A Bronze Bust by Hans Multscher

Abstract

The bust of a female saint formerly in the Pierpont Morgan, now in the Frick Collection (Figs. 1 and 2)1 was attributed to Veit Stoss by Bode in his catalogue of the Morgan bronzes.2 This amazing attribution evidently was not based on any stylistic consideration, but on the assumption that the work had been found in a village near Cracow. The present attribution in the Frick Collection—“Netherlandish, fifteenth century”—seems justified by a certain similarity to dinanderies: the bust was used as a reliquary3 and might therefore be regarded as a utensil like the aquamaniles of Flemish and North German workmanship. The metal is of a light color, between yellowish brown and green; it is not, however, the brass used for dinanderies, but the light bronze of the bell foundries. If there is thus no reason why the bust should be connected with the Low Countries on technical grounds, its style offers even less reason for such an attribution. Indeed, the well-rounded outline and forceful plasticity of the bust, as ...