God the Father in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2007

God the Father
Pine relief painted white
Follower of Ignaz Gunther (1725-75)
South German, ca. 1770-80

Accession # 64-239

The relief undoubtedly surmounted a large altarpiece. The coat of white paint, imitating marble or stucco, may reflect official demands for greater restraint in church decoration (for example the Bavarian electoral decree of October 1770.) Elements of the composition are derived from mature works of the 1760s by Ignaz Gunther, the great Bavarian Rococo sculptor.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.