St Erasmus or Blessed Thiemo? (interior) and a Holy Bishop (St Martin?) (exterior)

St Erasmus or Blessed Thiemo? (interior) and a Holy Bishop (St Martin?) (exterior)


Details

Museum
Belvedere
Year
1500
Medium
painting on spruce panel
Dimensions
80 × 34 cm

The story

The bishop on the gilded inner side holds a crank with intestines wound around it, the usual sign of St Erasmus, an early Christian martyr said to have died this way. This panel, though, was painted around 1500 for St Peter's Abbey in Salzburg, which had a martyr of its own. Thiemo became its abbot in 1077 and archbishop of Salzburg in 1090. He joined the crusade of 1101, was captured, and according to later accounts was disembowelled at Ascalon in the Holy Land, so his images carry the same kind of attribute. The Belvedere, which attributes the wing to Marx Reichlich and his workshop, keeps both names, St Erasmus or Blessed Thiemo, with a question mark. On the outer side, against a dark ground, another bishop holds his crozier and a tall covered golden vessel. The museum tentatively names him St Martin.

Thousands more stories in the app.