Cleveland Museum of Art

Standing Apostle (Saint Paul?)

Master of the Saint-Omer Apostles

Date

c. 1430

Medium

Alabaster

Culture

Southern Netherlands or Northern France

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This sculpture comes from an altarpiece in the cathedral of Saint Omer in northern France. Four other figures have been preserved there, and possibly one at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The workshop was probably located in Bruges, in what is now Belgium. Sculpture was the leading art genre at that time. The specialized workshops obtained the stone alabaster from distant quarries, in this case from the area of Würzburg in Bavaria (Germany), to form it intricately and deliver it to customers in almost all of Europe. Alabaster is very soft; after 20 minutes of treatment with water the surface will dissolve.

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