Triptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints

CC0 Public Domain Designation

c. 1510

South German

In this triptych, Mary, crowned as the queen of heaven, is surrounded by female saints in an enclosed garden (called a hortus conclusus) evoking paradise. Singled out on the right wing is Saint Ursula, thought to have been a British princess who set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, only to be martyred along with her throng of companions, depicted here at a miniature scale. Saint Agnes, another martyr of the early Christian era, is on the left wing. The gold framing arches refer to the combination of gilded sculpture and painting that was a common feature of German altarpieces in this period. The emphasis on youthful, female saints suggests that this was a devotional triptych for a community of nuns.

Status: On View, Gallery 207
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: German
Title: Triptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints
Place: Germany (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1505–1515
Medium: Oil and tempera on panel
Inscriptions: Inscribed: center panel: ·SCA·CECILIA, ·SA·AGATHA, ·SA· MARGARE-TA, ·SCA·LVCIA, ·SA·BARBARA, ·S·APPOLONIA [sic] (on halos from left to right), HR· (on Saint Barbara’s belt), ihs (on Saint Apollonia’s bodice); left wing: ·SA·VRSVLA (on halo), GGGGG (on belt of virgin at lower left), GHOV[O] (on hemline of virgin at lower right), Crucifige (exterior, twice on banderoles); right wing: SA·AGNETIS (on halo), Innocens ego / sum a sanguin[e] / iusn huius (exterior, on banderole)
Dimensions: Framed overall: 155 × 241.3 × 8.3 cm (61 × 95 × 3 1/4 in.); Left wing: 154.7 × 60.4 × 8.3 cm (60 7/8 × 23 3/4 × 3 1/4 in.); Center: 155 × 120.1 × 8.3 cm (61 × 47 1/4 × 3 1/4 in.); Right wing: 154.7 × 60.4 × 8.3 cm (60 7/8 × 23 3/4 × 3 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1933.1065
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16336/manifest.json

“Loan Collections,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 7 (1914), p. 38.
Rose Mary Fischkin, “Martin A. Ryerson Collection of Paintings and Sculpture, XIII to XVII Century, Loaned to The Art Institute of Chicago,” unpub. MS, 1926, Ryerson Library, The Art Institute of Chicago, pp. 129–31.
J. Ringler, “Scheel (Schel, Schöll), Sebas-tian,” in Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig, vol. 29, 1935, p. 597.
Charles L. Kuhn, A Catalogue of German Paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in American Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1936, p. 76, no. 335, pl. 66.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, 1961, p. 176.
Gisela Mayr, “Sebastian Schel (um 1480–1554): Leben und Werk,” Ph.D. diss., Universität Innsbruck, 1967, pp. 152–54. Maxon 1970, pp. 253 (ill.), 286.
Martha Wolff in Martha Wolff et al., Northern European and Spanish Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 2008, pp. 414-19, ill.
Mary Mathews Gedo, “Camille Ascendant; Camille Redux,” Monet and His Muse: Camille Monet in the Artists Life, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2010. p. 158, fig. 10.4.

Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1 - November 1, 1933, cat. 32, as Sebastian Schel.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1 - November 1, 1934, cat. 20, as Sebastian Schel.

Julius Böhler, Munich, by 1913 [according to registrar’s records]; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, 1913; bequeathed to the AIC, 1933.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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