This large and magnificent panel of Saint Agricius of Trier (circa 260–335) and Saint Anno II of Cologne (circa 1010–1075) once served as one of the painted outer wings of a large early-sixteenth century altarpiece dedicated to Saint Agilolphus. Created in Antwerp in about 1520 and exported to the Rhineland for the church of St. Maria ad Gradus in Cologne, the complex altarpiece had two sets of painted wings on each side of an elaborately carved central shrine. In 1817, the altarpiece moved to the nearby Cologne Cathedral, where it still can be viewed today in the southern transept (fig. 1). Prior to the altarpiece’s relocation, however, the outer wings of the altarpiece had already been separated and their panels dispersed, including the present lot. As such, this panel’s reappearance offers an exciting opportunity to further examine the skill, prowess, and achievement that defined the remarkable painted elements of one of the largest and most important examples of late Gothic carved altarpieces from Antwerp that remains in existence today.

Cologne’s Agilolphus altar, also known as the Altar of the Five Moors, is one of many late Gothic carved altarpieces exported from Antwerp during the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries.¹ It was commissioned from Antwerp in about 1520–21 for the high altar of the east choir of Saint Maria ad Gradus, a church founded by Herman II and completed in 1075 by Archbishop Anno II. Anno revered the church immensely and even brought the relics of St. Agilolphus to the site in 1062. This altarpiece, which featured two sets of painted wings flanking a carved central shrine above a predella, was a Doppelwandelaltar, or a double-transformation piece with three states.² In the first state, the altarpiece was closed; in the second, the first set of wings were opened to reveal scenes from the lives of Saints Anno and Agilolphus; and in the third, the state visible today in the cathedral, the inner wings were opened to reveal a carved central shine illustrating scenes from the Life of Christ and painted wings enlivened with stories from the Life of Mary. Beneath the main altarpiece is a predella into which the shrine of the relics of St. Agilolphus and later the Five Moors were once housed, and carved wooden sculptures of Saint Anno, Saint Agilolphus, and Mary would have adorned the top of the central shrine.³ According to Birgit Lambert, it seems probable that by the t.mes the altarpiece was moved to the Cologne Cathedral in 1817, many of the panels on the secondary outer wings, including the present, had already been sold, probably after Saint Maria ad Gradus was dissolved around 1803 as a result of the French occupation.⁴

Max Friedländer was the first to identify several of these dispersed panels, but this task was fervently taken up again in 1942 by Wolfgang Stechow who also proposed a reconstruction of the outer wings of the original altarpiece that has been subsequently endorsed by several scholars.⁵ The present panel would have been visible on the left in the first state when the altarpiece was completely closed (fig. 2). Its pendant, a comparable panel of Saints Agilolphus and Blaise (fig. 3) formerly in the collects ion of F.A. Weinzheimer in Fiesole but today in the Maternus Chapel of the Cologne Cathedral,⁶ would have appeared on the right. Between these two panels that soared in height was an Annunciation of even larger dimensions. One fragment of this Annunciation showing the lower body of the kneeling Virgin set in an interior with a dog is today in the Wallraf Richartz Museum in Cologne (see detail in fig. 2), while another fragment of the head of the Angel appeared on the market in Switzerland in 1954.⁷ On the reverse of both of these fragments are scenes that would have been discernible when the outer wings were opened: the reverse of the former depicts Agilolphus Celebrating Mass (fig. 4)⁸ while the latter depicts a scene from the life of Saint Anno. Two other panels showing scenes from the life of Agilolphus from the secondary wings were also formerly in the possession of Weinzheimer in Fiesole,⁹ and several other scenes from the life of Saint Anno have also been located: a panel of St. Anno of Cologne Receiving the Donation of Siegburg is today in the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin (fig. 5)¹⁰ and two panels illustrating the Consecration of Saint Anno and Henrich IV Giving Alms were sold on the market in 1927 as the Monogrammist H.A.¹¹

Stately, full-length depictions of Saints Agricius of Trier (left) and Anno II (right), both of whom were revered archbishops in Cologne, fill the entirety of the present panel. They are both set before a rolling and detailed Netherlandish landscape, and just below their feet are the same gilt identifying inscriptions found throughout nearly all of the painted panels of the altarpiece. A relatively rare figure in history, Saint Agricius of Trier was the patriarch of Antioch and a bishop of Trier. He succeeded Cologne’s first-known bishop, Maternus of Cologne, serving in this role from about 314–329, and like Agilolphus, his relics were also kept in the church of St. Maria ad Gradus. Saint Anno II served as Archbishop of Cologne from 1056 until 1075. In addition to serving prominent secular and religious roles throughout the Holy Roman Empire during the reign of Henry IV (1050–1106), he also built many monasteries and churches in and around Cologne. He is shown here holding a small early sixteenth century model of Saint Maria ad Gradus, the church he founded in 1075, upon which rest small figures of the Annunciation. Infrared reflectography shows that the artist made subtle changes in the appearance of this building, perhaps suggesting that its architectural detail was of importance to the patron or artist.

The artist of this panel is most often referred to as The Master of the Agilolphus Altarpiece. This anonymous artist employed a notably bold and vibrant palette and has been described by scholars as an Antwerp mannerist of the early sixteenth century. Friedländer remarked particularly on the proportions of the bishops’ bodies being typical of the Antwerp mannerist school, expressing that “the two stately saints are represented in a rather impressive and restrained fashion…”¹² Previously, the painted wings had been connected to the workshop of Adrian van Overbeck (active 1508-1529),¹³ an Antwerp master in the Guild of St. Luke. This notion, however, has since been rejected and doubly confirmed by infrared analysis of the Wallraf-Richartz panel which revealed a markedly different use of underdrawing.¹⁴ Other erroneous attributions have included Michel Pacher as well as an artist from the lower Rhenish school, among others.

A NOTE ON THE PROVENANCE

In the years after the outer wings were separated from the main altarpiece, this panel and several others depicting scenes from the life of Saint Anno entered the Princely collects ion of the Hohenzollerns in Sigmaringen.¹⁵ Although it is not exactly clear when the panel of Agricius and Anno entered that collects ion, it was recorded there by 1874. The panel then passed to Ludovic de Spiridon in Rome, in whose collects ion it remained until auctioned in 1928 when it was acquired by the Amsterdam-based Jacques Goudstikker, among the most renowned tastemakers, dealers, and art collects ors of his day. During the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, over 1,400 works were appropriated from him, and while he managed to escape Amsterdam with his wife and son, he tragically died aboard a ship during his Dover passage. The remarkable survival of his black notebook, in which he itemized every work in his vast stock, has been an invaluable source in tracing works formerly in his possession. In a 2006 landmark decision, over 200 of the vast number of pictures which had been handed over to the Dutch state in 1946, were restituted to Goudstikker’s heir, including the present masterpiece.

¹ For a full description of this altarpiece, its carved elements, and how it would have been transported a long distance, see B. Schwanecke, “Der Agilolfusaltar im Kölner Dom: Aufbau, Würdigung and Restaurierunsgsbericht,” in Kölner Domblatt 43 (1978), pp. 37-50.

² This idea was first put forward by Stechow in 1942 and endorsed by subsequent scholars. See M. Stechow, “An Antwerp Altarpiece for Cologne Reconstructed,” in Art in America 30, no. 1 (January 1942), pp. 15-16.

³ For an image of the altarpiece with the carved saints, see Schwanecke 1978, p. 270, fig. 96.

⁴ According to Lambert, that the outer wings did not move to the Cologne Cathedral in 1817 suggests they were already dismantled by that period. See Lambert 1996, p. 64 note 54.

⁵ Stechow 1942. The proposed reconstruction of the altarpiece is explored in even further depth by Birgit Lambert in her 1996 article on “St. Maria ad gradus” in Colonia Romanica (see Literature).

⁶ We are grateful to Dr. Klaus Hardering for confirming the present location of this panel in the Cologne Cathedral. This panel was acquired for the Cathedral in 1986, as discussed in "Tafel vom Agilolfus-Altar erworben," in Kölner Domblatt 52 (1987), p. 266.

⁷ Sale, Lucerne, Fischer Auktionen 22-26 June 1954, lot 2372.

⁸ Wallraf Richartz Museum, Cologne, inv. no. WRM 0467, oil on panel, 100 by 70.5.

⁹ Stechow 1942, p. 8, reproduced figs. 7 and 8. Both panels are also reproduced in the Frick Digital Archive.

¹⁰ Inv. no. 13.1.2, oil on panel, 40.5 by 28.5 inches, Gift to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1913 from Charles R. Crane. This scene, as recorded in Vita Annonis II, illustrated the moment when Saint Anno is presented with the site in Siegburg upon which he defeated Heinrich, Count of Palatine, in 1060. This spot of land that would later house the Benedictine Abbey of Siegburg in 1064.

¹¹ Anonymous sale, Cologne, Lempertz, 3 May 1927, lots 5 and 6 (as Monogrammist H.A.). Both oil on panel, 100 by 68 cm. On the panel of Heinrich IV Distributing Silver to the Poor, there is a monogram H.A. on the blue belt of the beggar, perhaps providing a hint to the initials of the anonymous master. The 1927 catalogue also references the connection to the Master of Linnich.

¹² M. J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish painting, vol. XI, Leiden 1974, p. 28.

¹³ P. Clemen, H. Vogts, W. Zimmermann, Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Köln. Im Auftrage des Provinzialverbandes der Rheinprovinz und mit Unterstützung der Stadt Köln, vol. VI, no. III, Düsseldorf 1937, pp. 235-236; W. Hansmann and G. Hoffman, Spätgotik am Niederrhein: rheinische und flämische Flügelältare im Licht neuer Forschung, Cologne 1998, p. 269. Also discussed in Hiller, Vey, and Falk 1969.

¹⁴ Hansmann and Hoffman 1998, pp. 271–73.

¹⁵ For the other smaller panels from the altarpiece, see Lehener 1864, cat. nos. 62–64.