St Martin of Tours and St Nicholas of Bari
Austria/Italy
15th century
St Martin of Tours and St Nicholas of Bari
c.1475
tempera, gold on wood panel
- Place made
- Pustertal, Tyrol, Austria
- Medium
- tempera, gold on wood panel
- Dimensions
- 76.3 x 68.0 cm
- Credit line
- Elder Bequest Fund 1943
- Accession number
- 0.1245
- Signature and date
- Not signed. Not dated
- Provenance
- Acquired by the Port Adelaide Institute in 1880 or 1881. [1] A story retold in AGSA Bulletin in January 1970 suggests that the work had been discovered in the false bottom of a shipping crate and given to the Institute by John Oyston; however, records from the Port Adelaide Institute also list a painting of St Martin donated by Mr Edwin Henry Derrington in 1889 - it may be that Derrington lent the work to the Institute in 1880/1 and donated some years later [2]. Purchased by AGSA from the Port Adelaide Institute in 1943. [1] Port Adelaide News, 2 March 1881, p.2, disussed as recent addition to the Port Adelaide Fine Arts Gallery. [2] Lou Klepac, Bulletin of the Art Gallery of South Australia, vol. 31, no. 3, January 1970.
- Media category
- Painting
- Collection area
- European paintings
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WALL LABEL: St Martin of Tours and St Nicholas of Bari, C.1475
This painting has an intriguing, albeit somewhat unbelievable, backstory. Said to have been discovered in the false bottom of a packing crate in Port Adelaide in 1881, the painting went unnoticed for more than fifty years in the collection of the Port Adelaide Institute before being purchased by AGSA in 1943. Few records from the history of the institute remain, so it is unlikely that this claim will ever be proved (or disproved). However, that such an important Tyrolian masterpiece would end up in Port Adelaide so early in the history of colonial South Australia is certainly an intriguing story on its own.
The distinctive brocade-like pattern of the background of this painting links it to an altarpiece commissioned for the parish church in Uttenheim – dismantled in the nineteenth century – the central panel of which now resides in the Belvedere Museum in Vienna.
Tansy Curtin, Curator of International Art Pre-1980
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This panel depicts, on the left, St Martin of Tours dividing his cloak with his sword in order to clothe a crippled beggar dressed in rags. According to tradition, this virtuous act of generosity took place in Amiens, and St Martin was baptised as a Christian shortly thereafter. St Martin, who lived in the fourth century CE, went on to establish monasticism in Gaul and is the patron saint of France.
On the right, St Nicholas of Bari holds his principal attribute, three golden balls, in his left hand. According to the thirteenth-century compendium The Golden Legend, the saint discreetly tossed three parcels of cloth-wrapped gold into the home of three young virgins in danger of being sold into prostitution by their impoverished father. Even so, nothing certain is known of St Nicholas’s life except that he was a bishop in the Greek town of Myra in Lycia (present-day Turkey) in the fourth century CE. St Nicholas is the patron saint of children, and the figure of Father Christmas is derived from his legend.
Discovered at Port Adelaide in 1882 hidden in the false bottom of a packing case, this panel once formed part of the wing of a late fifteenth-century folding altarpiece.
Several works produced in the Tyrol during the last quarter of the fifteenth century have been attributed to the Master of Uttenheim, a follower of the Tyrolean master Michael Pacher (c.1435–1498).
Tony Magnusson, Curator of European Art, 2016–18
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Reimagining the Renaissance
Art Gallery of South Australia, 20 July 2024 – 13 April 2025
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[Book] Radford, Ron. Treasures from the Art Gallery of South Australia.
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[Book] Picture Book: Selected Works from the Collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia.
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[Book] Radford, Ron. The Story of the Elder Bequest. Total: 160.
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[Catalogue] 1991. Art Gallery of South Australia: Selected Works. Adelaide.
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[Journal] Bulletin of the Art Gallery of South Australia.
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[Journal] Bulletin of the National Gallery of South Australia.
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[Catalogue] Tomory, Peter, and Robert Gaston. 1989. European paintings before 1800 in Australian and New Zealand public collections : summary catalogue. Sydney: Beagle Press.
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[Journal] Der Schlern.
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[Journal] Magnificat.
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[Journal] Parergon.
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[Book] AGSA 500.