts’, Niederdeutschen Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte 13, 1974, pp. 123-180; R. Karrenbrock, ‘Westfalen-Bremen-Niederlande. Westfälische Bildhauer des späten Mittelalters in Bremen’, Bremen und die Niederlande. Jahrbuch 1995/1996, Bremen, 1997, pp. 40-62; R. Kahsnitz, ‘Der Wandel des Karlsbildes in der mittelalterlichen Skulptur und Goldschmiedekunst’, Zeitschrift des Aachnere Geschichtsvereins 104/105, Aachen, 2003, pp. 317-345; K. Woods, Imported images. Netherlandish late gothic sculpture in England c. 1400-c. 1550, Donington, 2007

We would like to thank Drs. Christel Theunissen, Radboud University Nijmegen, for her research regarding this lot.