Wings of the Wüllersleben Triptych

Artist Valentin Lendenstreich (German, active 1485-1506)

Date1503

Dimensions75 × 44 1/2 × 6 in. (190.5 × 113 × 15.2 cm)

Mediumoil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.3154A-B

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 16

Label TextMade for the parish church in Wüllersleben, in eastern Germany, these altarpiece wings combine panel painting and painted (polychrome) wood sculpture. The wings originally closed over a center section of polychrome wood figures of female saints flanking the Madonna and Child (see below). These sculptures—along with the male saints against a gold background and the painted panels of the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary—were only displayed when the altarpiece was opened. When closed, the painted panels of Christ praying in Gethsemane (the Agony in the Garden) and being tortured before his crucifixion (the Flagellation) were on the exterior. The two prophets at the top would have faced each other when the wings were closed. The altarpiece was created in the workshop of painter and sculptor Valentin Lendenstreich, who boldly inscribed the exterior panels with his name and the date of the work’s completion. [Image:] Complete altarpiece, opened. Although the three components of the altarpiece remained together until the early 20th century, the whereabouts of some elements of the central panel is currently unknown.Published ReferencesLehfeldt, P., Bau-und Kunstdenkmäler Thüringens, XIX, 1894, p. 64.

Lehfeldt, P., "Uber die Thüringische Familie Lendenstreich," Zeitschrift des vereins für Thüringische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, IX, 1895, pp. 659-75.

Doering, O., and G. Voss, Meisterwerke der Kunst aus Sächsen und Thüringen, Magdeburg, 1906, p. 57.

Koch, E., Valentin Lendenstreich und andere Saalfelder Maler um die Wende des Mittelalters: Archivalische Forschungen, Jena, 1914, p. 1.

Riemschneider-Hoerner, M., "Der Saalfelder Nildschnitzer Valentin Lendenstreich," Thüringen Monatszeitschrift für alte und neue Kulter, V, 1929/30, p. 164.

Kuhn, C., A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in American Collections, Cambridge, MA, 1936, no. 71, pl. XV, fig. 71.

Stange, A., Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, Munich, 1958, IX, pp. 151, 152, figs. 282-83.

Bier, J., "Hans Gottwalt of Lohr, A Pupil of Tilmann Riemenschneider at Saalfeld," De Artibus Opuscula XL, Essays in Honor of Erwin Panofsky, New York, 1961, I, pp. 2, 8, 9; II, figs. 2-4.

Werner, G., "Der Bildschnitzer Hans Gottwalt von Lohr," Saalfelder Museumsreihe, II, 1966, pp. 6, 17, 20.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 95-6, pl. 63 a-d.

Gillerman, Dorothy, ed., Gothic Sculpture in America, II: The Museums of the Midwest, Turnhout, Brepols, 2001, pp. 390-2, no. 275, repr. p. 391.

Stanford, Peter, Judas: The Troubling History of the Renegade Apostle, London, Hodder & Stoughton, 2015, pp. 164-166, repr. p. 165.