Provenance
Léon Tabourier; (his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 20-22 June 1898, no. 193, as Ecole Allemande); (Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris). (F. Kleinberger Galleries, Paris), in 1913. André J. Seligmann [1898-1945], Paris, by 1938;[1] his heirs; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, New York, 27 January 2000, no. 49); purchased jointly by (Bernheimer, Munich), (Otto Nauman, New York), and (Alfred Bader, Milwaukee); purchased 6 June 2001 by NGA.
[1] The painting was confiscated by the Nazis in July 1940 from the collection of André Seligmann and taken to the Germany Embassy in Paris (See _Verzeichnis der im Juli 1940 durch die Geheime Feldpolizei in Paris gesicherten und in die Deutsche Botschaft überbrachten Gegenstände aus jüdischen Kunsthandlungen_, p. 8-9, National Archives RG260/Ardelia Hall Collection/Box 469/File VII and ERR card no. SEL 545, as Westphalian, second half of the 15th century, National Archives RG260/Property Division/Box 19-20, both copies in NGA curatorial files). It was transferred to the Jeu de Paume from where it was removed by Hermann Goering on 5 November 1940 (OSS Consolidated Report #2, The Goering Collection, 15 September 1945, Attachment 5, _List der für die Sammlung des Reichsmarschalls Hermann Goering abgegebenen Kunstgegenstände_ dated 20 October 1942, no. 236, National Archives RG239/Entry 73/Box 78, copy NGA curatorial files). The records of the Munich Central Collecting Point indicate that the painting was recovered in Berchtesgaden and restituted to France on 30 October 1946 (see Munich property card #6772/1722 as Flemish c. 1480, National Archives RG260/Box 503, and French Receipt for Cultural Objects No. 14A, item no. 121, National Archives RG260/Box 287, copies NGA curatorial files). In 1951 the Office des Biens Privés deposited the painting at the Musée du Louvre in Paris (M.N.R. number 622). The painting remained there until 1999, when it was returned to André Seligmann's two daughters.
Accession Number
2001.70.1
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 129.5 x 199.5 cm (51 x 78 9/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Patrons' Permanent Fund
Tags
Painting Renaissance (1400–1599) Oil Painting Panel Painting German
Background & Context
Background Story
The Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas (active c. 1470-1490) was an anonymous German painter named after his most important surviving work, whose devotional paintings in the detailed, expressive manner of the late Gothic tradition make him one of the most distinctive painters of the late 15th century in Westphalia. Calvary from c. 1470/1480 depicts the Crucifixion in the detailed, expressive manner that distinguishes the Master's best work from the more accomplished painting of his better-known contemporaries. The c. 1470/1480 date places this in the period when the Westphalian tradition of late Gothic painting was producing some of its most distinctive devotional works.
Cultural Impact
Calvary is important in the history of German painting because it demonstrates the detailed, expressive manner of the Westphalian late Gothic tradition at the end of the 15th century. The Westphalian tradition—combining the detailed observation of the Netherlandish tradition with the expressive intensity of the German late Gothic—produced some of the most distinctive devotional paintings of the period, and the c. 1470/1480 painting shows this tradition at its most expressive.
Why It Matters
Calvary is the Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas's late Gothic Westphalian painting: the Crucifixion rendered in the detailed, expressive manner of one of the most distinctive anonymous painters of the late 15th century. The c. 1470/1480 painting shows the Westphalian tradition combining Netherlandish detail with German expressive intensity.
![Saint Bernard and Saint Catherine of Alexandria with the Virgin of the Annunciation [right panel]](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/e6890364-4d99-4684-a62b-5060ee3c3446/full/400,/0/default.jpg)
