Relief with St. Lawrence Presenting the Poor in the Cloisters, June 2011

Relief of Saint Lawrence Presenting the Poor

Master of the Sonnenberg-Künigl Altar
(Austrian, active late 15th century)

Date: ca. 1490

Geography: Made in Bruneck (now Italy, Trentino-Alto), South Tyrol, Austria

Culture: Austrian

Medium: White or stone pine, paint, gilt

Dimensions: Overall: 26 1/2 x 24 1/4 x 3 5/8 in. (67.3 x 61.6 x 9.2 cm)

Classification: Sculpture-Wood

Credit Line: The Cloisters Collection, 1955

Accession Number: 55.27

Description: St. Lawrence is portrayed presenting the poor as the true wealth of the Church. This panel and another in Munich come from a large now-dismantled altarpiece dedicated to the saint. The anonymous master of this work is named after another altarpiece commissioned by the abbess Barbara Künigl for the convent church at Sonnenberg. He appears to have been a pupil of Michael Pacher, the leading Tirolean painter and sculptor of the period, and to have been active in Bruneck, in the South Tirol.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/471560