Saint Barbara [left wing exterior]

c. 1480/1490

Master of the Starck Triptych

Painter, German, active c. 1480 - c. 1495

Media Options

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On View

NGA, West Building, M-035-A

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Patrons' Permanent Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 66 x 23.5 cm (26 x 9 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1997.100.1.c

Associated Artworks

A wooden, T-shaped cross, with a man nailed to its crossbeam, is raised so it stands vertically as men and women look on against a grassy, hilly landscape in this horizonal painting. The painting is made up of three parts: a vertical rectangular panel at the center and a tall, narrow rectangular panel to each side. The people all have pale, ruddy, or tanned skin. The cross is being pushed up from behind by two men with poles and pulled up on the front side by three men pulling on two ropes. The man on the cross, Jesus, is nude except for a white cloth across his hips. Blood trickles from nails holding his hands in place, the single nail driven through both feet, and a ring of thorns across his forehead. His long brown hair hangs down over his shoulder, and he has a full, trimmed beard. His red-rimmed eyes slope downward as he looks down to the crowd below. His mouth is closed. The people in the crowd at the base of the cross wear dresses, robes, and turbans in shades of ruby red, grass green, lapis blue, pale yellow, carnation pink, and bright white. Three men push and pull on the base of the cross, driving it into a hole dug in the dirt ground. Eleven men and one child look on from our left, some with gaping mouths. One of the two men pulling on one of the ropes to our right wears tattered blue clothing, and his toes poke out of the shoe we can see. The other man there is barefoot and has a prominent hooked, red nose and a pointed beard. A red cowl covers his head over a tunic striped with lemon yellow and brown. An inscription on that man’s sleeve reads, “OHAIR.” Two men stand in the lower left corner of this panel. One looks at the cross and the other looks out at us, while pointing up to Jesus. Two human skulls and other bones litter the ground around the cross. Two more wooden crosses and some rope lie on the ground near us. Two dogs romp together nearby, next to a coat of arms showing a crowned man wearing a red robe and holding two pointed staffs. In the panel to our left, a woman wearing an azure-blue robe, Mary, interlaces her fingers and flips her hands palm-down, as she looks at the ground. Another woman in front of her kneels and holds her interlaced hands up by her face, elbows high. A woman and a cleanshaven man stand near Mary, and to our left, a woman wearing emerald green holds a cloth with Jesus’s face on it. Four more men and women look on, the women crying. In the panel to our right, a man in a red robe and a man wearing armor sit on horses. The armored man gestures up at Jesus. Two more men sit on horses behind this pair, and six stand among and in front of the group. Two men sit, one with his hands tied behind his back, near the lower right corner of this panel. The bound man is bald and looks down. The man behind him has a brown beard and hair, and looks up at Jesus. Across all three panels, the scene takes place on a smooth, dirt ground. Grassy hills rise beyond the cross to higher peaks in the left and right panels. Paths or roads wind into the distance to a town on the horizon, which comes about two-thirds of the way up the composition. Hazy in the distance, a city wall encloses steeples and buildings, and a bridge spans a body of water leading up to the city. Gray clouds begin to tumble across the sky from our right. The sky is nearly white along the horizon and deepens to watery blue along the top edges of the panels.

The Raising of the Cross [center, left, and right panels]

Master of the Starck Triptych

1480

Saint Catherine [right wing exterior]

Master of the Starck Triptych

1480

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Member of the Starck family, Nuremberg. John (Talbot?), 16th Earl of Shrewsbury [1791-1852], Alton Tower; gift 1839 to St. Mary's College, Oscott, England; sold through (Julius H. Weitzner [1896-1968], London) to (French & Co., New York), by 1976; purchased 1997 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1857

  • Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Paintings by Ancient Masters, Art Treasures Palace, Manchester, England, 1857, no. 501, as by School of van Eyck.

1989

  • Kunst & Tradition. Meisterwerke bedeutender Provenienzen, Bernheimer, Munich, 1989, unnumbered, as Workshop of Michael Wolgemut.

1994

  • Lucas Cranach. Ein Maler-Unternehmer aus Franken, Festung Rosenberg, Kronach; Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, 1994, no. 98, as Master of the Stötteritz Alter.

2000

  • Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000-2001, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2010

  • Van Eyck to Dürer, Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 2010-2011, no. 222, repro.

2013

  • The Art of Empathy: The Mother of Sorrows in Northern Renaissance Art and Devotion, The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, 2013-2014, unnumbered catalogue.

2021

  • Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, ca. 800-1500, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2021 - 2022, unnumbered catalogue.

Bibliography

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 66.

2009

  • Suckale, Robert. Die Erneuerung der Malkunst vor Dürer. 2 vols. Petersberg, 2009: 1:77-81, 458, figs. 106, 108-112; 2:77, no. 56, 173-176, figs. 915, 916.

2011

  • Pergam, Elizabeth A. The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857: Entrepreneurs, Connoisseurs and the Public. Farnham and Burlington, 2011: 313.

Wikidata ID

Q20174351

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