Scene from the Life of Saint Margaret of Antioch,
oil on panel, 57 x 42 cm, framed

Provenance:
probably once installed in the St. Jakobus parish church, consecrated to Saint James the Great, in Ornbau, Central Franconia (see the provenance of the Eichstätt panels mentioned below);
Private collection, Vienna

We are grateful to Michaela Schedl for kindly assisting us in compiling this catalogue entry. Her written certificate (dated July 2022) is available.

She writes: ‘This panel of high quality, showing the initial scene from the legend of Saint Margaret of Antioch, was originally part of a retable, two further panels of which illustrating episodes from the life of this female saint are known; they are conserved at the Domschatz- und Diözesanmuseum, Eichstätt (showing Margaret and the Roman prefect Olibrius and the saint’s martyrdom). The retable bears an inscription dated 1436; for stylistic reasons and given the Eichstätt panels’ provenance, it can be attributed to a master active in Central Franconia.’

Michaela Schedl on the reconstruction of the retable: ‘At some point of time now unknown, the retable was disassembled, with its wings split vertically. The three scenes on gold ground known today appeared on the inside wings. For the open retable, the following reconstruction would thus be imaginable, with the scenes read from left to right: The scene showing the first encounter between Olibrius and Saint Margaret would have appeared at the upper left, followed by the saint’s being summoned by the prefect at the upper right; one of the other eight scenes from the saint’s legend could then have appeared at the lower left, such as that of her slaying the dragon. One of the martyrdoms the saint was forced to suffer must then have been illustrated at the lower right. Nothing is currently known about the whereabouts of the outer wings, the central part (painted, with reliefs or sculptures), and the predella.’