Ausgiessung des Heiligen Geistes. 1490s.
Tempera on fir wood, parquetted.
110 : 96 cm (43,3 : 37,7 in). Mary, flanked by Peter and John, sits amidst the gathering of apostles in an archtiectural setting with medieval bay windows, the Holy Spirit's dove hovering above them. The landscape is opening in the left and right background, the ressurected among the apostles can be seen in an open arched hall on the left, Christ's ascension is depicted on the right. The remarkably well-preserved painting is distuingished by its strong colouring, but also by the author's notable joy of story-telling. Each of the six apostles, for example, is shown on a different seat.

Alfred Stange, the doyen of Old German panel painitng, saw the original work in1966 and considered it to be a good work by Sebald Bopp, who had been made popular by him and Hans Rott (cf. Hans Rott, Quellen und Forschungen zur südwestdeutschen und schweizerischen Kunstgeschichte im XV. und XVI. Jahrhundert, vol.II, Alt-Schwaben und die Reichsstädte, Stuttgart 1934, pp. 167ff. and Alfred Stange, Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, Bd. VIII, Schwaben in der Zeit von 1450 bis 1500, Berlin 1957, p. 96, respectively). Bopp, born in Bamberg, assistant to painters in Würzburg as of 1474, is given civil liberty in Nördlingen in 1485. This is where he begins his various activities for the city, but also for the near nobility and the monastries of the Ries region. Up until his death in 1503, he connects the formal aspects of Pleydenwurff with Friedrich Herlin's idea of figures. Bopp enjoyed a certain recognition, as he made, among others, several works for the Ansbach margraves and the counts of Öttingen, which has been proven (cf. Cristof Metzger, article Sebald Bopp, in: Allgemeines Künstler- Lexikon, vol. 12, Munich, Leipzig 1996, p. 652). Hans Rott's attempt to identify the anonymous master from Kirchheim (late 15th century) as Sebald Bopp, was regarded to be arbitrary by others (cf. Thieme/Becker, Künstlerlexikon, vol. 37, Leipzig 1950, p. 180). Among Sebald Bopp's best known works is the altair of the counts of Öttingen, which can be found in their castle's chapel in Harburg. Two plates with the "Anbetung der drei Könige“ are in possession of the Germanische Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg), it is still unclear, however, who made two further plates of this altair, which are in possession of the Staatsgalerie Füssen, namely "Christus als Schmerzensmann“ and "Maria als Schmerzensmutter“ (cf. Gisela Goldberg, Staatsgalerie Füssen, Munich, Zurich 1987, pp. 57ff.). The painting "Anbetung der Könige“ (Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis, op.cit, p. 231, no. 1015), offered in London in 1987, in possession of the collection Morley in Zürich today, shows certain similarities to our painting, despite its somewhat antiquated gold priming, mainly to the faces. [HW]
EXPERTISE: With a photo expertise from Mr Alfred Stange, Tutzing, from 23 November 1966
PROVENIENZ: Private collection South Germany (since the 1960s).

Colours in very good and fresh condition.