Lot 62: Karel Skréta (Prague 1610-1674)

Christ with the Fourteen Auxiliary Saints
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, shaped at the top, the outlines indented, the verso rubbed with black chalk
11 7/8 x 8 in. (300 x 204 mm.)

An unidentified armorial collector's mark.

The placing of Saint Vitus, with his cauldron of boiling oil, in the position normally taken by more important saints, suggests that this drawing relates to a commission in Bohemia where the saint was particularly venerated.
The Fourteen Auxiliary Saints, also known as the Fourteen Holy Helpers, were the focus of a cult popular in Central Europe from the late 13th Century. The fourteen saints were invoked for their particular efficacy in sickness, want, danger and a variety of domestic concerns such as headaches (Saint Denis). The saints appeared to a shepherd in Frankenthal in 1445, and the church built on the site became a pilgrimage center with an associated brotherhood and a feast day on 8 August. The cult was suppressed in 1969. Skréta, Graf Sotnowsky von Zoworzie, was an engraver, and Director of the Prague Academy from 1652.