“O would God that all my brethren the apostles were here, that we might make thine exequies convenably as it behoveth and is digne and worthy. And as he said that, all the apostles were ravished with clouds from the places where they preached, and were brought tofore the door of the blessed Virgin Mary. And when they saw them assembled, they marvelled, and said: For what cause hath our Lord assembled us here?"
- Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend

The Death of the Virgin Mary surrounded by Christ’s Apostles, as recounted in the hagiographical Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine,1 was a popular subject in visual arts of the 15th and 16th centuries. It provided artists with the opportunity to depict a multi-figure group in a dramatic setting and was thus a narrative motif frequently found in the context of worship, appearing on medieval altarpieces in both painting and sculpture.

Major sculptural representations of the subject in private ownership are rare. The present group, which is carved almost fully in the round and thus displays greater depth than the majority of relief representations of the subject, is exceptional in that it can be attributed to one of the most prominent wood carvers of late Gothic Germany, Jörg Lederer. At a time in which the names of numerous sculptors would be lost to later generations, Lederer led a successful and well-documented workshop in Upper Swabia, and the master’s innovative spirit is palpable in this most individual and theatrical of compositions.

SUBJECT AND ICONOGRAPHY

The apocryphal account of the Virgin Mary’s death is traditionally referred to as her Dormition (from the Latin dormire = to sleep), reflecting the belief that the event occurred without suffering, as a peaceful transition into eternal sleep. According to the 13th century Golden Legend, when Saint John the Evangelist heard of Christ’s mother’s imminent passing, he is said to have called upon the dispersed apostles to appear miraculously at the Virgin’s bedside: “And when the blessed Virgin Mary saw all the apostles assembled, she blessed our Lord, and sat in the midst of them where the lamps, tapers, and lights burned.”2 There gathered they performed funeral rights, blessing and singing, and eventually being joined by the Christ himself:

“And tofore the bed of our blessed Lady the companies of all these saints were set in order and made sweet song and melody.”
- Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend

Left: Fig. 1 Jörg Lederer, The Death of the Virgin, circa 1520-1525. Innsbruck, Tiroler Landesmuseum.
Right: Fig. 2 Jörg Lederer, Dormition group from a winged altarpiece, 1524. Partschins, South Tirol, Parish Church

Three further depictions of the Dormition by Jörg Lederer and his workshop are known today – one in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck (fig. 1), one in Partschins, Tirol (fig. 2), and a third in a private collection.3 All three are dated to the 1520s and take the form of a pyramidal composition, with the Virgin kneeling at the center supported by a varying number of apostles. The present group, set within a shrine, appears to be unique among Lederer’s extant oeuvre by following the more traditional iconography which originated in Byzantine art, in which the Virgin is depicted lying horizontally in her bed, with the twelve apostles assembled behind her and at the foot of the bed. Imbued with sufficient strength to lean slightly forward, but a serene, downcast expression heralding her passing, the Virgin is holding a now-lost candle offered to her by the youthful Saint John. While not all the apostles can be identified owing to a lack of attributes, some of them are recognizable through iconographic convention and physiognomy: to Saint John’s right, Saint James the Greater with his characteristic hat; to Saint John’s left, the bearded Saint Peter holding an aspergillum; and to Peter’s left, Saint Bartholomew with a bucket of holy water.

Click on the dots to identify the figures
  • Saint John handing a candle to the Virgin Created with Sketch.
  • Saint Peter sprinkling holy water with an aspergillum Created with Sketch.
  • Saint Bartholomew holding a bucket of holy water Created with Sketch.
  • Saint Bartholomew holding a bucket of holy water Created with Sketch.
  • Saint James the Greater Created with Sketch.
  • The fluttering veil is an allusion to the Virgin's soul leaving her body Created with Sketch.
  • Saint John handing a candle to the Virgin
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  • Saint Peter sprinkling holy water with an aspergillum
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  • Saint Bartholomew holding a bucket of holy water
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  • Saint Bartholomew holding a bucket of holy water
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  • Saint James the Greater
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  • The fluttering veil is an allusion to the Virgin's soul leaving her body
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Fig. 3 Master of Uttenheim, The Death of the Virgin, circa 1470-1489. Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Except for the absence of Christ, the present composition corresponds to a type that was established in German and Netherlandish art by the mid 15th century. It is likely that Lederer was inspired by a painted or graphic depiction of the subject, such as Martin Schongauer’s influential engraving of around 1470.4 Interestingly, many of the motifs found in the present work are repeated in a painted Dormition of circa 1470-1480 by the Master of Uttenheim (fig. 3), originally from Neustift in South Tirol, and now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (inv. no. 5305). The pose of the apostle reading, with crossed legs, and the arrangement of the apostles behind the Virgin’s bed – from the positioning of Saint John, Saint Peter and Bartholomew, to the figure at the far right facing outwards and raising a censer – are closely comparable, which may indicate a common pictorial source.

What distinguishes the present group is a rarely seen sense of dynamism and urgency. In contrast to the solemn expressions and largely static poses depicted in most Dormitions, the apostles here are filled with agency and movement, creating a tableau of visual theatre which accentuates the calm serenity of the Virgin at the centre. The kneeling apostle to the left throws up his hands in prayer, several figures behind the bed are captured singing or mid-conversation, while the apostle holding a censer steps out towards the composition’s edge, his straight hair caught in the rush of movement, or perhaps a divinely inspired breeze. Meanwhile a bearded apostle at the foot of the bed leans forward with his head in his hands, in quiet contemplation unperturbed by the commotion that surrounds him. The immersive quality of the action within the composition is underscored by a marked sense of realism. Although it is common in the iconography of the Dormition for the apostles to be distinguished by various hairstyles and degrees of facial hair, their features, too, are strongly individualized here, with some adopting the appearance of ordinary contemporary men. The chest at the foot of the Virgin’s bed, an essential feature of late medieval households, lends the scene a sense of humble domesticity. This vivid realism is interrupted by a sophisticated spiritual metaphor in the form of the Virgin’s veil, covering her head and flowing in a curve across her body towards the foot of the bed. The delicate fluttering of the white cloth may be interpreted as a reference to the soul leaving the Virgin’s body, as described in the text of The Golden Legend:5

“And thus in the morning the soul issued out of the body and fled up in the arms of her son. And she was as far estranged from the pain of the flesh as she was from corruption of her body.”

JÖRG LEDERER – MASTER SCULPTOR IN THE ALLGÄU

It is this artistic originality, as well as stylistic comparisons, that support the attribution of the present Dormition to the highly significant master carver, Jörg Lederer. His activity coincided with a period of upheaval in south German art, at the cusp between the late Gothic and Renaissance styles, and immediately anticipating the Reformation. Sculptors such as Lederer found new, expressive modes of representation to engage with an increasingly enlightened audience. Lederer is first documented on 22 July 1499, when he is registered as a sculptor in the citizens’ book of Füssen, a town in the Allgäu region of Upper Swabia. While nothing is known of his training, his sculptural style indicates a familiarity with both the art of late 15th century Augsburg and the influential school of Ulm. Sometime between 1500 and 1507, Lederer established a flourishing workshop in Kaufbeuren, also in the Allgäu, where he remained until his death in 1550. He gained important commissions for both regional churches and beyond, delivering numerous altarpieces across the Alps to South Tirol. While several of his works are documented between 1513 and 1524, no sculpture can be attributed to Lederer after 1530, perhaps as a result of his old age and the Reformation. By the 1530s Lederer is further recorded as the holder of high public office, second only to the mayor of Kaufbeuren.6

Fig. 4 Jörg Lederer, Detail from the wings of the Stuben Altarpiece, 1513

On stylistic grounds the present Dormition appears to pre-date Lederer’s above-mentioned versions of the subject from the 1520s. Originally set into a large altarpiece dedicated to the life of the Virgin, it was probably carved in the second decade of the 16th century, corresponding in its somewhat puppet-like figural style to Lederer’s altarpiece in the Filialkirche of Stuben (Oberinntal), which dates to 1513.7 The pronounced undulation of facial structures seen in the apostles is reminiscent of the reliefs on the wings of the Stuben altarpiece,8 which would have been carved at least in part by workshop assistants under the master’s guidance (fig. 4).

Further comparisons can be made throughout works associated with Lederer and his workshop. The Saint John is remarkably similar to a small figure of the same saint in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum,9 while the kneeling apostle on the left finds a parallel in a relief with the Twelve Apostles in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum.10 The beautiful and youthful features of the Virgin, as well as her hairstyle with straight strands framing her face and cascading in long corkscrew curls, compare closely to Lederer’s Madonnas from the 1510s, such as the central figure in the Altarpiece from Hinterkirch of circa 1515 (fig. 5),11 which anticipates the demure Virgin of the Coronation in Lederer’s masterpiece, the Hindelang Altar of 1519.12

Fig. 5 Jörg Lederer, Virgin and Child from the Hinterkirch Altarpiece, circa 1515. Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts (Opposite detail of the present lot)

AN AMERICAN PROVENANCE

The Diamond Dormition was first recorded in the hands of the major American art collectors John Ringling (1866-1936) and his wife, Mable Burton Ringling (1875-1929), who established the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. As one of the Ringling Brothers, John had made his fortune in the business of travelling circuses. Together with his wife he amassed a significant collection of Old Master paintings and European art, which would be housed in the purpose-built museum on their estate in Sarasota from 1927. While it is unclear when and where the Ringlings acquired the Dormition, it is known to have passed from their collection into the hands of the prominent Munich art dealer, Julius Böhler, in 1925. It was in 1925 that John Ringling began an association with Böhler, which culminated in the purchase of four Raphael cartoons through the dealer in 1926; these remain among the highlights of the Ringling Museum. Having been acquired by Hester Diamond in 2002, the Lederer Dormition now enters the art market once again from an important American private collection, creating a unique opportunity for collectors of early European wood sculpture.

RELATED LITERATURE
Theodor Müller, Die Bildwerke in Holz, Ton und Stein von der Mitte des XV. bis gegen Mitte des XVI. Jahrhunderts, cat. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, 1959;
P. Hildebrand Dussler, Jörg Lederer: Ein Allgäuer Bildschnitzer der Spätgotik, Kempten, 1963;
Theodor Müller, Gotische Skulptur in Tirol, Bozen, 1976;
Rainer Kahsnitz, Carved Splendor: Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria and South Tirol, Los Angeles, 2006, pp. 386-401

1. Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints, first published 1483, ed. F.S. Ellis, reprinted 1931, vol. 4, as published online by Fordham University
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume4.asp#Assumption

2. Ibid.

3. Dussler, op. cit., nos. A 18, A 36 and A 42

4. See a version in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 40.8.1

5. De Voragine, op. Cit.

6. Kahsnitz, op. cit., pp. 389-390

7. Dussler, op. cit., no. A 52

8. Ibid., pl. 92

9. Müller, op. cit., no. 214

10. Ibid., no. A 33

11. Ibid., no. A 9

12. Ibid., no. A 14 and pl. III