Austrian, circa 1500 | Relief with the Agony in the Garden

Private collection, Austria

Red limestone was used frequently for epitaphs in Southern German and Austrian churches; many such reliefs are found on the exterior of St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. An inscribed epitaph with the Agony in the Garden is in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (Müller, op. cit., no. 231). The present composition is based on an engraving by the Upper Rhenish painter Martin Schongauer and also appears in a wood relief in the Musée d'Unterlinden in Colmar (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, no. fm422184).

RELATED LITERATURE
T. Müller, Die Bildwerke in Holz, Ton und Stein von der Mitte des XV. bis gegen MItte des XVI. Jahrhunderts, cat. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, 1959