Lot 50: CIRCLE OF JOHANN PETER SCHWANTHALER THE ELDER (1720-1795)AUSTRIAN, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

PROPERTY FROM THE GUSTAV RAU COLLECTION SOLD TO BENEFIT THE GERMAN COMMITTEE FOR UNICEF PIET boxwood 17.8cm., 7in.

Julius Böhler, Munich, mid-1960s

This finely carved Pietà is similar to a number of carvings by the Austrian Rococo sculptor Johann Peter Schwanthaler the Elder. A particularly close comparison is found in a Pietà with St. John and Mary Magdalene by Schwanthaler in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremburg (inv. no. Pl.O.2495). Note Christ's similarly skeletal torso, the angular drapery, and the instruments of the passion lying on the ground. The textured surface of the ground is also very close to that seen in the present group. RELATED LITERATURE C. Diemer, 'Unbekannte Arbeiten der Bildhauerfamilie Schwanthaler in Nürnberg und Berlin', Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums 1980, pp. 109-111; H. Achleitner, 'Johann Peter d. Ä. Schwanthaler (1720-1795)', Weltkunst, July 1992, pp. 1789-1791